Knightsbridge, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2018 Review: This Zaha Hadid-designed gallery restaurant in Hyde Park “deserves more recognition” according to reporters, who think it “a great space”, with “interesting food” (maybe only being open for lunch and afternoon tea is what keeps it under the radar). Perhaps a new team, scheduled to take over its management in late 2017, will finally put it properly on the map?

“Discreet and off the beaten track” – this supremely “cosy and classy neighbourhood restaurant” is “tucked away in an attractive street in Kensington and well worth a visit”. “Ben Murphy’s cuisine is fun and playful”, providing “absolutely sensational” dishes that are “packed with flavour”. In the last year he has rightly been elevated to being chef/patron here and – in terms of quality, if not perhaps fame – this is “definitely the jewel in the crown of the D&D empire”.

2018 Review: “Top-quality bar dishes” and “efficient young staff” inspire warm vibes for this “bright and cheerful old pub” in South Ken, run for the past year by the duo behind Brompton Food Market.

2019 Review: As a bar, there’s much to recommend this Eurotrash-friendly South Kensington two-year-old (complete with indoor foliage and fairy lights), whose current incarnation is a couple of years old. Since Tom Sellers departed this year, its food ratings have actually started to scrape off rock-bottom – whether it’s that the food has improved, or folks’ high expectations are now just a bit more realistic is unclear.

This “friendly local” is as smart as its Walton Street regulars in a very soigné corner of Chelsea, providing “solid” service and “good food” – at prices that probably exclude it from the definition of a pub (it’s akin to a club for regulars).