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Henry's Pick of the Best RESTAURANT |
Restaurants
The AA: Restaurants
This is a pretty comprehensive database of UK restaurants, included on the AA site. Click on the "all restaurants" option under Food Quality to browse the entries. The reviews are factual and a rosette rating is your guide to quality. Also available is a search for the best seafood pubs in Britain.The Curry House
A great site for all things curried. Its own curry guide isn't that extensive (unless you're from Oxford/Reading, like the webmaster), but there are plenty of links to other curry guides throughout the UK. The site is better for its extensive recipe section, and the opportunity to buy those hard-to-come-by spices from Chilli Willie (ouch).
Curry Pages
Online directory of just about every curry house in Britain. Good, sensible search interface, user reviews, glossaries and links.
Lastminute.com
The London restaurant guide at lastminute.com is in its infancy, but it already provides a reasonable service for those who like their choices made for them. If it becomes more comprehensive, it could be hard to beat.
Restaurants.co.uk
This is a nationwide directory of restaurants that's a little short on content, but makes up for it with a range of local partners. Suffers a little from attempting to satisfy both customer and restaurateur alike, but a good utility nonetheless.
TimeOut: London: Eating & drinking
Time Out's online restaurant database is not huge and not particularly well presented - and the inclusion of pubs and bars doesn't improve coherence. However, given the difficulty of finding good reviews on the net, it's a useful resource for Londoners.
zagat.com
Zagat is mostly a US restaurant guide, but it also covers London extensively. Restaurants are rated by decor, service and food, and registration is free.
Food and drink
You'd think food and computers were a recipe for disaster - my last Apple Mac certainly never seemed the same after I spilt mayo on the space bar. But even non-foodies will find satisfaction in searching for recipes on the net and there are an awful lot of good sites. Just don't surf when you're hungry. Chocolate Lovers' Page
Represents the ultimate in chocoholism - a chocolate search engine featuring a database of 697 websites. Enough to satisfy Willy Wonka.
Covent Garden Soup Company
This lovely online ad for the company also serves up a few handy recipes, including its Thai spinach soup and pesto ciabatta croutons. Yumm. Worth bookmarking as recipes are updated fairly regularly.
Curry Pages
Online directory of just about every curry house in Britain. Good, sensible search interface, user reviews, glossaries and links.
Epicurious
A thoroughly filling food portal from Condé Nast. There's a lot of good stuff on restaurants and eating out generally, but this site is really targeted at the amateur gourmet as it is full of useful tips, conversion tables and recipes. A good reason to have a computer in the kitchen.
Fromages.com
A site dedicated to French cheese which is full of reviews, information and opportunities to buy. Great site, if a little proud of itself at times - just don't be put off by the pictures of cows and goats that adorn most pages.
Recipe Xchange
Part of ParenthoodWeb, this site contains thousands of recipes of all types and ethnic origin. You can also choose calorific content through searching by "tummy rating". Extensive links and the opportunity to purchase recipe books are also available.
Restaurants.co.uk
This is a nationwide directory of restaurants that's a little short on content but makes up for it with a range of local partners. Suffers a little from attempting to satisfy both customer and restaurateur alike, but a good utility nonetheless.
Simply Food
A wide-reaching food portal from the Carlton Food Network. Includes a notable organic food directory, pontifications from Anthony Worral Thompson and buckets of tips on healthy eating. Plus, it's not "simply food" at all - this site has pages and pages of very good information on wine too.
VegSource
Probably the largest vegetarian and vegan website in the world. Aimed mostly at the family, Vegsource gives advice on how to develop a healthy vegetarian diet, and houses individual websites from several American doctors. Very detailed, although occasionally more than a little po-faced.
Whisky World
A surprisingly classy site that allows you to search for your favourite whiskies, swap information with other drunks - sorry, connoisseurs - and buy online. Good for gifts.
Tea and coffee
CoffeeWorld
A comprehensive site where you can order from an impressive range of beans and blends, and find out how to make the perfect cup of expresso, Turkish or whatever you fancy. Coffee trivia and recipes are also available.Koffee Korner
This Hong Kong-based cybercafé is dedicated to elucidating the joys of caffeine consumption - and thus, refreshingly, doesn't attempt to extract your credit card details. Some useful features include the health information and news articles (don't let the poor English put you off). However, if you decide to visit the Koffee Tenderness page ("some moments of tenderness and deep thoughts"), get some strong black coffee down you first.
The Tea Council
A comprehensive, serious site which plugs the health benefits of tea and goes easy on the fun gimmicks. Links to the best tea sites, market statistics and a wholesaler's directory will be useful to caterers, but there is also consumer-oriented information such as perfect brewing tips for all the main blends.
Tea and Health
This Tea Council site is aimed principally at health professionals. It includes factsheets, press releases, links and a comprehensive library - for which you have to register first - of the latest research on the salutary potential of tea on cancer and heart disease.
