No I’m not compelling you to attempt the dance that is the theme of this Roxy Music classic from 1973 or its 30 years later cover by German synth pop band Alphaville. The Strand Dining Rooms is a restaurant located within Grand Buildings at 1-3 Strand, with an envious view of the most iconic of London landmarks , Nelson’s Column.

The Strand Dining Rooms is located in the former atrium of Grand Buildings, which was largely taken up with an amazing fountain with goldfish in it! In case you are curious as to how I came by this factoid, my wife used to work in Grand Buildings many years ago! Obviously the rising value of central London prime real estate has done away with such flights of fancy!

On this cold and damp November morning, I had some time to kill before heading off to a meeting and fancied breakfast at this venue. I had heard mixed reviews so thought it would be worth satisfying my curiosity.

A cursory glance at the breakfast menu already had my interest piqued. Apart from the breakfast staples of pastries and the usual full English there were a number of enticing treats on offer. I was taken by the moderately healthy option of Smoked Salmon, Poached Eggs, Avocado and Lightly Grilled Tomatoes. At just over the £10 limit I set myself for breakfast this seemed a little indulgent but when the food arrived it was well worth the spend!

Buttered toasted sourdough bread, perfectly poached eggs ,runny yolks , firm whites , tastefully garnished with chopped chives. A generous helping of smoked salmon and an avocado that was ripe but not mushy! Overall a solid performance across the board. Backed up with great service! Spacious tables to allow you to spread out rather than the picnic table affairs that are so common in central London.

One of my real bug bears about the this great city is that so often venues with eclectic views, position or location exploit that with overpriced underwhelming food. Then Strand Dining Rooms definitely hit the mark in the breakfast department and looking at their 3 course Best of British dinner menu for £34.50 I think it won’t be long before I return to try out their dinner offering!

Down in the beautiful West Dorset countryside for a flying visit to assist my in laws this weekend. I brought my trusty Macbook and was hoping for a bit of Blogging time. One of the trade offs for leaving the Metropolis is that for every 10 miles west of London you travel you decrease the chance of getting a decent free Wifi signal by 10%!

In one last act of Blogging desperation, I headed into the nearby town of Beaminster. A charming place and once home to foraging Masterchef winner Matt Folas’ first restaurant venture the Wild Garlic.

It’s been about 12 months since I’ve been down here and the stylish Cilla and Camilla’s boutique gift shop came to this Blogger’s rescue in form of their newly opened tea shop at the rear of the store.

It had been a fairly typical damp and dismal day of that fine Dorset rain so as I sat at the nicely finished cafe table in the coffee shop the clouds parted and I saw my first glimpse of blue sky! The soothing smooth jazz tones of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto provided ambient background music and I was starting to feel nicely at home in this little Dorset oasis.

A quick glance at their menu revealed the must have option of the classic Dorset cream tea.

Within a few minutes a warm fruit scone arrived with a generous portion of artery clogging clotted cream and fruity strawberry jam.

I then settled down to the serious business of writing,  contented and relaxed and looking forward to my next visit to Dorset!.

A few weeks ago after a random night out in Windsor that resulted in just a little too much wine consumption and a chance encounter with a young Frenchman and his Venezulean girlfriend we decided that a bracing walk was required to clear our heads.

We’ve been trying to walk the Thames Path in stages and have done most of the Putney to Oxford section with the exception of Tilehurst to Shiplake. So we headed off to Shiplake to park the car at Shiplake railway station before catching the train to Tilehurst to make the 11/12 mile walk back to Shiplake.

It was a beautiful sunny September day and we worked up quite an appetite en route  so when we finally made it back to Shiplake I thought we should reward ourselves with dinner out.

I searched to see if there were any Michelin Bib Gourmond restaurants nearby and there were two. One run by the ubiquitous Tom Kerridge in Marlow and called The Coach , the little sister of the Hand and Flowers, the other called The Crown in Burchetts Green, near Maidenhead and run by chef Simon Bonwick formerly of the renowned Black Boys Inn in Hurley.

