Café Luc is open all day and serves very good food from breakfast to dinner. The menu is strongly French with Mediterranean hints. This is the sort of place you might take your mother after a morning of shopping in Marylebone if you wanted something a bit more special in a brasserie style environment.
Pão de azeite/Olive oil bread
In this region of Portugal people bake a type of bread which I adore. Fluffy, light, like a cream cloud. Usually it is served during Easter, baked in fierce wood ovens, but nowadays can be found all year round in the village bakery. It’s taste is so evocative of this place in the country, the olive harvests and reminds me of my Grandad who loved it and would crumble some slices when stale, in more olive oil and garlic.
Tapas Revolution, great tapas in Westfield shopping centre, Shepherd’s Bush
The brainchild of chef Omar Allibhoy, it’s the first in a planned series of Madrid-style all day tapas bars. Allibhoy, head chef of El Pirata Detapas, was recently described by Gordon Ramsay as the Antonio Banderas of cooking and was trained by Ferran Adrià of the über-fêted El Bulli, so our expectations were high.
New CookThai cookery course at Busaba Eathai
If you’re a fan of Busana Eathai or want to learn more about Thai food, Alan Yau’s chain of casual, canteen-style Thai restaurants, has recently introduced low-cost cookery lessons, which are the perfect for anyone interested in improving their green curry technique.
Making Japanese cocktails at Watatsumi
Have you been to Watatsumi? It’s a bit fishy in there. No, not in that “there’s something suspicious going on” sort of way but rather, they’re a bit fish obsessed. Qin Xie was recently invited to an evening of cocktail making at Watatsumi, the high-end Japanese restaurant at The Club Quarters Hotel.
Tsuru launches its new branch in the City, sushi bar and restaurant open till 10 pm.
Tsuru’s Mansion House outlet is the third in this chain offering sushi and other Japanese food and drink in smart, casual surroundings. We were there on its second day of operation, and everything felt (and smelled) very new. Open until 10 p.m. daily, so whether you want lunch, an evening meal, or something to tackle the post-drink munchies, it is well worth a visit.
ORA, stylish Thai restaurant, in Little Portland Street, near Oxford Circus
You can see ORA’s shocking pink neon sign from a good distance away, so vibrant is it that it seems to throb. This new Thai restaurant tucked away in Little Portland Street is otherwise quite unassuming from the outside, but as you enter it’s a different story. It’s smart and comfortable, a great space to take your time and enjoy a meal, but don’t just take my word for it, check it out for yourself.
The Savoy Grill, London
Andy Cook is putting the grill back into The Savoy Grill, with best of British cooking that is not a homage or a pastiche but just proper dishes done with style and flair and a sense of British achievement and proud British produce. Nick Harman joins Andy in the kitchen to salute the flag.
Inamo St James London
Anita Pati finds that ordering her meal off a touch screen is a touch odd, but warms to the food at Inamo St James the second branch of a concept that’s had a mixed reception for it’s Pan-Asian cuisine and futuristic concept.
WB&CO raw vegetable juices, healthy drinks that give you two of your five portions of fruit abd vegetables a day.
WB&CO juices aren’t thick and gloopy like some healthy drinks, they are smooth and light, each with a clean and fresh distinctive finish. The colours are natural and the aromas of the vegetables greet you as you raise the drinks to your lips.