From the founders of the award-winning Chai Thali group, 1947 London is a modern Indian restaurant and cocktail bar set in an opulent subterranean space on just off Fitzrovia’s buzzing Charlotte Street (the entrance is on Rathbone Place). At the helm is Chef Krishna Negi who is a protege of Michelin-starred Vineet Bhatia. At 1947 London he has created a menu which pays tribute to recipes that evolved out of the movement of peoples and cultures during the partition in 1947.

The look and feel of 1947 London is glamourous, with sumptuous textures and warm dark colours to set the mood. Most enchanting are the giant-sized hand-crafted roses crafted by paper artist Karen Navalta which decorate the entrance of the restaurant and cocktail bar. Using recycled cardboard, Karen turned these into 1000s of petals, stems and buds, and then painstakingly hand sprayed them in rose-gold, copper and frosted plum to create a striking wall feature.

1947 London

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Bingham Riverhouse Hotel, Restaurant & Bar is located in leafy Richmond. We came to sample their refreshed menu on one of the hottest days of the year. To avoid the direct sunshine on the otherwise charmingly chic terrace, we sat in the airy room indoors: all starched table linen, big mirrors, bold abstract art and polite staff. Elegant, grown up, with subtle touches of playfulness, like the retro travel guides in the corridor by the loos. Any minute a 21st century version of Poirot might walk in and clandestinely perch himself by your side, ordering a cocktail or two – which are lovely, by the way.

The food is every bit the 21st century though: French techniques with global flavours and Scandinavian aesthetics. Modern British basically. You can have a set menu of 2 or 3 courses, or a tasting longer menu. We opted for the former. All food served in really lovely ceramic plates of natural colours; so tactile to the touch that we kept stroking the plates like they were cats on our laps!

But to the food. We started with a plate of ‘torched’ mackerel – very fresh and toothsome – served on a bed of spring onion mayonnaise and a pepper and fennel ‘escabeche’. We weren’t certain why the salad was called like this, since the fish hadn’t been marinated or cooked in the sauce, as the traditional recipe normally calls for, but we didn’t really care, because the dish was light and lovely and went down a treat with a glass of chilled Italian Viognier (the wine list has been put together with a thought for less common names, and a lot of love for the Gallic neighbours).

Bingham – Mackerel

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The food industry is buzzing at the moment, new trends like gourmet fast food and veganism, and the introduction of different cuisines from around the world means that you’ve got more choice than ever when it comes to eating out. There are so many amazing restaurants out there serving delicious food and you probably want to try it all. The only problem is, you probably don’t have the money to do that. Eating out can be quite expensive and most of us don’t do it as often as we’d like to because we just can’t afford it.

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But what if I told you that eating out doesn’t always have to be expensive and you could start going out to all of these amazing new restaurants that are popping up nearby? It might sound too good to be true but it isn’t, just use these simple tips and tricks and you can afford to eat out more often.
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Do you feel like your diet is not quite as nutritional as it can be? You’re certainly not the only one in that situation because poor diets are common and increasingly, they’re causing health problems. You should try to improve your health by embracing nutritional eating. The ideas and solutions that you can find below will help you to improve your health and give your body the healthy fuel it needs.

Nutritional Eating

Make Plant Oils, Fish and Nuts Your Main Sources of Fat

Bad fats in your diet can really damage your health and make the task of shifting excess weight a lot harder than it needs to be. But that doesn’t mean you should skip fat altogether because your body does need fats; it just needs the right kinds. You should aim to make things like fish, nuts and plant oils the main sources of fat in your diet. When you do, you’ll be a lot healthier.

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PLATE RESTAURANT

Plate Restaurant is located in the M by Montcalm Hotel in Shoreditch, on the first floor of what is a striking building a stone’s throw away from the Old Street Roundabout. Plate restaurant looks very much like a hotel breakfast lounge, and understandably so as it is part of a hotel. But the modern British menu speaks of a creativity that would seem to exceed the standard quality of the average hotel restaurant.

