Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 4th August 2024 Evening Standard Ibai, Smithfield Jimi Famurewa headed to a new “City-boy steakhouse” from Basque meat specialist Nemanja Borjanović, the founder of Lurra, which overturns the beamed-farmhouse-with-pintxo-counter stereotype of the Spanish-French border region. Instead, he found a […]

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Our summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about this week. The Observer “The joyful rebirth of chef Henry Harris’s restaurant Racine.” Jay Rayner is one of the first of the critics to review Bouchon Racine; even before going, as a “huge, dribbling admirer of all the people involved and all […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the two weeks ending 30 October 2022 – sorry for the enforced break, the editors were busy putting the finishing touches to our UK guide. We hope you enjoy this double issue! ***** The Sunday Times Marina O’Loughlin surprised and […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 16 October 2022. ***** The Evening Standard “Unquestionably, one of my openings of the year.” Jimi Famurewa visited Speedboat Bar, the “latest Southeast Asian-inspired collaboration between chef-grower Luke Farrell and hospitality juggernaut JKS”. “It is an adult […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 9 October 2022. ***** The Observer Jay Rayner was in Deal at the very edge of Kent, where he tasted dishes once only available to the “hottest, most thrilling A-list” patrons of The Chiltern Firehouse, where “tables […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 2 October 2022. ***** The Telegraph William Sitwell visited Toklas, which can be found on a nondescript street off The Strand. In the same “behemoth of monolithic greyness” where “the machinations of Soho House are stirring” (it’s […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 25 September 2022. ***** The Sunday Times Even the most cynical of critics will be won over by Water Lane, insists Marina O’Loughlin: it’s “just the most serene and beautiful place, billows of flowers framing ornate grade […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 11 September 2022. ***** The Sunday Times The Stratford hotel in east London is “a building that Ridley Scott might have rejected for Blade Runner as too comically dystopian”. Inside, on the 7th floor (“suspended between a […]

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Our weekly summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 4 September 2022. ***** The Sunday Times Marina O’Loughlin reviewed Bottle & Rye in Brixton, Robin Gill’s “tribute to the seductive newish breed of Parisian wine bars”. The “daily blackboard menu rammed with things I want to […]

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Happy Bank Holiday Monday! This is what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 28 August 2022. ***** The Evening Standard “Lately, I have been reacquainting myself with the joys of a bargain restaurant deal.” Taking advantage of the “citywide awakening… that budget-consciousness and brilliance are not mutually exclusive […]

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