Dim sum group Ping Pong has come under fire for introducing a 15% “brand fee” to replace tips – a move seen as circumventing a new law coming into force this summer that forces restaurants to give service charges to staff. Ping Pong, which operates five outlets across London, most notably beside the Festival Hall […]
A trio of friends with impressive track records have opened a new wine bar and restaurant called Wilson’s in Ladywell High Street, southeast London. Wilson’s is next door to crowd-funded sustainable food store Plenty and opposite coffee shop Oscar’s, which are both owned by husband and wife Alina and Joel Falconer. Joel is a former […]
Peripatetic zero-waste and foraging specialist Native, most recently based in Mayfair, is to take up permanent residence on the site of the former Pensons restaurant on the Netherwood Estate where Worcestershire meets Herefordshire. Ivan Tisdall-Downes and Imogen Davis developed the Native concept via markets and pop-ups, and progressed through sites in Neal’s Yard and Borough […]
The new vegan restaurant from Great British Menu 2024 winner Kirk Haworth, Plates in Shoreditch, has already proved a smash hit – months ahead of its July launch. When advance bookings opened this week, its computer crashed under the weight of 70,000 applicants. Kirk trained initially with his father, Nigel Haworth, former chef-patron of Northcote in […]
The Emory, a new luxury hotel overlooking Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, opens next week, with a signature restaurant from New York celeb chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Billed as London’s first all-suite hotel, the nine-storey Emory was designed by the late architect Richard Rogers and is clad in his trademark glass panels. It is the fourth London […]
An ambitious restaurant devoted to risotto is to open in Fitzrovia this spring. All’Onda, meaning ‘on the wave’, is from first-time restaurateur Cordula Schulz, who has recruited chef Andrea Granzarolo and general manager Marco Montalbano (respectively from Hélène Darroze and Muse by Tom Aikens) for the project. Hailing from Lombardy, the birthplace of risotto, Andrea […]
‘Farm to fork’ is a major dining trend of recent years, but Simon Rogan of L’Enclume – rated the UK’s no 1 restaurant in the 2024 Harden’s guide – takes it a step further with a series of events this summer that could be described as ‘folk to farm’. On selected Mondays and Tuesdays from June to […]
UBA, a vibey new Pan Asian restaurant taking most of its food cues from Japan, opens at the Hart Shoreditch hotel in Great Eastern Street on Tuesday next week. Globetrotting chef Paul Greening (ex-Aqua Kyoto and Novikov) is said to be inspired by his travels to Tokyo, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. The restaurant’s interior […]
Jason Atherton is to close his Mayfair flagship, Pollen Street Social, this summer after 13 years. The last service will be on July 31. The restaurant was a huge hit when it opened in 2011 and propelled Jason, a former right-hand man to Gordon Ramsay, into the limelight as one of London’s foremost chef-restaurateurs. He […]
Jesus Adorno has quit as director of Arlington, Jeremy King’s comeback restaurant on the former site of Le Caprice in St James’s – less than a month after it opened. He announced his decision this week in an Instagram post reading: “With great sorrow I handed my notice this morning to @jeremyrbking @arlingtonrestaurant, it wasn’t a […]
