⦿ In the Observer, Jay Rayner reviewed Barbecoa, the new Piccadilly flagship from Jamie Oliver (pictured, left, with Raymond Blanc), a grand and expensive “meat and smoke extravaganza“. “It feels like a big New York brasserie crossed with a branch of Hawksmoor. The real action is downstairs in a basement space which laughs in the […]
Jamie Oliver is closing his last Union Jacks restaurant, in Covent Garden plaza, bringing an end to the his flatbreads-and-British-comfort-food hybrid after five years. The announcement follows the closure in January of six branches of the celebrity chef’s under-performing Jamie’s Italian chain. The other three Union Jacks branches closed in January 2014. A company spokesman said: […]
Jamie Oliver is to close six of his Jamie’s Italian restaurants, his company blaming a “tough market” along with “post-Brexit pressures and unknowns” for the move. Is this one of the first examples of 2017 of under-performing businesses reaching for the Brexit ‘get out of jail free’ card? The closures are at Ludgate Hill in […]
Sourced Market this week became the first food business to open in the vast Nova restaurant-and-retail development opposite Victoria station. A further 16 restaurants and pop-up kiosks are due to open from early next year in the lower floors of the £250million Land Securities development, which also contains offices and luxury flats. There will be outdoor seating for 700 […]
TV chef Gino D’Acampo is parking his pasta machine on Jamie Oliver’s lawn with the announcement that his third My Restaurant will open in Leeds city centre by the end of the year – directly opposite Jamie’s Italian. Billed as “the UK’s favourite Italian chef”, D’Acampo made his name through TV appearances including a victorious […]
Former Clare Smyth protégé, Steven Ellis, is due to open his own restaurant in Windsor next month, after 10 years spent in kitchens like Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, The Star Inn, Harome and Jamie O’s Fifteen. The Oxford Blue, a high end gastropub, will launch towards the end of May. The restaurant managers, husband and wife team […]
Monsieur Raymond Blanc presided over the Food Made Good Awards this week with typically French gusto, presenting his bon ami Jamie O with the Sustainability Hero Award, among many other accolades conferred upon green-thinking restaurateurs and suppliers. Held at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Hall on 22 March, the ceremony was by far the award’s […]
The Chancellor’s budget for 2016 has proved rather divisive since its unveiling last week. From Jeremy Corbyn’s calls for George Osborne to resign over a purported £4.4 billion black hole in the numbers to Iain Duncan’s Smith’s dramatic exit, it has split opinion among the general public, politicians and the catering industry. One aspect of […]
We’ve teamed up with the good people of Twizoo to announce the top 5 trending restaurants on Twitter each week in London. Twizoo is an app that gives restaurant recommendations based on what people are saying on Twitter, and analyses over 50,000 incoming tweets per week to determine which restaurants are attracting the most buzz. […]
Well it’s time to say a fond farewell to 2015, and what a year it’s been. The possibility of a pop-up that allows diners to pet foxes, a cereal café causing a riot, celebrity chef spats, and endless controversy as restaurant after restaurant was accused of unfair practices over tipping and service charges. From scathing […]
