Nottingham chef Louisa Ellis, a past winner of MasterChef: The Professionals, has launched a ‘food and event-focused’ project in a former Methodist church in the city. Destination 105, in Lady Bay’s Trent Boulevard, does not operate as a conventional restaurant. Instead, it hosts one-off ‘dining experiences’ ranging from tasting menus, three-course menus and Sunday dinners […]
Mayfair restaurateur Samyukta Nair (left in photo) opens her latest restaurant, Koyn Thai, in collaboration with Bangkok-born chef Rose Chalalai Singh (centre) this Sunday, 16 June. The restaurant is taking over the basement dining room of Samyukta’s Japanese restaurant Koyn, off Grosvenor Square, with Koyn executive chef Rhys Cattermoul (right) running the kitchen. Each restaurant […]
The River Café, Ruth Rogers’s iconic Italian restaurant overlooking the Thames near Hammersmith, has opened a café next door – and yes, they’ve called it The River Café Café. The new café, which launched this week, is open every day from 9am until 10pm (4pm Sundays, closed on Mondays), serving an all-day Italian menu prepared by […]
Leeds restaurant the Swine that Dines is launching a crowdfunder campaign to raise money for a move into bigger premises in the city centre. The Swine has developed from its original incarnation as the Greedy Pig Kitchen sandwich bar in Mabgate into a much-loved local restaurant under Jo and Stuart Myers, who win praise in […]
Disfrutar in Barcelona has secured the number one crown at the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants shindig in Las Vegas, on a list dominated by restaurants from the Spanish-speaking world. Runner-up was Basque restaurant Asador Etxebarri, with Diverxo in Madrid placed fourth and restaurants from Lima (Maido), Mexico City (Quintonil) and Buenos Aires (Don Julio) […]
Chef-patron Steven Smith has left Freemasons at Wiswell, the fine-dining pub in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley that he has established as a regional star over the past 15 years. Born and raised in nearby Blackburn, Steven plans to open a new venture in the region, although he has no concrete plans as yet. Head chef Matt […]
Odette’s in Primrose Hill is to be reborn as Home Kitchen, a social enterprise fine-dining restaurant staffed by homeless people, under the direction of executive chef Adam Simmonds (centre in picture). Odette’s closed down suddenly at the end of May after a run of almost 50 years as one of London’s best-known and most atmospheric […]
Chef Tom Brown is to close his highly rated restaurant Cornerstone in Hackney Wick, citing rising costs and diners’ changing preferences. Instead, he will focus on Pearly Queen, the more relaxed fish restaurant he opened in Shoreditch last November. Launched in 2018, Cornerstone is one of the most lauded restaurants of the past decade and […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 2nd June 2024 Evening Standard The Hero, Maida Vale “This might just be the best-looking pub in the world”, pronounced David Ellis in his review of the latest project from the team behind the Pelican in Notting Hill and the […]
International Korean chef Akira Back makes his London debut at the new Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hanover Square, Mayfair, next Wednesday, 3 June – more than two years after it it was announced. He will operate two restaurants – Akira Back (pictured), reinterpreting Korean and Japanese dishes, and Dosa, a 14-seat chef’s table offering contemporary Korean […]