Wookey Hole Cheddar
The Lion and Pheasant

The Lion and Pheasant

49-50 Wyle Cop Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 1XJ, SY1 1XF, United Kingdom

Sushi • Pizza • Asiatic • European


"Beautifull hotel, I guess one can call it trendy , but I just don 't understand how they can justify the price £130/night and that most of the time will go to £160 as they run out of entry level ones. So I guess the answer is there because people pay for it! But let 's just make some relevant comparisons Birmingham Grand literally in the heart of the city, brand new, 5* hotel, with all recently decorated rooms to the highest standard is £135 15 for breakfast. Needless to say rooms are air conditioned, fully equipped and genuinelly very posh. Hotel has lifts, has porters and the service is top notch. The Lion is barelly 4* just for trendiness alone, but the actual quality of furnishing is closer to 3*, has no lift and you will be lugging your bags up and down mutiple flights of stairs (and I mean multiple like 8 going up and down) trought narrow corridors to mediocre room (nothing wrong with it just mediocre) which isn 't even air conditioned. Sorry, I just don 't get it. That said restaurant is good fully fine dining if you are into it. Althought in my oppinion it doesn 't fit into the rest of the hotel. So it is ~3.5* hotel which is very youghtfull and trendy and then you get 5* fine dining with very tiny portions for the dinner (which is not criticism of restaurant, it is very good on it 's own). In conclussion I just don 't get what niche this hotel is filling, who stays there and why. The price for the rooms should be £75 95 tops. Shreesbury is not exactly prime tourists destination either (at least shouldn 't). But it seems it is working out for them, I just would not recommend it, I would not stay in it again and it is definatelly not worth the price. Neither in isolation, nor in comparison."

The Imperial

The Imperial

577 King's Road, London, SW62EH, SW6 2EH, United Kingdom

Pubs • Steak • Salad • Coffee


"the inhabitants of chelsea and fulham can appreciate themselves fortunate, not only for the obvious reasons (it is one of the most prosperous against in london, but also because the imperial recently opened at the western end of the king’s road! Previously a pub, known as the imperial arms, is now a modern restaurant in a stunning Victorian building that was completely renovated by the owners alan turtill and kate macwhirter. I was kindly invited to check the special brunch menu of the restaurant so I was there a few weeks ago with my man. we took the overground of clapham junction for just one stop to the imperial wharf and went to the restaurant less than ten minutes. we were greeted by the beautiful front of the house staff who took away our moms and accompanied us to a table on the back of the restaurant. the room swarmed in the sunlight that came through from the window wall, while before us the open kitchen with the chefs was at work. the imperial is beautiful with a lot of love for detail furnished: the table top with colorful small pots salt and pfeffer; the copper lamps above the kitchen bar; the color scheme with small yellow and blue details repeated here and there; and my favorites aesop hand wash in the toilets! we decided to order two glasses of prosecco to celebrate the discovery of this beautiful place and awake our appetite! the new brunch menu of the chef cook tom hope contains the benefits of coriander chilli corn fritters with fender and bacon; crushed avocado lemon, tomato grilled halloumi on sourdough and egg white omelette, spring onion herbs but we decided to taste two classics: the full english breakfast and the eggs benedict. I loved how the dishes were presented and the beautiful colors of eating against the blue tellers. my full english with rührei, speck, sausage, mushroom, black pudding, tomaten and roasted brot was delicious! each element was tasty without exaggerating the other. we treated ourselves dessert, but only one who shared us, as we were already full of breakfast. the brotpudding was delicious! it was the second time I had one in my whole life, so don't count me as expert, but it was really nice. one of the owners, kite, was in the restaurant to ensure that everything went smoothly and even the tables served. I had the chance to thank her for the invitation and tell her I had a great time. she was happy to know that I loved eating and invited us to stay for a Sunday! I could see that beautiful roasts come from the kitchen and it was really hard to resist the temptation. but there will be another time, sure!"

Renoufs Cheese and Wine Restaurant

Renoufs Cheese and Wine Restaurant

48a Poole Road Bournemouth, Dorset BH4 9DZ, United Kingdom

Wine • Beer • Tapas • Gourmet


"We had called-here for drinks during a previous visit to Bournemouth. We were impressed with the wine we drank, and the food that we saw served to other customers. So, today was the realisation of a promise that we made-to-ourselves to revisit and, this time, dine! We were a few-minutes early for our 19:30 reservation having allowed too-much time for our half-a-mile walk from our hotel. The restaurant was not busy, and there were scant customers during our 2½ hour stay. There was only one, very pleasant, member of staff in the bar/dining area. We had assumed he was the Manager, and he did everything: menus, drinks, food orders, food service, and payment. He did this pleasantly with good humour, plus impressive efficiency and knowledge. The food here is principally ‘Sharing Boards’ but also available were smaller (snack) servings of Artisan Cheese and Charcuterie and other “Nibbles”. We chose an ‘Ultimate Board’ (intended for two people sharing and costing £36.95 in total). Within this price you select four types of charcuterie plus four types of cheese to complete the board. Drinks: we started with a 175ml glass of “Martin Codax Albariño” for each of us. The extensive and impressive wine list offers a good selection available by the 175 or 250ml glass: 6 white wines, 3 rosé wines, 9 red wines, 3 sparkling wines and 9 aperitif/digestif wines. The Albariño was very much enjoyed, whist we decided which bottle of wine we would have with our meal. After much thought we chose a bottle of Bin 31 ‘Laibach (Sur Lie) Stellenbosch’; a white wine from what is a great wine-producing region in South Africa. This was superbly delicate and gently flavoured; with the very slight effervescence from the ‘Sur Lie’ fermentation method (fermentation on the lees). We know this method well from Sur Lie Muscadet wines, from the Sèvre-et-Maine region in France. With our wine chosen, we concentrated on the charcuterie and fromage that we would like with our ‘Ultimate Board’. There was much debate between us, but eventually: Our choices of charcuterie were: Salami Milano: with a perfumed scent that was such a delight. Pâté: quite fine but rich and flavoursome. Venison Salami: surprising and just superb. Smoked Pancetta: we loved this delicately smoked pork belly which was served in the thinnest slices imaginable. The cheese was far more difficult to choose: A Cheddar was a no-brainer and it was good; however we have ‘Vintage’ Cheddar at home (aged for 36-60 months); so the Cheddar here was a bit tame for our tastes. Oak Smoked Lincolnshire Poacher: this was very disappointing as half of the piece was totally inedible rind, and the rest was almost impossible to cut with the cheese-knife provided. I brought this to the attention of the Manager this was exchanged with more of the Cheddar. Northern Blue: good and creamy and appreciably tangy. We had another cheese which was firm and good eating, but we cannot recall it’s name (that’s our fail then). To be honest, and sadly, we found the cheese to be not anywhere as good as the charcuterie, we like mostly hard, or at least firm cheese, with strong flavours. Brie, Camembert and other soft cheeses rarely feature at our home (the somewhat explains our choices). The board was loaded with extra ingredients: a good selection of salad and fruit: cream cheese stuffed cherry tomatoes, lovely crunchy astringent cornichon, fresh grapes and pitted olives. There was also a pot of hummus, onion relish, cheese crackers, and a basket of bread (the latter of which we ordered a second). The meal was still a very favourable experience; made better by the extra cornichon provided. Just because I said how much I loved the texture and flavour of these wonderful ‘little gherkins’. After our board we were quite replete and there was no-way we could have managed a dessert, but an extra glass of Viognier for my Partner, and a wonderful 10-year-old Tawny Port for myself, finished-off the meal splendidly."