Richmond Restaurant Guide

“Always a surprise” – you get what you’re given (there’s no menu choice) at chef Riccardo Grigolo’s set-price Venetian feast in Richmond: an unqualified delight, with multiple courses of “amazing, delicious food” and “excellent service”, creating “an atmosphere rarely found elsewhere”.

“An excellent setting” is the particular plus of this smart Arts & Crafts pub, near Richmond Park, but its appeal goes well beyond its leaded windows, log fires and flagstone floors. Kenneth Culhane’s “innovative” cuisine is “very accomplished” and “often excels”, to the point that some cognoscenti consider it deserves much wider culinary recognition.

“The setting is just ‘wow’ on a sunny day” – “a secret paradise among the plants and bushes in a greenhouse” – “but the food is such a disappointment” (“seemingly great ingredients but very mediocre cooking”) nowadays at this venue near Richmond Park that became famous under former chef Skye Gyngell a decade ago. It now has a smart offshoot in Covent Garden, but there’s “something missing” at the original – not to speak of “the inadequate facilities, which leave you queueing outdoors for the toilet... in January!”.

“Lovely, tiny Japanese café run by a friendly family” (who are in fact Korean) on the edge of Richmond town-centre’s one-way system – “never lets you down” (sushi is the highlight).

“One of the mainstays of Richmond over many years” – this “lovely little bistro” near the bridge provides “a touch of Brittany with its galettes (savoury and sweet) and cidre bouche (though they also do offer a wider menu as well”); added marks for the “river view (if you ask for it)”.

The well-priced pre-show menu is popular with Richmond’s theatre-goers at this “excellent local Italian” – handy for both the Orange Tree and Richmond Theatres – it’s a “calm and pleasant” standby for “well-cooked cuisine”.