Food

The food is almost too superb: Wild Honey reviewed

1 February 2020 9:00 am

Wild Honey is a ludicrous name for this restaurant: there is nothing wild about it, and I do not think…

Fairy food for fairy wives: Julie’s Restaurant reviewed

18 January 2020 9:00 am

Julie’s is a 50-year-old restaurant in Holland Park, London, newly emerged from three years of closure as plushly renovated as…

Eggs and hard liquor: Spectator writers on their favourite examples of meals in literature

21 December 2019 9:00 am

P.J. O’Rourke I love poems but hate poetasters, love wine but detest oenophiles, love food but can’t stand foodies. Therefore…

‘Cook it like a prayer’: Bip Ling’s Christmas curry

21 December 2019 9:00 am

This dish is refreshing and super yummy. It’s a recipe that Didas (my Indian grandmother) taught me. The zesty tomato…

This food needs a little less grandeur, and a little more love: Simpson’s in the Strand reviewed

21 December 2019 9:00 am

Simpson’s in the Strand stopped serving breakfast in 2017, after it had been renovated to stop it smelling of cabbage.…

Sumptuous, remote – and forgettable: Locket’s reviewed

14 December 2019 9:00 am

Locket’s is a new café from the owners of Wiltons in Jermyn Street. Wiltons is the restaurant that dukes visit…

Remarkable and imaginative: Fitzwilliam Museum’s The Art of Food reviewed

30 November 2019 9:00 am

Eating makes us anxious. This is a feature of contemporary life: a huge amount of attention is devoted to how…

Nauseating, but I like the garlic bread: Legoland Windsor reviewed

30 November 2019 9:00 am

The theme music to Legoland in Berkshire is the theme music to The Exorcist. It appears from speakers hidden in…

Back in the Babington Triangle: Roth Bar & Grill reviewed

16 November 2019 9:00 am

The Roth Bar & Grill exists on an art-farm called Durslade in Bruton, Somerset, which is also the country outpost…

Stringfellows for the sex robot age: Bob Bob Cité reviewed

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Bob Bob Cité is a restaurant dangling like testicles from the underside of the Leadenhall Building in the City of…

A slice of history: how did Britain’s pizza industry begin?

12 October 2019 9:00 am

A slice of history Pizza Express is to undergo financial restructuring, leading to fears that it could go under. How…

I’ve had my fill of brasseries: Moncks reviewed

5 October 2019 9:00 am

If you review restaurants professionally you would not think Britain wanted to leave the EU. You would think she wanted…

It’s so easy to go mad in Oxford: Chiang Mai Kitchen reviewed

21 September 2019 9:00 am

Oxford is a pile of medieval buildings filled with maniacs, and is therefore one of the most interesting places on…

I wouldn’t suggest you eat here, but I doubt there’s a better place to drop acid: Camelot Castle reviewed

7 September 2019 9:00 am

The Camelot Castle Hotel is a pebble-dashed late-Victorian excrescence on a cliff. It overlooks the ruins of Tintagel Castle. A…

Prue Leith: My plan to get real catering back into hospitals

31 August 2019 9:00 am

Picture the scene: we are filming the opening link for The Great British Bake Off. Here I am in the…

How did my children become more middle class than me?

24 August 2019 9:00 am

In a café in Norfolk last week, my seven-year-old son uttered words that mortified me. No, he didn’t comment loudly…

I’m back on the ‘public humiliation diet’ – thanks to my kids

24 August 2019 9:00 am

I’m on holiday with my family in Turks and Caicos, and maintaining my current weight is proving difficult. Regular readers…

Like Twitter, but with food: Market Hall Victoria reviewed

24 August 2019 9:00 am

The Market Hall Victoria is an international food shed opposite the station terminus. I have long hated Victoria, thinking it…

Lunch on Leonard Cohen Island: The Pirate Bar reviewed

10 August 2019 9:00 am

The Pirate Bar is an oddity, even for this column: a bar and restaurant themed in homage to a pirate,…

Edible insects are not the future of food

3 August 2019 9:00 am

I’ve lost track of the number of features I’ve seen joyfully hailing the edible insect revolution, entitled ‘Grub’s up!’ Barclays…

A hotel dressed like the Queen Mother: Siren at the Goring reviewed

27 July 2019 9:00 am

The Goring is a tiny grand hotel near Victoria Station and the Queen’s garden wall. Victoria is not pleasant —…

The devil eats Prada: Patisserie Marchesi 1824 reviewed

13 July 2019 9:00 am

The Prada Café is both a cake shop and a historical inevitability. It sits on Mount Street, almost opposite the…

I didn’t know kosher food this good existed: Decks in Tverya reviewed

29 June 2019 9:00 am

Decks is a restaurant built on the Sea of Galilee. It is Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu’s favourite restaurant (it is…

An alternate reality in Heathrow’s Terminal 5: Fortnum & Mason reviewed

15 June 2019 9:00 am

I am obsessed with Fortnum & Mason, and the jams of the England that never was but could be. It…

Snog a Tory: Why you should learn to step outside your comfort zone

18 May 2019 9:00 am

Ew! Are you squeamish? Are you grossed out by meat, by fish, by eggs, by scales and suckers and shells…