Afternoon Tea in London

Luxos suggestions for everyone’s favourite afternoon indulgence. 
by Adriana Monteverde & Victoria Gill

While enjoying a stroll through the streets of London, one's thoughts inevitably turn to a quintessentially English tradition dating back to the 1600s, namely afternoon tea. Today, London's top tea rooms provide a fine variety of venues at which to sample this small pleasure in luxury living. Enjoy a fashion tea time, award-winning standard,  a business affair and more. Find out where here...

Where to find the best chocolate

LUXOS finds you the absolute best, the top of the top when it comes chocolate

Chocolate, photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian

Few scents in life are as recognizable as the fragrance of chocolate, and very few have the effect that is has. Just a whiff of chocolate from a bakery, and you know what it is and you want it. Its versatility is incredible: rich chocolate pralines or Ferran Adrià’s delicate frozen chocolate wind, as long as there’s chocolate, we want it! LUXOS tells you where some of the best chocolate in the world comes from, where you can buy it and much more...

Milan's best chocolate

Paris' best chocolate

Find Alba White Truffles in Hong Kong

The season has arrived for the highly sought-after and highly delicious Alba white truffle from Italy and two of Hong Kong's most distinguished chefs have got just the dishes to satisfy your taste buds until the next season!

The Alba White Truffle

From now until the end of November, Chef Richard Sawyer of European restaurant Hugo's at the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, has introduced a range of must-try dishes such as the classic option of White onion risotto with white truffle, grana padano and olive oil. Diners can also try Fresh home-made tagliatelle with white truffle and sauteed cepes, scrambled duck eggs with white truffle and sourdough toast or you will even have the option to add white truffle to complement any desired dish off their regular menu.


Meanwhile, the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong has called in the big guns in the form of original chef and creator of two Michelin-starred French restaurant, Pierre. Chef Pierre Gagnaire presents a 5-course white truffle tasting menu between November 16th - 19th, however dishes can also be ordered separately and will be available until the end of the season. White truffle will feature throughout the following dishes; for the first course choose between Raviolis of Agria potatoes with button mushrooms and Scallops salpicon and chicken broth with Marsala, for second, a choice of Vialone risotto, veil of white balsamic vinegar and crumbed garlic cloves or Thin slices of grilled veal brushed over with white truffle paste, third options  include Traditional veal blanquette and Braised baby onions, for your main, you will be served Lamb with lettuce, arugula, parmesan cheese and creamy olive oil sauce and a choice of Meringua Tarta and Orange declination for dessert.


Sample the Chinese specialty Dim Sum in Hong Kong 
Hong Kong city guide
Read about black truffles

Wine & Dine in Paris

LUXOS recommends the best places to wine and dine in the most romantic city in the world for the fall winter season...

Café de la Paix

Let's begin with pre-dinner drinks, an absolute classic on the Parisian scene for over 140 years is Café de la Paix, opposite the Opéra Garnier. You could also go in the afternoon to sample their exquisite (both in taste and appearance) desserts. If you consider yourself a wine connoisseur, you can taste with three different size glasses at Wine by One, which combines a wine bar and wine store under one roof with options from all over the world. For dinner, we suggest a classic and understated option with Le Reminet or visit the 13th best restaurant in the world, L'Astrance. Another one of our favourites, is the unique cuisine of Kei Restaurant, very hot in Paris right now! After dinner you should make your way to Le Carmen cocktail bar or nightclub L'Arc.

Sweet stopovers in Paris
The best eats of the culinary capital
Hotels in Paris
Paris City Guide

Wine & Dine in Paris

LUXOS recommends the best places to wine and dine in the most romantic city in the world for the fall winter season...

Café de la Paix

Let's begin with pre-dinner drinks, an absolute classic on the Parisian scene for over 140 years is Café de la Paix, opposite the Opéra Garnier. You could also go in the afternoon to sample their exquisite (both in taste and appearance) desserts. If you consider yourself a wine connoisseur, you can taste with three different size glasses at Wine by One, which combines a wine bar and wine store under one roof with options from all over the world. For dinner, we suggest a classic and understated option with Le Reminet or visit the 13th best restaurant in the world, L'Astrance. Another one of our favourites, is the unique cuisine of Kei Restaurant, very hot in Paris right now! After dinner you should make your way to Le Carmen cocktail bar or nightclub L'Arc.

