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Food and drink (21 posts found)

Restaurant reviews and amazing food and drink experiences featured in luxury leisure reviews website ALadyofLeisure.com and written by travel journalist Sarah Bridge

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Summer drinks and a Sculpture Park at Bel and the Dragon Churt

by Sarah Bridge
added June 17, 2021

Proof that you don't have to travel far to enter a whole new world came with my recent stay at the Bel and the Dragon Churt, in Surrey. A quick drive around the M25 and along some pretty country lanes and before long I was sitting in a vast beer gard...

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Restaurant kits to make at home – Fuller’s Sunday Roast reviewed

by Sarah Bridge
added March 7, 2021

Enjoying the perfect Sunday roast at your favourite pub must surely be one of the weekend pleasures most missed during lockdown and here's where restaurant kits can come into their own. While I'm counting down the days until the pubs re-open (and I'm...

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Good taste in every sense at Adnams excellent pub The Swan Southwold

by Sarah Bridge
added April 17, 2019

It does great food and excellent cocktails, it's got beautiful bedrooms, friendly staff and even has a brewery and distillery on site (it's owned by 147-year-old Suffolk brewer Adnams). Added to that, it's right in the heart of Southwold, one of Brit...

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Curry, bagels and fish and chips on a memorable London food tour

by Sarah Bridge
added April 11, 2019

In just four hours I ate curry, fish and chips, stilton cheese, salt beef bagels, bread and butter pudding, salted caramel cheesecake and a bacon sandwich. With ketchup. Why? You might well ask. It was because I had decided to be a tourist in London ...

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A memorable 48 hours on the Isle of Wight including blue cheese, garlic beer, beautiful beaches and charming B&Bs

by Sarah Bridge
added March 24, 2018

'We just fell in love with the Isle of Wight,' said owner David Barrett as he showed me around Haven Hall, one of the newest B&Bs on the Isle of Wight. 'It's exactly like England was, 40 or 50 years ago.' Now this could be a positive or a nega...

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14 wines at dinner and a relaxing spa: a memorable stay at The Vineyard hotel Newbury

by Sarah Bridge
added March 20, 2018

The Vineyard hotel Newbury is a hotel serious about wine and its Judgement of Paris is the perfect meal for wine-lovers and food-lovers alike. With 14 wines and some first-class cooking, dinner at The Vineyard was one of the most memorable meals I've...

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My epic food tour of Japan: sushi, sake, puffer fish and bullet trains

by Sarah Bridge
added January 19, 2018

Japanese food can be some of the most intricate food in the world but can also be some of the most simple. I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Japan to learn all about Japanese food from top chefs and restaurants, from Tokyo to Osaka and the fishin...

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An unscheduled stay at Hotel du Vin Bristol

by Sarah Bridge
added November 28, 2017

With every cloud there comes a silver lining and the missing of a flight meant an unexpected overnight stay at Hotel du Vin Bristol. History of Hotel du Vin I'd long been aware of the Hotel du Vin group founded by Gerard Basset and Robin Hutson...

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Noble Rot on Lamb’s Conduit Street, a welcome addition to memory lane

by Sarah Bridge
added May 18, 2016

It is hard not to start off a review of Noble Rot restaurant - as practically every other reviewer has done - with a nostalgic look back at days gone by, spent in the various pubs and wine bars of Lamb's Conduit Street. It seems that every journal...

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Dinner by Heston Blumenthal review: food for thought

by Sarah Bridge
added April 6, 2016

Turning up to lunch at Dinner restaurant in Knightsbridge - the restaurant from top chef Heston Blumenthal - with a copy of the menu from The Fat Duck at Bray (also by Heston Blumenthal, where my dining companion Simon had eaten just the week before)...

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Balans Soho Society restaurant Kensington- it’s smart, sexy and has its very own tree

by Sarah Bridge
added February 25, 2016

Returning to Balans Soho Society restaurant Kensington High Street was like visiting an old friend who had had a complete image change in the intervening years. My colleagues and I used to come here for a post-work glass of wine of two, sitting squas...

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Sexy Fish: Mayfair’s slice of loud, brash, bling and fun

by Sarah Bridge
added December 8, 2015

Sexy Fish, the newly-opened £15 million restaurant from Richard Caring (The Ivy, Le Caprice, J Sheekey) doesn't actually look very sexy from the outside. It's rather plain and square and dull and looks not dissimilar from the NatWest bank it used to...

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Drinking martinis at the best hotel bars in London

by Sarah Bridge
added July 24, 2015

'Don't worry, you won't get a hangover,' insisted Pleurat Shabani, the maker of Konik's Tail vodka and the host of our martini marathon. 'I've never had a hangover drinking martinis.' [Note: this review of drinking martinis at the best hotel bars ...

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Las Vegas food festival Vegas Uncork’d: it’s an epic Vegas food party

by Sarah Bridge
added May 5, 2015

Note: my article about the Las Vegas food festival Vegas Uncork'd was first published in 2015 so some of the details might now be out of date Mention Las Vegas and most people would immediately think gambling, casinos, showgirls, Mariah Carey, the...

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Pisco power! Getting into the spirit at London Peruvian restaurant Senor Ceviche

by Sarah Bridge
added April 14, 2015

As a late arrival to the cult of the Pisco sour cocktail I certainly plan to make up for lost time. I started and finished my evening at London Peruvian restaurant Senor Ceviche with a perfect Pisco Sour, the drink which has become one of my favourit...

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Olivo restaurant in Victoria London: an Italian favourite revisited

by Sarah Bridge
added April 10, 2015

Olivo, the Italian restaurant in Victoria London, used to be a lunchtime favourite of mine but for some reason I haven't been back there for about ten years. However when I finally returned I was delighted to find it hadn't changed a bit, which isn'...

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El Pirata Mayfair: the friendliest tapas in this part of London

by Sarah Bridge
added April 10, 2015

Tucked away behind the grey anonymity of Park Lane's high-rise hotel district which includes the Dorchester, the Intercontinental and the Athenaeum, El Pirata's tapas bar is a welcome sight. You might not think of tapas in Mayfair but in spite of ...

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Aperitivo in the heart of (rather noisy) Kensington

by Sarah Bridge
added August 27, 2014

'Location is everything' so the saying goes - but when it comes to the afternoon drinks and Italian nibbles at the Baglioni hotel in Kensington, it seems location can be a double-edged sword. I was invited to come along and spend the evening in th...

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A trip round the Beefeater gin distillery visitors centre

by Sarah Bridge
added July 8, 2014

Vauxhall in London is known for many things - the Oval cricket ground, a permanently traffic-snarled gyratory system, a disused gas works - but a pleasant afternoon drinking gin and tonics is not usually the first thing that springs to mind. Howev...

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Hop pockets, scotch eggs and Shoreditch blonde: beer-tasting for girls

by Sarah Bridge
added February 20, 2014

Beer-tasting for girls event It isn't often that you see a man wearing a hessian sack telling a room of beer-drinking women they would make better brewers than men. But Monday's 'Give Boys the Chop - beer tasting for girls' event organised by R...

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Gordon Ramsay London House Battersea review

by Sarah Bridge
added February 3, 2014

London House Battersea Review Any business owner will tell you that it's vital to get the local residents on side right from the very beginning to ensure success. And Gordon Ramsay did just that with the newest restaurant in his empire, London ...

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