Mercato Metropolitano (MM) Ilford will finally open next month – five years after first being announced. The wood-framed structure (pictured above during the construction) set in a disused car park in the town’s ‘cultural quarter’ offers street-food entrepreneurs the opportunity to showcase their cooking in a communal food hall – and is part of the regeneration of […]

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A Japanese restaurant that has made a big splash in Taiwan and mainland China will open its first UK site in Soho’s Wardour Street next month. Kanpai Classic specialises in yakinuku, with customers cooking meat and vegetables themselves on a table-top grill. The grilling options will be led by a choice of 10 cuts of […]

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Florentine comfort food concept Dez Amore opens its first permanent restaurant next week, on a corner site in Chelsea with a retro-modern look inspired by Italy in the 1970s. Launched by two friends from Florence, Leonardo Masi and Simone Parentini (pictured), Dez Amore lays claim to a ‘double soul’ that combines traditional Italian cooking with […]

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Darcy Millar is the London-born founder of Darcys Kaffe (darcyskaffe.dk), a successful coffee shop and events caterer in Copenhagen. In this excerpt, he outlines his approach to recruiting staff and creating a business’s culture. (The Instant Coffee Shop is published by Palazzo Editions at £14.99, ISBN 9781786751287)) RECRUITMENT When hiring staff for general roles at […]

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Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 23rd June 2024 Evening Standard Café Britaly, Peckham When this restaurant’s purist-baiting pitch first came to his notice, Jim Famurewa dismissed the whole enterprise as clickbait – “winking Britalian camp” and “a silly play for virality”. But when he […]

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Camilla Fayed’s high-profile plant-based restaurant Farmacy in Westbourne Grove is closing after eight years on Sunday 7 July. No reason has been given for the move. When contacted at the restaurant, a spokesperson said the business’s external events catering arm would remain in operation and an announcement would be made later this year concerning a […]

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