SPECIAL PLACES – ANTONIA HONEYWELL

SPECIAL PLACES

BY ANTONIA HONEYWELL

We’re always looking for new places to eat, play and visit. Marvellous Mum and published author Antonia Honeywell has shared her favourite special places here.

Rucola
We moved to Little Chalfont when our eldest was six months old; before that came weekend after weekend of househunting, firstly with bump and then quarrelling over which of us would get to carry our new baby. We discovered Rucola during one of those weekends and were delighted to find it would be our local restaurant when we finally moved. We’ve enjoyed many a family lunch there, and the three younger children all had their christening meals there. We’re fully expecting to go back for their eighteenths – and many, many more times in between. Website: www.larucola.co.uk
Westwood Park
Westwood Park is a convenient scooter/cycle ride from home and makes for a lovely expedition with the children. There’s an excellent playpark with equipment that’s a little out of the ordinary, and a huge expanse of green to run about on. What with Saturday football, Brownies, Cubs and Beavers, it’s a feature of our lives and a wonderful community resource. I spent a great deal of time running round it when I was training for the London Marathon in 2011 (in aid of the Wegener’s Trust, www.wegeners.org); now, it’s a great place to walk when my ideas are refusing to flow. Website: click here.
Kandoo
Kandoo is a modest Persian restaurant on the Edgware Road, with a glorious mosaic bread oven in its window. When my husband and I both lived and worked in London, we went there often. Then, when I was pregnant and suffering from terrible morning sickness, the fresh flatbread from that oven was almost all I could keep down. So Kandoo nourished our eldest in the womb; we held his christening meal there; it’s now his favourite restaurant and a trip there often forms part of our days out in London. Website: www.kandoorestaurant.co.uk

Gilbeys
Gilbeys in Old Amersham is our first choice when we get a chance to go out for a meal alone together. The food is fresh, seasonal and perfectly cooked and the staff are friendly and remember us every time we go back, which always feels lovely. Website: www.gilbeygroup.com

L’ete en pente douce
Before we had the children, James and visited Paris regularly. On our first weekend trip, he took me to a small restaurant half way up the butte below Montmartre. Their speciality is half a duck roasted in a salt crust – it comes to the table looking like an outsized pie, and then the crust is lifted off to reveal a moist, tender and exceptionally generous serving of duck. Fortunately they also served a fine goat’s cheese salad (I was vegetarian in those days, but that’s another story). Now we share Paris with the children, and although we spend more time at the carousel, we still go to the duck restaurant. Website: www.parisresto.com

The Crown at Whitebrook
Whitebrook is a village near my parents in law in Monmouth and it boasts an amazing, high-end restaurant. When our eldest was four months old, we took him to visit his grandparents and they sent James and I out for a wonderful meal a deux. We got home at about half past ten to find Oliver and his grandparents having a fine old time, playing games and laughing fit to bust. I tried to get annoyed, but really, with all that Michelin-starred cuisine inside me, it wasn’t worth the effort. And that night, he slept through for the first time. As did we. We go back whenever we can (most recently, to celebrate the launch of The Ship). Website: www.crownatwhitebrook.co.uk

Borovicks on Berwick Street
The children love dressing up, but don’t always go for costumes I can easily buy ready made. Thanks to Borovicks’ excellent and inspiring collection of fabrics-by-the-metre, I produced an Elsa costume before Disney did. Borovicks has recently furnished us with materials for a magnificent Medusa, the White Witch from the Narnia chronicles and a Fire Bird. I’m a terrible seamstress but a very good cobbler-together of ideas. (I got the fabric for my bridemaids’ dresses here too – but those I didn’t even try to make myself.) Website: www.borovickfabric.com