Chef Isaac McHale (left in photo), co-founder of Shoreditch gastronomic powerhouse the Clove Clove, is to open a more informal offshoot just around the corner called Bar Valette, serving simple dishes inspired by French and Spanish coastal cuisine. Scheduled to open next month in the former premises of Two Lights (also backed by the team […]
Hip Shoreditch wine bar/restaurant Leroy has closed while the nearby Clove Club – heavyweight kingpin of the East London dining scene for the past decade – has separated from its Italian sister restaurant Luca as the founding team announces a splitting of assets. Leroy lost its Michelin star in March, but earned its customary high ratings in […]
The team behind The Clove Club is set to open a third restaurant in September. Two Lights will also be in East London, and will be headed up by The Clove Club’s American head chef Chase Lovecky. The venture will replace a restaurant called Amici Mei. Owner Isaac McHale provided a little more information on […]
The UK’s top 100 restaurants are revealed in Harden’s Best UK Restaurants 2018 published today – the country’s most comprehensive restaurant guide available in bookshops, with approximately twice the number of entries as The Good Food Guide. The guide hails London’s The Araki as the country’s best restaurant. The experience is “world class” and, at £385-a-head, […]
Harden’s has released the final shortlist for this year’s definitive London Restaurant Awards, which takes place on 11 September at The Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square. Nominations for the awards are derived statistically from Harden’s 27-year-old annual survey of UK restaurant-goers. This year 8,500 people contributed 50,000 nominations within the categories specified by Harden’s. The […]
The Clove Club in Shoreditch pipped Notting Hill’s The Ledbury to be the top-ranking British establishment on the 2017 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, which was announced in Melbourne this week. Eleven Madison Avenue in New York, run by Swiss-born chef Daniel Humm, was crowned the world’s best restaurant, leapfrogging defending champ Osteria Francescano of […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer reviewed Louie Louie in Camberwell, a daytime cafe that becomes a restaurant in the evening under chef Oded Oren, originally from Tel Aviv, who is “an absolute corker”. “Lamb sweetbreads come skewered and grilled over charcoal. There is a wedge of lemon to squeeze over them and a tidy pile of za’atar, […]
⦿ The Observer’s Jay Rayner reviewed Jihwaja, “a hilariously brilliant new Korean place in London’s Vauxhall” where “I felt like I had been glazed inside and out by their sweet-salty chilli sauce.” “Fried chicken is completely outrageous: crisp in a way that echoes through your jaw and muffles chatters, salty and sweet and fiery. Seaweed rice balls, laced with […]
⦿ The Observer’s Jay Rayner found himself in heaven at Temper, barbecue specialist Neil Rankin’s “shot at the big time in Soho, with big London money, and bravado and punch“. “Temper is brilliant. I love the fact that you can smell the wood smoke and the rendering meat from the door. I love the way that smell […]
The team behind east London high-flying former pop-up The Clove Club has announced plans to open a “Britalian” restaurant and bar in St John Street near Smithfield meat market next month. Orkney-born chef Isaac McHale said Luca would present British produce “through an Italian lens”, with dishes such as ravioli of grouse with potato and […]