Coquina, Hastings Contemporary: restaurant review
On July 1, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanIt is a beautiful evening for a walk down to dinner. Coquina (styled with a small ‘c’) is easy to spot from the top of Hastings’ West Hill, near the foot of the East, and next to the darkly looming Net Shops on Rock-a-Nore Road. The bright, welcoming space they have taken upstairs in art
Cuisines Negombo Sri Lankan restaurant, Canton, Cardiff: review
On June 14, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanCuisines Negombo sits where the interesting but short-lived Rasathi did. Unlike Rasathi, though, you can now eat in on a solitary table: so there is no need now to eat your Sri Lankan order in Victoria Park, though its demise means I never got to pitch them my ‘Patty in the Park’ idea. Named after
Sumisu Ramen, Stooge Coffee, Trinity Street Hastings: review
On May 20, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanI seem to spend my time in Hastings in little rooms eating lovely things. There are worse ways to spend your life, I suppose, and here’s the latest: the twice-weekly Sumisu Ramen popup from husband and wife team James and Ai. The town library, the Grade II-listed Brassey Institute, seems to looms over Trinity Street
Lury, Hastings: restaurant review
On May 10, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanWell, Lury is lovely. I suppose I’ve ruined it now, haven’t I? That’s not how these things are supposed to work. You’re supposed to grit your teeth for a trudge through every bite of the ten courses and hope you still have the will to live when I arrive at a verdict, some stab at
The Albion, Hastings: restaurant review
On April 30, 2025 by The Plate Licked Clean‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of a good pint, must be in want of a proper pie.’ I think that’s how it goes, anyway. The Albion was already well established as a Hastings pub when Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice in 1813. Slightly more recently, I was brought
The South Kitchen, Albany Road, Cardiff: Yemeni restaurant review
On April 26, 2025 by The Plate Licked Clean‘Hello, nice to see you today…Lamb or chicken?’ Welcome to The South Kitchen, and the smallest menu in Cardiff. You don’t pick your happy place. Your happy place picks you: and although The South Kitchen has very recently moved to Albany Road, it feels like business as usual. Sure, it looks very different in here,
This blog is a very simple thing.
I won’t try to sell you any hand lotion, exercise programmes, coffee syrups or Patagonian nose flutes. You won’t find tips on dating, ‘wellness’ or yoga mats.
I write because I love it (and food, as indicated by my increasing girth). Greed happens to be my Deadly Sin of choice, but at least it is never shy of providing me with subject matter.Â
A simple thing, then: all you get is me wittering on semi-coherently about places I’ve eaten at; hence a ‘restaurant blog’ rather than a ‘food blog’, although there are a few recipes scattered throughout.Â
From mezze to Michelin ‘fine dining’ and all points in between.Â