European food

La Kanna is a very pleasant café in Riga that not only serves good coffee and drinks but also reasonably priced European/ International type of food. I am usually in Riga on weekends and La Kanna attracted my attention as it serves a very good brunch on Saturdays and Sundays up until 15.00 (from 10am).  Finding a brunch place two years ago in Riga was very hard, but recently a lot of restaurants have started offering brunch, which is a very popular meal abroad and now also in Riga. We don’t even have a Latvian name for this and also call it brunch (the English word), which shows how recent this trend is and that we have borrowed this word.

One Canada Square is a new European/ International food restaurant in Canary Wharf Canada Square in the iconic Canary Wharf building with the flashing light at the top that you see flashing when you fly over London. It was set up by Tom and Ed Martin (ETM Group) who are also behind the very famous The Botanist restaurant on Sloane Square (as well as some other gastropubs around London like The Well, The Jugged Hare, The Cadogan Arms). One Canada Square has a 30-cover bar and 100-cover restaurant (as well as a mezzanine level where my friend Anda had her team drinks recently) and it is open from 7am for breakfast and also serves lunch, dinner and post work cocktails. The interior sort of reminded me of Goodmans. There are leather chairs and that sort of a city vibe and there are beautiful paintings in sort of “autumn colours” on the walls. The interior was done by David Collins Studio which has designed the interior inspired by the 1920a.

W Café in the W hotel in Doha is a trendy little café where you can get breakfast (until 11.30), mid day snacks (from 11.30) and afternoon tea. W Café is located on the left hand side of the W hotel when you enter it (and the W hotel, one of the best hotels in Doha, is located in the financial district). W Cafe is a very casual place, with a tempting cake, macaroon, cupcakes and pastry counter and comfortable pink and yellow bright chairs where you can slouch and enjoy some drinks and light bites.

I really wanted to go to Grain Store restaurant as during a recent lunch I had sat next to a man who had been there and he said how amazing it was and how this restaurant focused on vegetables and meat and fish were a side to the meal, not the main portion of the mea. It sounded very interesting, and I also found out that the main chef was Bruno Loubet (who owns the restaurant together with the Zetter Group's Michael Benyan and Mark Sainsbury), and I had been to one of his other restaurants, Bistrot Bruno Loubet (owned by the same people), so I booked Grain Store for dinner for a Friday evening.

I was in Poland and wanted to go for a nice dinner. My wonderful Polish colleague Jarek suggested I go to Belvedere restaurant for dinner. At first I thought the name Belvedere was something to do with the vodka brand Belvedere, but oh no! I was so wrong! Belvedere is a presidential castle in Poland and the vodka and this restaurant (which is located next to it) are both named after it, as I was later told.