A Vision Becomes Reality: Hedone - Chiswick, Friday November 30th & Wednesday December 19th, 2012

I love stumbling upon somewhere I had no idea about. Especially when it's on a well-trodden path. There is a building near where I work which has changed hands and guises many times since 2006. At various times a bar, a restaurant, a lounge and a café, nothing really stuck. Until summer 2011. A big refurbishment started, leaving the wide-fronted structure wood-panelled and looking as if something mysterious was occurring within.

What was actually happening took a little time to fully realise. And, thankfully for me, a restaurant was happening. But not some high street, wipe-clean menu, chain restaurant. A restaurant restaurant. A restaurant with some grand ideas and noble, ambitious pretensions. I started to notice exciting menus being sporadically displayed outside throughout the week. Menus which made one stop and re-read. Dishes such as broken duck egg with apricot and girolle mushrooms did not belong on the kinds of menu I had seen here before.

Hedone is a restaurant run by a former blogger, the Swedish Mikael Jonsson. Technically this guy is my hero even though said information is all that's needed to qualify him as such. Anyone who can take a seemingly cursed building, put a proper restaurant inside and then start generating gushing reviews - from a blogging background - is worth time and attention.

When the reviews started, they were all positive. So much so that I was certain a meal here was never going to live up to the billing. The end of 2011 came and went and I hadn't mustered up the courage or cash to walk less than two minutes from my place of work to try it. That said, their opening hours for the first six months were a mish-mash of weekend lunches and random evenings, by the look of it. I later found out that Jonsson was trying to work out the best ways to proffer and price the menu before going at it full scale. I found this refreshingly honest: if you think it's not right, tell me and I will work on it.

Towards the end of 2012, they had clearly found their feet well enough. A Michelin Star arrived in the 2013 guide and they had started opening for lunch on certain weekdays. This was big news in every way. As such, two trips close together towards the end of the year - one planned, one most certainly not - were put together with similar results.

As all good toppy restaurants outside the middle of town (and in my opinion most of them in town) should have, Hedone offers a very reasonable express lunch menu. No choices but at £25 for three courses, this is value which demands a closer inspection. Three of us went for that on the first visit (the wife went for a la carte) and the wife and I both had the express menu on our second visit. If you're wondering, the reason the second visit was unplanned was the wife oversleeping by the small matter of a few hours. Michelin-Starred lunch isn't a bad way of making up for it though...

Instead of a blow-by-blow account of each visit, I'm going to compare dishes from each visit. I'll start with one ultra-consistency in terms of flavour, then secondarily, the actual dish. Their desserts featured apple on each visit. And boy were these desserts to fawn over. On the first visit, the wife's mille-feuille of apple in absolutely perfect flaky pastry with ice cream was a vision and execution of expert comfort and fanciness in a delicious pudding (above left). That is nearly impossible to top, but the standard dessert on the express lunch menu on each occasion was a rather exceptional salted caramel parfait with apple purée (above right). The cold cream was light, sweet-salty perfection with the apple adding a pleasant acidic note of textural variation.

Soup was the starter on the express menu on each occasion. The pumpkin soup on our first visit was intense, rich and a proper autumnal bowl of comfort (left). With a similar look and feel, the cauliflower soup of December's menu was a far creamier, more flavoursome proposition (above right). I probably preferred it overall since the soup's thickness and natural sweetness of the vegetable was more pronounced. They were both quite lovely and humble bowls to start a brisk lunch.

The wife's two dishes (starter and main) from the a la carte in November were interesting and creative. Her starter of a fried duck egg with pea foam, seaweed and mushrooms was a deep and varied mixture of strong tastes and soft textures (left). It was a starter that read as a fairly striking and original combination, but it made a lot of sense when put in front of you. Now that's how to serve modern upmarket food. Her main course of lamb noisettes with aubergine was a more traditional idea but carried out in a no-nonsense way (above right). The meat was beautifully pink with a juicy fat crust. Personally I would have preferred the fat a little more rendered but the taste was a smooth and salty blend of perfection. The aubergine on the side was grilled, puréed and dressed to combine well with the meat.

The main courses on each express menu were comparable in that they were made up of a meat, a sauce and a side. The pork with broccoli and quince & apple sauce was a well-conceived plate which was a perfect size for a brief lunch (left). My problem was with the meat which was a trifle dry. The duck with root vegetables the following month was a less interesting plate since there was no colour variation and only one cut of meat (above right). The confit leg was too salty in the event, which dominated the dish too much.

The issue I had with the express lunch on both visits was with the main course, but for value and quality in general, there is very little to complain about on a lunch menu like this. The extras - bread & butter and a soft toffee at the end - were also very enjoyable. The restaurant is a sleek, neutrally welcoming room framed in dark brown wood and the best thing about this whole venture: an open kitchen.

Now I find open kitchens a little tacky and distracting. In most restaurants they aren't adding anything outside of an unnecessary noise level and a chrome sheen to the dining area. In this case, the kitchen (and I believe it is a glorified finishing area) lends a serene variation to the room. There is something about watching your dishes being finished in a Michelin-Starred kitchen which makes everything that bit more tantalising. There's something about Hedone which makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. That's what happens when a blogger-turned-restaurateur gets it right.

Hedone

Racine - Knightsbridge, Friday November 9th, 2012

History repeats itself rather freely when wandering through the finery of western Westminster. Apparently. When once the "other half" and I traipsed in to Racine some years ago, a similar aimless evening walk brought us to their door once more in November last year. I was somewhat hesitant to indulge, given various savings we were trying to make, but the wife was insistent that Friday night deserved a dinner and a dinner we should have.

Racine is instantly a fairly likeable restaurant. It's unpretentious, rustic-looking and unassuming in a way which contrasts much of its local competition. There is enough Gallic background and feeling in its dark-walled room and home-styled menu to remind people that French dining can be far from pretentious and intimidating.

They did, however, have something to prove to me. On our first visit, I had not been overly impressed and I was hoping that, with a little more patience and time at our disposal, we would find out why this place had stood such a test of time in a competitive area of London.

Since time was not a worry, we both ordered starters and main courses. Mine was a no-brainer: a salad of poached egg, lamb's lettuce and salsify with truffle dressing (left). This is the sort of starter that leaves nowhere to hide and in the event it was not a problem. There was nothing too bitter, no exaggerated sweetness, nothing over-seasoned or lacking in flavour. Just rich, green leaves supporting the smooth and savoury salsify and a delightful earthy, spicy hint of truffle running through it. The egg was, needless to say, poached perfectly.