At our waiter’s insistence we ordered Plate’s signature “bread flight” (£7.5) and thank goodness we did. Three homemade brioches – plain, with wild mushrooms, and sourdough, came with three tiny bowls of the fluffiest of whipped butter. These had also been made on the premises: plain with sea salt; red balsamic vinegar with crispy nuts on top; and caramelised onions garnished with crispy shallots. Fresh, exquisitely textured, and warmly flavourful, they stood head above shoulders compared to any restaurant bread basket we have tried recently.

Plate Restaurant – Bread flight

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Where’s Best To Eat: France or Spain?

Herbs

Whilst Italy is often cited as the mecca for foodies, both France and Spain are similarly high up on the list of worldwide cuisines. If you’re thinking about taking a trip and are torn between these neighbours then this list that reveals three of the best from each country should tempt your tastebuds and help you work out which is best for you, on a purely gastronomic level.

Of course, both have great wine though the culture is very different. In Spain, the prices tend to be lower and the attitude is a lot more relaxed – the French would probably argue, too relaxed… whereas in France, service is more of a fine art and the dining scene has more formality to it than the friendliness of the many tapas bars throughout Spain.

When most people think of french food they imagine the menu of Les Gourmets des Ternes with treats such as snails, frogs legs and foie gras, whereas Spain is a lot more varied – in the North, you can find almost Hungarian style game stews whereas in the South it tends to be much more mediterranean with the traditional seafood paellas and barbecued fish.

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Wellbourne Brasserie, located in the heart of White City Place, features a unique all-day dining menu designed by head chefs Ross Gibbens and Michael Kennedy. Formerly Head Chef and Senior Sous Chef of Dabbous, respectively, Gibbens has also worked at Launceston Place and two Michelin-started venues such as Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, The Square and The Vineyard in Berkshire, and it was at Launceston Place where the pair first met.

The all-day menu begins with breakfast choices, moving onto lunch and then dinner, with the dinner options proving to be simple yet refined. The Brasserie and Bar area collectively accommodates about 70 covers, but it was the al fresco terrace area which worked a treat on a sunny summer’s evening. But the location itself in White City Place is somewhat off the beaten track and slightly hidden away, so it feels more like a neighbourhood spot than a venue that can be easily reached after a bout of shopping at Westfield’s.

We went for dinner and began our meal with a trio of vol-au-vents. Seemingly a dish from the past, it happened to be one of the specialties of the house and were filled with contemporary fillings such as broad beans, ewe’s cheese & mint; salted cod brandade and pulled lamb shoulder with violet mustard. All the fillings were delicious and were encased in a perfectly flaky pastry (1 for £2.5, 2 for £4.5 or 3 for £6).

Wellbourne Brassiere – Vol-au-vents

The list of starters was quite compelling and there was a huge temptation to try more than one each. We ordered three to share. First was the chicken liver parfait with toast, grape chutney and white balsamic (£7). The presentation was tasteful and the parfait itself was velvety and creamy. The white balsamic jelly layered on top of the parfait was however slightly overpowering against the parfait so perhaps the grape chutney alone would have been enough to complete the combination as the acidity element of the dish.

Wellbourne Brasserie –
The starters

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The Stag and Huntsman

The Stag and Huntsman is a 300-year-old pub which has been converted into a fine restaurant and a country inn in what is apparently Britain’s most photographed and filmed village, Hambleden. It is a beautiful, beautiful village, located between Marlow and Henley, and is littered with quaint country cottages and surrounded by rolling fields and lush green hills. The Stag and Huntsman offers rooms, but as Hambleden is just under an hour’s drive away from London, it can also easily make for a day’s getaway, away from the hustle and bustle of the Big Smoke.

The Stag and Huntsman, Hambleden

The Stag and Huntsman is an impeccably run venue and offers an almost picture perfect balance between quaint and modern, refined and relaxed, helped in no small part by a most welcoming and friendly host, Marius, the manager. The Stag and Huntsman is decidedly a smart place, yet the kind that doesn’t make you uncomfortable should you pop over in casual clothes. The furniture and the colour scheme of the interiors is the right amount of cleverly calculated with a relieving touch of haphazard. The building is a historic pub, extended and refurbished such that there is almost a warren-like layout. This was rather entertaining – a sort of life size puzzle set up to test your intellectual capacity to find exits and entrances. As we wandered around the establishment, we would occasionally catch glimpses of the cooks busily poring over what would be our meal for the night.

