Our mission is remarkably simple. To tell it how it is!
Nicholas Lander in The Financial Times reviews Kai Mayfair, Grand Imperial at Charing Cross Hotel and Four Seasons on Chinatown’s Gerard Street, in anticipation of Chinese New Year (the Year of the Dog begins on 16 February)… “The long-established Kai Mayfair has a menu that is well attuned to wealthy clientele. While the high prices could, I suppose, […]
Marina O’Laughlin in The Sunday Times is baffled by the existence of Beach Blanket Babylon in Notting Hill (as are we all). The venture, with sites in W11 and Shoreditch, has never scored above a 1/5 for food in our survey and has long since been dropped from the pages of the guide… “Today, the […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer falls head over heels for Bertha at Edo, a new restaurant from former Ramsay protégé Jonny Elliot which opened discreetly in Belfast last year. To clarify, Bertha is the name of their wood-fired oven. You weren’t expecting her to be the waitress were you? “One of the issues with somewhere like […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer is more than able for Soho institution L’Escargot – seeing as he “bloody loves a snail” and all. It is the critic’s first article as part of the launch of Observer’s new magazine… “L’Escargot is your stylish auntie, the one who knows how to grow old gracefully. Oh, and it does snails, […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer reviews Lewisham’s outpost of Sanxia Renjia, a three-strong group of restaurants “celebrating the food of Sichuan and Hubei”… “Sanxia is on a different mission… the staff, like the rest of the menu, are eager. They want you to march across unexplored territory. “The room isn’t much of a looker… Pay attention instead to what is […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer reviewed Manchester’s German-themed restaurant Albert’s Schloss where the “waiters aren’t wearing lederhosen and slapping each other’s thighs manfully, but they might as well be”… “If you didn’t pay proper attention, you might dismiss Albert’s Schloss as Dante’s third circle of hell, only with less glamour. The music is so loud it could dislodge a […]
We take a look back at the best (and worst) of 2017 in the restaurant world. From TripAdvisor naming a Vice writer’s Dulwich shed the best restaurant in London to the chef who served food without plates, and plenty of scathing reviews – enjoy our highlights of the year. 2017, we salute you… When TripAdvisor […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer loves Stevie Parle’s Roman restaurant in Clerkenwell – Palatino – so much he doesn’t want to leave… “I don’t want to leave. Ever. I am very happy here in my lunchtime booth, as deep winter daylight falls, the lovely things keep arriving at my table and a fug of contentment settles. I […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer wants to love the newly refurbished Simpsons in the Strand, but the booze prices (“a maniacal laugh in the face of sanity”), “calamitous” Beef Wellington, and lack their infamous breakfast rather spoils his fun… “I want to love Simpson’s in the Strand. I want to adore it, in the way I once […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer says the decor at Gul & Sepoy is so distressed it needs a hug. From reading his review it sounds like Jay could use one too… “Sometimes it just doesn’t matter how good individual dishes are… If, at the end of the meal you feel baffled or let down or short […]