In a similar semi-extravagant vein, the wife went for mussels to start (right). Whilst mussels in a French restaurant should usually be a fairly rustic and simple dish of braising liquor along with wine, bread and a little cream, this was a different proposition. The mussels were served astride a mousse of garlic and saffron, adding sweetness to the naturally salty seafood. The texture of the mousse was an enjoyable play on more traditional accompaniments which worked, on the whole. The issue I took with this was the richness and size made it slightly over-rich in general.

Main courses were quite exciting since the whole card read like a list of stuff one just wants to eat and keep eating. The wife went for the enticing proposition of lamb confit with mogette beans, parsnip purée and rosemary flavours (left). If you get one thing from the picture, it's that it does look delightfully rustic. And it certainly was. Hearty in the extreme, the lamb was packed with flavour...but just, so much flavour. Herein lies the issue with slamming a plate full of bold tastes: things start to get lost. The garlic garnish shone through, eventually making the whole thing a breath-paralysing proposition when it did, where the white beans were lost amongst the strong sauce and purée.

My main course was a heavier idea than my starter had been; though braised veal, aligot (mash 'n cheese) and trompette mushrooms is heavier than just about anything else on most menus (right). This presented a similar issue to the wife's main course: a dense and ultimately unforgiving plate of food. That's not to say it was bad - the first two mouthfuls were amazing bundles of crispy-soft veal and buttery mushrooms, backed with smooth and rich potato. However, by the third I was starting to flag and the saltiness and richness of the dish was getting the better of me. For all the good things, I couldn't finish it and that, sadly, means they just didn't get it right.

We weren't totally sold on desserts since main courses had knocked us so squarely for six, but we remembered how lovely a chocolate terrine had been on our first visit, so we indulged our sweet teeth. The wife went for a classic favourite of hers; creme caramel (left). Personally I don't go for this as a dessert since the sharp saltiness of the caramel does not agree with me, and overly jellified desserts aren't my thing anyway. She knows her stuff when it comes to these kinds of things though, and the verdict was not good.

I was tempted by a rice pudding, a dessert which I had gotten into in a big way in 2012 (right). This came with a sweet caramel sauce which had been stirred through the pudding. All in all, it represented the sort of comfortable simplicity the main courses had been striving for but never reached. It was well-portioned, not overly sweet, enjoyably creamy and outright pleasant.

Looking back over the meal, I was half-tempted to call it a success since I had very much enjoyed my starter and dessert. However, the big problem for me (or any diner) is when two out of two main courses miss their mark. As much as I love puddings, you just can't get away with falling short on what is essentially the main event for both diners.

As I began by saying, there is a certain something about Racine which makes it a place I just can't write off, but I am running out of patience. I know I'll be back here one day but I hope that when I am, the menu (or at least my choices) will exhibit a little control, balance and refinement to counter what really does make Racine enjoyable: their welcoming and generous nature. It's not a bad restaurant, just a slightly infuriating one.

Racine

Viet Grill: Shoreditch, Friday November 2nd, 2012

With November having passed - and me realising the gap between meals eaten and reviews written stretches beyond a year - everyone can now shave off their moustaches for another year. Last year, a friend (who usually wears a beard) was complaining of the effect the cold weather was having on his face having had to shave in the line of men's health. This culminated in the line "why does Movember have to be in November?" which was a nice way to start the evening.

The evening, it turned out, was eating in Shoreditch. The wife and I, along with many others, headed to one of the many Vietnamese places which are rife in the east end these days. I'd not heard of Viet Grill but any place wouldn't have made much difference to me since I was feeling somewhat sceptical and didn't have much interest in trying an Asian cuisine I knew very little about.

My own narrow-mindedness aside, around ten of us took our seats in a packed and buzzing downstairs which certainly filled me with hope for the evening to come. Despite being one who always stays on the side of good food over anything else, there is something about a bustling joint that comforts and reassures.

There were highs and lows throughout the meal. It was, I don't mind admitting, a lot better than I had expected. Simple things like their mango lassi were rather lovely, if not in the same league as Quilon. There were other small highlights from dishes such as soft-shell crab (left). Not too greasy or spicy, it went down a treat.

Spring rolls are a part of Asian cuisine which usually provoke plenty of eye-rolling from yours truly, mainly due to various ruinous takeaways and supermarkets. That said, if they are done with some kind of variation and good taste there's enough in there to hold my interest. These were of the pork and mushroom variety and were actually quite a treat (right). The rolls themselves were thicker and crispier, a quite impressive textural difference to the usual thin and crunchy insubstantial casing one is used to. The filling was a classic Asian mixture of salty, savoury and punchy tastes.

Other dishes we enjoyed around the table were chicken with anchovy (a well-balanced, salty proposition), simple noodles & rice (staples which were of a reasonable standard), some whole fish (moist, soft and properly cooked) and some pork & beef noodle soup (left). The wife ordered this and it was of a suitably spicy and fresh nature for her. Naturally it was far too chilli-ridden for me but she enjoyed it along with the rest of the assortment at the table.

Finally, I ordered something for myself in the shape of some fillet beef salad (right). This initially looked a little insubstantial and as if it was lacking variation but the dish worked excellently. A mixture of leaves and dressing lent a pleasant textural and acidic variation to the dish itself which in turn made the very well-cooked beef stand out. There were fragrant citrus notes, subtle spices and - most importantly - some lovely meat on the plate.

After the meal, I was pretty much a Vietnamese convert. Whilst the main obsession with London's interest in this kind of cooking is Pho noodle broth, this meal showed me there is a great deal to admire about proper Vietnamese food. Fresh, rustic and interesting, the meal was a meeting of old and new friends in an atmosphere conducive to having a good time. This is a restaurant which rose above the clamour and posturing of the east end to change my mind and remain firmly on my list of places to return to.

Viet Grill

Royal Dragon - Chinatown, Friday 26th October, 2012

Chinatown is one of the most interesting places in London to me. The rectangle of the West End, bordered by Lisle Street, Charing Cross Road, Shaftesbury Avenue and Wardour Street is so alive, so colourful and so full of food. Even if the aim is not related to dim sum, dumplings, duck pancakes or snack shopping, I always relish a walk around because there is always something new to notice, some more tourists overwhelmed or some more temptation in waiting.

