Just off Regent Street, a potentially useful brasserie, under the same ownership as Ottolenghi, and in a broadly similar (if more ambitious) style; format and location are undoubtedly very handy, but these attractions are undermined by high prices. Upmarket deli/pâtisserie Ottolenghi has a legions of fans, many of whom have been keenly awaiting the opening […]
Bringing the style of New York’s hip Meatpacking District to Leicester Square, a glamorous establishment which brings a lot of style (with prices to match) to a menu inspired by the spicy street food of the Orient. Jean-Georges Vongerichten is, arguably, the most influential chef/restaurateur in the world. He runs a world-class French restauraurants (Jean-Georges, […]
A former inn, prettily located on Wimbledon Common, whose interior has been converted to a large, contemporary-style dining room offering rich cooking of high quality; though many aspects of the operation are individually impressive, we left feeling that the experience’š in these admittedly early days, did not entirely ‘gel’. What could be more English than […]
Near Brompton Cross, a relaunch of Papillon as a good all-round-Italian; in fact little, except the cuisine, seems really to have changed from the former régime. Don’t they have enough Italian restaurants round Brompton Cross? Undaunted, the owners of Papillon – a rather useful French restaurant, we always thought – have recently re-named it, and […]
Bang opposite the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a former pub that’s now a offshoot – in what’s essentially a high-quality bistro format – of the Salt Yard/Dehesa tapas empire; its attractions for Covent Garden lunchers and theatre-goers are self-evident. Until recently, the rule was pretty simple: Covent Garden restaurants were for dumb tourists and theatre-goers. […]
Hidden-away in Knightsbridge, a small and genuine new Gallic bistro, of particular interest as a lunchtime destination. A small, Gallic bistro where the prices seem very reasonable? In Knightsbridge? In the very shadow of the Candy brothers’ ‘One Hyde Park’ colossus? The marketing messages that drew us to this little newcomer, hidden-away in a pedestrian […]
Heston Blumenthal’s historically-themed Knightsbridge newcomer – it’s undoubtedly a good restaurant, but is it good enough to stand up to the hype? Has any restaurant in recent years been a more hotly anticipated media event than Heston Blumenthal’s Knightsbridge newcomer? By the third day of official opening – on the lunch service of which we […]
A tiny but very smart Baltic-tinged newcomer, in Marylebone; the cooking is pretty straightforward, but the set lunch menu, in particular, offers excellent value. There’s something not entirely English about this cute little Marylebone newcomer. Even though it is very compact indeed, having just 26 seats, and these divided between two rooms, it is nonetheless […]
From the same backers as the celebrated Terroirs bistro in central London, a (more informal) East End offshoot of similar quality; it has much laid-back charm, and is already very busy. Terroirs goes East. Yes, that’s really is pretty much everything you need to know about this new bistro, recently opened in the East End. […]
