Restaurateur Richard Corrigan has introduced a dynastic element to his business with the elevation of his son Richie to the post of general manager at Corrigan’s Mayfair. He has also appointed former Jason Atherton deputy Ross Bryans as chef patron to lead Corrigan’s Mayfair into a new era. Bryans trained with Clare Smyth at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay […]
A pair of chefs with impressive kitchen credentials have teamed up to open a tiny venture in Mayfair inspired by the new wave of bistros in Paris. Launching in May, Neo Bistro will accommodate just 25 diners, with banquette tables that can be reserved and counter seats for walk-ins. Following the Parisian lead, it will offer a daily changing […]
⦿ Marina O’Loughlin of The Guardian reviewed Lorne 7/10 in Victoria, which lived up to the impressive CV of its founding partners, Katie Exton (sommelier and front of house) and Peter Hall (chef), who have worked at the Square, the River Cafe, Chez Bruce, Brawn and San Francisco’s celebrated Benu. “It’s the beef short rib that would make me a […]
Ana Ros, newly crowned as top female chef by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (see Harden’s report), will be cooking in London on June 14. Ros, chef-patron of Hisa Franko in Slovenia, heads the line-up at Chefstock, the annual festival hosted by Alyn Williams at his restaurant in Mayfair’s Westbury Hotel. Williams said this year’s Chefstock will […]
Sommelier-turned-restaurateur Xavier Rousset is launching his third solo venture, Comptoir Café & Wine, in Mayfair next month. It follows the success of Blandford Comptoir in Marylebone – praised in the latest Harden’s Survey for its “superb wine list” – and Burgundy specialist Cabotte in the City, both of which opened last year. Tucked away behind Bond Street station […]
Le Gavroche, the Roux family flagship and foundation stone of modern London gastronomy, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a “Back to the Classics” menu of original dishes from 1967. The menu is available until December and costs £90 a head for five courses, bookable in advance, to be shared in the Library […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer reviewed Bundobust in Manchester, a “vibrant and cheap” combination of Indian veggie streetfood and craft beer that opened in December — and “by God, it works“. “Right now, the large, echoey basement space off the city’s Piccadilly feels like a big fat link in a chain, only one that hasn’t quite been […]
The family behind Jamavar, the new upmarket Indian in Mayfair, has taken the lease on Claude Bosi’s former restaurant Hibiscus in Maddox and plans to open an as-yet unnamed “casual Indian concept” there later this year. Dinesh Nair, co-chairman and managing director of India’s uber-luxurious Leela Palace group, has joined forces with his daughter Samyukta (pictured) for […]
Chefs past and present at Le Gavroche are receiving a Christmas bonus this year following Michel Roux Jr’s announcement that he will make up the shortfall owed to underpaid staff members. The payments, thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds, follow revelations of underpayment at the Mayfair temple of gastronomy that have rumbled on for a […]
⦿ AA Gill of the Sunday Times opened his review of The Magpie Café 5/5 in Whitby with the bombshell that he has cancer, an announcement that – uniquely perhaps for a restaurant review – was trailed by a front-page report. “I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English,” he wrote, promising to let his readers know […]