One of the hardest things to accomplish when in Chinatown is to find somewhere genuinely decent to eat. In terms of Lisle Street, it more or less starts and ends with Imperial China. As for the main street, it can be a tougher proposition. Three of us went into Royal Dragon on the main street, given that we'd been here before and we knew it was likely to be good.

The food we ate was actually rather tasty. It was late in the evening, following a birthday party and at that sort of hour, you're looking at places becoming increasingly full of people who just want sustenance at a moderate cost and damn the quality. Here, it's a little different. Their deep-fried soft shell crab, for example, is something I've enjoyed many times and is certainly a cut above the standard kinds of mush in batter you might find elsewhere (left). Moist, sweet and fresh, it's just as deep-fried seafood should be.

Equally enjoyable are their meat dishes. Barbecued pork and stir-fried chicken are both things which you nearly expect to go horribly wrong at a late night Chinese restaurant but here it works well (right). Big, sensible flavours combining with a genuine Asian sensibility might sound simple, but it's all too often missing from London restaurants.

Even standards as trite as 'crispy duck' are great here (left). Not at all the dry, shredded rubbish we have come to accept as standard, this is more a succulent, rich, comfortingly fatty delight which can cure midnight hunger, hangovers and a critic's gripes.

'It is not one of the most incredible restaurants I have eaten in, but it is a welcome and staunch venue in one of those places where it can be hard to get a genuinely good feed. It's certainly got my recommendation and it's somewhere I will continue to go when I am in the West End and in need of a late supper.

Royal Dragon

Remembering a Classic: Medlar - Chelsea, Saturday October 20th, 2012

Writing about great food is pretty easy. Making such writing interesting is probably the hard part (and I welcome any comments on how bland and uninspiring my script can be), along with explaining why something was so delicious and awe-inspiring. I think, in all honesty, that's the essence of being a good critic. Which is definitely not easy.

I love the feeling of going somewhere you just can't wait to try. Somewhere you've read about for months, somewhere you are dying to sample, somewhere that just deserves time and attention. After a rather hectic early October 2012, we took a bit of time out for a couple of holiday breaks (lovely to get a bit of late summer European sunshine) and came back to a town shrouded in mid-Autumn gloom. To celebrate (or commiserate), we headed to Medlar in Chelsea, somewhere which was about to receive its first Michelin Star and a place I had been itching to try all summer.

The one thing which strikes you about the Medlar menu is how charmingly reasonable everything is. The standard a la carte dinner menu is (still) a wallet-pleasing £45 and the Saturday lunch was a mind-boggling £30 for three courses. That's with a wide variety of choice and few supplementary charges. Anywhere that offers this sort of affordability with so much good press is a no-brainer.

The menu read like a dream, and the wife and I quickly settled on a few choices we would each like and share between us. A pleasant variety of bread & butter came and went and we were ready to get stuck in to starters. Mine was a rather incredible crab raviolo with brown shrimps. (At this point I would usually post a photo but in my haste, I only had time to snap a rather inadequate shot using my now-defunct Blackberry to brag about my lunch on Facebook.) It was a heavenly combination of heady, salty seafood flavours combining to great effect with the leek fondue and bisque which the pasta was sitting in. The pasta was perfect and the filling was an exceptionally cooked, beautifully seasoned, creamy delight.

I helped to inform the wife's choice and it was something I had heard very specific and enticing things about since Medlar had been on the map: duck egg tart (left). This is a dish conceived in the most pure and elegant way, with a fried duck egg on top of a flaky pastry circle, surrounded by bacon, turnip purée, red wine sauce and duck hearts. It was a delicious, meaty and rich plateful, combining English classics with a modern finish and perfectly-sized to cap it all.

Starters had blown me away. Whatever followed, the reputation of the place had been justified based on the first two dishes we tried. Nothing was going to match these but it didn't really matter. The wife ordered steak for her main course (right). It was an under-blade fillet, meaning it was cheap enough as part of what most of us know as 'chuck', but had been carefully cooked so as not to be overdone or chewy. It was served with some perfectly edible triple-cooked chips, salad and Bearnaise sauce. Plus snails. Now I often take issue with snails because they can be slightly chewy and more than often a bit pretentious. Sadly here I don't think they added much to the dish. The wife disagreed and demolished the plate double-quick. As an overall plate it was not bad, but not up to the standard of the starters.

My main course was a surprise to myself in that I went for fish. Seafood followed by fish is one of those rare menu choices I'll make on average about once a year given that my preference is always meat over fish. In this case though, I felt instantly vindicated. A sumptuously-cooked fillet of Cornish Brill was light, buttery and melt-in-the mouth satisfying (left). I would suggest the fish had been gently fried, given the flavour, but it could have been cooked in a water bath, so delicate was the touch. The accompaniments were inspired: Jerusalem artichoke purée for earthiness & rich savoury punch, braised chicken wings for a sweet-salty compliment to the fish, crisp pancetta for textural variation and salsify to remind one where the food came from. As a combination on a plate, I can't remember having had a better piece of fish.

Desserts presented a small issue since most of them contained nuts, alcohol or both which the wife and I are not fans of. However, as any decent restaurant should try to do, they accommodated accordingly. The wife ordered the almond panna cotta which would usually have come with Pedro Ximenez sherry (right). It came with poached pear and Ricciarelli biscuits. The panna cotta was well-set and creamy, the biscuits a much-needed crunch and continuation of almond sweetness and the poached pear just right. It was a perfect dessert after what had been a heavy and rich meal.

My dessert was a fruitier, more complex proposition. Whenever you order the glorious, fork-intimidating thing that is a mille-feuille, it had better deliver in terms of texture and exciting flavour combination. This was a blackberry one, and damned exciting it was too (left). Served with variations on lemon curd (cream on the top and ice cream on the plate), it was a much-needed sour shock of flavour at the end of a meal which threatened to put me in my grave, so deftly comfortable it had been. But the sourness was not unpleasant in the least. It had been well-measured with the rich, fresh blackberries to allow the pastry and typical sweetness in the ice cream to sit alongside. It was perhaps a bit much for the wife but I saw it off with no complaints.

As we contemplated the outrageous quality of the meal we had just finished, four gorgeous, dusted chocolate truffles were placed on the table. We ate them with childish speed, so as we were signing the bill, four more came. These were eaten with about as much ceremony as the first four. Then, as we were about to get our coats, four more came to the table.

