Perfect Saturday July 16, 2015 AUSSIE BREAKFAST FARM GIRL Forget fry ups, treat your hangover to a nutritious breakfast at new opening Farm Girl. Set up by 26-year-old Rose Mann, it brings the food of her rural upbringing in Melbourne to Portobello Road. Open Tuesday to Sunday, serving breakfast all day, thefarmgirl.co.uk SUMMER LOVIN’ HACKNEY VILLAGE FETE St John-at-Hackney Church [...]
Restaurant review: Les Deux Salons is a reassuringly old-school restaurant July 14, 2015 You wait all year to review a French restaurant and then two come along at once. Last week Les Gourmets des Ternes, with its no-nonsense, unfaffy cooking, reminded me of a time before the gastronomic landscape was dominated by “sharing concepts” and pop-ups and street food and cocktails with bits of bacon in them. Les [...]
If you want to know your wine, learn your vintages July 14, 2015 Vintage wine is sometimes thought of in vague terms as either old wine or a particularly good drop. In actual fact, the vast majority of wines are from a specific vintage, which simply means that its grapes are primarily or all grown and harvested within a single year. The micro-climate of each wine-growing region will [...]
Mix it up: The perfect cocktail is a sublime balancing act July 14, 2015 The Cherrybrum Cocktail is probably the best rum and cola you’ll ever try Cocktails are a balance of five flavours: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. A good cocktail is made or lost on the balance between two of them: sweet and sour. The sweet in your cocktail will usually come from sugar syrup, [...]
Working lunch in Canary Wharf: Iberica, Cabot Square July 14, 2015 Our guide to the best places to eat during office hours in the City and Canary Wharf WHAT? Sophisticated tapas in a sparse, rustic setting. Think massive contemporary light fixtures and hunks of meat served on chopping boards. WHERE? A vast industrial space just off Cabot Square in Canary Wharf. It has [...]
Car review: The Range Rover returns bigger and better with the Autobiography LWB July 13, 2015 Land Rover built just one model prior to its ubiquitous Range Rover – the Defender. Tough as old boots and about as comfortable as a park bench, it had such impressive go-anywhere traits that, even today, you can still buy that same vehicle. Though not for much longer. The brilliance of the 70s Range [...]
Not convinced? July 13, 2015 CHECK OUT THESE ALTERNATIVES… ASTON MARTIN RAPIDE S PRICE: £150,299 0-62MPH: 4.2 secs TOP SPEED: 203mph CO2 G/KM: 300g/km MPG COMBINED: 21.9mpg THE VERDICT: DESIGN Four Stars PERFORMANCE Five Stars PRACTICALITY Two Stars VALUE FOR MONEY Three Stars BENTLEY FLYING SPUR V8 PRICE: £143,725 0-62MPH: 4.9 secs TOP SPEED: 183mph CO2 G/KM: 254g/km MPG COMBINED: 25.9mpg THE VERDICT: DESIGN [...]
Making the most exciting holidays even more thrilling: The weird and wonderful world of “alternative” safaris July 12, 2015 You don’t need to augment Africa’s resplendent natural beauty – its incredible wildlife, its stunning scenery, its famous sunsets. You don’t need to – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it anyway. Competition between eco-lodges and safari-operators is fierce, and many now offer a wealth of “optional extras”. So if seeing a majestic lion [...]
Art review: Soundscapes add new dimension to old masters July 9, 2015 National Gallery | ★★★★☆ “Discover a new way of experiencing paintings,” says the promotional material for Soundscapes, the new exhibition at the National Gallery. Such proclamations risk any soundscapes being drowned out by a cacophony of tutting from critics. “Do we really need a new way of experiencing paintings,” you can hear them imploring. “What’s [...]
Film review: Ted 2 is a barrel of silly laughs July 9, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★☆☆ It hasn’t been a great year for adult comedy. Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart collaboration Get Hard underwhelmed, while films such as Unfinished Business and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 had critics seething and audiences shrugging. Next up, Ted 2, Seth MacFarlane’s sequel to his $500m 2012 hit about immature Bostonian John (Mark [...]
