The couple behind Bristol neighbourhood restaurant COR are launching their second venture in the city this week – an Italian spot called Ragù, in Wapping Wharf. Mark and Karen Chapman opened COR in North Street in October 2022, winning praise in this year’s Harden’s guide as a “stunning neighbourhood restaurant” serving Mediterranean-influenced food with “shades of […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 30th March 2025 London Standard Tasca at Câv, Bethnal Green David Ellis hailed the “beautiful food and fair prices” at a new arrival in a “cool” neighbourhood, which landed in the very week that chancellor Rachel Reeves’s “thuggish budget […]
Peckham’s popular 081 Pizzeria is expanding, with its first offshoot opening next week in Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch. The new branch is considerably larger than the 20-seater in Peckham Rye, which wins praise in the 2025 Harden’s guide for its “superb selection of funky Neapolitan pizzas (from 72-hour fermented dough)” and additional dishes including arancini, […]
A new Thai restaurant taking inspiration from global barbecue techniques opens next week in Manchester. Bangkok Diners Club, from Ben and Bo Humphries, has taken over the upstairs dining room at the Edinburgh Castle, a historic pub in Ancoats that was revived to wide acclaim in 2019. The new kitchen replaces a well-received operation serving […]
US-based Korean celebrity chef Akira Back launches a new restaurant in a Mayfair luxury hotel next week – six months after making his London debut just a few minutes’ walk away in another hotel. Lilli by Akira Back, which opens on Wednesday 2 April, is an all-day restaurant at the new Montcalm Mayfair, a new 150-room […]
A restaurant dating back to 1757 will launch its first outpost in London’s Chinatown next week – introducing a new variety of noodles to the capital. Songhelou in Wardour Street is descended from a restaurant that opened during the Qing dynasty in Suzhou, a city about 50 miles west of Shanghai. The long-lived Qianlong Emperor is […]
Leeds favourite The Swine That Dines reopens next week under a new name and in new, larger premises – as the Swine Bistro in Headingley. The original Swine, a former sandwich shop on North Street in the city centre, has won increasing fame for founders Stu and Jo Myers in its 12 years – scoring an […]
‘Bonjour, Chef!’ Marcus Rowlerson has turned a centuries-old greengrocer into an industry leader Just six boxes of the first crop of this year’s white asparagus from Provence arrived at Rungis market in Paris earlier this month. Two boxes found their way into Parisian kitchens – the rest were snapped up by a specialist grocer based in […]
The Sustainable Restaurants Association explains why recycling is not enough: we have to change how we think about waste. With the Simpler Recycling legislation being introduced in the UK from the end of March, the SRA explores the hidden horrors within the recycling system, why we need to go much deeper to solve our global […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 23rd March 2025 London Standard Senza Fondo!, Shoreditch David Ellis was primed to castigate this cod-Italian for its childish promise of “bottomless lasagna” (misspelt, he snootily corrected: it should be the plural form, lasagne), for the exclamation mark in […]