Pioneering US-style barbecue Bodean’s is relaunching its menu next week, having signed up meat guru Richard Turner as its chef-director. Launched in Soho’s Poland Street 23 years ago by Canadian-born Andre Blais, Bodean’s was an early entrant into the barbecue market and expanded fast, opening offshoots across London, but in recent years it has retracted […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 9th March 2025 London Standard La Polombe, Kensington David Ellis was won over by a two-year-old restaurant from James Chiavarini, owner of the long-running Il Portico nearby, which he has relaunched after bringing in a new head chef and […]
Tasca, a year-long Iberian-inspired residency from sommelier Sinead Murdoch and chef Josh Dallaway, has opened at new wine bar Cav in Bethnal Green. The couple, who met working together at Sarap Bistro, see the venture as a “love letter” to their travels in Spain, Portugal and the South of France, where they explored the dining […]
Peripatetic wild food restaurant Native has closed after less than a year at its latest location, the Netherwood Estate on the Worcestershire-Herefordshire border, following a failure in its extraction system that “broke the camel’s back“. Chef Ivan Tisdall-Downes (pictured) and his business partner Imogen Davis launched the zero-waste, foraging-based project in 2012, winning widespread acclaim […]
Two high-achieving restaurants – Humble Chicken in Soho and Hjem in Northumberland – are closing temporarily as they gear up for further improvements. Angelo Sato, Tokyo-born founder of Humble Chicken, announced his move fresh from the award of a second star from the French tyre men last month, with a declaration of intent on social media […]
Leading Spanish chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho, of Sabor in Mayfair, has unveiled plans to launch a second venue in London with the opening of Legado, meaning ‘legacy’, in Shoreditch High Street this summer. Sabor, which she founded in 2018, has been the Harden’s guide’s top-ranked Spanish restaurant in London for the past four years. It […]
Giorgio Locatelli is to open a new restaurant at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square this summer, five months after closing his famous Locanda Locatelli in Marylebone. The new all-day restaurant, to be called simply Locatelli, is on the mezzanine of the gallery’s Sainsbury Wing, which reopens on May 10 after a two-and-a-half-year refurbish. He […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to the 2nd March 2025 London Standard Paradise, Soho David Ellis went to a six-year-old Sri Lankan whose owner, Dom Fernandes, has “tarted-up” the interior and replaced the original menu with six-course tasting options (carnivore, pescatarian or vegetarian) at £65 […]
Landmark Chelsea restaurant Bluebird is to park a spinoff in the City under plans revealed this week by D&D London – which will itself be rebranded as The Evolv Collection (no misprint). The restaurant was launched in 1997 by the late Sir Terence Conran, taking over a spectacular Art Deco car showroom dating from the 1920s […]
A number of London restaurants have introduced a minimum spend on diners, with Gymkhana in Mayfair setting the bar at £100 per person. Restaurants blame social media ‘influencers’ who simply want to photograph a single dish, or parties who share starters and only drink water, for the trend. We’d love to hear what you think.
