Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 23 February 2020. Four Seasons, London W1 “Because a nasty virus has broken out in a city 5,500 miles away from London, Britain’s Chinese community is suffering.” Jay Rayner from The Observer was in London’s Chinatown to show his support for the restaurant […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 9 February 2020. Casa do Frango, London EC2 “Tortured food v excellent ingredients unmucked-about — I know what wins every time” Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times was craving chicken and chips after enduring a TV show in which Heston Blumenthal made a […]

Continue reading


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 […]

Continue reading


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 […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 19 January 2020. Paradise, London W1 Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times booked for a return visit to Paradise immediately after her first, and even “felt so evangelical about the place” that she posted on Instagram about the mutton […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 12 January 2020. Bistro 46, Newcastle “It took me a while to get to Bistro 46, but I’m very pleased I made it.” The Observer’s Jay Rayner was still in the North, and dropped into Newcastle to review a […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 5 January 2020 – our first round-up of the decade. Allegra, London E20 Grace Dent for The Guardian had a hard time convincing friends to join her for a meal at Allegra. It’s just “so far away” and “Londoners […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 22 December 2019. This week’s Christmas article / ‘best of the year’ round-up came from The Evening Standard’s Fay Maschler, whose ‘favourite restaurants’ article featured many of her friends from her decades of reviewing (and “do not necessarily adhere […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 8 December 2019. We are entering the time of Christmas articles and ‘best of the year’ round-ups; Grace Dent’s article this week was about family Christmas meals, Tom Parker Bowles gave us the list of his favourite cookbooks of […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 1 December 2019. The Leaping Hare, Suffolk Jay Rayner for The Observer discovered “one of the good ones” in Suffolk this week – even though he’s “late to this party, by about a quarter of a century” as it’s […]

Continue reading