The Criterion in Piccadilly Circus, one of the West End’s most famous and lavish restaurant sites, is to re-open next month as a branch of the Indian restaurant Masala Zone. Designed by architect Thomas Verity in the Neo Byzantine style, the glittering, Grade II-listed Criterion opened in 1873 and hosted the movers and shakers of […]
What is possibly London’s most beautiful restaurant, an extraordinary neo-Byzantine dining room on Piccadilly Circus (formerly the Criterion), has been resurrected by the Gatto family – owners of Milan’s famous Savini restaurant. It will be officially relaunched as Savini at Criterion on Friday 18 March. The original Criterion – where mediocre food always played second fiddle to dazzling […]
It was perhaps never a bastion of culinary excellence, but news that The Criterion has gone into administration and faces an uncertain future is still sad tidings. It is, after all, “possibly the most beautiful restaurant in London”, with its extraordinary neo-Byzantine dining room. But despite the beauty and romance of this theatreland stalwart, which couldn’t […]
