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South Wales Argus
4 days ago
- South Wales Argus
Northern Belle: World's poshest train to run trip from Cardiff
The 1930s Pullman-style Northern Belle, once part of the iconic Orient Express group, is a "luxurious yet intimate" train that travels the British countryside en route to some of the country's top destinations. The luxury train features seven beautifully detailed carriages (each bearing the name of a great British castle or stately home) that have been lovingly restored by some of the country's top craftspeople. The Northern Belle website adds: "Beyond the world of ordinary first-class, there has been an almost secret world. "Since the dawn of railways there has existed a world of private luxury trains and only a handful remain. "The Northern Belle is one such Train, and the most luxurious, carefully restored to its former glory by the Venice Simplon-Orient Express." The Northern Belle is regularly voted one of the world's Top Ten trains, while one of the individually hand-decorated carriages is used to form part of the Royal Train. It is even rumoured to contain the late Queen Mother's favourite seat. Actor Bill Nighy also described the train as 'the Grand Dame of luxury travel' when it featured on Channel 5's The World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys. The Northern Belle is regularly voted among the world's top trains. (Image: Cameron Pitts) When to see the Northern Belle in South Wales The Northern Belle is set to run a 'Cornish Lunch via Dawlish' trip from Cardiff on September 19, 2025. Britain's most luxurious train will depart Cardiff Central Station at 10.30am on Friday, September 19, making stops at Bristol Temple Meads and Taunton Stations, before returning at 8pm. Passengers, as well as those hoping to catch a glimpse of the Northern Belle, are advised that these times are "provisional" and are subject to Network Rail confirmation seven days before departure. How to book tickets for the Northern Belle If you want to be onboard the Northern Belle for its 'Cornish Lunch via Dawlish' trip from Cardiff, head to the website to book tickets. Tickets include: A round-trip on the Northern Belle luxury train Welcome Champagne reception including canapés and caviar blinis Seven-course lunch Bottle of wine per couple (Sommelier's Choice) On board entertainment Fortnum & Mason tea and Northern Belle blend coffee Escape the ordinary. ✨ Northern Belle 2025 journeys redefine luxury rail. Vintage carriages, gourmet dining, breathtaking Britain. Book your unforgettable escape: — Northern Belle (@northernbelletr) February 20, 2025 The Northern Belle website adds: "Your day will begin with a red carpet welcome at your departure station where our attentive Stewards will usher you aboard the Northern Belle luxury train for a journey to remember forever. "Once you've been escorted to your plush seat, one of our liveried Stewards will carefully pour a glass of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut NV Champagne as you study the sumptuous menu. "Ahead lies a journey back to the Golden Days of rail travel, a time when nothing was too good for the pampered passengers." RECOMMENDED READING: Prices Tickets for the Northern Belle Christmas experience cost £445 per passenger. You can also upgrade your ticket to: Laurent-Perrier Class - for an additional £95 (per passenger) KRUG Class - additional £195 (per passenger) The Northern Belle will return to South Wales on December 5 for a 'Christmas Lunch' journey (from £395 per person), with pick-ups from Cardiff and Swansea.
