BenColvill.com

Barnaby's at the Vineyard, Padstow, Cornwall

There was never a lot of lawn to be had with your prawn in the urban sprawl of St Paul’s Rd, London N1. But the news that the Highbury outpost of POTL (Prawn on the Lawn) was closing this summer was hugely unwelcome, greensward or no. For over a decade, it had been a little oasis of briny small-plate, large-fish, natural-wine heaven in the land-locked drudgery of this area of (not-quite) Islington. One of the main draws was its fully fledged seafaring sister down in Padstow, Cornwall, the small...

Emilia, Ashburton, Devon

En famille is a phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of all sensible diners. You enter a restaurant expecting an intimate table for two or an exciting front-row stool at the pass only to find that you are seated next to some bloke in a vest intent on eating his minestrone without coming up for breath …

Raising the Barr in Copenhagen

Some years ago, bobbing about in a plunge pool in the mountains near Uzès, I got chatting to two delightful Danes. One, it transpired, was in the Danish navy and the other a chef at Noma in Copenhagen, then riding the crest of its number-one-resto-in-the-world wave ...

Tropea, Birmingham, UK

For those unsure (Mancunians, Liverpudlians mostly), Birmingham is the UK’s second city. And if you were brought up on MTV’s The Osbornes, yes, it’s that accent. Good independent restaurants abound and there’s the occasional place that punches well above local-hero weight, too. That’s where Tropea, just off Harbourne’s pleasant high street, comes in.

The Rocket Stores, Boscastle

The restaurant sits snuggly on the quayside, just along from the MWM, the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Boscastle is that kind of place. Appropriately, the village is only a 3.5-mile (5.6-km), Salt Path hike along the coast from Tintagel and exists in the same sort of mythical half-light of crystal gazing and Enya ballads ...

XO Kitchen, Norwich

Having garnered itself quite a reputation for clever pan-Asian reinterpretations, outgrowing its pub-kitchen roots into the bargain, XO Kitchen now sits proudly and independently among bits of the local art school, boho boozers and flint-knapped churches that crowd Norwich’s medieval centre.

The Bull, Charlbury, Oxfordshire

The Bull sits in the centre of things. A ‘pub with rooms’, it belongs to the small, exclusive Public House group of largely...

... welcoming shoulder-month fires played quietly in inglenooks, expensively washed plaster glowed in candle-lit corners and beautiful old floorboards provided charmingly on-the-wonk dining to a soundtrack of 1950s jazz and blues.

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wine food travel

Portfolio

Emilia, Ashburton, Devon

Five Little Pigs, Wallingford, Oxfordshire

Adventures in wine and cheese – cheddar, simply the best?

Raising the Barr in Copenhagen

Tropea, Birmingham, UK

Dylans at The Kings Arms

Adventures in wine and cheese – goat tales

The Rocket Stores, Boscastle

XO Kitchen, Norwich

A walk on the Wild side in Berkhamsted

7 must-try Ottolenghi rice recipes

The Bull, Charlbury, Oxfordshire

Franciacorta: Italy’s young pretender to the sparkling crown

Adventures in wine and cheese – the lands of ice and snø

More pie and wine

Etch – carving out a niche in Hove

Adventures in wine and cheese – the festive board

Cooking with the seasons: Seville oranges

The Smart Traveller's Wine Guides – book reviews

Syrah in focus, part 1: the French homelands

The Bull – a review

Wine beyond January: re-think, re-connect, re-set

Tasty one-dish sausage recipes for an easy dinner

Ben Colvill