Restaurant review: Sauterelle is elaborate, confident and fun October 6, 2015 Sauterelle Royal Exchange, EC3V 3LR FOOD ★★★★☆ VALUE ★★★☆☆ ATMOSPHERE ★★★☆☆ Cost for two with wine: £180 October is the month that most of us turn our central heating back on. I heard this on a news bulletin last week and thought: good on you for squeezing such a banal piece of information onto a national radio broadcast. [...]
Coffee psychology: how everything from the colour of the cup to the sounds of the café can affect how your coffee tastes October 6, 2015 Want a better tasting coffee? Just whip the lid off, stick your beak in and have a smell. Because whether you’re drinking in Costa Rica or in Costa Coffee, you’re tasting your coffee long before it ever touches your lips. Everything from smells, colours, shapes and sounds can affect how you perceive what’s sloshing around [...]
The social climber: Range Rover Evoque review October 5, 2015 Every so often, a car comes along that captures the zeitgeist – appealing to fashionistas and forward-thinking petrolheads alike. In 2011, that car was the Range Rover Evoque: a compact 4×4 with space-age styling and an interior designed by Posh Spice. A long waiting list followed its launch, and more than 450,000 have been sold [...]
No.1 Fitness London: How working with a personal trainer can transform your body in just 12 weeks October 5, 2015 “Transform your body in just 12 weeks” sounds like an impossible task, the kind of thing you read in the classified section of old newspapers. City gym No.1 Fitness is out to show that it really can be done. The gym, run by Ben Camara and Harry Thomas, is by-appointment-only and combines multiple weekly sessions [...]
The Walk movie review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt flies high in this vertigo-inducing IMAX 3D spectacle October 2, 2015 Cert PG | ★★★★☆ Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts on a wig and smiles enigmatically in this film about Phillipe Petit, the Frenchman who stunned onlookers and the world by walking a wire between New York’s Twin Towers in 1974. Director Robert Zemeckis tells the story of Petit’s training, and the plan that saw him and a [...]
The Birds theatre review: Avoid this play like you would avian flu October 1, 2015 The Birds Leicester Square Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ The first thought that goes through one's head before a stage version of The Birds is: I wonder how they're going to make the birds happen. Notoriously difficult to work with, birds – all beak and feathers and malevolent intent. Wicked little pseudo dinosaurs. But after sitting through this painfully [...]
Macbeth movie review: Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star in this emotionally stunted Shakespearean spectacle October 1, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Rumour has it that Michael Fassbender has been going around calling this film adaptation of Macbeth “the Scottish film”, after the actorly tradition. Presumably, something dreadful happens to you if you say Shakespeare’s title, like Malcolm Tucker shoves a thistle down your oesphagus. Whatever happens to you, it’s a ridiculous, thespy [...]
The Martian movie review: Matt Damon brings life to Mars in Ridley Scott’s new film October 1, 2015 Cert 12A | ★★★★☆ When returning from a manned mission to Mars, it’s important to check that you’ve got all of your Matt Damons with you. Look underneath your seat. Check any nearby craters for hidden Damons. Because like some sort of interplanetary Home Alone, The Martian proves that it’s all too easy to leave the [...]
Querciabella: The Super Tuscan wine that caused a diplomatic stir October 1, 2015 Querciabella has a special place in the hearts of wine lovers, yet its wines are a matter of vexation for French ambassadors and with good reason. The award-winning winery makes a range of seven distinct wines that reflect the rich diversity of Tuscan terroir, including its flagship red wine Camartina, which, as a Super Tuscan [...]
Working Lunch: One Sixty City September 30, 2015 Melissa York on the best places to eat during office hours in the City and Canary Wharf One Sixty City 9 Stoney lane, E1 WHAT? A slick American smokehouse for suits who love to eat meat. And we mean a lot of meat. Ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork and steak is the order [...]