Blind Spot

Set behind the façade of a boutique tea counter and a secret golden hand-shaped handle is Blind Spot at St Martins Lane, a late-night speakeasy that offers guests bespoke and signature cocktails bursting with flavours influenced by the British Empire and its ancient tea trade.

Blind Spot Bar | London Bars & Nightlife | St Martins Lane Hotel | MHG | SBE

Set behind the façade of a boutique tea counter and a secret golden hand-shaped handle is Blind Spot at St Martins Lane, a late-night speakeasy that offers guests bespoke and signature cocktails bursting with flavours influenced by the British Empire and its ancient tea trade.

Blind Spot cocktail bar travels from harbour to harbour and gathers the world flavours into its new menu.

The bar is brought to life throughout the week with a programme of live music and events.

Kick the week off in style with  Live Spot on Tuesdays, showcasing some of London’s hottest Jazz and Swing acts, heading into mid-week with our DJ residencies, with vinyl night on Wednesdays, vintage night on Thursdays, before heading into the weekend to 80s, 90s and up tempo electronic and dance on Fridays and Saturdays lasting until the early hours.

A selection of cocktails representing the countries that are playing that day will be available for just £8.

https://www.morganshotelgroup.com

Asia de Cuba, restaurant review: 'We're back at St Martin's Lane to ...

And fortuitously, St Martin's Lane, the Philippe Starck-designed hotel in Covent Garden which at the turn of the last century was the most ragingly fashionable hang-out in town, has just reopened after a refurb.

Asia de Cuba, the restaurant which introduced London to Chinese/Cuban fusion food , has also defiantly stuck with its unlikely theme, reanimated by a new "executive concept chef", Cuban-born Luis Pous, also responsible for branches in Dubai and New York.

When I reviewed Asia de Cuba (fairly warmly) in 1999, I called it the restaurant equivalent of Philippe Starck's lemon-squeezer: overdesigned, overpriced, but nice to know it's there, even if you only use it once.

Ditto shrimp churros – a huge, filthy hit of salt, seafood and starch served in a ceramic facsimile of a tin can, to be dipped into coconut curry.

St Martin's Lane Hotel 45 St Martin's Lane, London WC2 (020 7300 5588).

The 3 Crowns, London N1, restaurant review - Telegraph

Poor little 3 Crowns, sitting there, minding its own business, providing elegant food at eminently reasonable prices (three courses for £18), in a neo-traditional pub setting.

S’s asparagus was a different matter altogether – the spears shone green like light sabers (well, almost), glistening with butter and good health.

I then had pork patties with artichoke and olives, and some good wee waxy potatoes.

Pork and artichokes are a classic pairing, but here the twist was that no single cut of meat had been thrown at the dish, which is how they keep it all so thrifty.

I don’t know why we were so unadventurous – they have some amazing puds in this place – but I had pistachio ice cream and S had some dainty sorbet with an orangey-reddy trendy-looking fruit hue.

Where To Eat And Drink In... Covent Garden | Londonist

The enormous slices, or whole 22-inch pizzas, at Homeslice Pizza keep the small restaurant somewhere between buzzing and heaving, but if you're faced with an enormous queue, at least you don’t have far to go for other lunch options – Neal’s Yard crams a lot into a small footprint.

There’s a lot of specialist food on offer, from the seriously specific 26 Grains — Scandi-inspired twists on porridge — to the the raw and wholefood menu at Wild Food Café and the foraged food menu at Native.

Half bar, half restaurant, Pix Pintxos does both Basque bar snacks and wine with flair — order eight of the small, delicate meat skewers to one fearsome cocktail and you’ll be on pretty much the right ratio.

We've never met anyone that didn't love The Barbary in Neal’s Yard, where the open kitchen serves up North African small plates — think Berber-style spices, filo parcels and sticky meat dishes — in a relaxed, counter-seating space.

For a pricier but quieter post-midnight drink Blind Spot is a Philippe Starck-designed bar (part of the St. Martin’s Lane Hotel), doing Manhattans and whisky in a speakeasy-style room till 1.30am most nights.

Restaurant check: Asia de Cuba - Business Traveller – The leading ...

Chino-Latino restaurant Asia de Cuba is located on the ground floor of the 204-room St Martins Lane hotel in London’s Covent Garden.

Mixologist and bartender Andrew Loudon, who managed Bethnal Green’s Satan’s Whiskers and Islington’s 69 Colebrooke Row, has devised a range of concoctions using unusual ingredients such as citrus sherbet, tea syrup, warm cider cordial, cashew milk, caraway seeds and peony flowers.

If you fancy something light, there are six different types of ceviche (£10-£16) to choose from (red snapper, grouper, scallop, shrimp, cobia and calamari) with a blend of Asian and Latin ingredients (Thai chilli, plantain, ginger chimichurri, wasabi, miso vinaigrette).

You can then move on to small plates such as shrimp churros with sesame, jalapeno and coconut curry to dip them in (£10), or salads such as spicy beef crudo with almonds mandarin orange, Napa cabbage, radicchio and baby sorrel (£16).

Alternatively, you can order larger grilled (plancha) plates – I loved the meaty chipotle glazed tofu with Asian greens, green papaya salad and calabaza chips (£21).

