Skye Gyngell, the Australian-born chef who found acclaim at Petersham Nurseries, has died at the age of 62 following a battle with Merkel cell carcinoma, an aggressive skin cancer. The sad news was shared in a statement released this week by her family: “We are deeply saddened to share news of Skye Gyngell’s passing on […]
Restaurateur Martin Kuczmarski is launching two new retro-inspired Italian venues in quick succession – Martino’s in Sloane Square, Chelsea and Dover Street Counter, a few doors down from his flagship off Piccadilly. In both cases Martin has followed the low-profile but high-impact process that proved such a success last year with Dover Street, one of the […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 23rd November 2025 The Guardian The Shaston Arms, Soho Grace Dent was resolutely unimpressed by a pub that failed to bridge the gap between being an “old-school boozer” and “a cool restaurant that serves food at premium prices” – a […]
Chef Lee Tiernan has announced his plan to “pause” – rather than permanently close – FKABAM (Black Axe Mangal), the cult heavy-metal restaurant he and his wife Kate have operated on Highbury Corner for the past 10 years. He intends to maintain the restaurant space and operate his own pop-up there next year, while floating the […]
A 100-year-old landmark Birmingham hotel abandoned for the past decade will reopen tomorrow as a Nigerian restaurant called Empress. The former Dogpool Hotel in Stirchley has been revived by husband-and-wife team Olusegun Akande and Oyetola Isla, who aim to showcase the richness of their national cuisine. Olusegun says: “We saw potential in this historic site […]
Calabrian-born chef Francesco Mazzei this week opened his latest restaurant – Mezzogiorno in the Corinthia hotel, just off Trafalgar Square. Francesco made his name in London with L’Anima, which opened on the edge of the City in 2008. He followed up by launching Radici, Sartoria and Fiume with D&D London (now Evolv), and ran a six-month […]
A new creative hub that opens next week on the Leith Shore in Edinburgh’s docks has three separate food and drink offers, including an outlet from the team behind the city’s highly regarded restaurants Timberyard and Montrose. Brown’s of Leith has taken over a late-Victorian engineering works which as George Brown & Sons was one […]
Chef Daniel Rogan today reopens his ambitious Southampton restaurant AO by Daniel Rogan, at a new address following a two-year hiatus. Daniel, the son of L’Enclume’s all-conquering founder Simon Rogan, originally launched AO in 2022 but it closed a year later. He designed the interior of the new 26-cover venue in Oxford Street himself, fulfilling […]
Our round-up of what the nations restaurant critics were writing about in the week to 16th November 2025 The Guardian 2210 by Natty Can Cook, Herne Hill Grace Dent enjoyed one of her best meals of the year at an “utterly classy” take on Caribbean cuisine from Nathaniel Mortley, a chef who worked at Oblix and […]
A theatrical live-fire restaurant with an open kitchen launched in Spitalfields this week, a few minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street station – a first dining venue from publican and music festival entrepreneur Rob Star of Electric Star pubs. Firestarter shares an entrance on Middlesex Street with its stablemate The Star by Liverpool Street pub/bar next door, […]
