Home and away, we love to travel. Read about our trips in the UK and overseas including hotel and restaurant reviews and visits to specialist producers.
After screaming in delight at the telly when Mat Follas won Masterchef 2009 my friends and I had a fantastic meal at his new restaurant, The Wild Garlic, during our summer holiday in Dorset last year. Mat also kindly gave me an interview, which remains one of the most popular posts on my blog to ... Read more »
West Dorset has become a place of pilgrimage for food lovers. Not only is it a land of abundance, with wild garlic growing… well, wild… along the verges and dairy cows mooing in delight over the lush green grass, it offers a fabulous selection of top class eating experiences of which we sampled only a ... Read more »
I had such a lovely day one recent Friday. Having arranged to meet a blogger friend for lunch at Polpo (whom I’d long known on twitter but never met) I thought it about time I popped down to collect a pile of magazines a friend in Borough Market had been saving for me for at ... Read more »
Four glorious weeks in the Falkland Islands! We went for the wildlife (particularly the penguins and albatross) but, to our delight, we also received a wonderfully warm and hospitable welcome from the kelpers – as the islanders call themselves (after the kelp seaweed that grows in abundance around the shores and washes up in huge ... Read more »
A review of our evening at Mat Follas’ The Wild Garlic in Beaminster is long overdue. For those champing at the bit for feedback on the meal, it was lovely. Food, service, ambience… everything came together to create a wonderful evening which everyone in our party very much appreciated. The Wild Garlic, Beaminster The Wild ... Read more »
Having enjoyed such a magnificent meal at Bell’s Diner the evening before, it was really hard to assess our meal the following night, at Brasserie Blanc, objectively. It suffered in comparison. Which is a shame as it’s the kind of relaxed, straightforward French brasserie that we’d probably appreciate more without that juxtaposition. The brasserie is ... Read more »
On Friday evening, I enjoyed the best meal of my year so far. And it was in a restaurant I’d not even heard of 48 hours previously! Having finally decided on a destination for our celebratory weekend away on Thursday morning, I booked us a posh room at the Bristol Hotel Du Vin and then ... Read more »
Somewhat galetted and creped out, Pete and I decided to treat ourselves to a resolutely foodie lunch on our last full day in France. Finding ourselves in Vannes late that morning, I checked both my (Eyewitness) guide book and the printed recommendations I’d garnered online and found they both converged in an enthusiastic recommendation of ... Read more »
I am a travel snob, I admit it. I adore France but, in most of our many trips there over the years, I have avoided Brittany; put off by it’s reputation as the Chianti of France – Brittanyshire, as it were. Instead I’ve spent many, many happy trips exploring regions including Limousin, Poitou-Charentes, Champagne, Picardie, ... Read more »
Pete and I spent a weekend in Cardiff recently, to attend the Cheese Festival and to celebrate my birthday. Here are reviews of the following: Dinner and Breakfasts at Ty Rosa B&B Coffee & Cake at Craft in the Bay Lunch at Madame Fromage Woods Brasserie Dinner and Breakfasts at Ty Rosa B&B This is ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]