We’d escaped to the Beckford Arms at the weekend, a gastropub with rooms, deep in the heart of the West Country. Despite being run by boys who look like they should be in a Boden catalogue, it’s well worth a visit.
Category Archives: ★★★★★
February
07
Pied à Terre. Fitzrovia fine dining for fans of finesse.
posted by Nicky Richmond
We’d booked to go to Atelier de Joel Robuchon as a birthday treat for J, son of C. I ask whether J, whose taste in food tends towards the adventurous, might not prefer something a little more down with the kids but I am told that I do not know what I am talking about. As it […]
January
06
Eleven Madison Park. Fine dining, alive and well.
posted by Nicky Richmond
Have I eaten in a morgue? Google the death of fine dining and you’ll see a plethora of articles telling us it’s all over. The most recent funeral oration is that given by Jay Rayner, in the Guardian, where he refers to a survey which states that 70% of diners have turned against fine dining, linking to a headline in The […]
November
30
Frantzén, Stockholm. Brain food.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I will see if you can come in, says Lurch, at the door, formal and forbidding in his dark, heavy overcoat and bowler hat. We are ten minutes early and are left standing out in the cold. More like a speakeasy than a restaurant, this is not the sort of warm welcome we might have […]
November
08
Maison Troigros Part I : The Hotel
posted by Nicky Richmond
I had wanted to stay in one of the Grand-Design-like futuristic pods at Les Cadoles, part of the Troigros empire, not half an hour away from the restaurant. But after the Fishermen’s Huts in Whitstable I was pushing my luck. We didn’t notice the large dent on the car door, nor the big scrape, or rather C […]
October
01
Barrafina, WC2. Smoking.
posted by Nicky Richmond
Regular readers will know that I don’t queue. I hate the whole no reservations thing, there for the convenience of the restaurant rather than the restaurant- goer. Not usually aimed at my demographic, I find that life goes on fairly well without having to stand around in a bar area for the chance of a […]
September
25
Le Gavroche. Gorgeousness.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I’ve got history with Le Gavroche. Not only the setting for my first grown-up lunch as a newly-qualified lawyer it has also been a concluding dinner to a rather torrid but doomed romance; a poignant post-wedding dinner, with my late father (who had soufflé for starter and dessert), a slightly disappointing meal out with C […]
January
31
Per Se. Of itself.
posted by Nicky Richmond
Per Se? It’s Latin, obviously. Meaning by itself or of itself. You knew that. I’m trying to work out whether I really did. Of itself. Like nothing else. They are, of course, talking about the food. Americans. They like to sell. And here, I’m buying it. Per Se is a legend. Three Michelin stars and […]
July
20
Hibiscus. Thank God I liked it.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I confess. I was a bit put off by the rather unattractive spat between Claude Bosi and a hapless would-be blogger and there were so many other places I wanted to try as well. So I’d left it. But it was a Friday, I’d dragged C into London and I felt like a bit of faine […]
The Food Judge 