All posts tagged: review

Dar les Cigognes, Marrakech

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After our short stay at Four Seasons, we ventured into the old town of Marrakech, the Medina. We were prepared for chaos in Marrakech after reading the guidebooks and listening to friend’s stories, but upon arrival in the Medina, we were subjected to true taste of what it is like to be a tourist in Marrakech. The taxi driver stopped and asked a local lad for directions to Dar les Cigognes, the riad that we were to stay in for two nights. The lad and driver exchanged a few words in Arabic before we were told that we were in capable hands and the lad would show us on our way. We paid the driver, pulled our suitcases out of the boot and followed the lad, down windy alleyways, past a flurry of oncoming mopeds, when we finally arrived at the riad. The boy rang the bell and asked for money for showing us the way. We politely declined and rushed through the door once open. Here we encountered our first problem; we were directed …

Eat the Olympics – Madsen, South Kensington

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Reviewed on 7th March for my other project Eat the Olympics. We seem to be heading to South Kensington a lot recently. Is this slowly becoming one of London’s hottest foodie destinations? Last night was the turn of traditional Scandinavian restaurant Madsen and we were visiting to tick the Swedish entry off our list. As we entered the narrow dining room, we were seated at our table by our very polite host for the evening next to a book case full of Scandinavian books, leaflets and magazines. After a quick browse, we were provided the menu and left to peruse for a few minutes. We all chose the gravlax to start, two of us opted for the Swedish “Tjälknöl” (£16.95) and one the slow roasted pork belly (£15.95) for main and we all had separate puddings – the Swedish Kladdkaka (£5.95), rhubarb trifle (£6.95) and Kransekage (£3.95). Shortly after we had ordered the room began to fill with the evenings diners. We overheard the Scandinavian waitress speaking in her native tongue to one of the …

Ottolenghi, Islington

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I have already done one post on Ottolenghi but I was very hungover that time and I figure I should just do it again. Ottolenghi is a vegetarian or cake lovers heaven. It is also one the best places to go for brunch and lunch in London – in my opinion anyway! The word vegetarian has been tarred with the wrong brush over the years. People expect vegetarians to live on a diet of Linda McCartney sausages, carrot sticks and celery. Ok, maybe that is a bit far but Yotam Ottolenghi has shown us over the last few years just how exciting the humble vegetable can be. If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting his restaurant in Islington (or the three take away cafes branches in Notting Hill, Belgravia or Kensington), you may have been lucky enough to see one of his two cookbooks. The first, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook was written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi and took influence from their home towns of West and East Jerusalem. But their culinary repertoire does …