Drink

I’m a rosé convert

17 February 2024 9:00 am

The miracle of limoncello

3 February 2024 9:00 am

My adventures in rosé

6 January 2024 9:00 am

‘The food is as good as you will find in London’: Saison at Raffles London, reviewed

11 November 2023 9:00 am

The Old War Office (bad acronym OWO) on Whitehall is now a Raffles hotel: you can stay in Winston Churchill’s…

The world is a mess. Why not find escapism through wine?

4 November 2023 9:00 am

In most children’s stories, the good characters live happily ever after. Works suitable for older readers tend to greater realism.…

‘They do better spaghetti bolognese in Hampstead for a tenner’: The Lobby at The Peninsula, reviewed

28 October 2023 9:00 am

The Peninsula is a new hotel at Hyde Park Corner. It is part of the trend for absurd expense: rooms…

It’s time to take Italian wine seriously

21 October 2023 9:00 am

Tuscany: earth has not anything to show more fair. The landscape is charming. The gentle hills seem to smile down…

‘Well-priced and skilful’: Masala Zone, reviewed

14 October 2023 9:00 am

There are cursed restaurants and cursed women, and this makes them no less interesting. One is Maxim’s in Paris, which…

Tories know how to find themselves a good drink

7 October 2023 9:00 am

I feel old, and feelings are not always wrong, This eheu fugaces mood came on me at the Conservative party…

Fine food in a fine restaurant: Origin City reviewed

30 September 2023 9:00 am

Origin City is a good name for this restaurant, whether it knows it or not. It is at West Smithfield,…

You have to be truly incompetent to eat badly in Paris

23 September 2023 9:00 am

Paris has enough great restaurants to maintain its claim to be the world capital of gastronomy. That said, Parisian residents…

As gaudy as Versailles: The Duchess of Cornwall in Poundbury reviewed

16 September 2023 9:00 am

Poundbury is the King’s idealised town in Dorchester, built on his land to his specifications: the town that sprung out…

A perfect slice of Calabria

9 September 2023 9:00 am

The Romans wrote the history, or at least the myths. But long before Romulus murdered Remus, the Mediterranean – the…

Bruton is suddenly the place to be – and I have a theory why: At the Chapel reviewed

2 September 2023 9:00 am

At the Chapel, Bruton, is a restaurant and hotel in a former chapel in Bruton. This was once an ordinary…

What wine should you serve to a matador?

26 August 2023 9:00 am

We were talking bulls. A friend of mine, Alexander Fiske-Harrison, is a remarkable character who can claim at least two…

A Margherita in Tolkien’s Middle-earth: Pizza in the Courtyard at Sarehole Mill reviewed

19 August 2023 9:00 am

Sarehole Mill is four miles south of the centre of Birmingham. If this were a fairy tale, and it should…

Port is fashionable once again

12 August 2023 9:00 am

I once drank some excellent port at Ted Heath’s table. The invitation came as a surprise, but it almost certainly…

‘Thinks of the diner, not the chef’: Claridge’s Restaurant, reviewed

5 August 2023 9:00 am

The BBC made a very odd documentary about the renovation of Claridge’s: The Mayfair Hotel Megabuild. They filmed, agog, as…

The beauty of a serious Burgundy

29 July 2023 9:00 am

It was the English summer at its most perverse. We were drinking Pimm’s while hoping against hope for better news…

Big Little Bavaria on Thames: Bierschenke bierkeller reviewed

22 July 2023 9:00 am

I am not sure the vast Bierschenke bierkeller in Covent Garden is successful, even if it is skilful: I worry…