Cardiff . Restaurants in Wales
The Smoke Haus, Cardiff
On August 26, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanThe Smoke Haus. Surely it couldn’t be as bad as the last time I ate alleged ‘barbecue’ in the city centre? Could lightning strike twice in the same postcode? (NB I haven’t checked this bit- don’t bother correcting me). To whit: could The Smoke Haus serve ‘barbecue’ as bad, as scrotum-shrinkingly awful, as the meal
Restaurants in Spain
Spanish Road Trip day i: Gueyu Mar, Ribadesallas, Asturias
On August 23, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanThis post is one of a series from a road trip I took summer 2018. For the introduction, read this. ‘Lo sencillo es tan sencillo, tan sencillo, que es complicado.’ We leave Bilbao far behind and head west for a couple of hours along the Cantabrian coast, into the green of Asturias. We skirt the
Restaurants in Spain
Spanish Road Trip: Prelude
On August 19, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanThis is a standalone introduction to five or six planned posts from our recent road trip across Spain. Think of it as background colour. Maybe it’s my time of life. Maybe it’s this entire Brexit farrago: but recently I have been reflecting on what it means to be the son of a European immigrant. And
Cheltenham . Restaurants in England
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham
On August 11, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanAs I finished my last forkful of lamb at Le Champignon Sauvage, I felt a pang: a brief flurry of what felt like…what? Sorrow? A moment, passing yet potent, of sadness that I might never taste lamb cooked so beautifully, so wonderfully, in Britain again? Ridiculous, no? Preposterous. Risible. I’d have thought so too. Until
Cardiff . Restaurants in Wales
The Grange, Grangetown, Cardiff
On August 4, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanIt has been a dark few years for the pubs of Grangetown. The Neville, on the corner of Clare and Cornwall, gave up the ghost in 2013; The Grange followed in September 2015. The estate agents were touting it as ‘offering potential for alternative uses’, and for a while it looked as if it might