Food and Drink
Beer of the Week – BrewDog Vagabond Pale Ale
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Strength: 4.5% ABV Brewed: Ellon, Scotland Tired of a market dominated by industrially brewed lagers and ales, the team behind BrewDog set up the world’s first crowd-funded brewery in 2007. Now operating from a site in Ellon, just north of Aberdeen, a community of over 35000 investors own shares in the business, with shares still available. And what’s more, the brewery that’s made for the people, by the people is still constantly striving to...
Studies Suggest Tea Really Can Be The Ultimate Cure-All, Especially For IBS Sufferers
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food In Britain, the notion of “putting the kettle on” has always been the initiation of the ultimate cure-all. But now, with the news of proven health benefits of certain infusions, the ideal has been given a whole new lease of life. A recent study carried out by University College London suggests that many probiotic drinks that are often said to remedy Irritable Bowl Syndrome - as well as other bowel complaints and diseases - are...
Restaurant Review – Oklava
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food With each passing year, it’s always commonplace for the world of foodies, bloggers and critics to cast their presumptuous predictions for food and restaurant trends to bloom and flourish across the next 12 months. One of those trends that’s been prominent with forecasts for 2016 is the rising popularity of Middle-Eastern food in London. Throughout last year a number of restaurants with this particular focus opened their doors to wide acclaim, including The Palomar...
Restaurant Review – The Florence
By Mark Turnbull The Florence Gastropub in Herne Hill is a great place for diners and drinkers alike to visit. Owned by the well-regarded Metropolitan Pub Company, its website suggests that “The Flo” is great for its craft beers. It is, but tonight we were as interested in its food. Serving a wide range of classic and mouth-watering dishes with a modern twist, those with a passion for beautiful tasty food will find so many deliciously tempting plates to ruminate...
The Weekly Cocktail Recipe – The Bloomsbury Hotel’s ‘Mintea Collins’
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Perfect for anybody looking to start the new year with a detox, those abstaining from alcohol for the month of Janaury, designated drivers, and even children: The Bloomsbury Hotel have a new range of non-alcoholic cocktails. Set up as a collaboration between Bar Manager Mathieu Gaudin and Henrietta Lovell – founder of Rare Tea Company – The Bloomsbury Bar’s ‘Tea Total Cocktail List’ features eight non-alcoholic drinks using Rare Tea Company’s finest tea leaves....
Haig Club: Don’t Be Fooled By This Dapper Dram
Set across two floors of a stunning structure just off the famous Bund area, David Beckham propped up the bar of the Haig Club Shanghai sporting designer stubble and a scooped up retro quiff as a guestlist of actors, actresses and models filtered in to taste what Beckham himself has dubbed a “modern and stylish new Scotch Whisky”. That much I can’t argue with. The oversized, blue-tinted perfume-esque bottle would certainly add a new dimension to your whisky shelf, and...
Restaurant Review – TGI Friday’s, Leicester Square
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Thank God It’s Not Friday. As the sun sets on Friday evening, Leicester Square inevitably turns into the closest thing that the city has to hell. It’s certainly not helped by the fact that the local Wetherspoon’s is famously one of the very few places so close to the centre where a pint of lager can be bought for less than £5, thus inviting the world and his wife to descend upon the pub...
Beer Of The Week – Crate I.P.A
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Strength: 5.8% ABV Brewed: Hackney Wick, London Set up in 2012, Crate Brewery operates from an old print factory in the heart of London’s vibrant Hackney Wick. Priding themselves on using only the finest British Malts and internationally sourced hops, Crate’s core range consists of ten beers, and has been the subject of much acclaim, having garnered support from a number of restaurant groups and hotels, including celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Gordon...
Restaurant Review – Sartoria
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food When Italian Chef Francesco Mazzei’s famous city restaurant L’Anima was at its initial peak, I was a young teenager, still in school. And like most Brits from a working class background, at that time I was shamefully unadventurous when it came to food, and thus did not – quite sadly – manage to experience the Chef’s cooking at the pinnacle of his acclaim. Eight years on, however, things have changed and Mazzei has recently...