Reviews

I’m really growing to love Leeds; in fact, in many ways I think I prefer it to Manchester now. I’m still finding out about the city, but one place I keep going back to is Friends Of Ham. Having been a few times for their fantastic charcuterie and great range of craft beers, I recently visited in the morning to try their …

When I first started going to the ‘Drunken Butcher’s’ supper clubs the concepts were pretty simple. Generally based around a specific cuisine or individual meat; Spanish or French for example; pork, game or steaks perhaps. Over the past year the main theme of his events have got ever more elaborate. Recent supper clubs include: ‘Poet’s Corner’, where every dish was inspired by a poem, ‘All Bets Are …

There’s no shortage of places to eat Mexican food in Manchester but most are either market stalls, fast food/takeaway orientated or fused with other cuisines. Lucha Libre were the first to really bring the traditional dishes I love to a proper restaurant setting in 2013, before their closure earlier this year. That huge taco sized hole has now been filled by Wahaca, a chain …

It’s no secret that I’m a big Solita fan, I have been right from the start when they had just one burger on the menu (it’s true, honestly!) Back then they were just a small Northern Quarter grill restaurant but over the last couple of years they’ve gone from strength to strength. And restaurant to restaurant. Last year saw the …

This is my first and quite possibly last post here on FoodGeek. You see even though I contribute greatly to the eating out, I am also responsible for supplying Mr Geek with valuable information such as the state of the loos, overuse of unnecessary ingredients, whether the plates are stupid and where the waitress got her shoes from (all vital …

Usually when I wake up in London wanting breakfast there’s only one place on my mind; Dishoom’s ‘Bacon Naan’ is legendary and one of my all time favourite breakfast items. But one day I fancied something different, something a little healthier perhaps. Then I remembered that Mexican street food chain Wahaca serve breakfast. Although I didn’t realise at the time that only …

It wasn’t so long ago that you just couldn’t get a decent pizza in Manchester. Then came a few street food vendors putting the restaurants to shame by producing stunning pizzas from their portable wood fire ovens. This year it seems the restaurants have finally started to catch up, with a number of places now serving pizza ranging from reasonable to very good. Most seem to …

You always want something more when you can’t have it. And as I stood waiting opposite BAO at 21:55, I REALLY wanted it. I knew the Taiwanese steamed bun restaurant was the current ‘go to’ place in London and I’d heard all about the queues. But I wasn’t able to get to Soho until 30 minutes before they closed at 10pm. So …

Many people – including Iain, aka the Drunken Butcher – say the cheek is the best part of any animal. It makes sense really given how much work those muscles get through. They can be tough though without careful cooking, luckily he knows what he’s doing and decided to show us by putting on ‘The Cheek Of It’, a seven …

With so many new restaurants opening in Manchester these days it’s hard even for somebody as obsessed as me to keep up with them all, never mind be excited by most of them. One that I had been looking forward to for a long time though is ‘Burger & Lobster’. I really enjoyed visiting their first London restaurant three years ago …

If you love cheese as much as I do there’s no better place to be in July than the Nantwich show, home to the ‘biggest cheese marquee in the world’ where the ‘International Cheese Awards’ are held annually. I loved my previous visit to the trade and judging day and this year was set to be bigger and better than ever …

Following the disappointment of returning to our once favourite restaurant in Albufeira to find it had changed in every way possible (none for the better) we were unsure whether to risk ruining more happy memories by going back to another old favourite. We’d enjoyed O Lusitano very much on the first day of our trip in 2012 so didn’t want to be let …

It’s not everyday you get the chance to eat dishes from several of the world’s best chefs in the same place at the same time. But a few weeks ago I did exactly that after being invited to the press launch of ‘Great Chefs, Great Causes’ at Ibérica in Spinningfields. Of course, Albert Adrià and Joan Roca of El Celler de …

It’s surprisingly difficult to find a good afternoon tea in London on a Saturday. I’d left it too late to get a reservation at my first choice, Sketch, while many others only serve them Monday to Friday. Eventually I found Dorsett Shepherds Bush hotel. They were open, had room for us and the menu looked lovely. We started with a variety of …

I’ve eaten loads of great pizzas in Manchester over the last few years but unfortunately none have been in restaurants. All the best ones seem to be coming from street food vendors like Rudy’s and particularly Honest Crust. I just couldn’t understand why small traders can get it right whilst restaurants were continuously getting it wrong. So when I was invited to PLY – …