Reviews

Enlightened by real luxury across the Atlantic

I love luxury, I love boutique. I make no apologies for it. I love chic hotels with rich sophisticated interiors, refined facilities, breathtaking views, elegant surroundings and dazzling service. I love sampling lavish award winning food, exploring new destinations, and enjoy stylish, comfortable, and sumptuous living.

Camden's best kept secret

Being a relative stranger to my own kitchen I set out to an appointment with the express purpose of finding a suitable brunch location between home and my destination, Hampstead. The nearest spot, that's worth visiting, to both is familiar old Camden so the hunt began there. It's one of those places you walk through, shop in, drink in and browse at without ever stopping for food - Camden is hardly known for cuisine and with good reason.

Noodle Fun In Pop-Up London

There is something innately cool about the concept of pop-up bars, restaurants and clubs. One minute they're there, the next minute they're gone. They feel like they've been thrown together with the type of effortless style that so many crave.

From one farm to another...

Set in a picturesque stately home, Champneys at Tring in Hertforshire, the UK's first health farm, as they were then called, opened over 80 years ago. After first visiting in the 80s, having tried other spa and health resorts since, my aunt, who had invited me, had always come back to Champneys and I was keen to find out why.

Review : Morgan M, Islington, London

When my better half suggested we go out for a meal on my birthday my immediate suggestion was "Morgan M". Having been utterly amazed by my last gastronomic experience there, this was an encounter I was itching to have again.

Review : Caffe Cucina, Euston Station, London

I was taken aback this morning by the team at Caffe Cucina at London's Euston Station.

Review: Riad Les Trois Mages - Marrakech, Morocco

'Boutique Hotel' is a term banded about by a staggering range of accommodation types from shabby beach huts to gorgeous design properties, and a true definition of Boutique Hotel is impossible to nail down. For me, it's all about the personal touch, considered and individual design, uniqueness and an outstanding service.

Alternative Top 5 London Boozers

Some of these gems would never make it onto a top 5 list without a little help from a friendly hospitality worker (me)

Fresh-fished-fish, oysters-on-tap, rock bottom rates... sound like Essex?

Known for its old ladies and 'ave-a-go youths, Essex isn't a place I identify as a place for culinary delights. But the bits and pieces I'd read on the food, particularly the fish, at Mersea Island (just off the coast of Essex) had got my taste buds tingling. So a short train journey from London and I was trundling across the only road connecting mainland Britain and the Island.

Thai-riffic, Thai-tanic, Thai me up, Thai me bloody kangaroo down sport - Battle of the Brands down under (guess which cuisine?).

It's a while since I've been in Sydney but after a recent return, thankfully not a lot has changed. The blue sky is still larger than life, the people, still as chilled as ever and the beaches still make me feel like there's no place like home.

Order & Chaos - Effective Design Opposites

How do you create inspired and unique environments on an island where almost all the architecture is absolutely identical? An island where there are only two colours in the palette, white and blue? A sea of whitewash in stark contrast against the backdrop of a brown, barren landscape so that buildings dazzle in the sun? (If visiting, don't forget your sunglasses and go easy on the hangovers!)

Paradise by Design

Like many of the planet's most beautiful locations, the Pacific coast of Mexico has suffered at the hands of the mega-resorts whose consideration of the local environment, history and culture is, at best, limited. Motivated purely by investment return, towering concrete blocks of replica rooms with neo-traditional, theme-park imitation architecture designed to pack in tasteless tourists by the thousands blot the landscape, ironically destroying the very environment that made the place attractive in the first instance. Paradise reduced to blandness.