Aroma home dining

Aroma home dining is another business hit by the need to adapt from its existing business model into something more appropriate to our newly socially distanced society. While day to day business activities such as private cheffing, event catering, bbqs, canapés and shooting parties are off the cards, there’s still plenty of appetite to enjoy…

Drink in the sun in York

With the pubs and restaurants due to start reopening this weekend, news has come of two new landmark locations in York where you’ll shortly be able to enjoy a drink in the sun. Sol Ast at The PrincipalThe team behind THOR’S tipi bar will once again open their doors on Friday 10th July when they return with their…

Forest at Galtres Lodge

How does one go about launching a new restaurant right now given that circumstances preclude you welcoming any customers into it? Imagine having done the work, refurb’ed the building, neatly segregated it from the related hotel, come up with a menu then finding that you can’t actually use any of it. Things may be starting…

A French feast from The Chopping Block

This lockdown may have left us prone to introspection and reflection but as tempting as it is, this is no time to be looking back, something that people are rather too keen to do when talking about Walmgate Ale House and The Chopping Block York, its resident restaurant. Its previous incarnation as Meltons Too, sister…

Sunday Lunch from Kennedy’s

One thing I didn’t expect to be doing too much of throughout lockdown was trying new places to eat, but the way this year has panned out has been far from expected to say the least. With the most restrictive part of the lockdown hopefully in the past, we can start to dare to make…

bokkusu from Skosh

Shortly before restaurants were told to shut, this household came to a, shortsighted in retrospect, decision to skip one last meal at Skosh as a last hurrah. The nature of producing this site makes repeat visits to places I love logistically tricky, but Skosh is certainly worthy of repeat custom, so as lockdown tightened its…

Ambiente at home

The trickle of restaurants retooling their offering for enjoyment at home is gathering momentum by the day, with more and more people finding ways to deliver a good representation of their business in the domestic setting. It’s heartening to see some of York’s most cherished establishments start to open their (figurative) doors to customers. The…

Hog and Apple Sunday Lunch

What’s the best environment for a Sunday roast? A pub gives you ample opportunity to relax into the Sunday papers with a decent pint while coming to terms with the number of calories consumed; a restaurant can feel a touch formal for what should be one of the week’s most relaxing feasts; and the home…

Source picnic

What better way to take advantage of an unseasonably warm May than with a picnic? Traditionally though, in my experience at least, picnics are little more than ways of infecting your sun-warmed food with grass and sun cream in an inconvenient location that lacks toilet facilities. In the absence of a hospitality industry to manufacture…

A taste of Thailand at home

When I started this site a good few years ago, I had little idea of the things it would lead me to end up doing. Between train journeys with celebrities, awards judging (and nominations come to think of it), organising events and eating out more than I could ever have hoped, it’s taken quite a…