This week – inspired by St Valentine’s day – our theme has been romance. Having reviewed two ‘heavy hitters’, we’ve decided to wrap up with somewhere that’s not too obviously smoochy: ideal for a hot date where you don’t want to be seen to be trying too hard. Racine is at the far end of […]
How’s your Valentine’s booking coming along? One excellent choice – though for next year I’m afraid, given that it was fully booked by the end of January – is the subject of today’s review. From the outside, Maggiore’s gives every impression of wanting to ‘fit in’ alongside the mass-market outlets of Covent Garden. By looking […]
Sometimes panic is the right response. If you haven’t yet landed a table for a week today – and your beloved isn’t going to be impressed – it is most definitely time to get on the blower. One place you needn’t call however (they booked up pretty much immediately when the list for the 14th […]
Rocco Forte’s mission to re-establish his family name as a force in hotels goes from strength to strength. He has snapped up some great continental properties, and opened top-level newcomers in British cities that previously had none: in Manchester or Cardiff, chez Rocco is the best place to stay. Not, however, the top place to […]
The Conran group is an enigma. Having masterfully ridden the restaurant boom of the ’90s, it remains by far the largest operator of ‘quality’ restaurants in town (and now also has operations in New York, Paris and Stockholm). It has achieved all this despite having developed a reputation in many quarters for ‘conveyor belt dining’. […]
The Victorian aristocracy regarded trade with horror, so Belgravia’s vast main squares contain only houses and churches. No restaurants, of course, as gentlemen dined in private houses or their clubs. No pubs, either: strictly for the servants, these were pokey places hidden away in the mews. And point of all this social history’ is that, […]
Simple things done well is a hallmark of the best British cooking. It’s a maxim which the owners of this gastropub by Putney Heath – who also run Notting Hill’s Zucca – seem to have taken to heart. We visited on the sort of cold winters’ day when you long for some kind of winter […]
Consistent acclaim elsewhere inspired us to save Richard Corrigan revamped Theatreland veteran (1916) for a special business celebration. Initial impressions are indeed favourable: the creaky character of old has been given a facelift, giving the whole enterprise – from downstairs oyster bar to upstairs dining room – a confident veneer. Things started to go a […]
We’ve got used to restaurants which claim outlets in New York – or Paris – and London’. But the proud boast ‘Toulouse and London’ is a novelty. (Indeed, the only recent provincial-French incursion into the capital that springs to mind is by the Michelin-bedecked Pourcel brothers from Montpellier, whose West End opening W’sens is thought […]
This Pimlico side street spot has earned ‘hidden gem’ status among the capital’s restaurant cognoscenti. If you’ve never given it a go, there’s an excellent-value new set lunch here that’s a good reason to make the trip. At £35, and, with the exception of 12.5% service, it really does include everything, including water, half a […]
