Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 6th October 2024 The Observer In a footnote to Jay Rayner’s damning review last week of restaurant 18 at Rusacks hotel in St Andrew’s, 18’s executive chef Billy Boyter this week announced his departure after just eight months – with […]
A pair of young chefs are launching a pop-up called ‘Pario’ at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall next week, taking over the space left empty since the closure of Mark Hix’s Pharmacy 2 three years ago. George Brown, a private chef with plenty of pop-up experience, and Charlie Bryant, who has worked at […]
Peruvian restaurant LIMA this week opened its third branch, LIMA Shoreditch, in the boutique Sun Street Hotel on the edge of the City. Brothers Gabriel & José Luís Gonzales launched the original in Fitzrovia in 2012, and followed up two years later with a Covent Garden branch, Lima Cantina. Gabriel said, “We are beyond thrilled […]
Simon Wood (pictured) announced the shock closure of his acclaimed Manchester restaurant WOOD earlier this week, closely followed by Michael O’Hare confirming the closure of Psycho Sandbar in Leeds – which had only been open for seven months after replacing his famous The Man Behind The Curtain. Michael said he was proud of what he had […]
Islington’s post-covid curry phenomenon Tamil Prince has opened its first offshoot in South London with the launch this week of Tamila in Clapham. The restaurant has taken over the former site of VE Kitchen in Northcote Road – the main drag of thriving ‘Nappy Valley’, south of Clapham Junction station. Tamila brings back the name of […]
Edinburgh sommelier James Clark (left in picture) launches his debut project today (4 October) – Sotto, a wine bar and restaurant in Stockbridge that celebrates Italian food and wine. Sotto – meaning ‘under’ or ‘beneath’, a reference to the under-street cellar where the wines are stored – comprises an upstairs ‘enoteca’ and a ground-level trattoria led by Calabrian-born Francesco […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 29th September 2024 London Standard The Ritz, Piccadilly In a week when ‘fine dining’ emerged as a coincidental theme for reviewers, David Ellis was clearly in the mood to celebrate his elevation to the role of the Standard’s chief […]
Mexican chef Santiago Lastra launches his follow-up to smash-hit Kol next week. Fonda will open on Thursday (3 October) in Mayfair’s Heddon Street, opposite heavyweights Sabor and Ambassadors Clubhouse. Named after a Mexican style of family-run local restaurants, Fonda will be more accessibly priced than ‘fine-dining’ Kol, with meals structured around the ‘coma’, a traditional […]
One of the capital’s most popular fish and seafood restaurant concepts of the past decade, London Shell Co, is to abandon its distinctive floating barges, switching focus to dry land. The Grand Duchess static barge moored in Paddington Basin will run its last service tomorrow (28 September), while the Prince Regent will make its final […]
Veteran Belgravia bar-brasserie Motcombs – a key ‘Sloane Ranger’ site in its 1980s prime – is to open its first spinoff venue next month, in St John’s Wood. The new 80-cover restaurant with a 16-seat covered terrace just off Circus Road will be open from breakfast through to dinner, serving a menu of classic British, European […]