Alvin Leung is not a characterless chef. Not every chef is dressed in a black sleeveless t-shirt and has a huge tattoo meaning “demon chef” on his arm. After dinners, Alvin likes to socialize with his guests, with a thick cigar in his mouth. The chef of Bo Innovation is…

Konnichiwa! I have been eating a lot in rue Saint Anne and its surroundings lately. Lunches, dinners, but main lunches as my Japanese courses are not far away. In fact, the main reason why I started learning Japanese is the Japanese food and in the little Japan of Paris, you…

L’Auberge de L’ill was rewarded its 3rd Michelin star in 1967 and was able to keep them to this day. Like Paul Bocuse and Troisgros family, other two French gastronomy legends, Haeberlin family managed to maintain the high level of their Alsatian auberge for decades, although the style of cooking…

Despite the ancienty of the dining room -18th century ballroom with cold marble floors and walls, heavy curtains and crystal chandeliers, Jean – François Piège, the chef of Les Ambassadeurs, is the 21st-century man. Jean – François Piège’s menu that night didn’t contain any sashimis or other exotic dishes interpretations…

I was sceptical before my dinner in Amaya – almost sure that it’s just another fashionable Indian calling itself modern (I’ve been to so many of them), but all that is modern is the fancy interior and crazy martinis, or, worse, European cuisine mixed with Indian spices. In fact, it…

After a slight disappointment at Lampreia ( I do think the chef is very talented, but I was not lucky with my first dish. Cured tuna is really not for me.. While my friend’s beetroot soup and veal were delicious.) I went for “more casual” places in Seattle. One of…

I’ve read many positive things about New Tayyabs (Zagat 28/30!!) “authentic” Pakistani in Whitechapel, where you have to “queue to get a table”, the prices are “negligible” and the food is to “die for”, simply “the best South Eastern Asian in London”. We didn’t have to wait for a table,…

Mr Chow in London is not an ordinary restaurant. The cuisine is Mandarin, but the service reminds you of an old fashioned Italian restaurant somewhere in Manhattan (a long time ago). When you enter the place, you see a kitschy billboard “1968”, while the music played is somewhere between 1995…

What can be more fashionable than cakes created “in the style of the world’s finest designers”? This is what London Berkeley’s afternoon tea time “Prêt-à-portea” is about. “Balenciaga vanilla and blueberry chequered bavarois”, “Chanel stars and stripes strawberry and vanilla pannacotta” or “Lanvin purple macaroon with raspberry ganache”. I love…

I wish I went to Kyo Ya (94 East 7th str. tel. 212 982 4140) before diving into the mysterious kaiseki experience in Kikunoi, Kyoto last spring. Maybe I would have enjoyed Kikunoi more. Degustating kaiseki dinner without certain preparation and knowledge is the same as going to a 3…