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Neil Davey

@dinehard

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Restaurants. Travel. Travelling to restaurants.

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As you may have spotted on the Stories, there's been a little recent trip to #istria - for a thing for @sainsburysmag - and what a splendid place it is. It's now, mostly, #croatia and it was my first time there. I very much hope it's not my last: when it comes to pace of life and simple pleasures, I can quite understand why a couple of people I know have mentioned retiring there in due course.

There are several good meals to come on this feed, but the first - before even checking into the hotel - is a good place to start. A tour of @deklic_winery finished with samples of their very good wines and some fine hospitality in general, from fried ravioli to very good cheese and charcuterie and, of course, local olive oil. A lovely spot - with some interesting art - and a fine start to a fine few days. #istriangraze2026 #visitistria @visitistria by @dinehard

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6 hours ago

There have been several people of late - most notably @marinagpoloughlin - celebrating the joys of beige food. Lunch @bellamysmayfair last week managed to boost the case for beige, while somehow toning down the colour level.

An #invitation from the ever entertaining @hughrichardwright, lunch was a gleeful celebration of old school joys, from start to finish or, more accurately, exemplary #virginmary to Minstrels. As Hugh explained, tongue firmly in cheek, their menu "concept" is a list of dishes you'd like to eat, split into three sections: a small plate section called "starters", larger plates they call "main courses" and sweet things known as "desserts" and they strongly recommend you choose one from each section...

Iced lobster soufflé with melba toast, a dish that channels 1970s dinner parties but that's not a complaint. Fillets of Dover soul, oil and lemon, pommes vapeur, a plate so pale that it DREAMS of being beige. Again, this is not a complaint, it's the simplest of simple pleasures. And then a little piece of Marina's Chocolate Cake. Marina is the owner's mum and she makes several of these cakes a week and, brilliantly, sells them to the restaurant. It's a cake that tastes intensely of chocolate and many years of baking experience. Finally, alongside coffee comes a bowl of Minstrels. Not a cheffy take on Minstrels, not an artisan version of Minstrels, just actual Minstrels, because they're perfect as they are. Oh, and at no point does anyone interrupt your meal to check if everything is okay. The assumption is you'd rather eat, drink and talk to your companions than be disturbed, and that you're grown-up enough to raise any problems if you have them... A damned decent place, a damned decent lunch. #noschoolliketheoldschool #mylondonlist #londongraze2026 by @dinehard

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13 days ago

If you've read elsewhere that getting a table at @kid_soho is akin to a lottery win or finding Brigadoon, well, that may not always be the case. @jenbradly and I had a long booked lunch scheduled last week, venue tbc. And a few days beforehand, I checked the Kid website expecting crickets and, actually, there were tables available across several days. So do check because you might just get in but, mostly, check because Kid is pretty much as good as everyone has said. Once you find the way in that is - look for the grey door with goat on Bateman St. You're welcome.

Humus, fried chickpeas. Wild-farmed grilled pide. Bluefin ezme, kapya pepper. Kid sucuk, grilled peach. Courgette flower, Tulum goats cheese, Atom honey. Muhammara, walnut, beyaz peynir. Tombik pide. Lamb lokma, sivri ezme. As the dish names suggest, this is a celebration of good ingredients, cooked simply and well. It's all several steps up from your local Turkish, of course, but it has the same simplicity, approachability and heart. Service too is absolutely impeccable. Remarkably, it already feels like it's been here for years, which is quite the trick to pull off. And if, like me, you used the Frith St Pret as an occasional office, you REALLY won't recognise the place...

I'm returning this week with a larger party with plans to take down the celebrated kid and the mackerel but, if you're just after a little well crafted (and pretty good value) snackage / small plates, this is damned near about as good as it gets. #mylondonlist #londonfood #londongraze2026 by @dinehard

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14 days ago

Ticked off a couple of long "wishlisted" sandwiches recently and... I'm not sure "meh" quite covers it.

First up, @fatpatsuk - admittedly the very odd London satellite operation, not the #manchester original. There's a handful of tables, a merch rack and what appears to be an office reception desk where you place your order with either of the slightly surly team members, from a menu board somewhere to your right on the floor. Like I say, VERY odd.

