Honest Bao

Ever read one of my reviews, then completely forgotten the name of the place the moment you're actually in town and hungry? Fifteen months, 95 reviews and 139 places later, scrolling back through the archive to find "that ramen place near New Street" isn't much fun for anyone. So I've put every restaurant, café, bakery and bubble tea spot I've reviewed onto one map: the Honest Bao Food Map . 🗺️ Same honest verdicts (still unpaid, still independent), just with a pin on them. It is a screen hot only, don't try to zoom on this static picture 🗺️ What's on the Map Everything I've reviewed since July 2025, from Birmingham's Chinese Quarter to a ski resort in Niigata. Birmingham: 48 places, from dim sum and beef noodles to two-star tasting menus Rest of the UK: London, the Lake District, the Cotswolds, Lichfield and one very good motorway services Europe: Porto, Barcelona, Madrid, Nice, Monaco, Strasbourg and Colmar Asia: Japan (Tokyo and be...

After a good meal at The Wilderness in the Jewellery Quarter, I'd had its little sister on my list for ages. Albatross Death Cult is chef Alex Claridge's stripped-back, seafood-led counter: 14 seats and ten courses, cooked right in front of you. The name comes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . In hindsight, that was my warning. Good starter with this industrial stainless steel table ✨ Decor & Ambience A last-minute weekday booking was easy. The restaurant is tucked inside a renovated canalside building deep among residential flats. It's raw and industrial, built around one huge stainless steel counter. The vibe is great. Decent oyster but I can't tell the jelly is the main or the oyster 👋 Service The staff are friendly and professional. They explained the sourcing: mostly Cornish seafood, plus some Japanese ingredients. Local, fresh, promising. Everything pointed to a good meal. But was it? Decent mackerel, but not the top quality you expect  🍽️ Food & ...

Fresh off a surprisingly good SushiDog run, I got bold about Japanese food in the UK again.  It was a quick dinner at Grand Central before a train. Pho was rammed (surprisingly), so I tried Tonkotsu instead. My logic: this Soho-born chain makes its noodles in-house on machines imported from Tokyo, and in Birmingham it started as a counter in Selfridges before moving to the station. Surely it's grown up since then? The quiet dining room should have been my first clue. A very very average shoyu ramen 🍽️ Food & Drinks I ordered the Tokyo and the Geki Kara. The Tokyo is a soy-based chicken broth, yet it was bland, with barely a whisper of shoyu. The noodles have improved and are much less alkaline than before. But the ends were clumped together and undercooked. Spreading your noodles evenly is a basic chef skill. The char siu was marinated but forgettable. The egg was cooked nicely but, again, short on flavour. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm not a fan of these "innovati...

Ten quid for a sushi roll in a shopping centre?  My eyebrows went up before my chopsticks did. SushiDog started in 2018 as a tiny kiosk in Westfield London. Its founders were fed up hunting for fresh sushi they could actually eat on the move. More than ten London sites later, they picked Birmingham's Bullring for their first branch outside the capital. I went in sceptical. Best case: Wasabi-level grab-and-go. Worst case: a Wagamama-style fusion mash-up so westernised it'd need a passport to get back to Japan. Spoiler: I've now been three times. Decent portion for £9 🍽️ Food & Drinks These are big, burrito-style rolls, and my go-to is the SushiDog Signature Salmon : salmon with Japanese mayo, soy, avocado, cucumber, edamame, crispy onions and sesame. The crispy onions do a lot of heavy lifting, and I'm not complaining. The real hero, though, is the rice. It's not dry and crumbly, and it's not soggy and sad. It's been just right every visit. That's h...

Some restaurants are famous for their food. Katz's is famous full stop.   🥪 The pastrami, the mountain of meat, the cutter slicing slice after slice until he finally decides you've had enough. But does it actually live up to a hundred-plus years of hype? A Little History 📜 Katz's has been on the Lower East Side since 1888, which makes it the oldest deli in New York. It's survived the neighbourhood changing around it several times over, outlasted virtually every rival, and became a film landmark along the way. Pastrami is the house religion: beef navel cured, smoked, steamed and hand-carved to order. Lost of sandwitch dishing out every hour ✨ Decor & Ambience   Properly old-school — and spotless, floors and tables both. It's loud, chaotic and unmistakably itself. The system is part of the fun: everyone queues for a cutter to order from. Not cheap for a sandwich but justified by the portion 🍽️ Food & Drinks   Generous portion that can be shared for 2 easi...

Finding great omakase in NYC isn't hard.  Finding great omakase that doesn't flatten your bank account is the real challenge. 🍣 With the city's huge East Asian population, quality sushi is everywhere — at every price. After a lot of research, I set myself a budget and landed on Noz 17 — a one-Michelin-star counter in Chelsea. Cosy side room in typical omakase style, the main room looks grander A Little Background 📜 Noz 17 is the Chelsea sibling of Sushi Noz , chef Nozomu Abe's revered Upper East Side counter. It opened in 2021, bringing the Noz approach downtown in miniature: a seven-seat main counter led by head chef Junichi Matsuzaki ("Chef Matsu"), plus a separate four-seat counter — billed as the smallest omakase counter in New York — run by a second chef. The format is Edomae-style, around 15 courses. A solid meal but lacing a wow factor/ very impressive dish ✨ Decor & Ambience   Intimate by design. Two small rooms means you're always close to ...