Checkit for HACCP Compliance and Digital Food Safety Management

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However, rapid technology evolution presents businesses with greater vis... Reliance on paperwork creates a dangerous blind spot - 08.03.2018 For businesses that employ large numbers of front line service workers, these are challenging times.

Staff costs are on the rise, Brexit threatens to reduce the flow of workers, rents and rates are ...

Asia de Cuba, restaurant review: 'We're back at St Martin's Lane to ...

And fortuitously, St Martin's Lane, the Philippe Starck-designed hotel in Covent Garden which at the turn of the last century was the most ragingly fashionable hang-out in town, has just reopened after a refurb.

Asia de Cuba, the restaurant which introduced London to Chinese/Cuban fusion food , has also defiantly stuck with its unlikely theme, reanimated by a new "executive concept chef", Cuban-born Luis Pous, also responsible for branches in Dubai and New York.

When I reviewed Asia de Cuba (fairly warmly) in 1999, I called it the restaurant equivalent of Philippe Starck's lemon-squeezer: overdesigned, overpriced, but nice to know it's there, even if you only use it once.

Ditto shrimp churros – a huge, filthy hit of salt, seafood and starch served in a ceramic facsimile of a tin can, to be dipped into coconut curry.

St Martin's Lane Hotel 45 St Martin's Lane, London WC2 (020 7300 5588).

Covent Garden Boutique Hotel in London - St Martins Lane Hotel

Located in the bustling Theatre district in London’s Covent Garden, St Martins Lane, is a dramatic and daring evolution on English luxury.

This boutique hotel retains all the youthful, unexpected charm of a London hideaway, at the very heart of the energetic West End.

The décor is warm and sophisticated with a tongue-in-cheek British flair – even the art on the walls is irreverent, animating the space with larger-than-life portraits and visual puns.

During your stay, you can also enjoy an invigorating workout at Gymbox Covent Garden, London’s most unorthodox fitness experience or go for a striking new look at London's finest hairdressers at the neighbouring Jones & Payne salon.

Valet parking also available at £5 per transfer.

London's best new restaurant and bar openings in May | London ...

Due mid-May  Find it: 81 Duke of York Square, SW3 4LY; polpo.co.uk MELT ROOM New York-style grilled cheese sandwiches were billed to be a thing last year, but now they’re arriving in Soho in style – even if slightly out of season as summer approaches.

Open May 1  Find it: 26 Noel street, W1F 8GY; meltroom.com     May's new openings - in pictures May's new openings - in pictures 1/6 Melt Room (photo: Charlie McKay) 2/6 The Marksman owners Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram 3/6 Blind Spot 4/6 Street Feast Dalston Yard 5/6 155 Bar Kitchen 6/6 Polpo Chelsea     THE MARKSMAN Friends Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram – with culinary pasts at Fifteen (fifteen.net) and One Leicester Street (now closed) behind them – have taken over Hackney Road boozer The Marksman.

Due mid-May  Find it: 254 Hackney Road, E2 7SJ; marksmanpub.com 155 BAR KITCHEN   A chef from New York City’s National Gourmet Institute heads up Clerkenwell 155 Bar Kitchen, which re-launches this month.

Due late May  Find it: Broadgate Circle, EC2M 2QS; yauatcha.com Read more: Booming Broadgate: How Yauatcha, Franco Manca and The Botanist are turning the City into a foodie hotspot POP-UP OF THE MONTH: TART’S KITCHEN Lucy Carr-Ellison and Gemima Jones supply bespoke catering solutions for fashion shoots, which means they’ve fed the likes of Sienna Miller, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne.

Dalston Yard is back from the start of the month with twenty rotating traders and almost half as many bars, then at the end of May comes new market Dinerama in Shoreditch – a whopping new 1,000 person space opposite nightlife bolthole Village Underground (villageunderground.co.uk).

The 3 Crowns, London N1, restaurant review - Telegraph

Poor little 3 Crowns, sitting there, minding its own business, providing elegant food at eminently reasonable prices (three courses for £18), in a neo-traditional pub setting.

S’s asparagus was a different matter altogether – the spears shone green like light sabers (well, almost), glistening with butter and good health.

I then had pork patties with artichoke and olives, and some good wee waxy potatoes.

Pork and artichokes are a classic pairing, but here the twist was that no single cut of meat had been thrown at the dish, which is how they keep it all so thrifty.

I don’t know why we were so unadventurous – they have some amazing puds in this place – but I had pistachio ice cream and S had some dainty sorbet with an orangey-reddy trendy-looking fruit hue.

Blind Spot | Bars and pubs in Covent Garden, London

The name of this swanky cocktail bar at the St Martin's Lane Hotel seems about right.

It's a low-lit, intimate little spot almost hidden from the hotel's lobby – blink and you'll miss it.

Access is through a concealed door behind the hotel's tea counter, and tea features across the cocktail list.

Signatures include a gin, peach and bergamot smash (Beefeater gin, peach liqueur, Earl Grey tea and fresh mint), a Scotch, coconut and green tea old fashioned, and a negroni infused with pine needle tea.

Expect Asian-influenced bar snacks such as Thai chilli crackers, crispy chilli beef sliders, chicken satay skewers and hirata steamed buns filled with pork belly, pickled vegetables and Asian herbs.