This is the signature #phillycheesesteak, a sandwich that, thanks to the absolute legend that is @pancakes.and.protein.shakes, I can talk about with... Well, nowhere near his level of authority but certainly fond memories and some experience of the good versions. And this would be laughed out of Philly in a matter of days, not weeks. No beef flavour, no cheese flavour, just overpowering throat-aggravating pepper and weird crispy onions. Bizarrely the bread - which is the most difficult bit - is great. Will be in MCR in a month or so and still intend to try the original, because some people whose palates I trust think it's decent, but bugger me, this was pitiful.

And then, a couple of weeks later, wandering through Exmouth Market, I detoured - finally - to @gerryshotsubs and tried one of their #phillycheese variants, the Queso, at the recommendation of one of their lovely team. And it was... Well, it a very, very average, very soggy thing of fleeting beefiness. Ho hum, win some, lose two, I guess. On the plus side there is still, at least, @passyunkavenue who, frankly, have got absolutely nothing to fear...

#londongraze2026 #mostdefinitelynotmylondonlist by @dinehard

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15 days ago

Been a good week for counter dining with the pleasures of @impala.soho swiftly followed by the pleasures of @appalachialondon.

And what a fine spot it is. Friendly, welcoming, buzzy and that counter is a thing of beauty. The same can be said for many of the dishes. I've been monitoring their menu for a while and this particular one is about as strong as it gets: I mean, tell me the thing on that you don't want to eat? Inevitably, having watched a chef baste many in melted butter while waiting, the cheddar and jalapeño cornbread madeleines were the first thing ordered and, yes, they're fab. Oyster, with scotch bonnet & peach hot sauce, and suitable briny, sweet and warming. More bread: "Hillbilly" loaf, cultured apple butter. An off-menu treat (although they're frequently on the menu), the pig's tongue and head skewer, which are sweet, umami-laden, rich, crispy in places... We liked. Fat Fashioned. Charred corn, chilli and sour cream, spring onion which comes handily cut into slices you can easily pick up and dredge, artfully, through the sauce. Beef tartare tostada, pickled cucumber and lime, a doozie of a dish. And then the limited edition Pimento cheeseburger which was still very good but didn't quite live up to the hype, so there's probably a moral there somewhere. It also means I need to return and take down the epic looking smoked pork chop, (and more small plates) which is absolutely no hardship. Tomato and melon salad, with fried green tomatoes, and scotch bonnet / Old Bay dressing. And then both puddings: Fried dough, strawberries, milk ice cream; and Chocolate mousse, bourbon cherries, custard. Both terrific, but I think the mousse just edges it. Some blooming good cooking basically (and an excellent drinks offering, particularly on the low / no front). #invitation #mylondonlist #londonfood #londongraze2026 by @dinehard

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20 days ago

A cancelled trip meant a blissfully empty weekend and a couple of impromptu lunch opportunities, including counter seating at North African-influenced grill experts @impala.soho alongside @katenudge.

The counter is both a great place to sit and a dangerous place to sit as, instead of contemplating the menu (and Googling the several words I didn't know), it's much easier to drool over dishes as they're prepared in front of you or are delivered to the people next to you: we ordered at least two dishes based on their recommendation, and they added at least one extra based on ours. The rest we either ordered on the advice of their very patient servers or by gesticulating wildly at things as they emerged from the oven...

Ftira (a fried ring of bread), hen's egg, pistachio, and covered artfully in fresh herbs. We loved it but a chef mate did describe it to me this week as "very confusing, like a healthy doughnut" and I can also understand that point. The menu. The whitest of pounded white beans, bottarga and wild herbs. Aish baladi, a thin, puffy but deliciously chewy bran and whole grain bread. Olive oil, temperature-raising smoky harissa. Pastilla, Cull Yaw pastry, pickled walnuts - fatty, crispy, intensely lamb-y (as you'd expect of @thecornwallproject) and, I think, my favourite thing of the day. Arrowhead spinach and aged feta borek, with wild honey and fennel pollen (a very close runner-up). Sheftalia of Tamworth Pork, wrapped in caul fat. Freekeh, with grilled and pickled rose onion (a cracking dish). A shared slice of their single dessert offering, a very good date and pistachio tart. It has, perhaps, been a little overhyped but Impala is a joy, bringing a fresh spin and new flavours to familiar dishes. Envelope pushed. Stomach happy. Win win.

