Food and Drink

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food As far as household designer brands are concerned, few pride themselves on being so quintessentially British as Burberry. At the culmination of the 21st century, it's no secret that the brand’s signature plaid did suffer from becoming a Prole Drift staple in accordance with the birth of Chav culture, and as a result tawdry imitations of scarves, baseball caps and all sorts of tasteless reproductions soon became available on just about every British market...

Photo: addiechinn.com By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Opened in April by Experimental Group, the team behind the likes of Experimental Cocktail Club and Compagnie des Vins, Joyeux Bordel is situated upon Shoreditch’s Curtain Road. Taking over the East London basement, Joyeux Bordel is essentially a cocktail bar, but there’s also a strong focus on music as well – featuring a vintage sound system with emphasis on vinyl and an eclectic music programme that embraces afro, soul, funk, and disco through...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food “Are you aware of our concept here?” our waitress asks as my heart begins to sink, during a mid-week lunch trip to Blanchette in Soho. “Our menu is mainly made up of French tapas dishes,” she explains. French tapas? Is there really such a thing? As far as restaurant concepts go, anything overly extravagant or contemporary is generally something that’s never appealed to this writer, having been paced through the rigmarole of many an...

    The pub scene is thriving in London right now, but with such a proliferation of new craft bars, gastro ventures and costly refurbishments, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Well, we’ve compiled a list of the top ten real ale pubs in London to help you navigate the mire. To be clear, we're not talking about brewery-owned gems or the many bars masquerading as real ale pubs. We're talking about independent tap rooms with a no-frills...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Famous for its bustling restaurant and street food scene, Shoreditch has been sadly devoid of wholesome, reasonably priced Spanish food – until now. Having opened earlier this year, the Shoreditch branch of Tapas Revolution is the third from chef Omar Allibhoy, and the first stand-alone spot, with restaurants already open in Westfield Shepherd’s Bush and Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent. Striving to continue the mission of bringing his own interpretation of tapas bars to...

A tofu recipe for vegetarians and meat-eaters, alike.

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food If the opening of higher-end restaurants from city lunch break outlets such as Pret A Manger and PAUL, over the past year or so, are anything to go by, it looks as though this increasingly popular step will become a huge food trend for 2016. In which case, it’s probably just a matter of time before EAT, itsu and Wasabi begin to introduce an a la carte menu, waiting staff and a dinner service....

By Chris Hemmings, (@hemmch) Whilst Mexican may not be top of everybody’s list of ‘eat out’ spots, Barrio Central has revamped, and is making a strong case for you custom. With the re-opening they’ve really mixed things up with their broad new range of simple, tasty dishes, ideal as a preamble to a night on the town. It’s an intimate venue, particularly upstairs, and certainly not too fancy. The decor is loud and adventurous, but there’s a decent array of cocktails...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Set up as the brainchild of Oslo-based food lovers David Carter Shinn and Christian Isaksen, Neeach is the first social network built exclusively for food lovers, having officially launched last month. Jumping on board as part of a growing trend that focuses on online communities, Neeach is an open network for like-minded UK food lovers to connect and share trends, ideas and opinions all in one place. What’s more, adhering to the open nature...