Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 21st April 2024 The Evening Standard Crispin at Studio Voltaire, Clapham Jimi Famurewa was impressed by the latest expansion of the East London-based Crispin brand, which “cements founding restaurateur Dom Hamdy’s HAM group as one of the capital’s most […]
A new Italian neighbourhood restaurant has opened on the former site of hip natural wine bar Peg, in Hackney’s Morning Lane. Dalla has been created by Naples-born brothers Gennaro and Gianmarco (ex-Claridge’s) Leone, along with Mitchell Damota, former head chef at P Franco. Gennaro, who runs the design gallery Spazio Leone in Lower Clapton, has […]
A dish of cricket mince with hummus and crudités (pictured) by Sam Clark of Moro will feature on the menu at a pop-up – should that be hop-up? – restaurant that opens at Old Street this month. Yum Bug, the company behind the project, has won backing from James Watt of BrewDog and Holly Branson of […]
A Japanese restaurant with a monorail service system said to be the first of its kind in Europe pulls into Shoreditch in the next few weeks. Chuo, in Paul Street, will serve sushi and izakaya-style dishes made to order and delivered by a monorail from the kitchen – unlike the more familiar conveyor-belt counters, where dishes […]
Three high-profile but very different London dining destinations whose futures have all been in doubt are set to reopen in the next few weeks: Soho’s historic L’Escargot, smart Islington brasserie Bellanger, and Clapton’s funky wine bar P Franco. L’Escargot in Greek Street, the city’s oldest French restaurant (est. 1927), is to open on Wednesday 24 […]
Hip East London wine bar/restaurants Bright (pictured) and P Franco, together with the group’s bottle shop, Noble Fine Liquor in Broadway Market, have closed down at short notice. Founders Phil Bracey and Liam Kelleher launched P Franco in Clapton in 2014, and the group became influential pioneers of the low-intervention wines now found in foodie […]
This summer is a season of mixed emotions for the natural wine lovers of east London, as bar/restaurant Cadet opens on Newington Green just as Peg on Morning Lane in Hackney closes. Cadet is a combined project from natural wine importers Francis Roberts and Tom Beattie (far left and far right in photo), paté-maker extraordinaire […]
A new wine-focused restaurant and larder on Dalston’s main drag from restaurateur Bob Ritchie and sommelier Dan Whine – great name for a sommelier, eh? – (ex-Conran Restaurants, Plateau, Liberty Wines and trained wine maker). Sapling on Kingsland Road will have a weekly changing list of around 36 wines, including a number of grower Champagnes and […]
Restaurant openings in east and south London flourished in the last 12 months, according to the latest, 27th edition of Harden’s London Restaurants published on 9 November. After central London, east London remains the capital’s prime area for restaurant openings, although almost as popular was south London this year (east had 39 debuts vs south’s […]
