About Eurorevs
Based in London, EuroRevs primarily explores Europe – its restaurants, hotels, food, culture and destinations – with occasional journeys further afield.
Eurorevs comes from an ever-growing culinary curiosity. It came about via travelling. Continuity of this thirst for knowledge is cultivated by hunger. It’s fuelled by it. Food is necessary to survive. Eating, knowing how to eat, is what makes life better.
Travel. Food. Curiosity.
Encountering people from different cultures, over food, is the best way to learn anything. Practising a new language, discovering where it suits whatever budget for a drink, is efficient this way. Learning is going on. Without feeling being taught.
Eurorevs being birthed from these and other ingrained habits, makes for conversation. Stemming from an upbringing rooted in investing in experiences, when possible, gives Eurorevs context.
Appreciating travel, to the fullest, brings a wider self awareness and perspective that can be incorporated in daily life. Clarity is offered while challenging ongoing personal limitations. Becoming unstuck from past predicaments, on land or sea that’s seen seemingly unfathomable pasts, is freeing. Resilience, reflected in cuisine, tells a story. A real story. Seeking knowledge, doesn’t automatically create curiosity. Reading a lot, is a giant part of that.
Sometimes none of those things matter. Eating everyday begs the question: is it delicious? Going back for it, trying to recreate it at home, are other indicators of seeds of culinary curiosity being planted.
Why dine out when you can eat at home?
Similarly, making an effort to respect a culture, may open us to try new things. It helps when those things are suddenly affordable. A simple location change can do that. At home, what’s cooking is what’s being eaten. Tried and tested recipes is where it’s at.
Apart from the obvious mess made, before, after and during making dinner at home, it’s not what takes us to restaurants. They’re many aspects to dining out that aren’t considered. Yet, they are of extreme importance. That’s not to say that cooking – to one’s taste – isn’t equally important.
Although restaurant menus can adapt local dishes for speed and style, authentic comfort food – like slow-simmered Catalan chicken tagine with prunes and almonds – relies on time, simple ingredients, and regional tradition. EuroRevs explores both sides of the table: evaluating local eateries while uncovering the authentic, home-style roots behind every dish.
In a home kitchen, recipes like this, can be tedious. Sourcing a list of ingredients – the volume of which, for one dish – seems wasteful. It doesn’t make sense to buy, store, then ponder what-a-do with them thereafter. Going to a reliable restaurant for it, satisfies that singular flavour craving.
Three things – we’ll get into later – can take us out of our world, for a moment. Lively restaurants warmly welcome the senses: they blissfully transport us, anywhere we want. Flicking through a menu, is calming. Cutlery catches the eye; anticipation mounts, as appetite is aroused. Receiving a bowl, a plate of something fresh or comforting, is engaging. Whether food creation is in or out of view; it’s all that matters, in that moment.
Home cooking differs to restaurant food
All good chefs take what they learn from home cooking, condense those principles and elevate them to restaurant quality cooking. In this respect, going to a restaurant; dining out, is an eating experience far removed from eating dinner at home.
If steak is particularly expensive and the sear on it is never quite right in a home kitchen, it makes sense to a steak lover, to patronise a steak specialising restaurant. Ditto, with dishes asking for meats to be hung in advance, in cold, dry places. Smoking ingredients, sous-videing; using equipment, or space, that belongs in industrial kitchens, aren’t home kitchen-friendly.
Understanding and implementing eating traditions that may seem foreign, suddenly spark an interest. This interest makes food taste better.
An unforgettable meal, cooked by someone else, is glorious. At home the repertoire is different. Each has it’s place and that’s why we frequent restaurants, read reviews and decide what suits.
Why Eurorevs?
A lot of the time, what is read or seen as a review, is in fact an advertisement. Another way of putting this is that they are paid reviews; sponsored reviews. Or that meals aren’t being paid for, in exchange for a glowing review. You get the picture. On the subject of pictures, all are taken by Eurorevs. A POV of meals, in real time.
When we eat out, oftentimes trying new foods is met with a tentative pause. Paying, for example, a couple of days worth of food worth, to test a rogue menu item out on the palate, seems wasteful.
Eurorevs might have tried it first. It may not have been the first time, either. Perhaps having an idea of what textures, temperatures and flavours come through from a dish, gives guidance. Having expectations eases decision making: navigating menus in a restaurant environment.
Eurorevs accepts neither payment for it’s restaurant reviews, nor freebies either. It’s easier to get away without special treatment while remaining anonymous. Similarly, food is photographed discreetly.
How We Review: Food, Value, and Atmosphere
A restaurant is where the focus is on the food. As well as, value for money; the service; ambience to be on par with, primarily cost.
Is the food delicious? Is there a dish to return for? How compelling is it to return to try other dishes? Value for money is simple yet tricky, when faced with new menu items, or (alcoholic) drinks – particularly wines – that are incomparable to market price. Unless, it’s understood and taken into account. Does the food and overall experience justify the price? Are the drinks marked up to too high? Eurorevs knows, or finds out, to justify the total bill paid
If it’s comfortable and service good, generally, that’s part of the restaurant vibe. Does the atmosphere contribute to the experience? Attention to interiors and cutlery, as well as ambience is accounted for. Can elderly clients relax, or see a menu, for example.
Why no Face?
At EuroRevs, anonymity is our superpower. We never accept free meals, sponsored invites, or special treatment. By staying nameless and faceless, we experience restaurants exactly as any paying customer would – ensuring every review remains 100% honest, independent, and authentic.
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