L’Ortolan near Reading, a beacon of UK gastronomy for four decades, is to close down at the end of next month. Peter Newman, the IT entrepreneur who has owned the restaurant since 2000, blamed the closure on a familiar combination of Brexit, pandemic lockdowns and the cost-of-living crisis, which left customers less inclined to spend […]
The Barbary is to open a new flagship on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill in September. Inspired by the cooking of North Africa, the original was launched by Zoë and Layo Paskin in Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden, eight years ago, and was followed by The Barbary Next Door. The new venue, formerly the Maddox Gallery, is […]
Diners were disappointed to learn of two premature endings this week, with the closure of London risotto specialist All’Onda from first-time restaurateur Cordula Schluz (pictured) and the departure of veteran chef Simon Bonwick after 18 months at the Dew Drop Inn in Berkshire. All’Onda (meaning ‘on the wave’), in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, only lasted for […]
Hot on the heels of the £1bn Ivy sale, the Financial Times has reported that the Hawksmoor steakhouse group is considering the possibility of a £100m sale to fund its international expansion. Founded in 2006 by Will Beckett and Huw Gott with a single site in Spitalfields, Hawksmoor opened a branch last week in Chicago, […]
Des Gunewardena has announced plans to open a multifaceted restaurant and bar next year at Olympia, the Victorian exhibition halls in west London currently undergoing a five-year upgrade costing £1.3bn. The announcement comes as Des, a former partner in D&D London, opens the first ventures of his new company D3 Collective – Engel and Jang, […]
Two high-profile rural restaurants have changed hands this week – Tyddyn Llan in north Wales and The Cottage in the Wood near Keswick – with a new guard of chef operators taking over in each case. At Tyddyn Llan in Llandrillo, Denbighshire, veteran chef Bryan Webb and his wife Susan are retiring after 22 years, having announced […]
Jeremy Clarkson has bought a pub 10 miles from his Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds, which he plans to open later this year to sell his own produce and beer. Announcing the move in his Sunday Times column, the petrol-head-turned-farmer said he had bought The Windmill, a pub and wedding venue on five acres […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 30th June 2024 Evening Standard Akira Back, Mayfair Jimi Famurewa gasped when he stepped inside the extravagant new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair in Hanover Square. Sadly its headline restaurant, from Seoul-born, Las Vegas-based celeb chef Akira Back, had the opposite […]
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 […]
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 […]
