Whisper it rather than shout it, and certainly don’t tell everyone, but something very exciting is happening in the Gredos region of Spain. Drive two hours northwest from Madrid, where diners lack no shortage of plush restaurants, to encounter a truly different experience. Three days in the region left your reviewer and his group of five dining comrades swooning for both more of its food and wine.
From its name onwards, there is knowing coolness, a certain intentionality to what COR is seeking to achieve. It’s a place to watch in an upcoming district of Bristol. And if COR is seeking to ape what is arguably the best restaurant in England (Clare Smyth’s Core in plush Kensington, London), then why not? The team at Michelin have already awarded COR a Bib Gourmand; stars may beckon.
Just moments from Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, central train station and main shopping street, diners can imagine themselves transported to Spain. Parador 44 is a wonderfully conceived venture, set up by an enterprising couple of brothers. Visitors can sip sherry, eat top Basque-influenced nosh and then sleep upstairs in a handful of boutique hotel rooms. There is every reason to do all three.
It was not the most auspicious of starts. When my dining comrade and I descended on Bellazul it was pouring with rain. We arrived soaked. Welcome to England in April. It’s about as far from the Mediterranean as one could imagine. Open only for two months, Bellazul has the laudable intention of transporting diners to the sunnier climes of southern Europe. The venture is well-intentioned but does not totally succeed.
If New Quebec Street in Marylebone were my local high street, then I would be delighted. Luckily it is close to where your reviewer both lives and works. Zayna has been a long-standing favourite for curry. There’s also a great wine shop, a fishmonger and more. In addition, Boxcar is located on this street. Open since 2017, Gourmand Gunno corrected a long-standing anomaly by visiting it recently. Billed as a ‘neighbourhood restaurant’, it certainly constitutes a wonderful addition to the street, for both food and vibe.
This is not your typical restaurant. It’s been open for over 40 years and it still does not have a menu. You turn up (reservations are recommended), tell the chef what you don’t want to eat, and Hunan will do the rest. Such was the joy of eating here and the culinary artistry on display, it is little surprise that Hunan is still going strong.
As most readers will surely be aware, two of your reviewer’s passions are food and books. Where better then to combine them than at The Cinnamon Club? Although the venue is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary and its founder (Vivek Singh) has become almost a household name, the sense of awe when entering the Grade Two-listed old Westminster Library never wears off. Two floors of books cover half of the available wall space. It was a nice touch too to see the bill delivered in a copy of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit, perhaps appropriated from one of the shelves. In between, the food was also damn good.
For as long as I’ve lived in London, Victoria is a place from which to catch trains and little else. Most of the time, the area resembles (as it does today) a building site. In other words, not somewhere one would consider coming for lunch. Things are admittedly changing, and for the better, but it was not to one of the newer places in the district to which I recently ventured, but instead to A Wong, a superb find worth seeking out.