The Crown looked more promising with an honesty that was not about celebrity and so we headed off to Burchett’s Green. On arrival I was relieved to know that there was a table available although I would recommend booking to avoid disappointment. We were greeted warmly by one of Simon’s sons Dean who was heading up front of house and shown to our table.

The former pub has been converted into a restaurant by Simon without the whiff of a pub about it! More like a cosy front room in a country house with the owner’s passion for painting adorning the walls for decoration. Yes he can paint as well as cook! what talent has Simon Bonwick.

The menu is a fairly simple affair with an excellent choice of 4 or so seasonally fresh starters, main courses and desserts.

One of the most impressive things about this place is the wine list. Modest in length, but with a pedigree that would have any sommelier salivating or indeed anyone who knows the Silex wines of the late Didier Dagueneau from the less exciting wines of Pouilly Fumé. One quirk of this place that I love is that the fine wines listed on the board behind the bar are all priced subject to negotiation. In other words there’s a price but its open to sensible offers.

Being towards the end of the month and with pay day being another week away I decided to go for something more modest, a white Côtes du Rhône. They’d opened a bottle for a customer to try at lunchtime that day and it wasn’t to their taste so I was offered it for the bargain price of £25!!

It was a heady blend of Viognier, White Grenache, Rousanne and Marsanne. With notes of apricot and apples and a long fat finish. As I glanced back at the menu the wild sea bass fillet caught my eye. Dean asked if I liked my sea bass thick and chunky. In my opinion it’s the only way to serve this fish but so often restaurants choose to serve the insipid cardboard like and thin farmed varieties.

Our choices ordered we settled down to our first course. A delicious homemade coarse pâté with fruit chutney. Served with home backed bread.

Next up was my favourite dish, the sea bass as Dean had said was a thick middle fillet from a wild line caught fish. Cooked to perfection. Moist and dense on the inside  but with a caramelised crunch on the crispy skin. Served with red and green pesto, a melange of fresh vegetables given extra colour by the unusual addition of beetroot and a wonderful silky smooth pomme purée.

We had both opted for the same starters and main courses. There’s nothing worse than your partner/spouse getting food envy when their choice is trumped by yours but at the dessert crossroads we took separate paths.

Gillian opting for the wonderfully rich and smooth Brillat Savarin cheesecake with a citrusy passion fruit sauce.

I for the Rocky Road Pie with homemade rum and raisin ice cream. As well as being indulgent and rich the thing that really set this off were the tiny droplets of concentrated “Tout Le Monde” raspberry purée that garnished the plate but which also complimented the rich chocolate of the Rocky Road.

After dinner and whilst enjoying coffee Simon, the chef came out to chat to us. It’s always great to meet the chef and understand a little more about their ethos and what their trying to achieve. Simon is a man with a vision and at last he’s in a  position to execute that plan. It’s a family affair with his wife helping out with the books and 2 eldest boys Dean and George at front of house. Don’t let that family thing fool you though. Dean cut his teeth working for the Roux brothers at the Waterside Inn and carries with him the professionalism you’d expect from someone whose learnt his craft from the masters.

Simon’s really passionate about ingredients and their provenance too. That’s one of the reasons why the restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so he can spend the time sourcing fresh ingredients whether it be the sea bass that I had from Cornwall or some wild mushrooms or other seasonal ingredients.

Either way, if you live within a reasonable driving distance of this place I’d be booking your table for a Saturday night dinner pretty soon, I know that I will be!

I grew up in the market town of Ringwood in the New Forest. It has changed dramatically over the last 30 years and even more so in the last 14 years since I moved away. It’s now definitely a wealthier and more affluent town and has lost some of it rural charm, like the agricultural and livestock market.

Probably the most positive aspect of these changes is the demographic shift towards a population with a higher proportion of disposable income which has resulted in an explosion of restaurants, wine bars and cafes of varied international cuisine.

My parents still live there and I always look forward to returning to Ringwood to see what new delight awaits by way of a new restaurant or food/wine outlet. Today was no exception! We took lunch at Lovitaly in the Market Place.

