Menuwatch and a new dish

Plus a wine shout-out!

Great news, Only Food and Courses got a feature in The Caterer magazine this month! For those of you who don’t know, it’s the handbook of who’s who in the hospitality industry.

They gave our menu a glowing write-up, and as a result of being featured, it’s also going to be considered for their Menu of the Year Catey award – essentially the hospitality sector’s Oscars. Fingers crossed!

You can pick up a copy on the newsstands.

Speaking of the menu, we’ve got a lovely new dish on for August: a modern take on the classic Arctic roll, with pistachio ice-cream and cherry sauce. It was my favourite dessert growing up, we’d have it straight out of the freezer after a family Sunday roast dinner and we’d all just get stuck in.

We can’t wait to hear what you think and hope it brings back some childhood memories for you too.

We also wanted to give a shout-out to a great wine recommendation from Shelly: Oxer Wines Txakoli Marko Bizkaiko Txakolina 2019. It’s a fab white wine which is a perfect choice for the summer season with lots of fruity and herb undertones – ideal for enjoying in the pub with a few bar snacks or a dinner with loved ones. One to try when you’re next with us!

Burnt Chef Project 

We helped raise £14,925 for mental health

Robbie recently helped cook a seven-course dinner along with chefs from across the country at the Old Crown Coaching Inn in Oxfordshire for an event in aid of the Burnt Chef Project, a non-profit which offers mental health support services to people in the hospitality industry.

The evening raised a huge £14,925 for the charity and we’re so proud. Mental health is incredibly important to us and we’re chuffed to have done our bit to support such a good cause.

Come see us at Pub in the Park

Yummy food and banging tunes, what more do you need?

Guess who’s going to be at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park! That’s right, we’re going to be serving up your Only Food and Courses favourites, street food-style on Sunday 14 May at Wimbledon Park. 

Andy Clarke from This Morning, Sam & Shauna's Big Cook Out, Chris Baber, Anna Haugh from Myrtle and Karan Gokani from Hoppers are going to be there too, so pop down and say hello!

Gift vouchers now available

Perfect for a birthday treat or anniversary celebration 

We’ve now got vouchers available so you can gift a special someone an Only Food and Courses six-course tasting menu plus a glass of Prosecco, perfect for any special occasions you’ve got coming up.

The vouchers are valid for a whole year so plenty of time to get your diary in order, and then all they have to do is say they’re redeeming a voucher on booking. We look forward to seeing you!

Fancy a tipple?

Check out our wine selection

Did you know we’ve launched a special wine pairing? We've handpicked a selection to go with each course of our tasting menu to bring out the flavours of every dish and make your experience even more special – ask the team when you're next with us.

Try Robbie’s Great British Menu dishes

Judge for yourself food that made national television

For those of you that missed it, Robbie’s Great British Menu performance is still on iPlayer – give us a watch and tell us what you think. Spoiler alert!

After a nail-biting regional heat where Robbie made it to the judging chamber and was one of the final two chefs representing London and the South-East, we’re going to be serving his whole GBM menu throughout April so you can come down and try the dishes for yourselves.

We’re going to have Robbie’s Captain Pugwash-inspired fish course on the menu, ‘Fancy a Little Smackerel’, and of course his special Queen of Hearts dessert – if you think they looked amazing, wait 'til you taste them. It’s going to be a fun-filled feast for all the senses, don’t miss out!

Robbie’s back on Great British Menu 

The news is out – Robbie’s back on your screens this week! 

Great news – Robbie has been invited back onto BBC Two’s Great British Menu and will be hitting your screens each night from Tuesday 7 March at 8pm. 

The theme this year celebrates illustration and animation marking 65 years of Paddington Bear and will see Robbie representing London and the South-East and going head-to-head with some of the country’s top chefs. 

Tune in, show our boy some support and let us know what you think of his dishes @FoodandCourses on Twitter and @onlyfoodandcourses on Insta. 

Only Food and Courses sets up shop in the Strand

Can you believe it – we’re opening our first ‘proper‘ restaurant on the Strand!

From 8 December – almost two years to the day that we launched in Brixton – we’re going to be opening upstairs at the Cheshire Cheese pub on Little Essex Street.

It has been a mad few years since we first launched, and while Pop Brixton was a wonderful place for us to launch, and was where we not only received some great reviews but saw our Robbie become a television star on both Great British Menu and MasterChef, the next stage in our journey being a great British pub makes perfect sense.

We might be moving north of the river, but we’re still going to be to serving up the nostalgic 1980s and 90s-style food you love, including the café clichés, dinner party classics and cocktails raided from your mum’s drinks cupboard. And yes, of course the duck à l’ orange and lobster doughnuts are still on the menu.

We’re also going to have smoked salmon and eggs, duck liver pâté, prawn cocktails, beef and onions, and millionaire’s shortbread on offer, as well as bar snacks in the pub downstairs – and we’re not changing our greasy spoon caff décor either.

Have you booked yet?

Robbie’s on Great British Menu

Tune in to see him on the tellybox!

Our very own chef Robbie cooked up a few treats on Great British Menu, competing with some of the top chefs in the land.

Having made it through the heats, his menu celebrated 100 years of British broadcasting, and included an homage to Ab Fab, and a tip of the hat to Grange Hill.

The Observer review

‘Deserves to be taken seriously’

We’re over the moon that The Observer’s top food critic Jay Rayner dropped by and wrote us an absolutely stonkingreview.

He said our lemon meringue tart was “extremely well-made”, our duck éclairs and lobster doughnuts were “delicious” and our treacle-cured salmon “extremely good”.

That’s two extremely goods! Click below to see what else he wrote.

Robbie’s 40-year Only Fools and Horses anniversary menu

Our lovely jubbly anniversary menu hits the headlines

This September marks 40 years since Only Fools and Horses first hit British screens, and four decades on, ‘Time on our Hands’, then billed as the final episode, still holds the record for the highest UK audience for a sitcom, attracting 24.3 million viewers. For Robbie, paying homage to the television series was an obvious choice.

Flash-grilled by BigHospitality

Find out what makes Robbie tick

Robbie took part in a quick-fire Q&A with BigHospitality this week where he talked about bringing back El Bulli, his respect for Paul Ainsworth and a surprising aversion to Jersey Royals, as well as being proposed to by a customer.

Robbie’s interviewed on KentOnline

Robbie talks Only Food and Courses and cooking for royalty and Will Smith.

Memories of his nan's kitchen, surrounded by the smells of baking and family Sunday roasts, is what inspires our chefRobbie.

He spoke to KentOnline about spending freezing wet Sunday mornings with his grandparents as a child on the market stalls at 5am followed by bacon sandwiches and steaming cups of tea at nearby greasy spoon cafes – the community feel, enjoyment of food and childhood favourite dishes which have fed into his work as a chef.