The Restaurant at St Pauls

Conceived by Harbour & Jones, this unique 48-cover dining room, with its own dedicated entrance, can be found alongside a new café in St Paul’s Cathedral’s crypt. Open for lunch and afternoon tea, the menus romp through the British Isles providing up-to-date food created from carefully considered ingredients courtesy of head chef Candice Webber.

Daylesford Organic Farmshop

It was suggested to us that we should visit Daylesford organic farmshop. We did, and a very interesting place it is too. The complex of shops have been developed by Lady Bamford, selling a range of organic foods, homewares, clothing and more.

Jesse’s Bistro, Cirencester

The bistro is situated in a passage, the entrance to which is to the right of Jesse’s butcher’s shop. It has a rustic feel, and the kitchen is visible from the main restaurant area. Overall, it was a reasonable meal, but the lack of interest and customer focus from the chef left a sour taste.

Merchant Inns new external catering venture

What a great way to spend a hot summer’s evening! Standing on Sugar Quay on the Thames with a glass of chilled white wine in hand, a slight breeze off the river. The quay is home to a huge temporary, but solidly built marquee which was the venue for the launch of a new catering venture, Merchant Inns Out, which is overseen by the double Michelin starred Chef Rob Clayton.

Lutyens opens in Fleet St

Located in the former Reuters building in Fleet Street, Lutyens is the latest project from Prescott and Conran Limited, the company behind the recently opened Boundary and Albion in Shoreditch. Lutyens includes a large bar on Fleet Street with a charcuterie counter, 130 seat restaurant, crustacea and sushi bar, members club and 4 private dining and meeting rooms.

Knife work if you can get it -Allens of Mayfair

This is Allens butchers in Mayfair and we are gathered around a chopping block the size of a dinner table to learn about how to butcher meat. I already know how to bugger up fish, and make a mess of vegetables so this will complete my training. Except this is a skills lesson, an introduction to an art most of us don’t practice anymore.

The Old Crown restaurant

The Old Crown in New Oxford Street is one of the older buildings. It probably wasn’t designed to be a pub, perhaps originally a shop, and it is in estate-agent parlance ‘bijou’. That means small. In the summer, though it has floor to ceiling windows that open wide, a corner location and tables outside that look like they were made from old railway sleepers or similar. Chunky chic.