Calgary Herald
10-07-2025
- Calgary Herald
Hum: North Market's garden-to-table dishes should lure foodies to Almonte
Article content We kicked off our meal with six impeccably fresh Northern Belle oysters from P.E.I. ($20), topped with some strawberry shallot mignonette and garden-fresh basil that added layers of flavour. Having visited Halifax less than a month ago, I've eaten an inordinate number of oysters recently, and North Market's might be my favourites. Article content Article content The next wave of food consisted of three items that left us shaking our heads with appreciation. Article content Strawberry habanero aguachile with ahi tuna ($18), served with house-made tortilla chips, was eye-poppingly attractive and its balanced flavours made it as tasty as it was beautiful. (The Herreras both have fine arts in their background, and Amanda Herrera is self-taught as a chef.) Article content Hakurei turnips ($14) were wading in a generous puddle of bagna cauda, the irresistible dip made principally with olive oil, chipped anchovies and garlic. While the turnips were fine, the dip was the star, and we greedily finished all of it with the pillowy challah ($8) that Herrera sent out. (She had recognized me, I have to say.) Article content Article content Article content Next came more convivial food to eat with our hands, namely that fine chicken liver mousse, and 'coconut shrimp cocktail' ($17), which I'll put in quotation marks because while those crisp shrimps with a sweet-sour-spicy mayo-based sauce were good, no less tasty were the crudites on the platter. Article content Before desserts, we had three more plates. Garden salad with local greens, snap peas, lemon ricotta, herb vinaigrette and crisp prosciutto ($18) extended the streak of excellent garden-to-table eating. Beef carpaccio ($22), perked up by a beet relish and horseradish aioli, ticked off our animal-protein requirements during our plant-forward dinner. Roast beets on a bed of whipped tahini ($18), starred on yet another pretty plate, garnished with pistachio lilac dukkah and pickled leeks and splashed with orange vinaigrette. Article content Our night ended sweetly with that rose geranium ice cream, plus two of Nieto's creations freed from behind the showcase, Dubai chocolate eclair with pistachio kataifi crunch and chocolate mousse ($5.25) and almond and pistachio baklava ($3.50). Article content Article content What could have been improved upon at North Market? While service was attentive and gracious, the pace of dinner was a touch slow. The absence of cocktails was a wee letdown. That said, the wines on offer made me feel better, especially as we had arrived early enough for the tail-end of happy hour pricing. Article content As far as garden-to-table dining goes, I had been aware, before I went to North Market, of Ottawa chef Marc Lepine's new restaurant Sauterelle.
Vancouver Sun
10-07-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Hum: North Market's garden-to-table dishes should lure foodies to Almonte
78 Mill St., Almonte, 613-897-2676, Open: Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Monday Prices: Lunch and dinner items between $6 and $22 Access: Steps to the front door Between the back door of her restaurant and a large parking lot is chef and co-owner Amanda Herrera's not-that-secret weapon. 'Most restaurants don't have this amount of space behind them,' she says. Discover the best of B.C.'s recipes, restaurants and wine. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'Most restaurants that have this amount of space behind them would turn it into a patio,' says her husband, Rick Herrera, co-owner and general manager of North Market in Almonte . Instead, Herrera has been cultivating a backyard garden for years. Now, its four beds are stunningly filled with herbs, plants, edible flowers, peas on trestles, cherry tomatoes on vines, horse rhubarb, onions, sunflowers and more. Bounty from North Market's garden, along with produce from nearby farmers, starred in most of the dishes that we ate and enjoyed at our dinner there last weekend. Herrera's from-scratch, garden- and farm-to-table small plates won us over, starting with the rich, delicious chicken liver mousse ($18) with a brûléed canopy, offset by a intensely celery-like lovage leaf and ending with some tour de force ice cream ($6) made with rose geranium leaves, topped with dried herbs and sitting in a puddle of olive oil. Like its garden, North Market's been a work in progress since it opened seven years ago in what had been Palms, a coffee shop on Almonte's historic main drag. North Market began as a coffee shop. Lunch service and baked goods drew people in. Then came the pandemic, and the Herreras pivoted to offer to-go and frozen foods, along with bottles of well-chosen organic and natural wines. Dinner service eventually resumed, but was phased in as North Market's grocery and bakery business lines continued. It reached its 30-seat limit for diners last November, and guests still eat in the high-ceilinged, spacious, rustic ambiance, flanked by shelves filled with pastas, gourmet chips, wine bottles, and other groceries. Beside the cash is a counter stocked with pastry chef Brandy Nieto's tempting treats. North Market serves both lunch and dinner, with different, concise, constantly changing menus in force, and Rick Herrera says the eatery is busiest at lunch. But the four of us ate almost everything off Amanda Herrera's concise dinner menu, which consisted of about a dozen items, and thought the half-hour trip from west-end Ottawa to Almonte was well worth it. We kicked off our meal with six impeccably fresh Northern Belle oysters from P.E.I. ($20), topped with some strawberry shallot mignonette and garden-fresh basil that added layers of flavour. Having visited Halifax less than a month ago, I've eaten an inordinate number of