The food that we tried was delicious, the kind of country pub dining that sets out to satisfy – hearty and comforting, precisely executed and cooked with confidence. The duck liver parfait (£8) was rich and strong, and a far cry from the effete fluffy concoctions that are sometimes peddled to diners in London with too much cream and not enough flavour. The seared scallops (£12) were daringly matched with black pudding and apple and further enhanced with some squash puree.

The Stag and Huntsman – Duck liver parfait

The Stag and Huntsman – Scallops

The pigeon breast (£7) was seared to perfection with a welcoming blush of pink on the inside and perched daintily on top of an artichoke. A dab of creamed beetroot and some creamed Jerusalem artichoke introduced a timely wintry touch.

The combinations of ingredients were well thought through. Moving onto the mains, the crispy seared bream fillet (£18) with creamy grilled peppers, lush romesco sauce, and fragrant roasted almond flakes proved to be a veritable fandango of flavours. However the fish itself seemed to lack that luscious vibrant quality usually offered by very fresh fish. It was a little lacklustre but the accompaniments were fabulous.

The Stag and Huntsman – Sea bream

The 10oz ribeye steak (£22) was cooked medium-rare and oozed with the flavour of well reared meat, and was generously studded with grilled organic plum tomatoes. The red wine jus (£3) was well reduced yet still allowing the original wine’s nose to be discernible, no mean feat by any means. The seasonal vegetables (£4) had been just ever so gently steamed, with a delightful crunch and their bright colours still on show. The side of hand cut chips (£4) were chunky and rustic.

The Stag and Huntsman –
Rib eye

The Stag and Huntsman – Sides

The bread was the common wholemeal variety, so little disappointing considering the strength of the rest of the food. We thought a strong, good sourdough would have worked really well here.

A dessert of raspberry panna cotta (£8) was a joy to eat, with wonderfully prepared laywer of raspberry tea jelly, pistachio crumb and granite. Yum!

We stayed the night and our room was upstairs – a bridal suite with a spacious bathroom containing his and hers and an old-fashioned bathtub and quaint antique furniture. The room was impeccably clean and smelt wonderfully fresh. The heating was so powerful, you would not need to wear pyjamas to walk around in the middle of winter. It didn’t contain the softest of bedding, but the room still offered a charming overnight experience.

The Stag and Huntsmans The bathroom

In the morning, we spent over an hour savouring our full English breakfast. We requested a change from the usual boring baked beans with avocado, and the standard fried or scrambled eggs with eggs benedict. And the staff duly obliged! The homemade hollandaise was a delight and truly delicious. Overall the breakfast was wonderful. What a treat!

The Stag and Huntsman – A modified English breakfast

We had arrived on a Saturday late afternoon so there hadn’t been enough light for us to peruse the outdoor garden.
In the morning our eyes were treated to the sight of a very pleasant garden at the back of the pub with English white cast-iron garden furniture. There was also a crab apple tree with bright scarlet fruit ringed by yellow leaves serving as a backdrop in the high blue sky. This garden would no doubt make for a wonderful spot for afternoon beers in the middle of the summer.

The service The Stag and Huntsman was excellent: genuinely friendly, tactfully watchful, yet not obtrusive at all. The staff genuinely looked as if they loved what they were doing and as a result they offered up the perfect balance between efficiency, watchfulness, friendliness and reserve.

We really had a nice stay at The Stag and Huntsman. The overall experience of dinner, bed and breakfast was truly enjoyable and charming.

Note: Co-written with Artour (Instagram: @Niftynoshing)

Likes:

1) The entire venue was a delight.
2) The food was delicious and well executed
3) Hambleden itself is worth a visit.

Dislikes:
1) The fish dish was the weakest link.

Food rating: 3.75/5
Service rating: 4/5

Price: About £30 to £40 a head for food, excludes drinks and service. For room rates, check with the venue directly.

Website: http://www.thestagandhuntsman.co.uk/