Since by this point, everyone knows how amazing Medlar is, I don't need much of a conclusion. Just read what I have written above. I had so much fun writing this because I could recall every taste, every emotion and every single thing that makes Medlar just about the best 'new' restaurant in London. If you haven't been, you absolutely must go. But seriously, if you haven't been... where have you been?

Medlar

London Restaurant Festival Once More: 4th-5th October, 2012

It was many years ago that I discovered and started writing about the London Restauarant Festival. Nowadays I don't have the cash and time at my disposal I used to, so its importance has diminished in the intervening years.

Last year, however, saw a return (in a small way at least) to a week which is a great idea, in all honesty. Anyone who knows London has their own favourite places but the festival week is always a great way to introduce people to new venues at fairly reasonable prices. In my case, it's an excuse to try somewhere I couldn't usually justify a regular spend.

Having eaten at the Opera Tavern on Tuesday, Thursday of the same week saw us head to somewhere I'd long coveted: L'Anima. Francesco Mazzei might be doing plenty of television work these days but his restaurant in the City is still a well-visited and widely-praised one. There's something about a flashy Italian restaurant in the city which annoys me somewhat since I tend to think of classic Italian places as genteel and old-fashioned and quite usually West London-orientated.

The place itself is a shiny, hard-edged EC1 hangout all the way. Which I really dislike. The volume has been turned up way too high which is only encouraging the City heroes to try and out-shout each other. There was one table near us which really put my back up but since I'm such a middle-class coward I satisfied myself with a few mutterings under my breath.

Aside from the location and atmosphere it was actually alright. The menu we were on was a classic London Restaurant Festival job with three courses available at £30, no choices. The menu itself read as an interesting sampling of classic Italian foods. Pasta, slow-cooked meat and pastry to finish was a menu I certainly could not wait to get stuck into.

The starter was one of such simplicity it belied the frenzied, hard-edged atmosphere of the place. At first I did a double-take at the menu which read 'Stracciatella tortelli' - I was sure this meant white, creamy vanilla ice cream I tend to order whenever I eat gelato. However, the restaurant had helpfully placed a key at the bottom of the menu explaining any terms diners may not have been familiar with. Whilst I appreciated this (it saved me having to search the words on my phone to save face), it gave the menu the same perfunctory professional outlook as the décor did.

To the food itself, and the pasta was delightful. The creamy, light-as-air mozzarella was nothing to sniff at, with a delectable sage butter sauce lending a punchy herbaceous compliment to the main event (left). The hazelnuts which had been added to contrast the texture were not as necessary but they were always likely to be nothing more than an inconvenience as I wolfed down three perfect pillows of pasta.

The main course was an exercise in old-fashioned rustic Italian meat. Oxtail 'alla vaccinara' was a perfectly braised lump of rich beef with a rustic tomato sauce, pumpkin purée, celery and cocoa beans (right). It was enjoyably comforting, along with being a decent balance of simple flavours and ideas. The meat was proper, the dressing suitable and the dish rather pleasant.

Dessert was something called 'zeppola', which I had never heard of. It turned out to be deep-fried choux pastry with orange (left). Basically one large profiterole, it was elegantly served with the fruit and orange sauce to contrast the moderately thick pastry. The flavours were sound and evenly distributed throughout the dessert, which fit into the rest of the meal well: something basic and simple but elevated to a higher level with some very fine cooking.

This was most certainly an enjoyable dinner, fairly priced at £30 for three courses. Everything caught the balance between home-styled comfort and high end grub in the right way, meaning that at the end of the evening, I could overlook the volume and some of the clientele in favour of what was on the plates: really enjoyable, genuinely Italian food.

L'Anima

The very next night, we met up with the same two friends to try somewhere which resonated in the memory from a few years ago: Quilon of St. James. As somewhere with a Michelin Star but which is often left behind in the top end Indian food debates behind Tamarind and Benares, I'm always interested in a trip there.

Their menu for the event was very similar to that which they had offered some years back for London Restaurant Week: an assortment of dishes for the table, roughly amounting to two courses with sides for £25 each. Nothing to sniff at indeed when you consider the form and status of the place.

A special word on this place first, which I mentioned last time: mango lassi. The yoghurt drinks they turn out here are nothing short of sensational. The wife and I ordered one to share but I had more or less drunk it by the time our starters showed up. In my limited experience, this is the ultimate in lassi. Deliciously thick, sweet, refreshing and moreish, you can't ask for more.

Starters themselves combined seafood with vegetable in the form of pepper shrimps cooked in a spicy masala sauce and a piece of lotus stem with mango sauce (right). The shrimps were delicate enough but for the blast of heat from the sauce which was a bit much for me. The lotus chop was most closely comparable to bamboo. The contrast between the two was pleasant though, meaning it set things up quite nicely for the meal to come.

One thing I have often lamented about promotional events and set menus in general is how easily restaurants can phone it in and serve up something rather generic and unimaginative. At Quilon, they took a fairly impressive road and reeled off a selection of dishes which were subsequently delivered to the table as a genuinely Indian meal: sharing aplenty with lots of variation on show (left).

The menu comprised two main course items: herb-crusted tilapia with mustard sauce, and manglorean chicken. The first was some succulent, moist white fish with a pleasant surround and a lively sauce. The second was too spicy by half for me. They did mention it on the menu but even so, it packed a punch which I could not quite handle. The rest of the table enjoyed it but I needed a fair amount of yoghurt to get it down.

The additions were some cauliflower and potato, cooked with spices, cashew nuts, onion & tomato, which made for a very enjoyable and well-balanced side dish. It had a soft feel which sat very nicely next to the paratha (thin, simple, buttery bread) and the lemon rice. Adding moisture and texture to the table, it combined to form a five-dish main course which was plenty of food for four of us.

Quilon didn't serve up dessert but that was probably a good thing given how much lassi I had glugged down by that point. Again, it had served us a thoroughly enjoyable tasting of dishes in the form of a set menu which we all agreed was a good evening's work.

Quilon

Both meals offered us a way into restaurants that might have otherwise priced us out on their usual rate. With that in mind, it was a successful week - even though we only ate at two places - which I am sure will be worth investigating in the future again.

