Family run Brit-friendly Indian restaurant. I can highly recommend this small, but charming, restaurant. Situated on Rue Raymond Audour, only a stones' throw from the very centre of Old Angouleme, with the stunning square of Place de Minage just around the corner.
The Patron is warmly welcoming, without being obsequious, and is always pleased to meet travelling British customers looking for a taste of India! A word of friendly advice - be sure to ask for your plats extra spicy (the French palate is, unsurprisingly, less used to hot spices than us Brits, so make sure the waiter knows that you want it extra hot).
Rue Raymond Audour - 05 45 95 03 03
jardindekashmir.com
A restaurant of character and intrigue. Food like your Dutch granny made for you and served promptly and effectively. The liver and onions had just run out on the specials board as we arrived, so we settled for braised beef, giant meatball, saute pots, cauli and green beans (you select your veg from the specials board). Apple puree, rhubarb and rice pudding custard, rounded off the meal. All in the company of locals (mostly over 70). All great value for £22 with 2 bottles of beer and an apple sap. Only open of an evening though.
1e Helmerstratt, near Leidseplein and parallel to Overtoom. Tram stops on line 5 and 1 nearby
Lovely Singaporean restaurant next to a sex shop in the Paquis. Don't let it put you off, the food is superb and, for these parts, uncompromisingly spicy. A warm multilingual welcome awaits. It's not cheap but it's worth every franc.
14 rue de Neuchâtel
Phone: (022) 7313303
This restuarant is truely unusual in location, it's right in the middle of the north Langkawi mangroves. You can drive to the carpark then take a short walk along the wooden walkway to arrive at the front of the restuarant, or you can arrive by boat at the rear as part of the mangrove tour for a terrific lunch. The tour includes the price of lunch.
The food is excellent and as you would expect cooked to order, piping hot. They have milder western style dishes and the most superb Thai food, poultry, seafood and lots of locally grown veg.
The service is great and the staff take a great deal of trouble to make sure that everything is to your satisfaction.
Perfect for families, my children of 13 and 10 still talk about it and we will go back again on our next visit to Langkawi without doubt.
Don't miss out, it is just to unusual to miss.
Kampung Belanga Pecah,Mukim Kisap,Daerah Langkawi, tel: 604 966 6699
www.ytlhotels.com.my/properties/barn_thai/index.html
Want to drive to Padstow to sample the various Rick Stein fare on offer? Here's a tip. Don't. Get on your bike instead. Go to Wadebridge (a pleasant enough place in itself), park there and then cycle down the beautiful, flat, and car free Camel Valley Trail along the river. There are ample bike hire places right by the trail itself, all with baby trailers, child-seats, kids' bikes (we took a three-month-old and a very excited two-and-a-half year old) and decent grown up bikes. Even for the seriously unfit/uncoordinated, it takes all of 45 minutes to amble into 'Padstein'. Once there, you avoid the six mile traffic queue and can securely park your bike for 50p in the many 'bike parks' at the end of the trail. And now you've worked up an appetite, Padstow is your oyster...
Another tip, avoid the hordes and head for the back streets - the Rick Stein Cafe (his 'third' restaurant) has his trademark great food, is very child-friendly, and doesn't take bookings. On the day we were there (a gloriously sunny August day) we had to wait for 20 minutes, which was a shorter than the queue for his fish and chips takeaway!
Off-the-beaten-track but central (in Prenzlauer Berg)
little cute family-friendly cafe serving cornish pasties, PG tips tea, great ice cream and soups. With English-speaking owner.
zionskirchstr.75
senefelder platz U-Bahn
030 44038577
www.cafe-am-teutoburger-platz.com
Comillas in the region of Cantabria, northern Spain, is a gorgeous little cobble streeted seaside town, loads of lovely cheap family friendly places to eat, a fab fun family atmosphere in the square at night (sometimes there is even a free outdoor cinema) and the most perfect beach and sea.
The very basic campsite is within walking distance of both the town and the beach - so no worries about evening drinking. The huge beach is great for swimming, bodyboarding, rockpooling and sandcastle building. In Comillas, you can get up late, have late lunches and late dinners, just really chill out - and there's not too many British travellers! The climate is perfect for camping - you won't be boiled out of your tent in the morning!
Get the ferry to Bilbao or Santander and drive there - the ferry journey is great fun - kids love it and it's so relaxing! There is plenty to see and do in the area apart from just lazing on the beach. You can visit the fantastic nature park of Cabárceno, palaeolithic rock art caves, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the oceanographic museum and aquariums of Santander, Gaudi's only building outside of Barcelona or the perfectly preserved medieval village of Santillana del mar - there really is something to please everyone in this area of Spain.
