Big Apple flavour, British hospitality
New York runs on the half-price martini window; Britain has mostly shrugged at it. We look at why genuine happy hours are so rare on these shores, where they're finally cropping up, and how to find the best post-work deal in your city.
Ask for a steak black and blue in most British restaurants and you'll get a flinch, a disclaimer, or a flat refusal. We speak to the chefs who still do it, the food safety rules behind the panic, and how to order rare-rare without starting a row.
It costs about £1.20 to make, yet up and down the country you'll pay £8 or more for a quarter of iceberg with a bit of dressing. We surveyed ten restaurants from Manchester to Bristol to find out who's earning it — and who's just wrapping lettuce in a mortgage.
You don't need a transatlantic flight to eat like a New Yorker — just a comfortable pair of shoes and a loose plan. We've mapped four walkable food crawls across Britain that stack bagels, pastrami and cheesecake into one very satisfying day on foot.
British back gardens are going live-fire in a big way, but can a £120 kettle and a bag of supermarket charcoal really produce a crust worthy of a Manhattan strip club? We ran the smoke test so you don't have to.
A bottle of supermarket gin, a splash of vermouth, a lemon twist — about three quid at home. So why is the same drink £14 when the waiter brings it to your banquette? We asked the bartenders, buyers and bean-counters who actually know.
From £14 Mayfair hotel pours to £6 Manchester brunch pints, the Bloody Mary has become the unofficial mascot of the American weekend. We taste ten, judge the garnish madness, and ask bartenders if we're perfecting it or butchering it.
We reconstructed the bill from a four-person night out at a British New York-style steakhouse, line by line. The steak isn't the villain — it's everything you order before and after it that quietly doubles the damage.
Hidden doors, jazz on vinyl and cocktails stiff enough to survive a raid — the 1920s supper club is thriving in 2020s Britain. We visit five of the best, ask the hosts why Prohibition romance sells, and gather the kit you need to throw your own Gatsby-grade dinner.
The pastrami on rye has become Britain's most expensive sandwich, and nobody seems to be asking why. We weighed, measured and priced our way from Spitalfields to Leeds to find out which delis deserve the New York name — and which are just charging for the accent.
From watercress-stuffed Cobbs to baked bean-topped Caesars, Britain's take on the classic New York deli salad is a minefield of well-meaning additions. We taste-tested five UK versions against the originals to settle the question: adaptation or betrayal?
The chopped cheese was never meant to leave the Bronx. Yet somehow it's ended up on chalkboards in Peckham, Northern Quarter windows and even a motorway services. We travelled the country to find out which British versions actually earn the name.
The Buffalo wing crossed the Atlantic decades ago, but somewhere over the ocean it lost its crackle. We trace the sauce's origins from upstate New York to Brooklyn bar menus, taste our way across Britain's sports bars, and rank the spots getting it right — plus a home-oven method that finally delivers.
Nobody hands you a rulebook when you book your first proper American chophouse — you just have to feel your way through the bread basket and hope for the best. Here's our cheeky decoder for the unspoken laws of the NY grill, from the sacred early seating to the fine art of ordering a steak rarer than you dared at your local.
Côte de boeuf for two pushing past £120, wagyu flights that outprice a weekend in the Cotswolds — Britain's top-end steakhouses have entered genuinely silly territory. We asked the maître d's, the suppliers and the punters whether the pleasure matches the price tag.
We rang, booked and ate our way across Britain to find out what a midweek New York strip supper really costs. From £68-a-head chophouses to a £14 DIY triumph, here's where your money actually goes.
Something odd has happened on the UK's drinks menus over the past couple of years: the fluorescent orange spritz has started giving way to a sturdier, older, more American order. We ask British bartenders why steakhouse diners are reaching for rye, and share a foolproof Manhattan recipe you can pour at home.
Two puddings, one blindfolded tasting panel and a fridge full of Philadelphia. We pitted a proper baked New York cheesecake against the biscuit-based British classic to find out which one earns its place after the ribeye.
The smash burger never made it onto the sit-down menus of Manhattan, and that's precisely the point. We test British beef blends, presses and baps — from brioche to a proper barm — to build the definitive NYC-style burger for UK gardens and kitchens.
We bought porterhouse and T-bone steaks blind from butchers in London, Manchester and Glasgow, then handed them to an independent expert for grading. The results reveal a surprising amount of mislabelling — and where the genuinely great cuts are hiding.