BenColvill.com

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.

JancisRobinson.com • 30th May 2026

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

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

Adventures in wine and cheese – Langres and fizz

Cooking with the seasons: oysters

Ben Colvill