Top 100 UK Restaurants 2013 - London

Following the announcement of the 2014 Michelin Guide, it seems strange that the National Restaurant Awards has just happened for 2013. It's a confusing industry. Either way, we have a new 100 best places to eat in the UK list. And whatever I think of it (I will give you a hint: I don't totally agree with it all), it's my obligation to report it here.

London's representation in the UK's best selection is still high but it has dropped by one to 58 out of 100. Not shabby by any means but interesting that the change has occurred. Of course some of this is down to closure. Roganic did not renew its two year lease which would almost certainly have stayed on the list, but some surprising drop-outs, from Medlar to Yauatcha have dented London's staying power a little.

Of course, the new entries have come flooding in, with 23 of them in total showing the London scene to be ever-changing and constantly positive. The Clove Club of Shoreditch is an impressive new entry at five whilst Bruno Loubet's Grain Store premiers at nine. This list has certainly added several venues to my list of places to go which may make for an expensive end of year.

Finally, at the very top, The Ledbury has been knocked off its perch by The Hand & Flowers of Marlow. I have been to both and I do prefer The Ledbury (despite the fact it is more expensive) but there is much to be said for the charm of a full-on pub restaurant leading the way. Pollen Street Social continues its excellent stay near the top of the tree and The Square's irrepressible consistency remains.

This year I have added the 2012 position of each restaurant (or listed as a new entry) in order to provide some comparison and context. Enjoy!

2 The Ledbury (1)
3 Pollen Street Social (2)
5 The Clove Club - New Entry
8 The Square (7)
9 Grain Store - New Entry
10 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (10)
11 Dabbous (31)
14 Hedone (52)
15 Bocca Di Lupo (23)
16 Brasserie Chavot - New Entry
18 10 Greek Street (12)
19 Le Gavroche (63)
21 Hibiscus (26)
23 Quo Vadis (9)
27 The Quality Chop House - New Entry
29 HKK - New Entry
30 L'Anima (25)
32 Hawksmoor Air Street - New Entry
33 Social Eating House - New Entry
34 Chez Bruce (30)
38 Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs - New Entry
39 Alyn Williams at The Westbury (15)
41 Viajante (43)
42 St John (22)
44 The River Café (37)
46 Barrafina (80)
47 Polpo (88)
48 Galvin La Chapelle (18)
49 Zuma (14)
52 Koya (35)
53 Bar Boulud (65)
55 Zucca (27)
56 Bistrot Bruno Loubet (77)
58 La Petite Maison (59)
59 Locanda Locatelli - New Entry
61 Green Man & French Horn - New Entry
62 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (69)
63 Jose - New Entry
64 Arbutus (46)
66 Bone Daddies - New Entry
68 Lima - New Entry
70 Pitt Cue (86)
71 Galvin At Windows (58)
73 Hix Soho (67)
76 Tom Aikens Restaurant - New Entry
77 MeatLiquor (75)
79 Balthazar - New Entry
81 Duck & Waffle - New Entry
85 Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester - New Entry
88 Hutong - New Entry
89 Cinnamon Kitchen - New Entry
91 Galvin Bistrot de Luxe (76)
93 Goodman Mayfair (96)
94 Hereford Road - New Entry
95 Restaurant Story - New Entry
96 Dinings - New Entry
97 Newman Street Tavern - New Entry
100 Roka (73)

Michelin Guide 2014 - London Restaurants

The Michelin Guide has been released again. And London has sxty-four Michelin-Starred restaurants to report. A staggering number and one which further proves our fine city's status as a true gastronomic world capital. There are movers and shakers, losers and winners, and in keeping with tradition, they're all here.

Perhaps the biggest news is in the two-star section. Dinner By Heston continues its elevation as one of the world's most top-end eateries, whilst a stalwart of the London scene (and somewhere I'm still yet to go) The Greenhouse also gains a second star. In more surprising news, L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon loses one of its stars to drop down to the 'one' bracket for the first time in many years. The food there is exquisitely, opulently high-end French but it can be over-expensive and it's possible they have become a little complacent.

There are new first stars aplenty across the capital, with an Asian representation in Bo London and HKK. Both places look to use European themes within their authentically oriental outlook and it appears to be working. Jason Atherton continues his rise with Social Eating House of Soho adding another star to his belt. Two star chef ventures in the capial, Ametsa and Outlaw's, also obtain unsurprising first stars.

Several stars have been lost throughout the capital but most of these are down to closures rather than losses of form. The theme of this year is ambitious, impressive chefs bringing more and more recognition to the capital for excellent food. Whilst some of the stars are debatable, it's no bad thing that London continues to fly the flag for some of the most internationally-renowned cuisine in the UK.

Three Stars

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Mayfair
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Chelsea

Two Stars

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Hyde Park & Knightsbridge - One to Two Stars
Greenhouse, Mayfair - One to Two Stars
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Mayfair
Hibiscus, Mayfair
Le Gavroche, Mayfair
Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, Belgravia
Sketch (The Lecture Room & Library), Mayfair
The Ledbury, North Kensington
The Square, Mayfair

One Star

Alyn Williams at the Westbury, Mayfair
Amaya, Belgravia
Ametsa with Arzak Instruction, Belgravia - New Star
Angler, Islington - New Star
Apsleys, A Heinz Beck Restaurant, Belgravia
Arbutus, Soho
Benares, Mayfair
Bo London, Mayfair - New Star
Brasserie Chavot, Mayfair - New Star
Chez Bruce, Wandsworth
Club Gascon, City of London
Dabbous, Fitzrovia
Galvin at Windows, Mayfair
Galvin La Chapelle, Spitalfields
Hakkasan Hanway Place, Bloomsbury
Hakkasan Mayfair, Mayfair
Harwood Arms, Fulham
Hedone, Chiswick
HKK, Shoreditch - New Star
Kai, Mayfair
Kitchen W8, Kensington
La Trompette, Chiswick
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Strand & Covent Garden - Two to One Star
Launceston Place, Kensington
L'Autre Pied, Regent's Park & Marylebone
Lima, Regent's Park & Marylebone - New Star
Locanda Locatelli, Regent's Park & Marylebone
Maze, Mayfair
Medlar, Chelsea
Murano, Mayfair
Nobu Berkeley St, Mayfair
Nobu, Mayfair
One Leicester Street, Soho - Replacing St. John Hotel Restaurant
Outlaw's at the Capital, Belgravia - New Star
Pétrus, Belgravia
Pied à Terre, Bloomsbury
Pollen Street Social, Mayfair
Quilon, Victoria
Rasoi, Chelsea
Seven Park Place, St James's
Social Eating House, Soho - New Star
St John, Clerkenwell
Story, Bermondsey - New Star
Tamarind, Mayfair
Texture, Regent's Park & Marylebone
The Glasshouse, Kew
The River Café, Hammersmith
Tom Aikens, Chelsea
Trishna, Marylebone
Umu, Mayfair
Viajante, Bethnal Green
Wild Honey, Mayfair
Yauatcha, Soho

