From Claude Bosi – a chef who gained a reputation as among the UK’s best when his restaurant was in Ludlow – a charming and understated Mayfair dining room, if one perhaps rather lacking in electricity; in these early days, it is not clear whether the occasional wackiness of the menu will be perceived as […]
Overlooking the ‘Wobbly Bridge’ and Tate Modern, a discreet and unusually welcoming City restaurant offering a tempting and elegantly realised English menu at reasonable prices’ and a view too! There’s very little not to like about this new City business-restaurant, which occupies the space – looking across the Thames to Tate Modern – formerly occupied […]
In the heart of Chinatown, a much-above average Chinese newcomer (with some Sichuan specialities), of particular note for its exceptional-value set lunch. It’s not often that a small new Chinese restaurant makes waves immediately on opening, but this one’s been making an early claim on critical attention, and quite rightly too, if our experience was […]
On a difficult Theatreland site (most recently home to Dune, RIP), a somewhat tacky bar offering some surprisingly good oriental snacks at very reasonable prices. In most industries, a good site is a prominent site, but it doesn’t necessarily work that way in the West End bar/restaurant world. The site of the Electric Birdcage had […]
From part of the team that built Strada, the Wimbledon prototype of a Gallic bistro chain; unlike most press reviewers, we found standards generally unimpressive. One of the big fears of the restaurant critical world is just not ‘getting’ it. You go along to a place that’s been unanimously well reviewed – in respectable publications […]
A much-heralded no-nonsense British newcomer, in Bayswater, heavily influenced by owner Tom Pemberton’s experience at St John Bread & Wine; though the food is generally sound, the overall experience fell short of our expectations. Michael Winner sometimes notes how, to many in the ‘hospitality’ industry, a smile is as ‘a silver cross to a vampire’. […]
By the Palladium, a de luxe ‘high-street-style’ restaurant offering an extensive menu stretching from sushi to surf ‘n’ turf; it combines the charm of an Angus Steak House with the culinary flair of a Garfunkel’s. As Oscar Wilde once observed, only fools don’t judge by appearances, and – on such a basis – we doubt […]
A classic MPW-French operation decorated in subdued nightclubby style, rather unpromisingly located by the entrance to Chelsea FC; the style of the operation is arguably a little passé, but the food is of high quality. London’s restaurants have come so far over the past 20 years – and particularly the past 10 – that the […]
Decorated in extravagant North African style, a bubbly bar/restaurant basement near Liverpool Street; its handy location and its style – suited to parties and, arguably, romance – has already made it a popular City destination, but prices (and the noise level) are very high, and culinary standards are ordinary in the extreme. The former occupant […]
An ambitious newcomer, just north of Oxford Street, where the personal touch of the co-owners – an ex-Manoir head chef and sommelier – is much in evidence; while we were charmed by the service (and wines), we were not convinced that the strikingly-plated dishes lived up to their high prices. Texture is an under-appreciated part […]
