Reviews

I’ve never been hugely impressed with most of the Chinese restaurants in Manchester’s Chinatown but thankfully ‘Yuzu’, the solitary Japanese restaurant on offer is fantastic. It’s a tiny little place which completely adds to the charm, it feels really authentic with it’s Japanese artwork, various bottles and ornaments and wooden benches although i’ve yet to visit Japan so I can’t confirm that it is. …

Solita is one of the coolest new places in the ever growing Northern Quarter of Manchester. It’s slightly out of the way on Turner street where ‘Sole‘ used to be. Perhaps slightly confusingly, Solita isn’t an Italian restaurant. The name means ‘South Of Little Italy’ in reference to the location of the restaurant near the Ancoats Little Italy area of Manchester. I’ve …

As much as I love the interesting and modern cuisine that our top restaurants are serving these days there will always be a place in my heart for classic, French fine-dining. It’s where it all began for me at Gordon Ramsay’s flagship 3 Michelin star Royal Hospital Road restaurant in 2006. So I was fairly excited to hear about 63 …

I’ve been longing for some Spanish tapas ever since visiting Dos de Mayo in Seville last month. We don’t have anything even close in the U.K, never mind in Bolton but we do have a nice, simple and very decent little tapas restaurant ‘La Salsa’. It’s been a few years since my last visit but I was a regular in the past …

On my last visit to Nam Ploy I called it ‘easily the best restaurant in Bolton’ despite it’s underwhelming desserts. Although i’ve been many times they’ve almost all been at night so today I decided to give their excellent value ‘Business Lunch’ a try. It’s quite a different place on a quiet Tuesday afternoon than a busy evening service. When we …

For my last day on the Algarve (sniff) I wanted something really traditional and very Portugese. After some searching I found O Alentejano which sounded like exactly what I wanted. It was another win for the internet as not only would I never have heard of the place without TripAdvisor reviews but I wouldn’t have found it either without Google Maps …

After spending most of the past week around Albufeira it was time to venture a little further along the coast. Alvor in the western Algarve, just past Portimão seemed like the ideal place. Alvor is a fishing village situated both on the coast and on the estuary of the river, Rio Alvor. What attracted me was the number of restaurants …

As soon as I noticed how close we were to Spain I just had to pay a visit. I love Ibiza and Barcelona is one of my favourite places in the world but I haven’t been to southern Spain since a package holiday many years ago as a small child. Looking at a map I picked out Seville as the …

After a long hot day at the nearby ZooMarine what I really needed was Peri-Peri chicken and beer. Thankfully Teodosio is just around the corner and provided both. It’s a shame that they don’t have an outdoor seating area though as this was the only meal in our entire trip that was eaten under a roof and that includes breakfasts. …

There’s a board outside Shalom II which states that they serve “the best ribs in town”. It certainly grabbed my attention but as I consider myself a bit of a rib connoisseur I would be judging for myself. I came back later to find out. Unfortunately just as I sat down a table of 20 arrived completely unannounced, filling almost …

Olhos de Água is a tiny Portuguese parish in the municipality of Albufeira. It’s located on the coast and is famous for having one of the best beaches on the Algarve which is why I was there. I can confirm that the beach is fantastic, so much quieter and more peaceful than the other beaches around but just as pretty. …

If i’m being honest the only reason I visited Restaurante Zé Carlos was because it’s just around the corner from the apartment I was staying in. It didn’t look particularly inviting from the outside and the menu looked fairly basic. Day 3 of the now customary ‘couvert’ was OK but definitely the weakest olives and bread we’d received so far …

I’d read about A Tasquinha do Rossio on TripAdvisor before arriving in Portugal and was very much looking forward to eating there. It sounded fantastic, i’d also read that it gets busy quickly so I went out of my way to find it during the day and make a reservation for later on. I’m glad that I did because when we …

On our first evening in Portugal we were very tired after an early flight so went out to find something to eat early. We arrived at O Lusitano before 6:30pm to find that it didn’t open until 7pm. A waitress overheard us deciding whether to wait, go and come back or look elsewhere and very kindly offered to open early …

Being a massive Nando’s fan I was naturally looking forward to tasting some real, authentic peri-peri chicken in Portugal. I didn’t have to wait long as I spotted Roberto’s Chicken on the drive from the airport, roughly 1 hour after landing. Roberto’s Chicken is essentially a fast food restaurant. It’s a takeaway but with a small number of tables outside …