Sweet stopovers in Paris
The best eats of the culinary capital
Paris City Guide

The best eats in Rome!

A city with an irresistible blend of contemporary culture, three millennia of history and an extraordinary heritage of art, who has time to research for the best places to eat?! Now you can relax as LUXOS has taken care of that for you. Take a few minutes out to browse through our top dining recommendations in our City Guide or see below for an overview. And remember, when in Rome, do as the Romans....

Restaurant Roscioli

Let's start with breakfast where you will find the best coffee at Sant' Estachio. Some lunch options include the casual, deli-style Ristorante Roscioli, trendy trattoria Primo, another trattoria with cuisine hailing from Le Marche region Trattoria Monti and finally for a truly authentic pizza, Pizzeria da Remo. In between lunch and dinner, duck into Gelato di San Crispino for delicious home-style ice-cream or Moriondo & Gariglio Confetteria for the city's best sweets! For seafood you can't go past Tuna and for sushi, Somo. A more traditional mediterranean dinner spot can be found at Sensus Restaurant, Il Pagliacco and French/Swiss restaurant, Charly's Sauciere. Finally, the best fine-dining venues in the city are La Pergola and L'altro Mastai.

Rome City Guide

Aperitivo in Milan

Known to insiders as the city of Aperitivo, just about every bar in Milan serves drinks at a set price (usually between €8 and €12) from 6p.m. which come with a free buffet. Aperitivo is a huge part of Milanese culture and believe it or not, most people only consider it the prelude to their dinner despite plates being piled high! Try the bars along Navigli or around Corso Como.

Navigli

LUXOS can personally recommend more than a few bars for an aperitivo with the best spread and atmosphere including Fioraio Bianchi, Lotvs, Slice in Navigli (Via Ascanio Sforza 9, Milano), Straf, Le Biciclette, Roialto, Princi and many more...


Find out more about eating out in Milan...
Milan City Guide

Collecting rare premium wines

How prestige wines are consumed, collected and auctioned in Hong Kong and China. 
by Florence Suen www.luxos.com

Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1986

Imagine having a glass of very rare red wine and truly savouring it. It’s a gesture that goes beyond just drinking wine; it’s a gesture that shows one’s appreciation for the finer things in life, and collecting wine is one of these things. 

Find out more about the art of wine collecting....
The top 10 tips to wine collecting...

Bars in Hong Kong

Bars in Shanghai

Bars in Beijing

Bars in Macau

Award winning Champagne lounge Flûte to open in London

With two locations in Manhattan, one in Paris and now at  4 Great Portland Street, London W1W 8PA, Flûte Bar & Lounge will bring their trademark service and incredible list of Champagne and sparking wines to Londoners just in time for autumn (when we all need a little help to warm up!)

Flûte Bar

To complete the New York nightlife atmosphere, a mix of live jazz and NY DJs, cocktails, a creative menu of light bites and regular champagne tastings.

For more information click here

Find other recommended bars in London here

All about London

Top 4 restaurants for Hairy Crab in Hong Kong

We know we already told you all about Hairy Crab season in China. Incase you need to be briefed, The culinary highlight for the autumn season throughout Hong Kong is undoubtedly the hairy crab (also known as the mitten crab). Available for only a limited time (mid-October - end of November), it's worth seeking out if you're in town as locals go crazy for the stuff! 

OUR TOP 4 PICKS (in no particular order)...

1. The Chef of T'ang Court at the Langham Hotel Hong Kong has prepared a whole set menu of Hairy Crab specialties for those who want their fix before the seasons over! 

2. As we mentioned in the first post, The Chinese Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong are serving up innovative menu options with Hairy Crab such as baked lobster tail with hairy crab roe.

3. Enjoy whole steamed Hairy Crabs as well as other diverse options at the restaurant One Harbour Road in the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

4. For the traditional tastes of the Hairy Crab season, head to Man Wah at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. We recommend the crab meat dumplings or go for the 6-course set lunch menu.

