Author: Paul Southgate
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The Lobster Bar at The Coppa Club – A Style-Over-Substance Masterclass
Let’s be clear: The Lobster Bar at The Coppa Club is absolutely, heartbreakingly gorgeous. It’s like someone dropped a Soho House brochure into a Chelsea Flower Show and said, “Go mad.” The Thames sparkles below, the gardens are coiffed to within an inch of their chlorophyll, and the interior looks like a Nancy Meyers fever…
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Angela’s, Margate – A Seaside Sermon in Simplicity
If there’s one thing worse than a big restaurant, it’s a big restaurant that thinks it’s small. You know the ones – open kitchen clatter, faux-distressed brick, a fig tree potted in a bin, and a menu longer than War and Peace rewritten by Jamie Oliver on coke. That’s not a dining room; it’s a…
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The Metropolitan, Whiteladies Road, Bristol: Brunch, Blessedly Reborn
Brunch was made for Bank Holidays. That delicious moment in life when you are actively encouraged to surrender to inertia. It’s a meal designed for people who have nowhere better to be, no deadlines, no emails pinging, no reason at all to look at the time. It’s a rare invitation to just sit down, shut…
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Bar 44: A Reminder That Dinner Isn’t Just Dinner
The thing we often forget, and I’m as guilty of this as anyone, is that going out for food isn’t about ‘the food.’ I mean, we all need to eat, but we can do that anywhere. The real joy lies in the ‘going out.’ It’s the atmosphere, the ambiance, the sense of occasion, and—yes—the service.…
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Fattso Burger – Don’t believe the hype
One of the more joyful quirks of the modern food scene is the democratisation of dining. These days, a tattooed bloke in a shipping container can slap a patty between two buns and win more awards than Raymond Blanc. Pizza slingers, burger flippers, taco hustlers – they’ve muscled their way into the culinary conversation, and…
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Bristol’s Food Scene Is Back – And 1 York Place Proves It
Bristol, it seems, is getting good for food again. I know, I know – the foodie influencers of the world will tell you it’s been great for the past 20 years, but let’s be honest, it dropped off around the same time as the pandemic, which is hardly surprising. Even before that, places were nice…
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Six By Nico: Bristol’s New Culinary Star Hits All the Right Notes
For the attention-span challenged: Just go. It’s brilliant. Now, for those capable of reading more than a tweet without swiping away: Six by Nico in Bristol has nailed the elusive restaurant trifecta (or, in this case, sextet)—ambiance, service, food, concept, atmosphere, and yes, that magical ingredient: the urge to come back. It’s a proper treasure…
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Nuevo Gerardo: The Lunch That Ruins All Others
There is nothing quite as opulent as a long lunch. Dinners are all well and good, but lunch—proper lunch—now that’s the real indulgence. The kind that stretches into the afternoon, where the wine keeps flowing, the conversation sparkles, and the food, ideally, makes you wonder why you’d ever eat anywhere else. Nuevo Gerardo is exactly…
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La Casa Del Abuelo: Prawns, Beers, and a Slice of Old Madrid
Madrid is a marvel. A proper capital city with all the grandeur and energy, but without the relentless tackiness that afflicts so many of its European counterparts. Sure, there are tourist traps, but even they seem to have retained some dignity, a bit of authenticity. And nowhere captures the soul of the city better than…
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Roisa Hostal Boutique: A Stay on the Set of a Horror Film (With Bonus Trip Hazards!)
Well, how I’m here to write this review is beyond me. I spent three nights in what can only be described as a crossover between a low-budget horror film and a construction project that’s seemingly given up the will to live. I’ve stayed in some questionable hotels in my time, but never on an actual…
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The Travel Critic 