Just don't everyone rush there and spoil it!
www.campingcomillas.com/
www.comillas.es/
english.turismodecantabria.com/default.asp
With your back to Osaka's Umeda station, walk at street level around the right hand side of the Hanshin department store. There you will find an off license that serves beer and great snacks at off sale prices. There's a standing bar with sports playing in the background - stand with the suited office set drinking in a unique (for Japan) western friendly style.
Umeda Station
The former German town of Swakopmund is bordered by the cold Atlantic Ocean on one side and the hot Namib Desert on the other. Its architecture is reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s, restaurants feature German meals and even the language is invariably German.
On the Atlantic coast of Namibia
Hotel Phillip Island is centrally located in Cowes on the esplanade with simply one of the best views from any eatery I have been in. The food is good with a quite extensive menu with plenty of seafood listed.
Quite a nice spot to while away the time with a drink, a meal and the view.
11-13 The Esplanade
Cowes 3922
Phone +61 3 5952 2100
www.hotelphillipisland.com/
It's a lovely bakery and cake shop situated up by the castle above the lake. The custard cream slice is to die for!
Near the Castle.
It's a new restaurant on the main road at Klong Prao beach, 20m on the left past Tropicana entrance. Pumpkin serve excellent traditional dishes and vegetarian. Run by Leng who also takes care of the Blue Lagoon Thai cooking classes.
Mexican food lovers, rejoice! This is a great place to grab some Mexican food, should you be around the Leblon area. They have an all-you-can-eat feast on weekends, and its pretty cheap too! When in Rio, pin this one down, it's worth the trip.
Rua Rainha Gulhermina, 48 Leblon
Amazing mix of colours, sights and sounds.
Best tip - buy a couple of kilos of crickets from the old lady sitting under the umbrella at the very far end of the market. Crickets? Yes, don't be squeamish! They are caught by children for Ugandan pennies, de-winged, and then kept alive in a huge covered barrel, which keeps them docile and sleepy.
Fry them quickly over a high heat - they taste exactly like prawns! My children couldn't stop eating them, and we had to fight them for a grown up share!
Grown up tip: fried crickets are delicious nibbled as you sip your Ugandan beer sitting in the sunshine, waiting your meal to arrive freshly cooked...yum.
Kampala Market, centre of Kampala, by the taxi rank.
This restaurant is about 45 minutes out of town, near Zaachila. It has excellent food and it's also great to go with kids. It's an open restaurant with hammocks around and lots of fun for kids and the food is great - try the mole with turkey or the pit barbacoa of goat or lamb in avocado leaves.
Also good antojitos (especially the tlayudas) and other Oaxacan specialties that you’d find in an outdoor restaurant. Unless you have a car, you’ll need to hire a taxi by the hour and have him wait.
This restaurante is about 45 minutes out of town, near Zaachila.
Just been to Leyburn today, to find someone's finally opened a decent bakery there - at last! It's a wonderful market town but has always been missing a bakery. Now someone's opened one - and an organic artisan one too. There seem to be dozens of them in Cumbria and in London, but never round the Yorkshire Dales. They do wonderful hand made breads, as well as cakes and pastries. Just wish they had a cafe, but the shop is tiny so all you can get is take-away coffees and sandwiches. Still, well worth a visit - I hope everyone supports it!
Westfields Farm Organic Bakery, Leyburn Business Park (near the Teapottery and Chocolate Shop), Leyburn. Website: www.westfieldsfarm.com.
Usually during Ramadan, there is a great scarcity of food in restaurants as all respect fasting norms during the day. Most restaurants are closed so the only place you'd find food is the hotel where you are based. This causes travel hardships as you cannot stop at different places to have lunch or afternoon meals while travelling.
It is the friendliest restaurant in Malta, the food and service is great.
It is on the seafront of Bugibba, you must visit the home-from-home cafe/restaurant.
Wicked stuff, this feijoada is! For those who are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, feijoada is known as the main dish in Rio de Janeiro, deservedly so.
In the Casa de Feijoada, it's an everyday ritual (unlike other restaurants around where they only serve it on Saturdays and Sundays). It's basically a bean soup with pieces of meat, such as sausage, sundried beef and pork, seasoned to taste. Somehow I thought a bit of Tabasco sauce would bring it all together, but alas, not necessary as the dish itself has some zest to it.
Don't pass up on the opportunity to try this spectacular food while in Rio, or you might regret it!
R. Prudente de Moraes, 10 - B / Ipanema
Tel: 55-21-2523-4994 / 2247-2776
Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
It is a huge mall just outside LA to the north. Where all the locals go shopping and all the usual suspects can be found there, as well as great eating options. It is the sort of place you imagine when you think of an American mall - much better than the (outside) Grove though, admittedly, a drive away.
On the way back to LA you can cut left and drive back down Mulholland Drive as well.