In this, the first and most delicious of my ninth annual end-of-year round-up posts, I highlight some of my favourite coffee shops, restaurants and dishes of the year, both in London and on my travels. This year, I visited nine countries (Estonia, the US, Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain and France). From £4 chicken rice in Singapore to tempting tasting menus in Tallinn, as well as sublime speciality coffee, it's been quite a year. As usual, I've only included places I visited for the first time in 2019.

While exploring last-minute city breaks just before the recent UK bank holiday, I found a great deal on a two-night trip to Berlin. Return flights with BA (out on Saturday lunchtime, back on Monday night) and two nights at a boutique hotel in Alexanderplatz cost £325; the same flights alone were £100 more on the BA website. I'm not usually spontaneous when it comes to travel, preferring to research and plan every detail, but I hit the purchase button on Friday morning, and just over 24 hours later, I was on my way to Berlin.

For more Berlin specialty coffee recommendations, check out my coffee guide to Kreuzberg and Neukölln.

It's that time again: time for my annual round-up of my coffee, food and cocktail favourites of the year. I've used the same categories as last year — coffee, brunch, street food, restaurant and cocktail. And as usual, I've included new-to-me picks from both London and my travels around the world. This year, I visited seven different countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Peru, Poland and the United States) and enjoyed some fantastic meals and cups of coffee.

For more Berlin specialty coffee recommendations, check out my coffee guide to Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg.


I last visited Berlin on a school history trip in 1998 and I've long been wanting to return. As my company has offices there, I've held out, hoping a work trip would materialise. Of course, when that finally happened, I had to fly out the day after returning from Amsterdam and only had one free day in the city.