A World Of Tea
A detailed, multilingual consumer site from one of the US's largest tea companies. Choose from a huge variety of teas, gifts and tea-related kitchenware in the online catalogue. You can also find out about its pivotal historical role as a key shaper of modern society.
Wine
madaboutwine.com
A shopping site that's gone to the trouble of allowing you to make an informed choice before you buy. Hence, the "World of Wine" section contains expert features and tips, including an excellent guide to wine-producing regions.Wine on the Web
A rare thing indeed: a slick wine site that isn't an online shop. Use the searchable database to find the wine you want, and read the impartial reviews before making a decision. Shame there's no link to each retailer, though.
The Wine Dictator
Starting with an undeniably excellent name, the Dictator gets better. Lots of straightforward guidance and reviews (including guidance on matters related somewhat obliquely to wine - how to order in a restaurant, for instance). Some reassuring webby ad hoc use of maps, images and links, readable editorial and a couple of wacky features - why not drink a virtual toast to a friend? Prices and cultural references are American, but it's a small price to pay.
Beer
Brannigan's Ultimate Pub Guide
This guide is not as comprehensive as its competitors, but easily outshines them with its interactive features. Use the map to search, or enter your own criteria. Country areas are better represented than towns. Many entries sport 3D status, which means you can have a look round the bar before you go. Also on offer is a UK breweries tour, and you can nominate your own local. One to watch as it can only get bigger.breWorld
This is a brewing industry site - but there's a lot of accessible material for punters, such as beer tastings and a festivals calendar. All you need to know to home-brew, and decent links to boot.
Campaign For Real Ale
The league against nasty chemically-produced lager provides all the information you'd expect here on its site. Discover the past and present Beers of the Year and where to drink them, read the CAMRA Beer Festival calendar and news updates, and discover how to join.
The Good Pub Guide
The best and clearest of the available online pub guides suffers from the same earnestness that afflicts its print cousins. But the variety of search options - are you interested in good ale, good food, do you need to stay over - make this a fine tool, if not particularly entertaining in itself.
Guinness
Cleverly conceived gimmicks make this an entertaining and inevitably popular site. Current advertising campaigns are further embellished - place your bets on the snail racecourse or download videos and screensavers. You can also attempt to brew the perfect pint in the virtual brewery, find out about new products and use the (somewhat cursory) UK pubfinder.
Spirits
Cocktail.com
Dedicated to the love of cocktails. You can find any recipe imaginable here or submit your own. Miss Cocktail is on hand to improve your mixing technique, and cigars, coffee, liquor and wine can be bought online. Happy slamming.Whisky Web
A Scottish-based, specialist site for the real connoisseur of Scotch whisky. Search for your perfect dram, learn more and find out how to taste like a pro. Even the very rarest bottllings are available to buy online, although the site is decidedly non-commercial in tone.
Whisky World
A surprisingly classy site that allows you to search for your favourite whiskies, swap information with other drunks - sorry, connoisseurs - and buy online. Good for gifts.
Nutrition
Fast Food Facts
Ever wanted to know the nutritional value of your burger? Now you can and - though the site is US-based and includes a lot of names you won't have heard of - it might be enough to wean you off the take-aways once and for all.mynutrition
The perfect site for health freaks - sorry, people concerned about maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Contains articles and dietary/lifestyle advice on conditions ranging from acne to breast cancer. A detailed online consultation is also available, after which a pricey programme of supplements is recommended.
Thinkfast
This Health Education Authority website offers tips to encourage healthier eating among the younger population. But the slightly patronising tone, lack of recipes or detailed information probably won't cause a revolution just yet.
Organic
Friends of the Earth: real food
The FoE's "real food" campaign is an ambitious and wide-ranging one, broadly opposing the use of pesticides, antibiotics and genetically modified ingredients in food production. But the site is clearly organised, and there's simple advice on how to support the campaign or buy organic.Soil Association
Not about getting muddy, but the website of the leading UK organic food and farming certification body. Here you can browse articles on all aspects of food safety, find out where to buy organic food and how to get certification, and get involved in campaigns. A useful site for food producers and consumers alike.
Vegetarian and vegan
The Vegan Society
Make an informed choice about going vegan with the help of the extensive health and nutrition factsheets contained on this site. Also of interest are articles relating to the treatment of farmed animals, recipes and information on vegan products. A comprehensive gateway to the vegan world.The Vegetarian Society
A great resource for well-presented vegetarian recipes and detailed articles on animal rights, environmental and food scare issues in the UK. Also provides clear and reassuring information on how to become - and stay - veggie.
VegSource
Probably the largest vegetarian and vegan website in the world. Aimed mostly at the family, Vegsource gives advice on how to develop a healthy vegetarian diet, and houses individual websites from several American doctors. Very detailed, although occasionally more than a little po-faced.