oysters recently, and North Market's might be my favourites. The next wave of food consisted of three items that left us shaking our heads with appreciation. Strawberry habanero aguachile with ahi tuna ($18), served with house-made tortilla chips, was eye-poppingly attractive and its balanced flavours made it as tasty as it was beautiful. (The Herreras both have fine arts in their background, and Amanda Herrera is self-taught as a chef.) Hakurei turnips ($14) were wading in a generous puddle of bagna cauda, the irresistible dip made principally with olive oil, chipped anchovies and garlic. While the turnips were fine, the dip was the star, and we greedily finished all of it with the pillowy challah ($8) that Herrera sent out. (She had recognized me, I have to say.) Next came more convivial food to eat with our hands, namely that fine chicken liver mousse, and 'coconut shrimp cocktail' ($17), which I'll put in quotation marks because while those crisp shrimps with a sweet-sour-spicy mayo-based sauce were good, no less tasty were the crudites on the platter. Before desserts, we had three more plates. Garden salad with local greens, snap peas, lemon ricotta, herb vinaigrette and crisp prosciutto ($18) extended the streak of excellent garden-to-table eating. Beef carpaccio ($22), perked up by a beet relish and horseradish aioli, ticked off our animal-protein requirements during our plant-forward dinner. Roast beets on a bed of whipped tahini ($18), starred on yet another pretty plate, garnished with pistachio lilac dukkah and pickled leeks and splashed with orange vinaigrette. Our night ended sweetly with that rose geranium ice cream, plus two of Nieto's creations freed from behind the showcase, Dubai chocolate eclair with pistachio kataifi crunch and chocolate mousse ($5.25) and almond and pistachio baklava ($3.50). What could have been improved upon at North Market? While service was attentive and gracious, the pace of dinner was a touch slow. The absence of cocktails was a wee letdown. That said, the wines on offer made me feel better, especially as we had arrived early enough for the tail-end of happy hour pricing. As far as garden-to-table dining goes, I had been aware, before I went to North Market, of Ottawa chef Marc Lepine's new restaurant Sauterelle . In mid-May, when I checked in with Lepine, best known for his acclaimed restaurant Atelier on Rochester Street, he said two things about Sauterelle. Construction of that Somerset Street West restaurant, which is to feature a year-round indoor garden, was imminent, Lepine said. He added that when it opens, Sauterelle will be the kind of restaurant that Michelin Guide inspectors ought to inspect . Until Sauterelle opens, I can warmly suggest that if you want some garden-to-table fare, you head to North Market in Almonte. The Herreras' take on that kind of restaurant is very persuasive. Frankly, given North Market's distinctiveness, quality and price point, I'd point Michelin inspectors in its direction too. phum@ For more smart picks and offbeat stories from around the city, subscribe to Out of Office , our weekly newsletter on local arts, food and things to do.
Ottawa Citizen
10-07-2025
- Ottawa Citizen
Hum: North Market's garden-to-table dishes should lure foodies to Almonte
Article content We kicked off our meal with six impeccably fresh Northern Belle oysters from P.E.I. ($20), topped with some strawberry shallot mignonette and garden-fresh basil that added layers of flavour. Having visited Halifax less than a month ago, I've eaten an inordinate number of oysters recently, and North Market's might be my favourites. Article content Article content The next wave of food consisted of three items that left us shaking our heads with appreciation. Article content Strawberry habanero aguachile with ahi tuna ($18), served with house-made tortilla chips, was eye-poppingly attractive and its balanced flavours made it as tasty as it was beautiful. (The Herreras both have fine arts in their background, and Amanda Herrera is self-taught as a chef.) Article content Hakurei turnips ($14) were wading in a generous puddle of bagna cauda, the irresistible dip made principally with olive oil, chipped anchovies and garlic. While the turnips were fine, the dip was the star, and we greedily finished all of it with the pillowy challah ($8) that Herrera sent out. (She had recognized me, I have to say.) Article content Article content Next came more convivial food to eat with our hands, namely that fine chicken liver mousse, and 'coconut shrimp cocktail' ($17), which I'll put in quotation marks because while those crisp shrimps with a sweet-sour-spicy mayo-based sauce were good, no less tasty were the crudites on the platter. Article content Before desserts, we had three more plates. Garden salad with local greens, snap peas, lemon ricotta, herb vinaigrette and crisp prosciutto ($18) extended the streak of excellent garden-to-table eating. Beef carpaccio ($22), perked up by a beet relish and horseradish aioli, ticked off our animal-protein requirements during our plant-forward dinner. Roast beets on a bed of whipped tahini ($18), starred on yet another pretty plate, garnished with pistachio lilac dukkah and pickled leeks and splashed with orange vinaigrette. Article content Our night ended sweetly with that rose geranium ice cream, plus two of Nieto's creations freed from behind the showcase, Dubai chocolate eclair with pistachio kataifi crunch and chocolate mousse ($5.25) and almond and pistachio baklava ($3.50). Article content Article content Article content What could have been improved upon at North Market? While service was attentive and gracious, the pace of dinner was a touch slow. The absence of cocktails was a wee letdown. That said, the wines on offer made me feel better, especially as we had arrived early enough for the tail-end of happy hour pricing.
