Clucking Oinks

(ad – pr visit) If you follow me on any social media channel you’ll almost certainly have noted my affection for Clucking Oinks. Way back in 2017 I ran a few street food events at The Fulford Arms, one of which featured fantastic fried chicken from the Clucking team and since then I’ve been lucky…

York Minster Refectory

(ad – pr) York has some pretty spectacular restaurants, with premises inhabiting noted buildings such as The Assembly Rooms and the former girls’ school on Low Petergate – now occupied La Vechhia Scuola – notably repurposing grand buildings for hospitality. This concept has been taken to an extreme now with the opening earlier this year…

Malmaison

(ad – pr) Since it opened I’ve made a number of trips to the Malmaison in the centre of York which is housed in a former insurance office that for so many years was a beacon of mundanity and grey. I can attest to that being the case on the basis of having worked there…

Batanga

I can’t remember the last time we had a good Mexican restaurant in York. I recall Fiesta Mexicana being decent, though tailing off in its latter Fiesta Latina incarnation in latter years. Mexicano can be found on Blake St but there’s not been any restaurant to speak of recently, until now. Batanga York appeared seemingly…

Tasca Frango

Isn’t it wonderful when you get to see nice people come up with a good concept and product that’s rewarded with success? Spark has been the platform for a number of businesses in York, food and otherwise, to move from its safe confines out to brick and mortar premises and the latest among this number…

A new start for Forage

(ad – pr visit) It’s fair to say that Forage York has had a bit of a bumpy ride recently. After working hard to establish a reputation for good food and show-stopping cocktails in their bar, restaurant and hidden speakeasy, the team were hit with a sudden closure that, quite understandably, gained traction in the…

Rio Brazilian Steakhouse

(ad – pr visit) A few years back you’d have to journey to Leeds for a Brazilian Rodizio style steakhouse but they’ve been slowly proliferating in York over the last few years with Casa at the bottom of Micklegate being joined by Estabulo over at Vangarde as well as Caramba, a short lived offering at…

The Whippet Inn Dry-Aged Steaks

As we become more keenly aware of the need to reduce our meat consumption and are hit more and more by rising costs, inflation and so on, the treat of a good steak has become more and more of an indulgence. This places even more pressure on a restuarant serving steaks to get it exactly…

Steak & Jazz at The Pearly Cow

(ad – pr visit) We don’t do badly for decent steak in York. There’re a good few places that I trust to do justice to a nice piece of beef such as The Whippet, Corner Grill House and The Chopping Block but now we have a new option in the form of The Pearly Cow…

Pastelle events

(ad – invite) These are straitened times if you’re into dining out. The cost of fine dining has, understandably, gone through the roof to the point that it’s surprisingly easy to drop well in excess of a couple of hundred pounds on a treat meal and the kind of place I aspire to eat the…