Filipino chef Ferdinand ‘Budgie’ Montoya opens his latest venture tomorrow (Saturday 13 May) – Apoy, a street-food barbecue stall in the Oxford Street Market Halls. Budgie has raised the profile of Filipino cuisine in London in recent years through his bistro Sarap, which operated in Mayfair’s restaurant incubator Heddon Street last year, and TV appearances on […]

Continue reading


Lina Stores, the veteran Soho deli transformed into a contemporary pasta restaurant group, is to open its long-promised branch on the edge of Clapham Common next month. The new venue with Lina’s distinctive green and white-striped awning has taken over a prime corner site on The Pavement formerly occupied by St Clair, an ambitious ‘fish […]

Continue reading


A new Asian-owned and inspired steakhouse near Paddington station will be opened next week by no less a figure than Queen Azizah of Malaysia (pictured with King Abdullah), who is visiting London to attend King Charles’s coronation. Meet Bros is named for the meeting of Asian and Western cuisines, is fully halal and serves no […]

Continue reading


Two new Italian restaurants have opened this month blending traditional Italian cuisine with external ingredients and influences – Terra Moderna in London (pictured) and Assaggini in Edinburgh. Terra Moderna, in Belsize Park, north London, gains Antipodean credentials from its Australian founder, coffee entrepreneur Jeffrey Young of the Allegra Group, whose café England’s Lane is next […]

Continue reading