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Demon Duck Dubai: Ducking Hell – A Tale of Culinary Regret
Read full review: Demon Duck Dubai: Ducking Hell – A Tale of Culinary RegretI didn’t have the duck. Let me just get that out of the way before we go any further. I went to a restaurant called Demon Duck and I didn’t order the duck. What was I thinking? I love duck. I’ve always loved duck. Crispy duck pancakes, duck à l’orange, duck confit, duck fat potatoes,…
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The Clifton Sausage: A Banger of a Staple
Read full review: The Clifton Sausage: A Banger of a StapleThere are some places that aren’t so much part of the food scene as they are part of the actual scenery. Places so ingrained in the local fabric, you’re not sure whether they serve sausages or hold up the street itself. The Clifton Sausage is one of those places. A fixture. A stalwart. A culinary…
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The Riverstation, Bristol – As Close to an Institution as It Gets (and Yes, I Know There Are Loads of Institutions in Bristol)
Read full review: The Riverstation, Bristol – As Close to an Institution as It Gets (and Yes, I Know There Are Loads of Institutions in Bristol)There’s a thing that happens when you live in or around Bristol long enough. You start throwing around the word institution like it’s seasoning. The Lido this, The Ivy that. But when it comes to food – proper, grown-up food that doesn’t come with a side of TikTok – there is one place that quietly,…
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The Southgate Pub, The Gower – a Narcissist’s Nightmare
Read full review: The Southgate Pub, The Gower – a Narcissist’s NightmareLet’s start with the obvious: this is a slightly narcissistic review. A Southgate reviewing The Southgate? It’s like David Gower critiquing The Gower, or Brad Pitt doing a documentary on Big Pit. The whole thing already smacks of self-regard, so it’s a shame I have to report that the only thing this pub and I…
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The Windmill, Portishead – Pub Grub No More
Read full review: The Windmill, Portishead – Pub Grub No MoreThere are three things in this country rarer than a competent rail replacement bus: A week of sunshine. A pub with a view worth more than a glance. A pub lunch that doesn’t taste like it was scraped off the floor of a 2008 wedding buffet in Milton Keynes. Today, by some celestial clerical error,…
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The Wheatsheaf, Combe Hay — Sunday Roast in Heaven’s Back Garden
Read full review: The Wheatsheaf, Combe Hay — Sunday Roast in Heaven’s Back GardenThose of you who’ve been unwise enough to keep up with my recent reviews will know I’ve been on a bit of a German bender — bratwurst this, Bauhaus that, and enough Riesling to irrigate the Mosel. But today, back on dear old Blighty’s turf, I found myself luxuriating in something so English it could’ve…
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Gilden im Zims: Where Beer Flows, Pork Rules, and Calories Don’t Count
Read full review: Gilden im Zims: Where Beer Flows, Pork Rules, and Calories Don’t CountIt has, I realise, been something of a week of cliché for anyone who’s been masochistic enough to read my recent reviews. A dreary parade of the obvious, the tried and tested, the meat-and-potatoes (and sauerkraut) of travel food writing. And I’m not about to let you off the hook just yet, because this sorry…
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Lamb, Lager and the Modern Curry House: Urban Tandoor Does It Better
Read full review: Lamb, Lager and the Modern Curry House: Urban Tandoor Does It BetterI’ve never been a big fan of cliché. But, as fate would have it, on a sodden Friday night in Bristol, I found myself stumbling around the city centre with three other men of a certain vintage doing exactly that. Four middle-aged blokes looking for a curry house after one too many pints. It was…
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The Lobster Bar at The Coppa Club – A Style-Over-Substance Masterclass
Read full review: The Lobster Bar at The Coppa Club – A Style-Over-Substance MasterclassLet’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
Read full review: Angela’s, Margate – A Seaside Sermon in SimplicityIf 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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Fabulous food, stunning stays, honestly reviewed.
Paul Southgate is The Travel Critic—the kind of traveller who claims to love adventure, as long as it includes 24-hour room service and a spa.
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Paul Southgate: a patchwork of Hughs stitched together with fraying thread. The poor man’s Hugh Grant, all charm on a budget. The thinking woman’s Hugh Laurie, though thinking too hard might ruin the illusion. He’s got Hugh Jackman’s kindness, but not the abs, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s enthusiasm for food, minus the ability to turn nettles into Michelin-starred soup. A wannabe Hugh Hefner—pipe dreams in a velvet dressing gown—but in reality, closer to Hugh Bonneville, bumbling through life with a comforting sort of dignity. A man of many Hughs, and yet…none of them.
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