In ever-emerging Balham, a large and ambitious gastropub offering straightforward, mainly Engish fare, solidly realised. The idea, until recently, that anyone would have positively chosen to dine out on Balham Hill would have been pretty much ridiculous. Well, no longer, it seems. In the wake of Brasserie James (which boasts an ex head chef of […]
In the heart of Chelsea, Christopher Gilmour’s ‘local’ restaurant, perfectly pitched for its affluent local market. The Hon Christopher Gilmour is one of the most charming men you could ever meet. It has not, however, generally fallen to us to write particularly charming reviews of his restaurants. Ever since he first made his name as […]
Offshoot of a Muscovite chain, this steakhouse just off Regent Street offers pretty good food in an ambience rather akin to an upmarket burger bar. Rightly or wrongly, when you hear that somewhere’s owned by the Russians, you tend to assume that there’s going to be something sinister about it. Big disappointment. This particular Mayfair […]
Just off Trafalgar Square, a pleasantly simple Gallic bistro of a type that’s all too rare in London; owned by a wine merchant, it also offers a good choice of wines by the carafe and glass; a basement restaurant is scheduled to open in early-2009. Find a re-emerging central restaurant location (Covent Garden), and locate […]
Near Liverpool Street, an airy, well-spaced and business-friendly contemporary restaurant offering Indian food of good quality; as at the parent establishment, the Cinnamon Club, however, prices give nothing away. Airy and spacious, but darkly-furnished, there’s something very American about this new Indian restaurant near Liverpool Street. With its unconcealed ducting, it might, say, be a […]
A very smart and comfortable oyster (and light meal) bar, attached to the famous Theatreland fish restaurant; standards are high, but so are prices – for a place that’s pitched as an all-day stand-by, we can’t help finding them just a bit OTT. Richard Caring, as we all know, seems to have infinite amounts of […]
Brilliantly handily-situated within one minute of South Kensington tube, the latest – and they say last – offshoot of Brindisa, the Borough food-importers’ tapas bar; it offers conventional light Spanish dishes of a high quality, in a comfortable but unpretentious setting. [Capsule review only – there’s nothing we can add to the above.]
Near Piccadilly Circus, a versatile and attractive Italian restaurant that’s one of the best openings of the year to-date; its ex-Moro team serves up unusual and accomplished Italian dishes, and the wine list is notable too. Some restaurants – like Buddha Bar, or Bob Bob Ricard – burst onto the London stage after months of […]
In South Kensington, a pleasant and well-spaced country-kitchen-style English bistro, offering no-nonsense food at prices which, at lunch, are notably sensible; service on our visit, though pleasant, was very slow. You feel they really ought to be cooking on an AGA, at this country kitchen-style bistro, on the site of the former Abbaye restaurant in […]
A chef who trained with Vineet Bhattia produces many dishes of very high quality at this Marylebone Indian – an offshoot, not that you’d know to look at it, of a famous establishment in Mumbai; the devotion to portion-control, however, sometimes verges on absurd. We don’t make any apology for the fact that, like most […]
