Former MasterChef: The Professionals winner Steven Edwards is to open his first restaurant, Etch, in Hove next month, with a focus on local Sussex produce. Edwards, 30, trained under Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons near Oxford and spent six years at The Pass restaurant in South Lodge Hotel near Horsham, winning MasterChef in […]
Modern Chinese restaurant Shikumen is to open its fourth branch in late April, in the new Dorsett City Hotel next to Aldgate station. Since making made its debut at the Dorsett Hotel in Shepherd’s Bush, Chinese-owned Shikumen followed up with branches in Ealing and Finchley – so the new venue will be its first in central London. […]
Chef, singer, broadcaster and supper club host Andi Oliver is to open her first restaurant next month in Stoke Newington – her home turf. Andi’s will serve brunch classics by day – baked eggs, French toast bacon sandwiches and Reubens with home-cured salt-beef – and transform into a more formal brasserie in the evening. She will be […]
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand – where Dickens and Shaw, Gladstone and Disraeli, Conan Doyle and PG Wodehouse all feasted – will close in April for an overhaul designed to reclaim its status as one of London’s leading restaurants. Founded in 1828 as the Grand Cigar Divan coffee house and chess club, it became famous for its lavish servings of […]
⦿ The Observer’s Jay Rayner reviewed Chop Chop in Edinburgh, which confirmed his view that dumplings are the ultimate comfort food – “While you are eating dumplings nothing bad can happen.” Opened in 2006 by Jian Wang, from Dongbei in northeast China, Chop Chop excels in its dumplings, although its other dishes were more variable […]
The Brighton-based Giggling Squid group of Thai restaurants has announced its first London opening, in Wimbledon village this summer. The group plans to expand rapidly in the capital, having taken a £6.4million investment to accelerate growth plans. The Wimbledon venue will seat 110, with potential to double in size by extending upstairs. It launched a branch […]
Pembrokeshire-born chef Tom Simmons is opening his first restaurant in London this spring, with a focus on the best Welsh ingredients. Simmons, 28, appeared on MasterChef – The Professionals in 2011 and has worked with Tom Aikens and Mark Sargeant. His new self-named venue, with partner Lois Thomas running the front of house, is in the […]
Seafood and oyster specialist Wright Brothers will open a flagship 150-cover restaurant this summer as the first businesses move into the redeveloped Battersea Power Station. It will be Wright Brothers’ fifth restaurant since opening their first at Borough Market in 2005. The business began as a seafood wholesaler three years earlier – a role that […]
Nieves Barragan, head chef at London’s all-conquering Barrafina tapas bars, is leaving the group where she has run the kitchens since the first Barrafina opened in Soho. Group general manager José Etura (pictured) is also leaving to work with her on a new project. Barragan joined the […]
Chef Matt Gillan will open his all-day café and evening restaurant in Brighton later this month — and has launched a kickstarter campaign to fund an ambitious extension. Gillan, who ran the Pass restaurant at South Lodge Hotel near Horsham for five successful years until last April, took over the Red Roaster café and roastery in Kemptown […]
