From the Giraffe people, an OK-ish burgers-and-more chain prototype, handy for Selfridges. There’s not much to say about this bright new son-of-Giraffe chain prototype, in a strip of mid-price restaurants, just off Oxford Street. No one who cared about their food would particularly seek out a Giraffe, and no one who cared about their food […]
A first for Stockwell, this simply revamped gastropub is the first offshoot of the fabled Anchor and Hope – in the same style, it offers a short and very simple menu, realised to a high standard. For a modest-looking gastropub, this new Stockwell outfit has quickly commanded a lot of critical attention, a fact largely […]
On the former Clerkenwell site of Al’s (RIP) Caravan is a Moro-inspired bistro, which offers interesting ‘small-plate’ dishes; the atmosphere is agreeably laid-back, but service is sometimes just plain slow. Too many restaurants in London in recent times have specialised in the known-and-usual. It’s understandable enough in hard economic times, but it’s getting a bit […]
Handily located in the heart of Soho, Aldo Zilli’s basic but good-quality veggie restaurant, which comes with the Italianate twist you might expect. Avoiding too many meat products is certainly consistent with the most concise dietary advice of recent years. The American writer Michael Pollen read through all learned articles and distilled their key advice […]
In the heart of a suburban high street, a smart and solidly professional Gallic brasserie from the Malcolm John stable; it’s undoubtedly a useful local rendezvous, but its rather chain-like quality makes it difficult to recommend as any sort of ‘destination’. Malcolm John is quite a mover and shaker in the SW suburbs. The aim […]
Straight from Central Casting, a ‘perfect local restaurant’, serving tasty Moroccan food in a comfortable and laid-back Wandsworth setting. An early Sunday lunchtime provided the perfect opportunity to visit this Wandsworth Moroccan restaurant that’s been in the limelight more than most since it figured in one of Gordon Ramsay’s TV programmes. The place does not […]
Atul Kocchar’s good-all-round, but slightly suburban-feeling Marylebone Indian; we couldn’t quite avoid the feeling that his pricier Mayfair flagship offers rather better value. Atul Kocchar is the golden boy of the capital’s subcontinental catering scene. His recently relaunched Mayfair flagship, Benares, now with 140 seats, is, we’d guess, one of the capital’s top two biggest-grossing […]
A triumphant return from Down Under for Bruno Loubet – a star London chef of the ’90s – the good value menu of whose essentially French Clerkenwell bistro is spiced up with many Antipodean twists. A rare trick is pulled off by the menu at this new Shoreditch bistro; familiar enough not to be scary, […]
Transcending its Fulham wine bar-style setting and service, a bourgeois restaurant of some ambition; we’d bet that this will be the location which will finally establish Ramsay-protégée Gemma Tuley as a chef of note in her own right. To any restaurant which offers a dessert of Jerusalem artichoke cheesecake we say ‘respect’. With all due […]
In Soho’s fast-evolving trendy zone, a culinarily uninspired but instantly popular bar/restaurant, of most interest (to diners) as a destination for a quick burger. For a restaurant which sells itself on the health-credentials of its cuisine, this new bar/diner in the emerging trendy zone around the Dean Street Townhouse offers remarkably little healthy food. How […]
