Review: Caviar Lunch at Bob Bob Ricard
Londonist, August 4, 2010 5:05 PM
Bob Bob Ricard – Soho’s designer diner dishing classy comfort with Anglo-Russian panache – has recently introduced a new “Let Them Eat Caviar” lunch menu, which Londonist was much chuffed to sample when invited.
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Review: Caviar Lunch at Bob Bob Ricard
Yu-Foria Hits Beak Street
Londonist, August 4, 2010 11:35 AM
Same frozen yoghurt, different place. Yu-Foria‘s recently opened their second location at 38 Beak Street in Soho (W1F 9RG). Compared to the original Yu-Foria at Covent Garden (of which we yummily approve), this new joint is …
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Yu-Foria Hits Beak Street
Yee haw. My December flight to Atlanta is booked (click here to read me moaning about the ever too early onslaught of festive season planning). Hopefully the trip will be the first of at least a few more holidays in America in the next year or so. I’ve got a lot of good reasons to visit New York, San Francisco, LA and plenty more stateside localities.
But first, Georgia. Mom, BBQ, grits, fried okra, bisquits and gravy, seedy pawn shops, driving around and getting lost on mountain roads, gawking at people in Wal-Mart … all the good stuff that goes with being in the South: I can’t wait. I’m hoping to make it down to Athens for at least a night and to spend a bit of time around Atlanta, but mostly I’m just looking forward to hanging out with my family and old friends in North Georgia and the area around Chattanooga, Tennessee.
So Georgians, you’ve been warned. I’ll be around the week of Christmas and will be keen to see plenty of peeps! Give a shout if you’ll be in the area. It’ll be good to catch up.
Classic and Leisurely Thames Cruising with The Olde Bell Coaching Inn
Qype does London, August 3rd 2010
If my write up of yesterday’s speedboat Thames excursion sounds a bit too fast paced or urban for your tastes but nevertheless left you contemplating the joys of a river cruise, consider slowing down in style with a bed-and-boat offer from The Olde Bell coaching inn in the quaint riverside hamlet of Hurley.
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Classic and Leisurely Thames Cruising with The Olde Bell Coaching Inn
I’ve been playing tourist lately.
Saturday afternoon, I found myself meeting up with a friend off Portobello Road for a drink. It was the first time I’d been round that area on a Saturday afternoon in a very long while – throngs of people visiting Portobello’s famous antiques street market were clogging up the pavement and the road and generally getting in my precious way and doubling the amount of time it took to get where I was going. But honestly, I kinda liked it. I even stopped a couple of times to check out a few of the vendors. And I still find it fascinating to see people from across the globe bumbling about trying to make the most of their leisure time.
Just yesterday, I went on a speedboat ride (weeeeeeeeeeee) followed by a fab lunch with a view at the National Portrait Gallery’s third floor Portrait Restaurant (yum … and ooh). From Southbank to Leicester Square, the streets were teeming with uncertain, camera toting, map reading non-locals. Good for them, right? And for us too, I suppose. This town needs the tourist money. And I can’t blame anybody for wanting to come here – London’s the greatest city in the world.
Yep, August is on. Hotels in London city centre and beyond are packed. London can be a frustrating place to navigate … even if you’ve lived here for years. Still, with a little investment of time and energy, the dividends yield a significant return in satisfaction and fun. I’ve been here more than six years and have yet to tire of geeking out at all the attractions and sights.
Perpetual London sightseer, that’s me.
Making a Splash with London RIB Voyages
Qype does London, August 2nd 2010
A bit of London history, some awesome riverside scenery and that wind-in-your-hair swoosh of zipping along a river in a speedboat: there’s a lot to love about a boat ride with London RIB Voyages.
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Making a Splash with London RIB Voyages
This month’s pick is a flavourful number! Available from Berry Bros & Rudd for £15.50 per single bottle, 2009 Juliénas, Les Paquelets Vieilles Vignes, Domain Eve & Michel Rey is a feisty Beaujolais demanding of taste bud attention. Dark and fruity with some punch to it, the 2009 Juliénas silkily coats the tongue and hangs about awhile for the palate to enjoy it fully.
Perfectly downable on its own but could be a carnivores best friend in liquid form, I’m thinking this slightly peppered, mildly oak-y Pouilly Fuissé red would be a fine companion for a robust Cuban smoke. Now where’s that cigar I’ve been saving for a special occasion?
For product details and more, visit Berry Bros & Rudd online at www.bbr.com or stop by their shop at 3 St James’s Street, SW1A 1EG.
£2 Birthday Specials at Benito’s Hat – TODAY
Londonist, July 28, 2010 11:00 AM
… a sombrero full of two quid specials: Coronas, tacos, and mini frozen margaritas.
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£2 Birthday Specials at Benito’s Hat – TODAY
New Restaurant Review: NOW
Londonist,
Bringing street food to an upscale(ish) takeaway counter at Liverpool Street, NOW offers quick and easy (and rather inexpensive) food “inspired by the food stalls and street stands of Southern China”. Londonist commuted over for a sample of their fare and were pleased with what we tried. Vegetable and black bean rice pot (£3.89), classic dim sum basket (£3.99) and salmon and noodle salad (£4.69) all seemed generously portioned and well priced. A side dish of seafood sticky rice (two for £.2.99) was delish!
