Author: Sarah Kemp

Ben Spalding roast at John Salt

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Oh. Just as I thought I had found the best location for a Sunday Roast in London, all goes to pot. News broke a few days ago that Ben Spalding, Head Chef at John Salt, had departed from the restaurant. I visited a few weeks ago with friends and we all declared it the best roast we had ever had. I am sad as I was planning on going back in a few weeks but having read the reports, I can understand why Spalding departed. The group that runs John Salt wanted to take the menu in a direction that Spalding simply didn’t, prompting his departure. But it’s not all bad news as he is currently looking at other sites in London to open his first restaurant that will be owned and run by himself. I think it might be a little late to tell you about the roast that we ate that day. But you never know, he may well do something similar at his own restaurant when it opens so I’ll tell you …

Bone Daddies, Soho

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Soho is my favourite part of London for food. I still believe it to be the area that has the most interesting and innovative restaurants in London and almost always the area that most food trends in the capital originate. Enter Bone Daddies, one of Soho’s newest and trendiest restaurants. Along with Tonkotsu, Bone Daddies serves very fine and authentic bowls of ramen. It was freezing in London a couple of weeks ago so I decided to hot foot it over one lunch time and finally see what all the fuss is about. The décor I’m pretty sure doesn’t lend itself to a traditional ramen bar. I am not overly fond of high stools as I can never get totally comfortable. But then they probably don’t want you to get too comfortable so that they can give your seat to the next people in line. And believe me, there are people waiting in line. We glanced at the menu and although the snacks sounded delicious, with …

Inn the Park

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The joys of living in London. There is literally always somewhere new to visit. Despite living only a twenty minute walk from St James’s Park in my first year of university I never visited. And despite having worked no more than a ten minute walk from the park for over a year, I still never visited. Until last weekend. I have heard may good things about Inn the Park, which is a cafe / restaurant from Oliver Peyton of Peyton and Byrne fame. You might also know him off the tele – his face has graced our screens on Great British Menu for a while now. We visited last Saturday at 2.45pm, which was the last lunch sitting of the day. It was a beautiful crisp (very cold!) day in London and the warmth that greeted us as we walked through the door was very welcome indeed. We were seated and provided with the lunch menu. Almost immediately I knew what I wanted to order. Jack and I pretty much always share so that we …

Pampering at Nailberry, South Kensington

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I turned 26 last weekend and up until then I had never had a pedicure and only one manicure at a cheap salon in Brooklyn, NYC. Lauren, if you’re reading this, remember the nubs?! I had heard good things about Nailberry, a delightful little salon that sits on a cute row of shops in the heart of South Kensington, so decided to try it out. From blog I walked through the door and the view was almost comical – four ladies stood behind the reception counter all pointed their heads in my direction and said hello in unison. Within the time that the reply had left my mouth, I had been ushered to a shelf literally full to the brim with different colour nail polishes and asked which one I would like. I am really bad at making decisions so instead of agonising over all the different colours I picked the first one that my eyes were drawn to. One of the stylists noticed which one I was looking at and picked it up, declaring …

Gillray’s Steak House, Marriott Hotel

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I have just had an extremely busy weekend. It was my birthday on Sunday and to celebrate I took two days off work to pamper myself. Jack and I headed to the Southbank on Friday afternoon to try out Gillray’s, a steakhouse situated in the Marriott hotel just next to Westminster bridge. We were apprehensive about our lunch trip for a few reasons – firstly because the hotel is situated in one of the busiest tourist areas in London, secondly because we had never heard of the restaurant before and thirdly becuase we were unsure whether a Marriott hotel restaurant would be any good. We walked through the grand entrance of the hotel and were shown down the corridor to the restaurant. My mouth opened slightly in surprise as I walked through the door – a beautiful art deco style bar and yellow tall backed sofas stood in front of us. The restaurant, just to right hand side of the bar area, was just as beautiful with light wood paneling and pieces of art dotted …