Hip East London wine bar/restaurants Bright (pictured) and P Franco, together with the group’s bottle shop, Noble Fine Liquor in Broadway Market, have closed down at short notice. Founders Phil Bracey and Liam Kelleher launched P Franco in Clapton in 2014, and the group became influential pioneers of the low-intervention wines now found in foodie […]
Mano Mayfair, billed as a “swanky Brazilian fusion bar and restaurant“, returns to a permanent address in Mill Street next Friday (31 March), having occupied a perch in nearby Heddon Street last year. Brazilian TV chef Rafa Gomes, who has restaurants in Rio and Paris, is behind the menu, taking over from Luciana Berry, who […]
Landmark Edinburgh restaurant 21212 is to close down at the end of next week, following the sudden death in December of chef-patron Paul Kitching at the age of 61. His partner, Katie O’Brien, has announced that the last service will be on Saturday 1st April. She wrote: “The passing of Paul has devastated all the […]
Floating seafood operation London Shell Co is to open its first land-based site next week – a combined fishmonger and seafood bar off Parliament Hill in Highgate. Brother-and-sister team Leah and Harry Lobek launched the business in 2016, and now run two canal barges – the Prince Regent, which serves meals while cruising through London, and the […]
Our summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 19 March 2023. ***** The Independent “Sexy, slick, mischievous and delicious.” Hannah Twiggs reviewed the expertly reinvented Humble Chicken, now offering a “shiny new Japanese eight-course tasting menu “with a European accent”” at the site of the Frith […]
Kibako, billed as a ‘modern Japanese restaurant’ featuring presentation boxes of exquisite small dishes, opened this week in Windmill Street, Fitzrovia. Taking over the site formerly occupied by Rai, Kibako is from the team behind Hot Stone in Islington’s Chapel Market, highly praised in the 2023 Harden’s Guide for its “high-quality Kobe beef, sushi and […]
An ambitious new dining pub fronted by two former Brat chefs and operated by the team behind Camden’s Jazz Cafe opens next Thursday (23 March) in Kentish Town. The Parakeet has taken over the premises of the landmark Oxford Tavern in Kentish Town Road, and will feature seasonal British ingredients cooked over wood fire on […]
High-flying chef Tommy Banks is to launch a new pub-restaurant with rooms this spring close to his North Yorkshire headquarters, the Black Swan in Oldstead. There is no word yet on the exact location and name of the venture, although it said to be a “historic” site and will adhere to the “hyper-local, sustainably focused […]
Long-heralded Sri Lankan restaurant Rambutan opens today (17 March) on the edge of London’s Borough Market, from chef and food-writer Cynthia Shanmugalingam (above). Rambutan was first announced last summer, when Cynthia introduced the concept with a soft-serve ice cream pop-up featuring such flavours as mango; jaggery; watermelon and hibiscus; and buffalo curd. Her first book, […]
Liverpool chef Daniel Heffy, who has returned from a sojourn in Stockholm with a new repertoire of Nordic influences, is to launch a restaurant in his hometown next Thursday (23 March) – named appropriately Nord . Daniel’s introduction to cooking came in galleys as a teenage sea cadet, and he went on to train under legendary […]
