Pangaea , 27-29 Poplar Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7AA. Tel: 0121 441 2222

This is a fantastic, bright and vibrant Indian restaurant. The food is very, very good. I believe the owner used to also run the Ambassador restaurant in Kings Heath which also had a great reputation. It is slightly hidden off the main road so you wont pass it unless you seek it out. It is worth seeking out.

Apart from the main dining area, there is a more private room that you can book for any special occassion.

We had poppadoms for starters. These were still warm when they arrive unlike some places where they can be cold or limp.

I had the onion bhaji this time round. Crisp and light. Not stodgy, floury or soaked in oil.

For my main I had a Sulaiman Range which has chicken, lamb and prawns in a medium dry sauce with peppers, green chilli and ginger. A good combination in my view. To go with this I had the Pangaea fried rice, which sultanas and cashew nuts. It all went very well together.

I had a taste of the garlic nan and peshwari nan that other people had and they tasted great. Overall, excellent food.

We had a bottle of the house red, which was nice and smooth. Easy to drink.

This place is well recommended.

Pangaea Website  

Le Pain Quotidien, Festival Hall, London SE1 8XX 

I used to travel a lot, regularly staying over 200 nights a year in hotels.  There are always lots of bars and restaurants to visit in the evenings but you always tend to do breakfast in the hotel, and I can tell you, they are all the same and rarely anything to write home about.  Still, had fun once in the kitchen teaching the chef how to make a poached egg.  They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day – so I’m not sure why there are not more places doing good food in interesting settings.

Bournemouth is definitely getting better in the variety of restaurants and eateries it has in the area. Although it has the usual range of Italian, Indian and Chinese restaurants the older established ones are having to compete very hard now, and rightly so. Some were getting pretty stale anyway.

I'll give some of my highlights below.

217 Jesmond Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Tel: 0191 281 7179.

This restaurant is preceded by a good reputation. A friend of mine, Duncan Fisher who owns the Apartment and Mr Lynch bars in Newcastle took me there last time I was up North. (Incidentally he has now added "As you like it " to the list, which is a new fangled gastropub bringing the country to the city. Ha!)