Here’s our regular summary of what the national and local restaurant critics have been writing about in the week ending 19 June 2022. ***** The Evening Standard “The world of hospitality is in a rictus scramble to recreate pre-pandemic bonhomie without the necessary staffing capacity to do so. There is no need for me to […]
Birmingham Symphony Hall is to open a new all-day café next month, with diners entertained to a free programme of live music from local artists. B:Eats is at the hall’s main entrance and will open from 10am to 5pm every day except Sunday for brunch and lunch, with an evening menu to run alongside music […]
Osteria San Lorenzo, the celebrity haunt in Knightsbridge launched as the Swinging Sixties took off in 1963, will not reopen, having remained closed since last year’s Covid lockdown. Named after the early Christian martyr roasted to death on a grid-iron, who coolly asked his torturers to turn him over because he was “done on that […]
Chef Rishim Sachdeva opens his “mostly vegan” restaurant Tendril today as a three-month summer pop-up off London’s Regent Street, while he continues his search for a permanent venue. This month he completed a successful crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, raising £150,000 towards a project that he has already road-tested with a residency at the Sun and […]
Chef James Cochran is to open a sports bar next month with a menu built around his signature buttermilk fried chicken. Valderrama’s – named after the big-haired Colombian footballer Carlos, a cult hero in the 1980s and 90s – is within walking distance of James’s highly rated Islington restaurant 12:51. The bar represents a permanent […]
Fraiche, the tiny Merseyside restaurant that topped the Harden’s Best UK Restaurants list in 2020, is to close permanently at the end of September. Chef-patron Marc Wilkinson announced the news in a Facebook post, bringing to an end his 18-year run in the Wirral village of Oxton. Famously operating as a one-man brigade in the […]
Here’s our regular summary of what the national and local restaurant critics have been writing about in the week ending 12 June 2022. ***** The Observer “Can you enjoy a good meal in a bad building?” Jay Rayner was in Edinburgh pondering an odd question; it was pertinent as the restaurant he reviewed, Ka Pao […]
Singaporean pastry chef Cherish Finden is to open her own pâtisserie in the City of London next week, serving her take on savouries such as sausage shokupan and pork floss buns as well as original creations including a chocolate teapot and lemon and raspberry-flavoured mini handbags. Shiok! – pronounced “shook”, a Singlish term of approbation meaning […]
Ikoyi, the high-flying restaurant bringing West African flavours to London’s West End, is to move from its small premises in St James’s, behind Piccadilly Circus, to a bigger site nearby. Yet to be confirmed, the mostly likely candidate is the Brutalist landmark 180 The Strand building, recently converted into a cultural centre. If Ikoyi does […]
Andrew Sheridan, the chef behind the experimental Birmingham venue About 8, has opened a neighbourhood restaurant in his home village of Barnt Green, Worcestershire. Launched this week, Black & Green serves up to 16 diners, with five- and six-course tasting menus at £55 and £65. Focusing on “humble local ingredients”, Black & Green is a […]