There’s no Sheldon Square in the A-Z, or on streetmap.co.uk. All I could tell from the Yakitoria press release was that it was at the heart of the ginmormous new development that looms over the A40 by Paddington Station. Expecting a faceless corporate jungle, I was pleasantly amazed by the whole area. You leave the […]
He may have had something of a ‘rolling stone’ career, but Tom Ilic is one of the darlings of London restaurant critics – some still speak breathlessly of his New End in Hampstead, which shone brilliantly, for all of five minutes. More recently, he has cooked at Bonds, in the heart of the City – […]
The heartland of Notting Hill eating territory is still a sort of homage to the seminal restaurant, 192, which marked its epicentre. Indeed, without the catalyst of that path-breaking ‘Modern British’ restaurant – which, over nearly two decades, became west London’s answer to The Ivy – who knows: perhaps the area would never have progressed […]
For a street just a couple of minutes’ walk from St Paul’s tube, Little Britain is is remarkably restful. Apparently, in Victorian times, the street was lined with booksellers and its atmosphere is still that of a quiet backwater, where this new Italian restaurant is the only obvious ‘destination’. The newcomer’s atmosphere is similarly removed […]
A few weeks ago, we confessed to not being all-seeing and all-knowing, and asked for help in finding good, new destinations among the thin pickings in E14. This floating Chinese restaurant, not far from Crossharbour DLR, was amongst nominations. Though we had paid a visit in the dim and distant past, the reminders from readers […]
Zakudia, as you will know, is a Zambian word, meaning the enjoyment of food and drink. It’s also the name of this bar by Southwark Bridge, which is of note as the only non-chain outlet in a string of places to have opened over the last couple of years around Shakespeare’s Globe. Stairs lead up […]
For all the talk of London’s emergence as a great foodie Mecca, the capital’s bakeries – or, rather, their paucity – are still something of an embarrassment. Pâtisserie Valerie and Maison Blanc show that quality operations can survive, but in most areas of town the supermarkets have driven all before them. Our friends across the […]
This is the second of two Continental-style steak-houses to open in Marylebone in recent months. Both offer essentially the same fixed menu – salad, steak ‘n’ chips – and both make a big deal of their respective secret sauces. The first to open (Relais de Venise) was praised in this column, but has subsequently been […]
Les Trois Garcons was a real eye-opener when it was launched in 2000. Complete with stuffed animals wearing tiaras, that Brick Lane pub was not just the first truly cool opening in the East End – it also set a new London-wide standard for decadent, high camp decor. A couple of years later, along came […]
Borough was once the home of the famous ‘stews’, or brothels, of medieval London. It is now rapidly becoming a pleasure garden of a very different kind – a sort of mecca for food-conscious urbanites. As an example of how the casual London dining out scene is evolving, there are few areas more striking than […]
