International food

Carousel is such a great restaurant and considering it is so close to where I live, I am really surprised I had not been there before and would not have found out about it probably for a while had I not been invited here by friends for dinner. Carousel is a three floor space in Marylebone that invites guest chefs to cook for around 2 weeks. Each 2 weeks they have chefs from around the world bringing their own cooking style to Carousel. Because of this it is hard for me to give it a ranking, as the menu would change so frequently, but I love the concept and I loved the dinner I had at Carousel.

M’archers is a restaurant, deli and bakery on Strelnieku street in Riga, in the quiet centre of Riga. It is the second restaurant by the celebrity chef Martins Ritins, and in contrast to his flagship restaurant Vincents, which is located close to M’Archers, M’Archers is a more casual restaurant. When you first enter the restaurant you see a wide range of freshly baked bread and pastries, a little deli shop that has amazing cuts of beef (the sort of cuts I can see at my butcher in London and have not seen in Riga before, including Australian wagyu beef), expensive chocolate, olives, pasta, fresh vegetables (including beautiful coloured tomatoes) as well as salads and cakes. Martins Ritins has done an incredible job sourcing all these ingredients and producing all these cakes and breads and I have not seen it anywhere in Latvia before, and it looks like a deli you could find in Knightsbridge in London.

Blue Cabana is an outdoor and indoor restaurant in Abuja that besides a restaurant has a gym and a beautiful outside pool where you can swim and relax. It is one of the nice upscale places in Abuja and when you go indoors you feel like you could be in any other city, it feels western and modern. It was a very hot day (above 30 degrees) and we decided to sit indoors with AC, although in the evening it is cool enough to sit outdoors by the pool and smoke shisha if you wish to.

Fenix is one of the trendiest new restaurants in Istanbul and when it first opened in March it was seriously difficult to get a table there. It is located on that busy street (Nispetiye Caddesi) that houses many of the best restaurants in Istanbul, including my personal favourite – the Nusret steak house. The inside of Fenix is very stylish with a cool bar, something you would expect to see in NY, and trees inside, it has a cool vibe about it. There is also an outside dining area, heated up using the heat lamps and which is where we sat, and did not feel cold at all. It is a very pretty place.

Caravan is a restaurant, bar and coffee roaster located in Exmouth Market, Islington (and now they also have a branch in Kings Cross). I have been to Caravan once before for brunch and this is one of the best brunch places in London as their food is very creative, the restaurant is always full, creating a great atmosphere and they do great coffees. This time I came here for dinner with my friends and was surprised to see that their dinner food was equally good.