Our mission is remarkably simple. To tell it how it is!
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 6th October 2024 The Observer In a footnote to Jay Rayner’s damning review last week of restaurant 18 at Rusacks hotel in St Andrew’s, 18’s executive chef Billy Boyter this week announced his departure after just eight months – with […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 8th September 2024 The Evening Standard Ambassadors Club House, Mayfair Jimi Famurewa was the first critic to the latest opening from all-conquering JKS Restaurants – this one a “typically fine-drawn love letter to the princely flavours and riotous drinking traditions […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 25th August 2024 The Sunday Times Daquise, South Kensington Charlotte Ivers may not have discovered a new restaurant, but she scored a genuine scoop in her review of this legendary and much-loved Polish institution (est. 1947), breaking the news […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 30th June 2024 Evening Standard Akira Back, Mayfair Jimi Famurewa gasped when he stepped inside the extravagant new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair in Hanover Square. Sadly its headline restaurant, from Seoul-born, Las Vegas-based celeb chef Akira Back, had the opposite […]
Here’s our regular round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 2 April 2023. ***** The Observer “Wave after wave of sweet and fiery and sour crashes on the wilder shores of your tongue.” Jay Rayner dived into the “neon-bright Bangkok flavours” at Speedboat Bar, on the Chinatown-fringe […]
Our summary of what the national and local restaurant critics were writing about in the week ending 5 March 2023. ***** The Observer Jay Rayner dropped in on 10 Tib Lane during his recent visit to Manchester (see below for a link to his interview with Manchester Live). The “trio of Manchester hospitality veterans behind […]
Pucci, London W1 Jay Rayner for The Observer reviewed Mayfair newcomer Pucci, revived from its bygone King’s Road days by the founder’s son (the original closed in 2010). Decorated like “a wealthy person’s version of a humble farmhouse”, it’s the sort of room “in which you can have a very good time, though ideally with […]
Imperial Treasure, London SW1 Did the chefs at Imperial Treasure recognise Jay Rayner when he visited for The Observer? They chased him to the toilet, so one presumes so. Why then, did they take away his Peking duck (for which he paid a “nose-bleeding… shameless” £100) half-eaten? Astonishing. It tainted the rest of his meal, […]
Grace Dent in The Guardian visited Hot Manchester Newcomer Tast Cuina Catalana, one of the ” delicate, thoughtful, educational places” that is aiming to bring a true taste of Spain to Britain. It’s “forward-reaching”, “high-end, imaginative, occasionally edgy” – and huge: there’s three “capacious” floors to fill, each offering a different level of formality and adventurousness. […]
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” […]
