If you’re looking for escapism in the hothouse of Brussels’
financial district, our pick of the restaurants in this neighbourhood is Cospaia. Interior
designer Marcel Wolterinck, who specialises in other-worldly designs, has punctuated
the chic, high-ceilinged rooms with ornamental tree trunks, while the private dining
room is lined with black velvet. Light lunch dishes and seafood dominate – ingredients
for this summer’s brand new menu include catfish, turbot and mackerel – but you
may still prefer a lingering evening meal to soak up the atmosphere.
Cospaia, Capitaine Crespel 1, Brussels, +32 (0)2 513 0303; www.cospaia.be
Fashionable taste
For a memorable evening in Moscow, head to Sem Pyatnits, or ‘Seven Fridays’. Located in a former fashion house, its name refers to the busiest day in the fashion industry – or possibly the hedonistic motto “live every day as if it’s a Friday”, depending on whom you ask. The restaurant’s unlikely props and furniture include a gramophone, double bed and piano, while a bold red and white colour scheme suggests the venue’s trend-setting days are far from over. Indulge in homemade kvas (alcohol fermented from bread) and traditional Russian comfort food. Sem Pyatnits, Vorontsovskaya Ulitsa 6, Taganskaya, +7 495 912 1218
Gorillas and greens
The Restaurant is the unfussy name of the dining entity at Jersey’s five star Longueville Manor, a country house hotel with personal touches and a family friendly vibe. With three prestigious rosettes from the AA Restaurant Guide, its chef Andrew Baird, formerly of The Ritz in London, seems to have been inspired by Jersey’s greenery as the restaurant is a now a member of the environmental campaign New Leaf, aiming to increase businesses’ green credentials. The Restaurant sources organic fruits and vegetables from the walled kitchen garden on the hotel grounds, where the
Victorian greenhouses have been restored. Any
excess produce is donated to the gorillas at
the nearby Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
– now that really is environmentally friendly.
The Restaurant, Longueville Manor, St Helier,
Jersey, +44 (0)1534 725 501;
www.longuevillemanor.com
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