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New Restaurant Review: NOW
New Restaurant Review: Dishoom
Londonist, July 27, 2010 11:13 AM
Dishoom‘s morning menu pleased us immensely as well: best cuppa chai you’re apt to find in town (or around Leicester Square anyway), awesome but not overwhelmingly lengthy list of items, friendly service, comfy booths … and lots of delectable etcs! Indeed, we now reckon a reasonable facsimile of happiness is a sausage naan roll with chilli jam and coriander (£3.50). And a delicious breakfast lassi (£3.20) is filling enough to last most people until lunch.
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New Restaurant Review: Dishoom
London’s Best Chips: Kennedy’s
Londonist, July 23, 2010 12:53 PM
A quid and 20 pence affords you a more than ample fistful of takeaway chips from this Clerkenwell mainstay. There’s a large portion available for £1.80 as well. The chips are chunky, thick and golden – firm on the outside, kinda fluffy on the inside. Although, any bag o’ these tuber-iffic babies will invariably include an assortment of crisp little fried up shards and bits.
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London’s Best Chips: Kennedy’s
New Restaurant Review: Redhook
Londonist, July 21, 2010 11:28 AM
Newly opened in Farringdon where the Frenchily swish St Germain brasserie used to be, Redhook is a seafood and steak resto owned by the Rushmore group (Milk & Honey, Giant Robot and The East Room). With its cushy seats and divine lighting, this surf-n-turfer’s eclectic dining area is a pleasant enough space to find yourself settling in for a nice meal. We just wish our meal there last night had been a lot nicer.
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New Restaurant Review: Redhook
Chefspective: Tom Aikens
Londonist, July 20, 2010 12:18 PM
This weekend, Tom Aikens will be on hand cooking at the Cloudy Bay Shack (a kitted out airstream pop-up thingy). Parked at Parsons Green for Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 8pm, the “shack” will no doubt be the source for a queue of folks seeking quality seafood paired with crisp New Zealand wines … at decent prices too (£4.50-£6.50 or £8.50 per dish when paired with wine). During our recent visit with Tom at his Chelsea kitchen, Londonist sampled his dishes for this event (we’re still raving about his crayfish tails and watermelon salad). Based on what we tasted, we reckon that should the weather hold queueing up for Tom’s summery fare would be well worth considering. Here are some highlights from our chat with Tom.
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Chefspective: Tom Aikens
I’ve gotta get my act together and figure out my holidays to America for the next year or so. I’ve been going on and on about New York and San Francisco – a little about Canada too – but what I’ve really gotta do is book a flight to Atlanta, Georgia to spend time with my mom in December. I skipped Christmas in Dixie last year and don’t want to miss out on that down home family vibe again. And I really can’t afford to wait so long that I end up paying some extortionist fee to fly down there from London!
This year has flown by. I can’t get my head around the fact that it’s already July. And can you believe Selfridges in Oxford Street is going to start its Christmas trading as early as the 2nd of August? And as I’m writing this post, an email about London’s “Taste fo Christmas” just appeared in my inbox. It really does start earlier and earlier each year. Ugh.
But, yeah, I’m looking forward to a week or so back in Georgia: eating Mom’s cooking, catching up with old friends, stuff like that. I’m perfectly content with the notion that I’ll most likely never live there again, but it’s sure nice to visit and take a walk along the train tracks, remembering all the hi jinx and antics I got up to in my youth. But first – I must book that flight!
A couple of weeks ago I was blathering on about doing the Disney Florida Holidays thing as a kid and how salient the memories from that trip still are in my mind. Since writing that post, I’ve been a little more aware of how all pervasive and lasting Walt Disney’s vision has proven. Such ubiquity was particularly noted when I helped host a screening of the Disney/Pixar flick Toy Story 3 at Apollo Cinema last week. The screening brought out 160 people to see the movie – all of whom were adults save for a very few kids. It’s great (and, I suppose, important) to connect with that “inner child” and helping us do that is what Disney does best.
Connecting with my inner young’un and reminiscing about visiting Florida when I was little has brought about a recollection of a bizarre character I encounter on that trip: the Florida Orange Bird. Created by Disney as a marketing tool for the Florida Citrus Growers, Florida Orange Bird was a small bird with an orange for a head and leaves for wings and a tail, which may sound like some sort of mutant monster but I assure you it was ultra cute and adorably dinky.
Having seen TV commercials featuring the bird before the trip and a slew of Orange Bird billboards on the family drive down to Orlando when I was four years old, I half expected to see him fluttering about when my family stopped at an orange grove for a glass of fresh of OJ. I asked my mom where the Orange Bird could be and was crushed when she broke the news to me that this feathery fruity dude was just a cartoon. I really wanted there to be a bird with a fruit head. Oh well, luckily back then (1976), there was a Sunshine Tree Terrace concession at Disney World where someone dressed up in a Florida Orange Bird costume shook my hand and offered my a drink of orange juice in a container shaped like a giant orange. It didn’t make up for the fact that hybrid bird/plant creatures did not exist but it made me a happy boy anyway.
punting and picnics in cambridge
lastminute.com blog, july 16, 2010 – 1:30 pm
Perfect for a romantic date for two, a family outing or gathering of friends and colleagues, the Doubletree’s Punting and Picnic Packages are available to both guests and non-residents, with each punt accommodating between two and 12 passengers.
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punting and picnics in cambridge
