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The Chap Dines - page 2

bob-bob-cite
The Chap Dines

Bob Bob Cité

The City of London doesn’t look much like the set of Blade Runner. It looks more like the set of a Charles Dickens adaptation that ran out of budget and left the builders behind. One of the few parts of the City that looks complete is the Leadenhall Building, around the corner from Leadenhall Market.… … Keep Reading

roast-borough-market
The Chap Dines

Roast at Borough Market

Borough Market came to everyone’s attention in the 1990s, when Jamie Oliver pointed out that British food is actually rather good, as long as you spend vast amounts of cash on each ingredient. The market continues to thrive, anachronistically at odds with the vast developments that have taken place around it in Southwark. The change… … Keep Reading

ivy-in-the-lanes
The Chap Dines

The Ivy In The Lanes

Keith Waterhouse once described Brighton as ‘a town that looks as if it’s helping the police with its enquiries.’ This barbed, if undeniably once accurate, comment seems somewhat outdated in 2019. Yes, there are still parts of Sodom-by-the-Sea, as it was once dubbed, that have the authentic seediness of the dive about them. However, there… … Keep Reading

cinnamon-kitchen
The Chap Dines

Cinnamon Kitchen

London’s Cinnamon Club is something of an institution, set in the former Westminster Library and teeming with politicians, journalists and ladies who lunch. Its sister establishment in Oxford, Cinnamon Kitchen, is situated in the rather less grand-sounding Westgate Shopping Centre. But this is Oxford, where everything is nice and shopping centres are nothing like other… … Keep Reading

Kaspars-savoy
The Chap Dines

Kaspars Seafood Bar and Grill

Where does one go for lunch to mark that fateful descent from one’s early fifties to one’s mid-fifties? Wouldn’t it be tragic to choose some achingly hip joint in Shoreditch, Portland or Berlin, where the menu, mostly consisting of kimchi, is printed in braille on a rusty vintage advertising sign? The venue for such an… … Keep Reading

boisdale-belgravia
The Chap Dines

Boisdale of Belgravia

You cannot miss Boisdale of Belgravia. The strawberry-red frontage stands out like a Highland hunting lodge amid the upmarket estate agents (a set at Albany for £4.3 million, anyone?) and the fly-by-night delicatessens that look like reckless gifts from hedge-fund managers to their trophy wives. En route to our lunch appointment we paused to pay… … Keep Reading

hawksmoor-borough
The Chap Dines

Hawksmoor Borough

By now, Hawksmoor Borough has delighted and beguiled a vast number of carnivorous types. Excitement can be seen writ large on the faces of each meat-eater at the magnificent treats that lie in store. ‘The finest meats, exceptional wines and cocktails and a wonderful setting – what could possibly be better?’ The answer, you will… … Keep Reading

cinnamon-club
The Chap Dines

The Cinnamon Club

The epistle that I received from this magazine’s editor was a tragic one. “I regret to inform you that I have been taken unwell, following an unfortunate trip to Cornwall. You shall have to do the next review as a solo endeavour.” This was enough to bring a tear to my eye, although my sorrow… … Keep Reading

san-carlo-regent-street-london
The Chap Dines

San Carlo St James’s

When one turns up for lunch at one of Piccadilly’s more salubrious establishments, one expects a certain level of decorum. Waiters with white shirts and whiter smiles; napkins that have the freshly pressed gleam of the dry cleaner about them; and, of course, the readily offered cocktail, in this case a sublime Bellini. What one… … Keep Reading

galvin-at-the-athenaeum
The Chap Dines

Galvin at the Athenaeum

The Galvin brothers, Chris and Jeff, have quietly taken over much of London’s dining scene over the decade, and yet they’re not household names. It’s doubtful now that they ever will be, and that probably suits them fine. With their growing portfolio of restaurants encompassing everything from Michelin-starred fine dining to upmarket pubs, it’s interesting… … Keep Reading

cancun-grill-doral
The Chap Dines

Cancun Grill Doral

Mexican cuisine in Britain has, for many years, experienced the unfortunate reduction to the role of fodder for hen parties and twentysomething birthday bashes. The restaurants themselves have been partly to blame, decorating them in too-bright colours and offering cheesy chaps in sombreros and fake moustaches as entertainment. The new wave of Mexican eateries in… … Keep Reading

grand-hotel-eastbourne
The Chap Dines

The Mirabelle

The Sussex seaside town of Eastbourne is an odd place for a gentleman, especially two chaps dressed as if auditioning for a regional theatre production of Death in Venice. My dining companion and I shuffle along the seafront, bright linen suits attracting the glare of the sun; the confused glances of the mostly octogenarian citizens… … Keep Reading

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