Review: Hops and Chops. 6 Kent Road, St Crispins, Northampton, NN5 4DR
There are two high landmarks that always make Penda glad to be home: Northampton’s Express Lift Tower and the clock-tower at the derelict St Crispin’s hospital site, perched...
Review: The Lamplighter, 66 Overstone Road, Northampton, NN1 3JS
Penda’s small dining companion is trying to eat with her hands again. She’s gnawing on a chunk of crackling and wiggling as she does so.
“I’m trying to get this wobbly baby...
Review - Beckworth Emporium Restaurant, Glebe Road, Mears Ashby, NN6 0DL.
That chilly, dark section of the year - post-Christmas, pre-spring- is not Penda’s favourite time.  But the winter blues were wafted away in the company of good friends at Beckworth...
Review - The Red Lion at Brafield, 6 Bridle Path, Brafield- on-the-Green, NN7 1BP
After being recommended a visit to The Red Lion at Brafield by a family of vegetarians, it seemed somehow wrong to start by ordering pork scratchings....
Matt Moore finds he has a taste for a pun...
Hot off the press… it’d be a great way to start this review, but instead I’m just namechecking one of the many burgers available at Northampton’s latest gourmet burger restaurant....
Penda had been looking forward to this. A promise of an up-market dining experience in Northampton for less than £30 a head? Yes please.
Hibiscus is tucked away upstairs in Royal & Derngate’s building, in the former Crown Room, a...
NQ's Penda looks at another county eaterie...
There were furrowed brows from the younger Penda friends as they looked at the menu at uber-trendy Foodies.Rocks (not my punctuation).
They were conflicted: they’d been given their own menus and a little tick-box...
Penda is old enough to remember when the height of dining sophistication was to go to an Angus Steakhouse.
They may have gone on to have a reputation for serving shoe-leather steak to tourists in London, and were unluckily affected...
It took a while for us to get to The Smokepit in Northampton, which opened in 2015. The building had been so many things before, including the Blue Plate Diner and briefly Chilli’s Indian Buffet.
On our first visit we’d...
After a multi-million pound project to open its 900 year history to the public, Delapre Abbey has removed its covers and opened its cafe.
The new conservatory cafe is a beautiful reveal and the Billiard Room next door is a...
