We love the Cotswolds and had previously stayed at the Cotswold House Hotel and Spa’s sister hotel, the Noel Arms, just across the street (would also recommend!) and at least a dozen other places in the area. As a basecamp location for hiking tours, walks, or visits to the pretty gardens and other picturesque villages nearby, there is – in our view – no better place than Chipping Campden. And what could be better than staying at a fancy boutique hotel in a beautifully renovated grade-listed Regency building that used to house the Guild of Handicraft when the arts & crafts movement relocated to Campden some 200 years ago. Modern fittings and appliances have been added without any disturbance to the grandeur of the place. The splendid spiralling staircase features in many wedding photos. The hotel stretches over a number of buildings, including an adjacent one directly on the […]
Fig, Chipping Campden – our Restaurant Review
During our visit to the Cotswolds last weekend, Fig restaurant, focused on fine dining and British cuisine, invited me to try their three-course dinner menu. I was joined by Ms B, my wife. The restaurant is part of the lovely boutique hotel Cotswold House and Spa, owned by Bespoke Hotels group, and located in the main building, a splendid Regency mansion that used to be home to the local Guild of Handicraft. Read our review of the hotel here. The dining room has large windows towards the magnificent park-like gardens of the hotel and exudes an atmosphere of grandeur and elegance. The maître d’ led us to our table and after brief deliberation, Ms B opted for hand-picked crab, yuzu, cucumber, and avocado as a starter, roast fillet of turbot, fregola, peas, broad beans, clams and Marsala as her main, and caramelised spelt, milk jelly, coffee ice cream, and honeycomb […]
The Landshut Wedding – One of the Biggest Medieval Pageants in Europe
MsB and I have just returned from our trip to Bavaria, where we visited the phenomenal Landshut Wedding, one of the biggest medieval pageants of Europe. The event is held every four years since 1903 in the Lower Bavarian town of Landshut (55,000 residents), only 45 minutes by train or car from Bavaria’s capital, Munich. It attracts close to one million visitors. Several thousand locals dress up every day for three weeks and re-enact the wedding between Hedwig, the Polish King’s daughter, and George “the Rich”, the son of the Duke of Bavaria, in 1475 A.D. This wedding was so outrageously pompous it continued to be talked about for centuries. 10,000 guests jubilated, celebrated, danced, and feasted for a full four days back then. 320 cows, 1,500 sheep, 1,300 lambs, 500 calves, and no less than 40,000 chickens met their maker during this long weekend. The fact that the marriage […]
Mamie’s, Covent Garden
[UPDATE 2018: Mamie’s is now permanently closed] Every once in a while you get lucky. A few days ago was such a day for me. I had had an early morning meeting in Covent Garden and felt a bit peckish, so I tripadvisored the best breakfast places near-by and found Mamie’s, ranking an amazing #34 out of roughly 20,000 London restaurants, and very well-deservedly so. Opened about one year ago, this little Breton creperie serves the best galettes I’ve tasted. Ever. Bar none. And the Barbarians have been to the famous Breizh Café in Paris (review here) and many other masterful crepiers’ etablissements. The texture and taste of the buckwheat galettes are just too good to be true. Very thin and on the outer parts a tiny tad crispy, just as we like them, but still squeezable and soft (despite being so thin) in the main section. They come with […]
Kennington Lane Cafe in Vauxhall – London’s #1 Breakfast Spot?
My wife, MsB, and I used to live just across the river from Vauxhall, half way between Pimlico and Westminster tube stations, for many years, and we like to think that we still know our way around the area pretty well. So when we recently came across Kennington Lane Cafe, next to Vauxhall tube station, on Tripadvisor, while researching good breakfast places in the area, we were nearly falling out of our shoes: #1 breakfast spot in London? #2 ‘restaurant’ out of roughly 20,000 London restaurants? For a greasy spoon with the atmosphere of a badly run rural gas station? Less than a mile from Regency Cafe (our review here), a greasy spoon with all the splendor of a 1940s corner cafe, featured in many famous movies? There was only one way to find out if Kennington Lane Cafe was worth the ranking or not. Breakfast. Earlier today I finally […]