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.
Like Londoners say of buses, you wait for one and then two come along. By virtue of fortuitous coincidence, your reviewer visited a pair of Thai restaurants on consecutive Tuesday evenings. It was an obvious opportunity to compare and contrast. Think of the experience as a two Thai taste-off. Both had strengths and weaknesses, but there had to be a winner: Supawan beat Kolae.
Beware any review that uses expressions such as ‘hidden gem’, ‘redefining a genre’ or ‘homage to authenticity.’ But then consider that clichés do serve a useful purpose, to capture the essence of any venue in an easy to recall fashion. All the above would apply in large doses to Supawan, a serendipitous new find.
How do you make a restaurant both cool and of its place? One simple answer is to involve the Sethi brothers. Their JKS Group is behind many of London’s perennially on-trend restaurants. Despite their Indian roots, the team has done it again, taking the former venue of Xu and turning it Thai. Our recent visit to Speedboat was a marked success; a happening vibe with some superb food to boot.
When it comes to restaurants it seems as if the JKS Group, pioneers of Gymkhana, Hoppers, Bao and many more, has a Midas touch. Despite their venues representing cuisines from a range of different Asian countries, there is no let up in quality. Each combines great food and ambience; a winning combination for sure, if you can achieve it. Plaza represents their take on Thai. It is very good.
Tucked down a side street in Soho best known for its guitar shops, Smoking Goat is paving the way for a new era of Thai cuisine. This is about as far removed from curry in a coconut milk sauce or a plate of stir-fried rice noodles as you can imagine. Instead, Smoking Goat is all about a profound explosion of flavours, mostly based around smoke, spice and soy