Discover other Chinese culinary delights here...
Find the best restaurants in Hong Kong here...

Best burgers in the world!

Oprah and her trusty sidekick Gayle went on a road trip to discover America's best burgers (I bet their arteries were thanking them for that!) Although we haven't gone to such extreme lengths, we're an international team here at LUXOS and we travel alot, so we've put our heads together to come up with a list of the BEST burgers in some of the major cities around the world...Enjoy!

New York

Corner Bistro - 331 West 4th Street, New York

London

Goodman - 26 Maddox Street, W1S 1QH or 11 Old Jewry, EC2R 8DU, London

Barcelona
Pim Pam Burger - c/ Sabateret 4, Barcelona

Milan
Mama Burger - Via Vittor Pisani, 14, Milan

Paris

Ferdi - 32 Rue du Mont-Thabor, First Arrondissement, Paris

H

ong Kong

Pro Burger - 83 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong

Dubai
Fat Burger - Jumeirah Beach Rd,
Umm Suqeim, Dubai

Sydney
Rockpool Bar & Grill - 66 Hunter Street, Sydney

Berlin
The Bird - Am Falkplatz 5, Berlin, 10437

For more suggestions on the best eats head to your city of choice in LUXOS city guide...

Spanish Wine - Bodegas Torre

Discover the different wine varieties and information of Spain's leading winemaker, Bodegas Torre.
By Eva S. Saravina www.luxos.com

Bodegas Torres, in Vilafranca del Penedes, Barcelona

Chardonnay, Cariñena, Garnacha, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Monastrell, Muscat Blanc, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Riesling, Tempranillo - all grapes grown in the Torres family vineyards used to make different types of wines. Each one is special. Grown with devotion and care, under excellent conditions. Processed by skilled hands, with a heritage of over 300 years of experience in producing the best wines of Spain.


Continue reading...

Sassicaia, Brunello, Teroldego and other fine Italian wine classics

A brief guide to the tantalizing marriage between culinary delights and the magical liquid.

by Sandro Bellei  luxos.com

Italian Wine (by fernando de la torre)

Amarone, Sassicaia, Bricco dell’Uccellone plus a hundred more excellent labels. Italian wine has certainly come a long way. Today, whoever looks at the great French reds and noble whites with a twinge of envy is guilty of the unforgivable sin of provincialism. Think only of the fact that the world’s best-selling Italian reds are the three Modena Lambruscos (the pinnacle of which is Sorbara). Since the dawning of the art of fine wine, Italian grapes have been appreciated for their unparalleled quality, immediately carving a niche on the wine lists of the top restaurants and the trendiest wine bars.

Continue reading... 

Find the best bars of Milan...

Find the best bars of Rome..

Find the best bars of Venice...

Find the best bars of Florence...

Gourmet Kebabs in Istanbul

A crash course in kebabs and the best places to try them in Istanbul
by Hande Oynar www.luxos.com

Gourmet Kebabs

How well do you know your kebabs? 
On a typical menu at a kebab restaurant, you will see Urfa Kebab, Adana Kebab, kebabs with varieties of eggplants, pistachios, yogurt, tomatoes and so on. What you need to know is that kebab usually refers to the meat patty cooked with tomatoes, onions, peppers and fresh herbs. LUXOS recommends the very best places in Istanbul to eat kebab...


Continue reading..
Look up other recommended places to eat in Istanbul...
All you need to know about Istanbul here...

Heston Blumenthal's Dinner

Read about Heston Blumenthal's latest new venture, Dinner. 

By Victoria Gill luxos.com

'Meat Fruit' at Dinner

Many luxury experiences may be described as ‘an education,’ but at Dinner it is factually true. So meticulous is Heston Blumenthal’s reverence to historical British cooking that even pre-arrival – whether from the two-month waiting list, or the hushed clamour on approach – you know you are entering something great. A small mandarin presented on a wooden board is the circa 1500 ‘Meat Fruit’: toffee-like chicken liver parfait, frozen then lined with mandarin jelly before being vacuumed to dimple perfection to illusorily resemble the fruit.


Continue reading about Heston Blumenthal's latest new venture...
Head to LUXOS for other recommended restaurants in London...

