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Welcome to the fifth annual Food Geek Awards! (previous years are here) As I say every year, these awards are intended to be a bit of fun. Just something a bit different from the ‘Top 10’ lists that most people seem to do. They’re based purely on my dining experiences in 2016, nothing more. Best Restaurant Awards Best Dish Awards …

Welcome to the fourth annual Food Geek Awards (previous years are here). I started these awards to be bit more interesting and concise than posting loads of ‘Top 10’ lists. Most of the awards contain a top three, although there are a few with a top five and a couple with just the winner. I must confess to being a …

You may have noticed I’ve been a little quiet around here lately. It’s not that I haven’t been eating as much as usual, believe me I have. But I’ve been busy setting up an alter-ego and a sister site for this blog. Say hello to Beer Geek Blog… I decided to start a beer orientated blog because I’ve got more and …

Are we all bored of Top Ten lists yet? Me too, but that’s not going to stop me doing my own. At least my ‘Awards’ are a little different; most are just a list of three – Bronze, Silver & Gold if you like – although a few of them I just couldn’t narrow down so contain five. There have been …

The more popular this blog has become the more emails I receive from PR agencies. Often they want me to sell my soul for an egg cup or a packet of biscuits. Sometimes they’re invites to places I wouldn’t dream of going, sometimes they’re invites to nice events and sometimes they’re just news. I hardly ever do anything with the ‘just news’ …

“Gromit, that’s it! Cheese! We’ll go somewhere where there’s cheese!” Wallace & Gromit went to the moon for their cheese filled ‘grand day out’ but you don’t have to! Next week sees the return of the International Cheese Awards to Nantwich in Cheshire. Cheese lovers from all over the world, including yours truly will gather in the 80,000 sq ft …

Last night saw the 7th annual ‘National Restaurant Awards’, organised by Restaurant Magazine to recognise the top 100 UK restaurants. As voted for by ‘industry experts’ including restauranteurs, chefs, food critics & journalists. Lists such as this are always subjective and with the stipulation that voters must have eaten in the restaurant within the past 12 months it’s always likely …

I hate reality TV; one of my proudest claims is the fact i’ve genuinely never seen a single episode of X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent or any of those bloody dancing shows. There is one exception though, i’m a sucker for food shows. I watch pretty much all of them; from traditional recipe shows to food documentaries and yes, even reality …

Last month I was contacted by the lovely people at Teapigs who invited me to try their super strength Japanese tea, Matcha. Being well aware of it’s health benefits I jumped at the opportunity, you can read more about the challenge and matcha in general here. The challenge was supposed to run for 14 days but due to a backlog …

One of the unexpected side effects of writing this blog is the amount of freebies I get offered. Whilst it’s tempting to accept everything (who doesn’t like free stuff?) I didn’t start the site to write about biscuits or egg cups so i’m fairly selective about what i’ll accept. Every now and again though I receive an offer I just …

Bolton doesn’t have much to shout about these days; it’s football team are hopeless, Peter Kay seems to have given up trying to be funny and its once excellent town centre now seems to only contain pound shops and banks. Even worse (from my point of view anyway) the latest edition of The Good Food Guide doesn’t feature a single …

Last year saw the first ever Food Geek Awards. They seemed to go down pretty well and are a bit different from the usual ‘Top 10 Lists’ that are so popular at this time a year so it looks like they might become a regular thing. After eating out around 130 times in 2013 the awards are much bigger and …

Though I hate to admit it and genuinely try not to be, if I’m being honest I have to accept that deep down I’m a bit of a food snob. Especially when it comes to restaurants, chains in particular. I’ve been put off by previous bad experiences but mainly I just find them so bland and soulless. There are a …

Manchester is at war! It is if you believe certain media anyway. It’s nothing to do with gangs, drugs or music though, not even United or City. This time it’s chefs; Simon Rogan Vs Aiden Byrne. Apparently they’re fighting each other in a race to be awarded a Michelin star. Simon has had a bit of a head start with …

*SoLita SUMMER MENU REVIEWED HERE!* It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of SoLiTA in Manchesters Northern Quarter. Looking back through my posts you’ll notice that I’ve eaten my way through most of the menu and many specials. Since opening last July they’ve been constantly changing and developing the menu, consistently surprising me with bigger, better and often stranger ideas. …