No image yet available At last, a good, reasonably-priced all-rounder, in the heart of Westminster – this new oriental (a relaunch of Atami, which was Japanese) may well become the linchpin of what’s still a very under-powered local dining scene. Like its buzzier neighbour Pimlico, Westminster – not the City thereof, but the smaller area […]
From a major Oriental operator, a competent but, on our visit, almost deserted Japanese restaurant, decorated in nightclub style, five floors above Regent Street. Intrigued by our recent visit to the neighbouring Spanish restaurant, aqua nueva, we felt the need to hot-foot back across town to see how the neighbouring Japanese restaurant had turned out. […]
The grand-yet-dull dining room of the Hyde Park hotel, recently taken over by Rome’s starry Heinz Beck; there were flashes of greatness on our visit, but not enough to outweigh the otherwise dreary hotel fare. It would be fair to say that – while London’s restaurants have got better and better in recent years – […]
Mark Hix’s very central new restaurant – on the former Soho site of Aaya (RIP), two minutes from Piccadilly Circus – offers his trademark English food, produced to a very high quality; given the rather unforgiving nature of the brightly-lit space, however, the food and wine prices struck us as rather high. Even with his […]
A smash hit in the making, this NYC-Downtown-chic Italian offers perfectly judged tapas/small-plate dishes in an atmosphere of old-style Soho conviviality. We keep reading that this much-lauded Soho newcomer – fronted by Russell Norman, once a bigwig at the Caprice group – is some sort of Venetian snack bar (or, to impress you with our […]
A large fifth-floor Spanish bar/restaurant (with terrace), between Oxford Circus and Carnaby Street, with the potential – if it gets the right crowd – to become quite a ‘scene’; it also offers a spacious and convenient setting for a business lunch. Here’s a profound thought: restaurants exist in space and time. Space is pretty obvious. […]
Neighbouring Fenchurch Street station, a bright new Turkish/Mediterranean brasserie; it is obviously handy for travellers, but makes a good place for an informal City lunch too. Right by Fenchurch Street station, this shiny new brasserie sells itself as a ‘Mediterranean Grill & Bar’, which is rather odd as its menu is essentially Turkish. Nothing wrong […]
On the main road just south of Tower Bridge, a jolly, informal and reasonably-priced new South American steakhouse that offers a useful stand-by in an area with few other options; we couldn’t, however, quite perceive the ‘destination’ charms at which some reviews elsewhere have hinted. [There is no full text review for this restaurant, as […]
An airy but oppressive City banking hall, now a seafood bar-cum-restaurant; the upstairs boasts impressive views of the Bank of England but our early-days visit suggested that it was only the proprietors’ wealth and Establishment connections that have made it of any real note. ‘Monumentally disappointing.’ That’s a phrase people usually use figuratively. You can, […]