Ladurée, haute couture in French pastry-making

Son of Ladurée founder, David Holder talks about the history of this remarkable success story.
by Natalia Grgona www.luxos.com

Ladurée Macaroons (image by joanneteh)

How does one define a “good” macaroon?
A good macaroon is a macaroon that you’d be willing to travel for, and that’s difficult to have just one because it’s so good! While with a bad macaroon just one is enough and you’re not willing to repeat the experience. The recipe for the Ladurée macaroon has never changed, it is identical and no one but the head chef knows the whole thing since there are numerous steps in making the Ladurée macaroon. Of course we have evolved the collection, bringing astonishing new flavours with striking colours, such as the liquorice macaroon which is jet black, which was at the time a revolution, the Lily of the Valley macaroon was unthinkable as well, but the recipe is always the same.


For the full interview continue reading...
For more suggestions on must-eats in Paris, click here...

Four Italian chefs suggest four desserts

La dolce vita: Traditional recipes with a healthy pinch of creativity.

Lamponi

Desserts rhyme with childhood, fairy stories and trigger a memory game in which Pandoro, a buttery sponge cake, zuccotto, a chilled sponge dessert filled with chocolate, cream and candied fruit, and cannoli, cream-filled puff pastries, are infused with the loving care of legendary grandmothers. And so to the desserts that the best Italian chefs serve to the art of hospitality. All-Italian in deference to tradition or deliciously revisited with a modern imaginative twist and an eclectic flavour.


Continue reading for the history and recipes of four delicious desserts...

Two new bars from the masters of El Bulli...

Tickets Bar

Almost everyone, the world over will have heard of El Bulli. Simply put, it was one of the world’s

most acclaimed and influential restaurant (most would say THE best) of our time. Yes, that’s

right, I said was, just in case you hadn’t heard, El Bulli served their last supper on July 30 of this

year. But from change comes re-birth and the dynamic duo of brothers, Albert and Ferran Adrià

have done it yet again with two exciting new venues, Tickets Bar and 41°.


Find out about these new bars as well as other hot spots in Barcelona

The English pub culture

Ye Olde Mitre Tavern

For centuries, pubs have been at the heart of traditional English culture. Not just a place to drink, they are a cosy and familiar environment where people from every end of the spectrum can meet, relax and enjoy a beer, a traditional Pimms, eggnog or hearty English pub-style food amongst many other things. Often you will find a lot of people in the pub on their work break (I sometimes wonder if they ever make it back to the office???) In the warmer months, seek out those pubs with outdoor seating for a great summer experience and in winter go for the ones with Sunday Roast deals (which they advertise out the front!)

Read on to discover our top 4 pub recommendations in London...

Turkish Delight: the finest in Istanbul

Luxos looks into the story of Turkish delight through the lens of a wonderful specialty store, Lokum.
By Hande Oynar www.luxos.com

Turkish Delight

Turkish delight, Lokum for those in the know, is a sweet and soft confection traditionally offered during religious holidays, weddings and special days to guests with a special attentiveness as a sign of love and respect. It is a conversation enhancer that adds flavour to special occasions and compliments friendship especially when it is served with hot and strong Turkish coffee. Rose, mint, orange, cinnamon and vanilla are the most popular lokum flavors as well as nutty ones with double-roasted pistachio, nuts and almonds. They are a delight to the eye and the palate. So what is the secret behind these delights and where can you find the best? Continue reading...

Top cuisine in Valencia, Spain

Enjoy a delectable journey to uncover Valencia’s culinary treasures
by Vanessa Viara www.luxos.com

Paella

Spanish cuisine is renowned for its exquisite flavours and unique combinations. Paella is by far the most widely known Spanish dish and it hails from none other than Valencia. Spain’s third largest city is overlooked by most tourists, however its cuisine alone will entice you to change your plans. Located on Spain’s east coast Valencia enjoys the best of both worlds, fresh seafood from the Mediterranean Sea, fresh produce and excellent game from the fertile lands that surround the Sierra Calderona. These can be appreciated through a tour of the city’s gastronomy with our recommended Valencian menu...continue reading