#londonfood #londongraze2026 #mylondonlist by @dinehard

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21 days ago

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22 days ago

In a post a couple of years ago - and many times in person since - I declared lunch at @daterrarestaurant the best meal I've eaten in London. I could say that lunch at @rafacagali's @marehove is the best meal I've eaten in Hove - and it was - but that probably doesn't do it justice. Come the end of the year though, when looking back on 365 days of elaborate calorie intake, this is going to be very, very high on my list.

The opener is the native lobster rice, ox tongue because it's pretty. The menu and, inevitably, in the company of fine food friends @helen.graham.161446 and Dom, we chose the excellent value Taste of Maré menu, plus a couple of extras. Puffed cassava crisps. Fried market oyster, (remarkably) hot sauce emulsion, cumari pepper. Native lobster claw crumpet. Onion croustade, beef, tonnato sauce. Toasted brioche, parfait, plum, truffle. Iberico coppa. Mackerel, cherry dressing. Pulled lamb shoulder Marioc taco. Cassava chips. More of that superb lobster rice,divinely dotted with little bits of pickled tongue. Picanha with chimichurri. The tirami-choux, and a little creme caramel-esque bowl of joy, the sweetness underplayed with that little seeded / herby meringue thing. And no, I didn't take notes, funny you should ask... Oh and the final pic, the reason we were all in the area: sonewhat intense US actor @officialmichaelshannon and @jasonnarducy have an REM tribute band and play 40th anniversary tours of their albums in track order, plus a selection of old tracks, b sides, etc. They were @chalk_venue to play #lifesrichpageant and very blooming good it was too. I even got to shake his hand after and say thank you. All in all, as good a 24 hours as I'll have this year. by @dinehard

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a month ago

And so to #woven by @chefadamsmith @coworthpark, Part II, featuring the main courses, desserts, petit fours... Plus an invoked memory, an observation on hotels in general and breakfast.

Where was I? Oh yes, stuffed on the magical bread course, reeling from snacks and exceptional starters and about to blown away by mains. Turbot "jubilee" - lobster, salted grapes, caramelised cauliflower - and a signature dish for a reason. Quite exceptional. But then there was also squab with the colourful additions of brown butter, black truffle and yellow wine and, yep, that was quite exceptional too.

Now over to my notes which, frankly, by this point of the evening, possibly won't make a lot of sense. There was an excellent drinks pairing. The events may be connected... Anyway, this is the side dish with the squab which was inhaled and not recorded. This could be blackcurrant compote, under salted vanilla ice cream, and cherry with hōjicha and roasted pineapple. I can be more confident about the next photos as this was all the desserts: White Lady Peach - lemon verbena, bee pollen, estate honey (you'll see the hives as you drive in); Signature Chocolate - sea salt, cocoa nibs, creme fraiche; and English Strawberries, with croissant ice cream and yuzu posset. The favourite? A hard choice but... When I was a kid, my grandparents kept a sweet tin in their sideboard. One of my grandad's tricks was to thinly slice a Mars Bar so it became a more moderate treat. When in the tin, they picked up powdered sugar and hints of other sweets. And I hadn't thought of that in years but that chocolate dessert brought it flooding back.

And thus, wiping a little happy tear from my eye, the petit fours. Mango and lime pavlova. Cherry and zalotti teacake. English Negroni jelly. Macadamia ice cream sandwich. And a ludicrously good Jammie Dodger tribute because their Adam's favourite biscuit.