Opera Tavern: Covent Garden, Tuesday October 2nd, 2012

As I reflect on what a laboured, late and lackadaisical venture this blog is becoming, I start to regret the fact that I have vowed to myself that I'll be totally up to date by the end of this year. Whether that happens or not, at least I'm honest enough to admit that it was a promise I made. And honesty is a large part of what this sort of thing is about. Without memory, notes, photographs and ideas, no late reviews get posted.

Fortunately, I have a great memory for fairly useless information which includes food. I suppose it's not so useless in terms of writing a restaurant review blog, but it takes up a lot of brain power when there is probably more relevant information that should be using it. Yet, at the expense of my job performance, while my blog performance suffers because of my job, the show goes on.

A year ago, the wife and I joined two friends for some dinner at the Opera Tavern, renowned Spanish eatery and sister venture of the famous Salt Yard. Whilst there are Italian influences in the food, it remains an Iberian franchise in my mind, and that's down to the tapas. Four of us ate a whole host of dishes throughout a frantic, excessive dinner service. Whilst I will touch on all elements of the dinner in this review, I would find it somewhat disingenuous to methodically dissect the meal since it was a delightful, sprawling dinner punctuated with excellent food.

Now that the cat's out of the bag I can relax a little. Whilst the memory of each dish remains, the overriding recollection I have of the evening at Opera Tavern is one of enjoyment. The scallops, served in the shell with celeriac purée and smoked butter were a real treat to start with (left). These were perfectly cooked soft sea pearls, seasoned exceptionally. At £4.50 each they justified the price tag.

Continuing the theme of excellent combinations, the pan-fried pigeon breast with figs and herbs was another treat (right). Figs can be a tricky piece of food to get right, but when they're on the side of perfectly gamy piegon, they make sense. We also ordered a trio of the signature dish, the Iberico pork and foie gras burger (below left). The only thing that needs saying about this is it's as good as it sounds. Moist, flavoursome, rich... An utter delight.

To stop myself going into things too much here - especially since I promised I wouldn't - some parts of the meal need only a mention and a verdict... The chips with alioli and bravas sauce were a delicious sharing snack. The 'classic tortilla' was exactly that. Spring lamb cutlet with garlic purée, tomato, courgette and cumin was an elegantly presented dish with well-defined taste (right).

A feature of the Tavern (the name, by the way, comes from the fact that it is a converted pub in Theatreland) is their charcoal grill downstairs. The mini-burgers had been cooked on it and so was our Iberico Secreto with cider, apple and sage (left). It was a miniature portion alright but the flavour and moisture of the meat was excellent. And at £3.75 I was pleased enough. Continuing the meat theme (we really didn't bother much with fish) some slow-cooked beef shin with charred onion purée and girolles, topped with salsa verde was a triumph of less European than local proportions. Grilled Iberico pork shoulder with capers and a thick, sweet sauce was enough for all of us to dig in and enjoy.

Desserts continued in the sharing theme, with three being ordered between the four of us. In fairness, this was the most uninspiring part of the evening. A lemon tart was as it should have been, though the honeycomb & rosemary cream helped elevate it slightly (right). A chocolate fondant was well-executed other than the strange idea of serving it cold. Some roasted peach on top of what seemed like undercooked polenta was certainly the low point of the evening. Strawberry and mascarpone on top of the dish served only to confuse it more.

As a more brief review than most I have posted in recent times, I think this does get the message across. Only one dish out of twelve wasn't much cop and the rest all hit home with either marginal or total success. I think the best way to approach somewhere like the Opera Tavern is with a hungry group of sharers and to dive in without much thought for table manners or the cost. In this case it wasn't too pricey and we were all relatively pleased with our share of the bill.

A converted pub it may be, but the Opera Tavern is serving up some of the most creative, modern and enjoyable Spanish (and I do believe it should be pitched as Spanish) fare in town. I certainly enjoyed my meal there and the memory remains. Thank goodness...

Opera Tavern

Le Café Anglais - Bayswater, Thursday September 27th, 2012

Picture Stockholm on a mild late-summer evening. If you haven't been there it's not hard, just picture pristine urban cleanliness and relaxed hubbub. Imagine strolling the quayside of a sun-soaked harbour, past verdant flowerbeds and parks, until you get to the most opulent-looking restaurant. It's refined, elegant and grandiose. You're prepared for some seriously authentic local fare. And you get Asian food.

The restaurant itself, part of the Berns Hotel, was actually pretty nice. On a business trip, our generous and welcoming hosts had arranged dinner for us at one of the more exclusive spots in the city. In the event, the food was rather good. For Asian fare it was competitive with some of the better places in London. Where at first I felt surprised, I eventually felt quite satisfied.

Such incongruity is more common in London than many other European cities in my experience. Probably because we are so ashamed of our own cuisine. How many times have you been inside a beautiful-looking local venture to find the menu advertising something totally different to what you expected? Thai restaurants inside local English pubs are a common example.

With this sort of experience in mind, you would expect Le Café Anglais to be something of a play on French or modern European food inside a place purporting to be English in name only. It is too big, too polished and in too nice a part of town to be something genuinely English, surely? It turns out the name is no misnomer. Set up by Rowley Leigh, Le Café is indeed English in its roots, its ethos and its menu. More or less...

A friend was in town and she, the wife and I wanted some proper English grub to celebrate. The menu at Le Café is a confusing read because it's one of those spread across an enormous sheet of card. Any menu this size usually suggests the meal to come is not going to be the best but when you take a look at what's on the menu here, it's another story. My starter was a triumph of Englishness: smoked eel and bacon salad (left). Silkily smooth cold fish with some dressing to balance, topped with crispy bacon over a bed of crunchy bitter leaves is something that works a treat as long as the produce is fresh and this certainly was.

