From Alan Yau/the Busaba Eathai team, a striking prototype, by Angel tube, for a contemporary-style Thai chain; on our early-days visit, we found we could add to the chorus of approval that has greeted its arrival. Someone explained to us recently that a lot of what we at Harden’s do is not reviewing at all. […]
Farringdon’s famous ‘working class caterer’ rises yet again, offering a direct English menu in a tightly packed ‘pew-seating’ dining room – an early days visit found a simple but effective formula, offered at very reasonable prices. Let’s start by getting the benches out of the way. This Victorian ‘working class caterer’ has always been most […]
Get thee to the Tower! – if you’re looking for a sunny day lunch destination, you could do very much worse than this surprisingly low-kew ‘tourist’ lunch spot, by the Thames. The very idea of tourist-catering chills the blood, so we approached this appallingly-named newcomer – which overlooks the walkway ‘twixt Thames and Tower – […]
The former Oriel (RIP) site on Sloane Square, relaunched by ‘the Wolseley boys’ as an immediately-successful Gallic brasserie of a high standard; service, though, was decidedly slow, on our visit a few weeks after opening. Earl Cadogan does not believe in ‘absentee’ landlord-ism. Oriel, the former occupant of this prominent Sloane Square site, had the […]
Near Notting Hill Gate, on the site long known as The Ark (RIP), an unpretentious bistro offering a small-plates formula, and already exerting a wide-ranging appeal. Since 1962, this funny little building near Notting Hill Gate – for most of that period called ‘The Ark’ – has been well-known as a restaurant destination and, especially […]
A ‘scene’ and some great food too! – we check out one of the Big Apple’s openings of the year’ and find it lives up to the hype! Somewhat to our surprise, we manage to snag a table at the restaurant Eater.com called ‘the biggest [NYC] opening of 2012’. For 9pm on a Saturday night. […]
North of Liverpool Street, an understated (to a fault) bar/restaurant offering the cuisine of Kyoto; despite the best efforts of the charming staff, and the beautiful presentation of the dishes, our early-days lunch was very dull. We were rather excited by the idea of Chrysan – the first non-Hakkasan-branded outlet of the group founded by […]
The fourth member of Belgravia’s own Italian restaurant group; on our visit, steak and service were highlights of an experience that was otherwise rather lacklustre. Within living memory, Belgravia didn’t really exist. It was known more as ‘Knightsbridge’ to the north, and ‘Victoria’ to the south, possibly with a bit of ‘Pimlico’ thrown in to […]
A monumental triumph of hype over experience? – we visit the Fitzrovia restaurant where you can’t generally get a table until 2013′ and totally fail to understand the excitement. As we write, we have in front of us a bill, for two, for £162.55, which included a bottle of basic wine, and two cups of […]
The ground-floor dining room of the D&D (‘Conran’) group’s first solo hotel venture, near Liverpool Street; the venture as a whole generally impressed on our early-days visit, but this particular restaurant struck us as lacking in inspiration, both culinarily and on the design front. We go back a long way with the D&D Group, or […]