And then breakfast where, happily, the bakery team are on it. I've been to so many hotels with great restaurants / restaurants with rooms where at dinner they proudly serve you seven house made artisan breads and then, depressingly, a slice of Warburtons for breakfast... by @dinehard

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a month ago

Dinner at #woven by @chefadamsmith @coworthpark, and a post in two parts - well, when a dinner is this beautiful (and fun) I tend to get a little snap happy. While at its "basic" level this is already a generous #tastingmenu, we'd pushed it to the slightly longer form "from the chef" version. Plus, this being an #invitation (for a forthcoming thing) and chef, by his own admission, being a bit of a feeder this turned into something really rather epic. Kohlrabi,

A close up of the remarkable kohlrabi dish, and a shot that shows the incredible detail here, from the precision of those curled strips of the aforementioned vegetable, to the application of wild flowers, oils and, in this instance, caviar. As you walk in - with the (oh dear lord) cheese pantry on your left - a chef is carefully prepping one of the snacks. A presentation of many of the ingredients that will feature in the forthcoming feast. The cheese and onion sandwich that you just saw being prepped. Hamachi, olive and fennel. Caviar 'bun'. Dorset crab, Thai Green. Radish and yuzu. Jellied Devon eel, before and after the application of the consommé of dreams. The bread course. It's a rookie error, of course, to go hard on the bread course but, even if I had willpower, I'd have struggled to turn this lot down, particularly that Marmite-glazed cheese pain suisse. Would you like a moment to read that again? And perhaps another to fan yourself? Then there's the beurre blanc, and the other "topping" options, of miso onion jam, olive oil and (great) balsamic and sunflower seed hummus. Kohlrabi, kaluga, walnut, wasabi from a different angle (probably my favourite dish of the evening). Barbecued scallop, caramelised lime, spruce and their house made hot sauce. Mains and desserts to follow. Three people whose palates I trust told me before this visit that Woven is their favourite restaurant in the UK. I was worried they'd oversold it. They hadn't. by @dinehard

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a month ago

A little departure from the usual content here but blimey the #faroeislands are beautiful. It's like driving through a Peter Jackson backdrop. You can't travel more than 10 minutes without seeing another stunning vista, or breathtaking expanse of greenery, or incredible waterfall. It gets to a stage you can't stop every time you see something achingly beautiful / scenery that nigh reduces you to tears, because you'd never get anywhere. Not that that would be a problem, of course, because every journey is an eye-popping joy but you know what I mean. Múlafossur Waterfall - approximately 20 mins from the airport. Fossá, the largest waterfall on #FaroeIslands. View of The Troll and The Witch from the beach at Tjørnuvík. The sea gorge at Gjógv and view from the bridge. And an impromptu supper @kjot_gotumatur (after discovering my planned choice was closed). This is the Rabarbu-Q, a smash burger with, as the name phonetically suggests, rhubarb and BBQ flavours, a very successful combo of smoke and fruity sweetness. Great "kips" too. #visitfaroeislands #burger #smash by @dinehard

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a month ago

As you may have spotted from a recent Story, I was in the beautiful #FaroeIslands the other weekend for a thing for @sainsburysmag. There will be many more shots of the region appearing here shortly - it's a ludicrously beautiful place - but, well, it's me so I had to start with some food really. And my first meal, dinner at the seafood-forward, very laid back @roksrestaurant, was the obvious subject...

Razor clam with beer, mezcal and chilli - eaten "luge" style so each piece of tender fish picks up the savoury spice notes. Cod skin chips, bagna cauda dip. The starters as a group... Sea urchin with rhubarb. Raw shrimps, lemon peel purée. Scallop with mango. . Consommé with catch of the day and radish. Mussel croquette. Brioche, snow crab in heaps of garlic butter, a fun, messy, very delicious additional course. Pine-smoked langoustine, one shot at distance, to show the box of varied cutlery that you'll plough through during the meal (a lovely informal touch in what is a splendidly relaxed meal), one in close up because it was a thing of beauty. Tostada with aged cod, which was curious and very much not a thing of beauty. Gnocchi with XO sauce and aubergine purée - a lovely little hug of a thing, doubly so after the challenge of the cod. Berry compote, charcoal-burnt meringue. Not shown, the optional, very enjoyable pre-dessert of caviar, brioche ice cream and vodka, because it's hard to take a photo when you've got a caviar bump on the back of your hand... Which may be the most middle class thing I've ever written here. An enormously fun, mostly delicious dinner. An #invitation, yes, but it's quite sensibly priced for this level of cooking and creativity. #seafood #Tórshavn by @dinehard

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a month ago