Both the wife and our friend opted for the less local-sounding cep mushroom risotto (right). Nothing wrong with a bit of risotto, of course, but does it really fit the bill on a night like this? I have pondered this question since the meal and the answer is: it does. Risotto doesn't have to be Italian in every way, especially if it is made with local produce, as this was. The rice itself was lovely. Both ladies enjoyed it immensely and there is little more to say than that.

To go with our starters, I practically insisted we sample some of the enticing hors d'oeuvres as they were listed (again, the message was lost at times with all the French on the menu). Parmesan custard with anchovy toast (for the sheer audaciousness of it alone) and kipper paté with soft-boiled egg (for the absolute traditional allure) were both ordered to come with the starters (left). The custard was a strange one, with perfect consistency and texture almost ruined by the fact that it was parmesan-flavoured. It tasted pretty good but this was a dish where the idea had overtaken the taste. Not bad but not much to write home about. The paté was better, having a more robust punch to it, combining nicely with the egg and melba toast on the side.

Several options on the main course menu appealed and the wife went for something as perfectly English and suitable as one could order from such a menu in September: grouse with bread sauce, game chips and gravy (left & right). I might not usually reserve space for a photo of a side dish but the chips themselves (as game chips should be, closer to crisps) with perfect bread sauce really made this dish. The wife enjoyed the bird, stuffed with watercress. I think the idea of the greens is to counter the strong, gamy flavour of the grouse but I always find it something of an inconvenience.

Now our friend unfortunately did indulge in some total incongruity with her main course. Clearly the most outlandish choice on the menu was the roast duck with bok choy, pineapple and chilli (left). Almost an entirely Asian dish in terms of construction and flavour profile, it made little sense to have it on the menu. In the event, she was a little lost as the dish arrived. It was a very nice piece of duck but with the accompaniments it seemed a waste of the restaurant's strengths and tradition.

My main course was one the restaurant should have delivered with flying colours and I was impressed with the rustic autumnal wholesomeness of roast partridge with cabbage and bacon (right). Beautifully carved and somehow delicately plated to allow the vegetables to soak in the rich game juices, this is British eating sadly less common than it should be in modern London. Everything was cooked expertly and the flavours were a comforting mixture of salty, savoury and rich.

Desserts (as should be the case on any British menu) were enticing and a lemon tart was a perfectly reasonable place to start (left). This was just about right in terms of gelatinous consistency, sharp-sweet flavour and crumbly crust. There is a pure, beautiful simplicity to a proper lemon tart and this was certainly one.

My dessert was one which stood out on the menu: raspberry soufflé with red berry sorbet (right). I tend to think raspberry is about the best type of soufflé one can order because the dessert itself - an innately sweet thing - needs that slight hint of acidity and sourness to balance it. This was perfectly even, with the pudding risen excellently, the flavour of delicious red fruit a divine constant. Whilst I would usually always prefer an ice cream over sorbet, this worked perfectly with the extra water content in the side dish allowing for a more potent punch of fruit flavour. It was a memorable and wonderful dessert.

The wife was instantly drawn to the panna cotta as she tends to be whenever it is on the menu (left). This was supposed to come with roasted figs but she is not a fan and so asked the restaurant to change the accompaniment. Chocolate ice cream was the substitute choice and a damn fine one it was too. The panna cotta itself was a little too firm for me but she enjoyed it wholeheartedly and whilst not totally British in its conception, it complemented the meal as a naturally lighter dessert.

Having tried ten separate dishes between us, it was a pretty good evening's work. We were all happy with what the restaurant had turned out and it generally trod the line between traditional British cuisine with more modern interpretations of British ideas very well. The duck was a red herring (metaphorically) but all else varied between enjoyable and excellent.

The clever name and swanky location are both slight misdirects for Le Café Anglais. It is a very properly-run, laid back restaurant. There is much to be said in upmarket London for restaurants serving genuine British food at affordable prices. It might be the simplest idea in the world but that also makes it hard to get right. On balance, Le Café Anglais is certainly doing so.

Le Café Anglais

Golden Day: Chinatown, Sunday September 23rd, 2012

When you eat out as much as I do, you get a feel for the kinds of places to try and those to avoid. Without too much effort, you can gauge whether or not you will like a place just by looking at it. It might sound judgmental and pretentious but it's true.

One early autumn evening last year, the wife and I were invited to try dinner with one of her old colleagues at a place in Chinatown which, apparently, was not a bad sort of place at all and one that we would quite enjoy. Just looking at the offensively orange exterior and the semi-fast food makeup of the inside, I was pretty convinced I would have a hard time here.

And so it proved. (Clearly the review was always going to go this way from an introduction like that.) The meal ambled along and eventually reached the point where I asked the wife and her friend to check with the waiting staff if there was anything on the menu I would actually be able to eat without streaming nose, eyes and other orifices. It was a very spicy evening indeed...

In defence of the place, I did manage to get through some cabbage and some simple pancakes but the glass noodles, served in a bowl of lethal-looking red sauce were exactly that (left). The wife and her friend quite enjoyed them but I could not see it past a few mouthfuls. It was a similar story to more or less everything else on the table, eventually.

Some dry-fried beef would normally have been a reassuring standard-bearer on a night like this, but again the amount of chilli was prohibitively hot for me. The girls got through an impressive-looking but outstandingly spicy hot pan of pig intestine which was fresh and vibrant but far too out there for more than a mouthful for me (right).

That was more or less the story of the evening, sadly. The place was not appealing, the food too spicy and generally not to my taste at all. In the interest of balance, the wife's opinion was a little more relaxed than mine, saying that as a Chinese restaurant, it was pretty average, though she did not appreciate the service. It did seem to be rather slow-paced and lackadaisical throughout the evening. Their answer to some non-spicy fare for me was a dish we already had on the table but I had found too spicy...

I would not recommend this place but I suppose I am not the person to ask about an overtly spicy restaurant in Chinatown. It clearly is not one of the West End's hotspots for Asian food though, so I am a little vindicated in my general dislike of this place. For very spicy, average Chinese grub in an annoyingly orange atmosphere, it doesn't get much better than this.

