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
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
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
Hot Pot Spot, Wellfield Road, Cardiff: review
On July 5, 2018 by The Plate Licked Clean“Whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s still plenty of meat on that bone. Now- you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you got a stew going!” Carl Weathers to Dr Tobias Fünke, Arrested Development. If your idea of going out to eat involves paying someone else to cook you
Coyote Ugly, St Mary St, Cardiff: menu review
On June 24, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanIf Boney M have taught us anything about Tsarist Russia, it’s this: not only was Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin a lover of the Russian queen, but he was a “cat that really was gone”. Furthermore, as “Russia’s greatest love machine”, “to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear”. So far, so good. Not all shared
The Court, Llansantffraed Court Hotel, Clytha: tasting menu review
On June 4, 2018 by The Plate Licked CleanA few days away, in Wales’ food capital, with great restaurants nearby and green rolling away from you as far as you can see? Yes, please: which is what brings us to Llansantffraed Court, just outside Abergavenny. You feel, pleasantly, miles from anywhere, disconnected from city bustle, as we settle in after a cream tea
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.
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.
From mezze to Michelin ‘fine dining’ and all points in between.