If you remember your Jungle Book, the film or the book, you’ll recall that the only creature brave enough and tough enough to take on the fearsome Cobra was the mighty Mongoose. So it’s a cheeky bit of branding for Wells & Young to call their new beer, one aimed at the curry loving market, Mongoose beer. They clearly have their sites set on the big snake of curry house lager

That haven of tartan, Boisdale, is with Wright Brothers Soho holding an Oyster Festival until next April at its branches in Belgravia, Bishopsgate and Canary Wharf. Connoisseurs can shuck six winning oysters that were chosen from nearly 600 after an epic oyster judging championship earlier this month

London loves a party, especially a Christmas themed one, and so we’ve made a list of the top 5 places to go this Christmas for an after work drink or a Saturday night social. From cloistered booths to large open spaces, cabarets to ski lodges this selection will have something for everyone from Chelsea to Canary Wharf.

‘I use it in bolognaise sauce,’ says Silvena Rowe, her trademark hair for once not in rapid motion around the kitchen of the May Fair Hotel where she’s head chef. She’s taking five minutes out to tell us how she used Kikkoman’s Soy Sauce in the dishes just served us to add salt, umami and the delicious vibrancy good soy brings.

Refettorio’s truffle tasting menu may sound expensive at £125 a head and of course no one can deny that sort of cost is not for everybody. But if you’re on the right side of the great UK rich/poor divide, then actually it’s not bad, as Refettorio have kept the cost the same as last year, despite truffles being more expensive owing to the poor crops.

On one of the most favoured and protected stretches of the Mediterranean coast of France there exist 62 hectares of the luckiest vines. Here at Château Léoube the grapes are treated to a magical combination of roasting sunshine and cooling sea breezes.