Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, London SW1 Grace Dent in The Guardian is the latest critic to visit Tom Kerridge’s long-awaited London home, and she “was delighted with everything”, even the fish ‘n’ chips which cost almost £33 but came with “special, once-in-a-lifetime chips… triple-cooked with an ethereal, golden shimmer”. Kerridge’s is “a big, broad and brassy […]

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Jimi Famurewa in ES investigated the “impressively long culinary shadow” of Rita’s at their new home in Bethnal Green’s Redchurch Brewery – the original Rita’s “refined deep-cuts from American diner menus” and “a ‘why not?’ embrace of knuckleduster Asian flavours” are now “part of the general lexicon of eating out in London”. The new incarnation, in a […]

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Grace Dent in The Guardian rejoiced in the “sheer chutzpah” of chef Alex Bond at Alchemilla even before she ate a bite of the “veg-centric” menu. Bond has turned a huge, “crypt-like space… an abandoned coaching house” that had “sat unloved and festering for more than 100 years” into “a capacious, open brushed aluminium kitchen” […]

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50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo, London, WC2 (****) in The Evening Standard visited the latest Neapolitan pizzeria to import itself into London (following on from L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, which recently opened in Baker Street – the first branch in Stoke Newington is no more). Despite almost everything about the place – the location (Northumberland […]

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Stem had Jay Rayner from the amuse-bouche. He was looking for reassurance, having never eaten at the chef’s previous restaurants, and not quite knowing what to expect, but “a tiny, exceedingly crisp tart filled with a deep chive emulsion, all onion kick and adoration” did the trick. The menu of “good clean English, and full […]

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Brigadiers, London EC4 Jay Rayner departed Brigadiers smelling of “roasted spices, garlic and happiness”. It’s the latest opening from the “extremely professional” JKS Restarants, “one of the slickest outfits in the business” (Gymkhana, Hoppers, Lyle’s), located “within the dead-eyed Bloomberg arcade in the City”, and “feels like a direct response to the financial institutions surrounding […]

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A happy week for the majority of the critics, with pork pies, new experiences and old friends. Only Marina O’Loughlin’s trip to West Sussex (“England by Disney”)  and Ed Smith’s visit to Bagatelle (“nothing to swerve for”) were disappointments. Continuing from last week’s homage to the dumpling and pastry-encased leftovers, Jay Rayner in The Observer […]

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