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 […]
Reinvigorated by refurbishment, this long-established, good-but-pricey Indian looks set to hold its own in a corner of Soho that’s becoming ever more trendy. The rather lugubrious start to 2010 for new restaurant openings has been partially offset by a number of top-end relaunches. We’ve recently reviewed The Capital (new chef), and Benares (refitted after a […]
Under its new chef, this well-established Knightsbridge dining room could well regain its former greatness; our lunchtime visit, however, suffered from a portion control some might have thought excessive. Ping! An email arrives from a leading PR firm, suggesting we review a restaurant that’s just (in one fell swoop) managed the rare achievement of losing […]
Recently refurbished, a classic airy West End ‘business’ restaurant whose new formula should now give it somewhat broader appeal. After a month’s refurbishment, this airy St James’s restaurant recently opened with tarted-up décor (in much the same style as before), as well as a new chef and a new menu ‘concept’. It’s perhaps a blessing […]
Re-opened after a four-month refurbishment, this Mayfair Indian looks broadly as before, and still offers refined Indian cuisine (presented European-style) in a smart environment; it’s noisy, though, and the atmosphere can tend to impersonal. The re-opening of Atul Kochhar’s celebrated Mayfair Indian – after a four-month closure, following on a fire – provided a good […]
On the Pimlico/Belgravia fringe site formerly called Vivezza (RIP), an English restaurant where the food is often well cooked, but where prices seem unjustified by either the cuisine or the level of comfort. A restaurateur opening new premises never has a blank sheet of paper. He can’t do much about the size and shape of […]
A less pricey successor to the wacky Ambassade de L’Ile; it’s a great improvement all round, but in current conditions the style is still perhaps touch too chicly-Gallic and upmarket, even for South Kensington. L’Ambassade de L’Ile was a great exercise in value destruction. Huge amounts of money (some £2m) were spent to convert the […]
An intimate St James’s hotel dining room – now home to William Drabble, Ramsay’s successor at Aubergine – that’s attracted much press praise; our lunchtime visit, however, was underwhelming. Perhaps we’re just feeling unseasonally grumpy, or maybe we’ve been serially unlucky, but this new St James’s fine dining room is the second restaurant we’ve visited […]
