Loire a Velo – Pretty Brilliant

I’m sitting across the street from Chateau de Chaumont in the Loire Valley, happy to finally have Internet access for the first time in almost a week. I’d intended to try my hand at daily “sort of live” blogging, but of course I underestimated the rural-ness of central France. Jon and I are cycling our [...]

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Magdalen, London Bridge

Magdalen opened in early 2007 to rave reviews across the board. Reading those reviews, I learned that the chef, James Faulks, had worked at the Fat Duck, and his wife, Emma, was pastry chef at the Mandarin Oriental. And in light of how uniformly gushing the pro reviews were, I couldn’t believe the place had [...]

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Keelung, Soho

These days, Chinatown seems to be divided between two major players – the Bar Shu people and the Leong’s Legend people. Both restaurants have been building on the success of their initial ventures and expanding in the neighborhood. Presumably there’s a rivalry in there somewhere, and if so, I side with the Leong’s contingent (having [...]

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L’Anima, Spitalfields/the City

When I leave the office on Fridays, I’m always excited about the possibilities of the upcoming weekend. And the best way to start the weekend, in my opinion, is to have drinks and dinner with Jon. Last Friday was Jon’s turn to plan our weekly “date night.” We met at a bar after work, and [...]

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Banhmi 11, Broadway Market

Banhmi11 is a stand in Broadway Market that sells one thing only:  banh mi.  Very exciting.  In case you didn’t know, I’m a banh mi fan.  The obsession started years ago when I lived in Washington, DC.  There, the Song Que grilled pork banh mi was worth the hassle of driving out to suburban Virgina.  [...]

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Restaurant Itineraires (5th), Le Comptoir (6th), Paris (revisited)

Jon’s parents visited us in London last week, so we decided to take a quick 4th of July trip to Paris. Our 32 hours there didn’t allow for too many meals, but we did manage to revisit Itineraires for dinner and Le Comptoir for lunch. Itineraires was just as (if not more) delicious and wonderful [...]

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Bocca di Lupo, Soho

Surely I’m the last one in the London food blog community to make it to Bocca di Lupo. But it’s not for lack of trying. I’d heard the place served mid-priced, high-quality Italian cooking. So *of course* I’d tried multiple times to get a booking. I was always negged, though. Clearly no mojo. Finally, last [...]

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Quarterly Stats (April – June 2009)

One day I’ll do a lot more with my quarterly roundups (like do quick blurbs on the three or four restaurants a week I’m visiting or revisiting, or at least highlighting the best and worst resto meals of the quarter), but for now, below are the bare bones Q2 stats that (I suppose) only another [...]

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