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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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