On arrival we were greeted with a traditional warm Italian welcome from the manager, Alexandra, who hails from Cantú, in Lombardy province Italy. Lovitaly, is a delicatassen where you can also have a morning snack or a full blown three course meal, served in a slightly less formal atmosphere than a restaurant.They also have a private function room upstairs.

I love to understand the origins of words and language and so when I asked Alexandra to describe the style that she was aiming for with Lovitaly she said “eaterie” which sounded like a clumsy expression for a restaurant! Then I understood that in Italian the word “eaterie” is gastronoimia and that gastronomie is Italian for delicatessen! So I now feel more educated about the linguistic origins of this word as well as the delights that Lovitaly has to offer!

Naturally, Alexandra has a passion for all things Italian which comes through in the pride that she has in sourcing all the ingredients they use and making for example all the cakes and pastries in house.

We opted for an antipasti style mix of sharing platters, called tagliere in Italian. The literal translation into English is ‘Chopping Board” and  this is exactly how the mixed platters are served!

With the tagliere they serve some tiny bell peppers stuffed with a savoury fish mixture of tuna, anchovy and capers, this had an amazing texture and flavour and something that I have never tasted before. It’s also probably the sort of traditional partner to the tagliere that you would find in a little lakeside cafe on the shores of Lake Como which is where Alexandra hails from and a testament to her commitment to an honesty and authenticity in the food she serves.

We opted to accompany this with some tiny deep fried meatballs called polpette and a trio of bruschetta.

We rounded off our antipasti with coffees and some of their homemade amaretti biscuits which were dense and sweet and the perfect end to lunch.

The restaurant business is highly competitive and many entrepreneurs don’t make it beyond the first year, let’s hope that this little piece of Lombardy is around for a lot longer!

Ambiente Tapas, Leeds is one of those rare types out of Tapas Bars that is as serious about what their serve you to drink as their food. It was also a completely unexpected experience!

I was there recently and only popped in for a glass of wine after work. I was up in Leeds and wanted to find somewhere that had Wifi,where I could relax, have a glass of wine and do a few emails! Ambiente fitted the bill, so I sat down at the bar to look at the wine list and was instantly overwhelmed by the comprehensive selection of sherries.

I need not have been overwhelmed, Mercedes, the extremely helpful girl tending the bar, asked me about the style and type of sherry I liked and then recommended an
Emilio Lustau Papirusa – Manzanilla. This was a clear, pale colour, dry and salty with the nose of a sea breeze and a long almond like finish.

Feeling a little peckish I ordered some Aperitivos to go with my Manzanilla: A mix of salted almonds, Hamas and kikos.

I partnered the Aperitivos with a cheeky side order of Datiles con Serano, 
Dates stuffed with almonds and wrapped in Serrano ham. The sweet and salty combination was sublime and delicious.

This cheeky little starter set me up nicely and I was now looking forward to indulging further into the food and sherry menus. For my next drink, I opted for the Antonio Barbadillo Principale Amontillado which had a sharp round nutty finish. I then asked Raoul, my waiter to recommend a few dishes that would suit this style of sherry.

He suggested the following dishes:

Lubina con hinojo
Pan fried sea bass with orange braised fennel and watercress. I loved the combination of the aniseed and orange flavours which really brought out the best in the sea bass.

Gambas al Ajillo
Fresh tiger prawns pan seared and coated in confit garlic and peppers. A different take on a classic tapas dish taken to a new level with the use of a garlic confit.

Judias verdes
Green beans, pan fried, in garlic, with sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts. Wonderful colour , texture and flavour with the intensity of the sun dried tomatoes off set by the sweetness of the beans.

Within three quarters of an hour of opening the place was heaving on a mid week night and it’s easy to see why! The service was attentive and instructive and all three waiting staff Mercedes, Raoul and Teresa really looked after me and helped me navigate both the extensive sherry list and also which dishes to partner my sherry choices.

For the finale I went for the strawberry cheesecake partnered with an Emilo Lustau Emilin Moscatel. This was sweet but with a dry after finish so not cloying and a good antidote to the sweetness of strawberry compote served with the cheesecake.

If you find yourselves in Leeds or York and you like your tapas authentic , then definitely give this place a go!