From the Arbutus team, a grandly recreated Gallic brasserie, a couple of minutes walk from Charing Cross; a day-one visit revealed it to be a quality operation – indeed, its ‘offer’ would arguably be better if it were rather less ambitious. The popular team behind Arbutus and Wild Honey – who’ve stormed the capital in […]
On a barely furnished Bayswater corner, the UK’s self-proclaimed first cornmeal pizza crust restaurant; our visit suggested that it’s a concept worthy of wider diffusion. The phrase ‘concept new to the UK’ is one that chills the blood. How often have we heard that before? So it was with a sense of duty rather than […]
A potentially remarkable revival of an almost unknown Greek restaurant, in Fitzrovia, established in 1936; its interior is one of the most impressive in the West End, and the food is good too, but any sense of occasion is still lacking. Not often we get to review a restaurant that opened in 1936, and still […]
In Soho, one of the first four branches (two in London, two in NYC) of a new-concept ‘low-carbon’ chain; as chain-style veggie outlets go, it’s not a bad place, but a bit more jollity might not go amiss. It’s rather difficult to know quite what to make of ‘the planet’s first low-carbon restaurant’. One of […]
A relaunch of a charming Chelsea boozer as a slightly self-consciously-fashionable rendezvous for the local gilded youth; judged by the standards of such places, the food is pretty good. As far as we can see, Time Out hasn’t reviewed the relaunch of the Chelsea pub which used to be best known as George Best’s local. […]
A welcoming new Mayfair Italian with a happy soul; our early-days meal was a little up-and-down, but this is a destination which looks set for success nonetheless. Harden’s reviews are sometimes criticised for not talking enough about the food. We’re never quite sure why. Sir Terence Conran, who’s made a lot of money feeding people, […]
In the heart of Kennington, a really handy all-purpose gastroboozer, which was already well into its stride on our early-days lunchtime visit. The latest ‘Renaissance’ pub will come as no surprise to those who’ve visited siblings such as the Avalon, in Balham. Its airy old premises, once a woody wine bar on one of Kennington’s […]
Adjacent to the Museum of London, a simple but satisfying City brasserie that makes a better than usual adjunct to a cultural day out. We have so many cultural facilities in London, many of them ‘world-class’, but how many of these come with dining facilities to which that epithet could similarly be attached? Various Tate […]
Atop Centre Point, a surprisingly – but not disagreeably – plain and straightforward dining room, with one of the finest vistas in town. To visit the landmark which is Centre Point is to be taken back to a different, poorer London. The building (completed in ’66) may at the time have been perceived as a […]
By Bart’s Hospital, a handy little wine bar/bistro, where the food happens to be both Italian and vegetarian – on our early-days visit, it was of consistently good quality. So here we are in a pretty backwater on the fringe of the City, in premises which look rather like a traditional wine bar-cum-bistro (which is […]
