Food and Drink

A lifelong vegetarian was given the shock of her life when she bit into a McDonald's veggie burger - and discovered it was CHICKEN. Rebecca Beasley, 31, says she was physically sick moments after she took a bite of what she thought was a vegetarian deluxe burger. Blundering staff at McDonald's had accidentally put a McChicken burger in the wrong box before handing it to the mum-of-two. The error happened as Rebecca and her partner Jamie Lineker tucked into a...

A new hand-crafted cider made wholly from fruit collected in London, will be launched on 24 July by The Orchard Project. The charity, which is the only national organisation dedicated solely to the creation, restoration and celebration of community orchards, has worked with local volunteers to produce a hand-made, limited edition craft cider and apple juice product, which will only be available in the capital.  The Orchard Project harvested two tonnes of dessert and culinary apples from community orchards, gardens and...

Of the few restaurants I actively choose to visit again and again, few are as charming as The Hinds Head in Bray. With less bells and whistles than The Fat Duck (or Dinner in Knightsbridge) but ritzier than The Crown, each within spitting distance of one another, The Hinds Head is the embodiment of the quintessentially British ‘gastro-pub’, before Gordon Ramsay helped to make the ‘gastro’ prefix seem as desirable as queuing around the block for dinner, in torrential rain....

British food isn’t boring, and these best British restaurants in London prove it. Over the past 60 years, British food has received a, somewhat unfairly, horrendous reputation. Yes, some of our most iconic “national dishes” are famously bland or borrowed from other cultures. But with such a vast melting pot of cultures on offer throughout London, British food (both classic and contemporary) is back on the menu. And with so many outstanding British restaurants operating across the city, it’s gradually...

By Chris Moss  With two major city-centre retail developments completed over the past few years to compliment its historic arcades and renowned Briggate shopping street Leeds is quickly becoming the shopping capital of the north. Following the opening of the "outside-in" Trinity shopping centre which boasts 120 shops, restaurants, bars and a cinema the newly-erected Victoria Gate was opened late last year which is Dubai-esque in stature. The glittering arcade draws on digital wizardry and the city’s rich textile past and brings...

Strength: 5.6% ABV Brewed: Woolwich, London Starting life within a humble unit at Woolwich’s Royal Arsenal in 2013, Hop Stuff Brewery has since become one of the fastest growing craft breweries in London. Now with a team of 22 brewers and over 600 investors, Hop Stuff produce over 400 kegs of beer each week, available from the brewery’s own Taproom, as well as a number of bars and bottle shops. Aiming to ‘provide the perfect access point for those looking to explore the craft beer world’,...

One thing you're always guaranteed of when buying a Brent Marris wine is a good story. A descendent from the noble De Marisco family, whose members variously fell in and out of "favour" with the English monarchy in the 12th and 13th centuries, he named his Sauvignon Blanc bottle "The King's Favour" because it was Marlborough's favourite grape and represents a time of the King's favour. Not unlike other bottles, such as the King’s Wrath Pinot Noir which was named after outlaw William de Marisco - the...

Of all the earth’s gifts, there are few foods that aren’t instantly enhanced by the addition of sesame. So it’s hardly surprising that the prawn toast at duck duck goose, with its thick layer of prawn mousse and vaster area to be coated with toasted sesame seeds, is so implausibly transcendent. A stone’s throw from Brixton’s mainline train station, duck, duck, goose is just one of the restaurants situated within Pop Brixton. Opened in 2015, Pop Brixton is a community...

With the success of Shrimoyee Chakraborty’s first restaurant, Calcutta Street, in Fitzrovia – a second branch launched in Brixton last month. With a completely different atmosphere to the original, the new south London space in heavily inspired by Calcutta’s Park Street, a lively neighbourhood not too dissimilar from Brixton. Serving a menu similar to the Fitzrovia site, the new space has a prominent focus on street food and home cooking-inspired dishes, plus smaller plates at a lower price point than...