Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 2 February 2020. Mei Mei, London SE1 Jimi Famurewa for The Evening Standard is the first to report on Elizabeth Haigh’s new Borough Market Kitchen outlet; the “tiny counter café” that’s “a meticulous, loving riff on the thrumming ‘kopitiam’ coffee shops that are […]
Chef Tom Aikens has opened his latest restaurant, Muse, in Chelsea. Already his ten-course tasting menu has been called everything from terribly “pretentious twaddle” to “pure genius“. It has, it’s safe to say, caused a stir. It remains to be seen whether the controversial chef will win over the public. But it’s where people will […]
Holborn restaurant Gezellig will close today having been open for just over a year, Harden’s has learned. After a successful residency at Carousel, the trio behind Gezellig – chef Graham Long, and wine professionals James Comyn and Wieteke Teppema – located their own site in Holborn for their unique offering of ‘creative comfort food’. The […]
Edinburgh’s famous Pompadour restaurant, situated in the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh, has closed after 95 years. The closure is historic, and marks the end of a restaurant that had become an institution in the city – and had long been a celebrity hang out. Between 2012 and 2019 the fixture traded as Pompadour by Galvin under […]
Chef Scott Paton has overseen the launch Àclèaf restaurant in Boringdon Hall hotel, near Plymouth, next week. The restaurant has replaced the Gallery, a restaurant housed in a 42-bedroom Devon hotel which Paton joined in 2016. The chef won awards and gained numerous accolades in his first few years in the role. Now, Paton has […]
Claude Bosi, from Bibendum in Chelsea, has been denied permanent UK residency. The chef, who has wowed diners with his classic French nouvelle cuisine since taking on the iconic building two years ago, had his application rejected by the Home Office last week, and shared the news on social media. Bosi has lived in lived […]
Chef-patron of Notting Hill’s well adored Core, Clare Smyth, is to open a restaurant in Sydney, Australia. The location might be a little far away for Harden’s reporters, though given Core’s reputation, we imagine those on holiday will be keen to stop off at Smyth’s new venture. The chef will be among the operators in […]
Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 26 January 2020. Muse, London SW1 It wasn’t just us then. “Tom Aikens’s new bijou “experience-led” fine dining restaurant was greeted with snorts of derision as possibly the most pretentious ever.” But the last laugh is on us, as David Sexton […]
French bistro Petit Pois, famed for its enormous bowls of chocolate mousse and ultra-Gallic delivery, has closed. The traditional restaurant opened in Hoxton in summer 2016 and went on to consistently impress diners. If anything, Petis Pois improved with time, with reporters noting “Delicious French food in a small space” and dishes which were “so, […]
The Barclay brothers are rumoured to be in negotiations to sell the Ritz to a private investment group from Saudi Arabia. According to the Financial Times, the Barclays could sell the famous London hotel to Sidra Capital, a financial group based in Jeddah. Sidra is one of a number of firms to express an interest […]