Daily Record
08-07-2025
- Daily Record
Get tickets for luxury train with seven-course fine dining and scenic Scottish views
The Northern Belle luxury train is beloved by Bill Nighy and returns to Scotland this weekend. One of the world's most elegant trains is set to roll into Scotland twice this weekend, treating passengers to champagne, caviar, and a seven-course feast as it winds its way along one of the most scenic railway routes in the UK. The Northern Belle will depart from Glasgow Central Station on Friday, July 11, and again on Sunday, July 13, whisking guests away on journeys designed to recapture the golden age of rail travel, Glasgow Live reports. Both trips begin with a red carpet welcome at the platform, followed by a glass of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut NV Champagne and caviar blinis served in meticulously restored 1930s Pullman-style carriages. Onboard, passengers can expect luxurious dining, live music from roaming musicians, and sleight-of-hand magic courtesy of the train's resident conjuror. The Friday trip departs Glasgow at 10.55am, collecting more passengers at Edinburgh Waverley at 12.40pm before returning to Glasgow at 6.20pm. On Sunday, the train embarks on a day-long adventure along the West Highland Line, offering stunning views of glens, lochs, waterfalls and mountains along the route that was voted the world's best railway journey by Wanderlust magazine. Hollywood star Bill Nighy once described the Northern Belle as 'the Grand Dame of luxury travel' when it featured in a Channel 5 documentary. Readers of Condé Nast Traveller have also sung its praises, noting: 'It's all about the food – and the scenery. The meal services are exquisite offering fine dining.' Friday's journey will feature a traditional Afternoon Tea experience served on white linen with sparkling glassware. The train's website promises a nostalgic experience: 'Within minutes, one of our liveried Stewards will carefully pop your bottle of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut NV Champagne as you study the sumptuous Afternoon Tea menu. 'Indulge in delicate sandwiches, delicious cakes, home-baked scones with clotted cream and jam, mouth-watering pastries and of course, a pot of freshly brewed Fortnum & Mason tea.' The menu is steeped in British tradition. 'According to legend, a peckish Anna Maria Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, started the trend around 1840 by inviting her aristocratic friends round for a cuppa,' the website reads. 'Then Queen Victoria gave the ritual her blessing and Afternoon Tea became part of the British way of life.' Sunday's journey ups the ante with a full seven-course lunch, prepared using the finest seasonal ingredients from across the British Isles. 'As the glorious countryside passes by, indulge in freshly prepared canapés including caviar blinis. Then your starter is served, followed by a seasonal soup course, hand served by one of our highly skilled Stewards. 'The main course follows shortly after, intricately crafted and showcasing the best of British produce inspired by the route ahead. Later we'll serve a seasonal dessert that has been freshly prepared by our team of chefs. 'To round the journey off, choose from an array of British cheeses from our award-winning cheese board, accompanied with chutney, fruitcake, biscuits and a glass of Port. Finally, mull over the journey with Fortnum & Mason tea and petits fours.' The train's carriages have been lovingly restored by some of the country's finest craftspeople, including marquetry experts, muralists and mosaic artists, offering a visual feast to complement the culinary one. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. The West Highland Line itself, known in Gaelic as Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean - Iron Road to the Isles - links the western ports of Scotland to Glasgow and is widely considered the most picturesque railway line in Britain. The Northern Belle is scheduled to return in August for two further journeys, including one to Oban, before offering two special Christmas Lunch trips later in the year. Tickets are still available, with prices starting at £365 for Friday's Afternoon Tea experience and £465 for Sunday's seven-course Highland Line adventure. Bookings can be made online.