A Birthday Indulgence: Launceston Place & Assa - Kensington & Soho, Sunday September 16th, 2012

One of the downsides of living in an old building (our home is over 100 years old) is that sometimes facilities are not the best. Over the past few years, our hot water has been known to trip into either overdrive or total failure. On one Sunday last year the unthinkable happened and we were without hot water for the whole day. This was supposed to be my Valentine's Day surprise for 2012 but the wife flew into a seething rage which lasted about eight hours and in the process, cancelled our plans for the day.

Now the plan itself had been a surprise so I didn't really lose much. In fact, the surprise came anyway when she took me for a lovely dinner later that week. I think she must have felt bad because she then re-arranged our lunch for one Sunday in September and off we went to Launceston Place, somewhere which has become a firm favourite for the both of us over the last few years.

It just so happened that the re-arrangement was the day before her birthday too, so it turned into something of a double celebration. Sunday lunch is a great time to go to Launceston Place because their set menu is always reasonable and offers good quality and variety. As usual, their impeccable bread and butter got us off to a superbly appetising, moderately too-filling start.

Along with the bread, we were presented with some choux pastry bon bons with cheese and bechamel sauce inside (left). These were buttery, crunchy morsels of absolute indulgence, or exactly what good amuse bouches should be. The cheese was not overpowering but strong enough to stand out and the pastry was perfect. Our pre-starter was a wild mushroom foam with hazelnuts and some oil. This was less impressive since I didn't understand the nuts at all and they lent nothing other than a distracting contrast of texture and flavour to a delicious mushroom soup.

The wife was unshakably decided on the scallops to start from the moment we read the menu. Costing an extra £6, these were a delight (right). Expertly seared and soft in the middle, they were served with a slab of pork belly with a delicious sweet glaze which elevated the dish well above just another plate of scallops. Celeriac purée and various apple accompaniments tied it together superbly. As a combination of ingredients it's a bit of a no-brainer but in terms of the execution it couldn't be faulted.

My starter was something a little more restrained. A poached hen's egg with pea velouté and prosciutto lardo was presented in just about the most appetising way possible (left). Thick, rich soup with a perfectly poached, large egg sitting in, garnished with pea shoots and draped with salty, shiny strips of fat was a delicious, hearty starter. The egg yolk added a stark richness to the creaminess of the peas and the bacon fat contributed a delicious sheen of savoury punch.

After plenty of bread and a very satisfying starter, I felt a bit of fish was in order, especially when hand-speared plaice was on the menu (right). Served with salt cod bon bons, cauliflower purée, samphire, capers and chicken jus, the flavour definition of the dish was exceptional. I am not a huge lover of fish when meat is an option but this was an outstanding balance of varying texture and harmony.

The wife needed no encouragement to pay another supplementary cost and enjoy the classic Launceston Place roast beef (left). Excellently medium-rare, served with proper dripping-cooked potatoes, vegetables and their glorious red wine gravy with a hint of truffle... This sort of meal is the kind any gastro-pub proprietor needs to eat and understand what a decent roast Sunday lunch really tastes like.

Desserts at Launceston Place always make me happy. Usually before I've even eaten them. The menu reads precisely how you want an English menu to: simple, elegant desserts which make sense. Baked yoghurt with yoghurt ice cream and fruits is one such sensible yet exciting pudding (right). This was not the sort of dessert that explodes with intricate and sensational flavour, but one which just makes you feel good about what you're eating. Need we ask for more? Puddings aren't good for us but they should make us feel good. The yoghurt ice cream was a little tart but the sweet fruits and meringue compensated and the result was a friendly pot of summer dessert.

The wife went down the route of a slightly more extravagant finisher in the form of chocolate and caramel mousse (left). The overt sweetness of the mousse was beautifully contrasted with poached pear, pear sorbet and some salted caramel smeared on the plate. Pastry was added to jazz up the overall texture and the result was a delicious and rewarding combination of satisfying sweetness. I wasn't allowed much of this but what I had was a treat.

Launceston Place has come a long way in my estimation since my first semi-disastrous visit. It has slowly changed from a modern European restaurant with great potential to the real deal. It now owns a Michelin Star (though it didn't at the time of this visit) and focuses on proper local tastes and dishes. (The 'British' tag for this particular review is the first for Launceston Place.) In terms of upmarket Sunday lunch, I don't believe there is anywhere better in London.

Now, on the Friday visit to Duck Soup, the wife had been lobbying for a return to the Soho branch of the Korean restaurant Assa. Somewhere we'd enjoyed plenty before, and given that it was her birthday weekend, I relented and for some reason we found ourselves eating dinner there after a pretty indulgent lunch.

Assa is a really enjoyable, no-frills Korean joint. It does not flatter to deceive and the food (by and large) is worth what they are charging. My standard is usually the Korean classic of bim bim bap: rice with egg, beef, vegetables and sauce, mixed together in a hot pot at the table (right). There is something assuredly rustic about dishes like this which makes them so appealing to me. Mixing the fresh ingredients together in the pot, cooking them in the process, is the very essence of Asian eating which can sometimes be lost in London's Asian restaurants. The flavour, in Assa's case, is always a sweet, sour, salty and refreshingly comfortable one.


The wife was given free reign over the menu since it was a birthday treat for her and she went for the spicy kim-chi tofu soup (left). This is the kind of stuff I simply cannot abide because it is ridiculously spicy and sour (and it contains tofu). But for her it is always a treat which means it is a decent appropriation of genuine Asian cuisine. We also always seem to eat glass noodles when we're at Assa; they tend to be very consistent (above right). Slippery, clean noodles with stir-fried pork mince and vegetables is a satisfying plate indeed.

Another of our standard dishes was brought to the table in the form of a seafood pancake (left). Crisp-fried and filled with prawn & chives and served with some vinegar for dipping, dishes as rich and flavoursome as this are going to remain on our go-to list for a while. Additionally, we ordered some crispy pork to finish things off (above right). This was a pleasantly fresh accompaniment, not being greasy or heavy at all. It was a nice balance of salty pork with slightly neutralising notes from the cucumber and peppers within. A very reasonable side piece to a totally unreasonable dinner, given our lunch.

Assa, like Launceston Place, is a great favourite of ours. The food is reasonably-priced and almost always delivers on flavour and texture. The sheer rusticity of the place makes it a Soho must-visit and when it's good, it's very good. The fact that they still don't have a website somehow makes it all the better: it's not a secret, but it is a great place to tell your friends about. As for this particular Sunday, the wife was elated that we'd managed to take in two of her favourite places in one day, at the very least.

Launceston Place