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Life on the Nile This is not a French restaurant | Review: Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, London The best books of 2021

The world of Wes

"Who needs Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovsky or Godard when there's a bright Texan rebel lurking around the arthouses?"

Life on the Nile

Life on the Nile

by Neil D.A. Stewart

"To the shy or less than gregarious among us, the cruise sounds like hell on water"
This is not a French restaurant | Review: Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, London

This is not a French restaurant | Review: Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, London

by David J Constable

"Sunbeams stream through and warm the soft pallet room, casting a spotlight over my guanciale, highlighting the adipose goodness"
The best books of 2021

The best books of 2021

by Neil D.A. Stewart

In a year defined by a sense of stultification, existential dread and a slender grip on sanity, there were some remarkable works of art
Wes (Not Was) | <em>The French Dispatch</em>

Wes (Not Was) | The French Dispatch

by Derek Guthrie

"Who needs Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovsky or Godard when there's a bright Texan rebel lurking around the arthouses?"

The Michelin stars are landing | Ossiano, Dubai

"High-rise dining and bottomless brunches come at a premium. Sandy salads, too"

Effervesce sense | Karen Krizanovich’s guide to midsummer sparkle

"I don’t want to read about a wine I can’t actually get"

Cooking the history books | El Llorenç Parc de la Mar, Palma

"This is a restaurant where tradition is (forgive me) baked in"

The worst waitress in London | Viva Dalston

"As we headed for the door she shouted '…AND DON’T EVER COME BACK… YOU RACISTS!'"

Somerset and match | Osip, Bruton

"There's no menu or catalogue of ingredients, and deliberately so. Merlin decided last year to forgo such a structure"

El Bulli’s eye | Fismuler, Madrid

"Three nationalities, all famished, feigning amiable smiles while waiting, praying, dying for food to arrive"

Simple pleasures | La Tasquita de Enfrente, Madrid

"A dumpy blonde in a leather jacket and jeans moved in from the downpour and took shelter beside me beneath the bar’s awning. She then proceeded to pull down her trousers and do, something"

Red carpets and undiscovered gems

"Where else can I savour the choices of often esoteric programmers whose idea of a great film is a far cry from mine?"

Effervesce Sense | Drink the farm dry

"For sure, no wine like this was ever served in the history of Illinois"

Stately home is where the heart is | Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire

"It’s not a knackering drive (you can take a helicopter), has many seductive historical details like fancy romantic-novel chandeliers, wooden balustrade gargoyles with boobs, aphrodisiac Valrhona Tulakalum dark chocolate fondant, what more could impress someone you like?"

Offaly good | Review: Osteria del Mirasole, Persiceto

"It was everything it should have been, flavoured with butter and the sex organs and protein-rich filtration system of a now pulverised poultry liver"

Le pop-up extraordinaire | Review: ADMO, Paris

"Golly. Chefs collaborating to celebrate European camaraderie. Trés Bon"

In like Flint | Review: The Flint House, Brighton

"I won’t bang on about anchovies now, it isn’t the place, but I’m a fanatic for them"

Normcore | Norman’s Cafe, London

"Yes, gimmee some of that carbohydrate overload, rivers of vegetable oil and gloopy cheesy-bean combos"

Effervesce sense | Karen Krizanovich on all things Bond and Bollinger

"This summer, I popped into The Bloomsbury Hotel’s Coral Room to witness people so happy to be out of lockdown that the scene was literally Bacchanalia"

Brace! Brace!

'The Green Star means, well, I don’t actually know. Who does? The whole eco-green thing is a mainstream perversion right now'

Great white ways | Karen Krizanovich reviews The Shark is Broken

"In the programme, there are many lovely photos but one especially captures that time - him peeking under the covering of one shark, his father at the its head"

Why we love Monsieur George

"She is one of the wildest, greatest eccentrics of the world of design"

Eat two Brutto

"Most new restaurants desperately fashion social media-friendly dishes but Brutto eschews such frippery"

The best of birthday feasts | The Fordwich Arms, Canterbury

"Mum sighs a defeatist sigh, the bread having caught up with her. Instead, she sneaks the choccy orb into her handbag for later"

Yes, this time we do expect you to die Mr Bond

"First the good news. It's good. The bad news? It's nearly two and a half hours long. Take sandwiches"

Maritime for dinner | The Pumproom at Copper Rivet Distillery, Chatham

"Back then, it was a riotous and unlawful place, a lethal cocktail of soldiers, sailors, whores and booze"

KO’d | Ikoyi, London

"How best to define this restaurant? Don’t bother"

Rasherman

"Pig is mythic, macho and very serious about what it wants to say. But what does it want to say?"

Gotta catch ‘em all | Review: The Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo

"'But can you find me a table at the Pokémon Café?' I blurt, staggering fresh from the red eye and up through the sleek black elevators into an atrium reception"

Effervesce sense | Karen Krizanovich on Exton Park Rosé and champagne for a good cause

"My hand went to the wrong neck. The foil off, it was like breaking into an ISA for shits and giggles"