The Columbo Group – the folks behind Shoreditch and Camden’s Texan BBQ joints The Blues Kitchen – have just announced a third outpost coming to south London. The group has purchased the Electric Social in Brixton and will develop the site with a view to opening the restaurant and bar in autumn 2015. This will be the third […]
From its inauspicious roots as a Brixton Market pizzeria, Franco Manca – as famous for its queues as it is for its sourdough crust – has built an enviable restaurant empire. So enviable in fact that David Page’s Fulham Shore wants to buy it. The restaurant group behind The Real Greek (which saw an uptick in positive […]
“Foodie hipster heaven” The Clove Club will become the first UK restaurant to charge diners who cancel their reservations less than 24 hours in advance or fail to show up at all. From April restaurant-goers who make bookings at the old Shoreditch Town Hall dining room will be required to register their debit or credit […]
One of the capital’s most revered Italian restaurants will celebrate 25 years in business in April. Enoteca Turi, a fixture in our London guide since 1995, has been serving up “first-class regional cooking” plus “a massive selection of carefully chosen Italian wines” for a quarter of a century. Its Putney Bridge-side location, while a little […]
In the same week that we wondered whether the craze for niche, single offering restaurants had reached its ne plus ultra with grilled cheese spot The Melt Room, some comforting news that east London has not yet found its ceiling when it comes to unusual dining concepts. Not content with a cat cafe (Lady Dinah’s), a […]
Mark Sargeant (of Folkestone’s Rocksalt and London’s Plum + Spilt Milk fame) has been brought in to revamp the menu at Trafalgar Square’s Strand Dining Rooms. The all-day restaurant, launched by restaurateur Mark Harris last year, received some pretty scathing reviews from the likes of Giles Coren “the chicken wasn’t fit to bait a mousetrap” and […]
Jay Rayner weighs in on the north/south restaurant divide question The Observer’s critic-in-chief heads to Manchester to try out the new Hawksmoor and stumbles across a veggie dining room, 1847, serving great food – well, apart from the desserts. Read our roundup of restaurant news in Manchester and enter our Hawksmoor Manchester competition. Meanwhile the […]
Another pop-up goes permanent as former supper club collaboration Flat Three opens a restaurant in Holland Park. Although serving up ‘Japanese-inspired’ food we’re told the dishes have been influenced by flavours from Korea and Scandinavia too. There will be a soft-launch period from 2 April (with a complimentary 500ml carafe of wine per couple per table). A joint […]
Skye Gyngell has announced an addition to her first stand-alone London restaurant, Spring at Somerset House. The chef (often credited with putting Petersham Nurseries on the culinary map) plans to open a trio of spaces called The Salon adjacent to her New Wing dining room on 3 April. Spring opened late last year and had a […]
MasterChef’s Monica Galetti has left Le Gavroche after 12 years, potentially to open her own London restaurant. She decided to leave her job as senior sous chef at the Mayfair institution following an event in her family (not elaborated upon) which made her reevaluate her professional goals. Galetti is now in talks with a new business partner […]
