The Times
Camilla Long knew from the moment she stepped through the door that this new Peruvian restaurant in southeast London would not make the grade – mainly, perhaps, because she regards Greenwich as a “benighted culinary hellhole”.
Once inside the “tipsy little Georgian building”, she was confronted with dozens of tables, all empty”, creating an atmosphere she summed up as “hastily abandoned drug lord wedding on the outskirts of Lima”. There were few complaints about the food, which was delivered with painstaking sincerity and included some “cute” ceviches. By far the best “isn’t even fish, but big chunks of juicy watermelon cloaked in a silky parmesan sauce – how does that even work?”
“I wanted El Alquimista to work,” Camillia concluded. “It’s a good menu, with a talented chef, neither of which you can fake. But you can’t fake atmosphere, or location, and this is a bad location.”
Camilla Long - 2026-08-23
