From the same backers as Chelsea’s excellent The Painted Heron SW10, an exemplary contemporary-style budget Indian, by Waterloo Station. Before we visited this excellent new Indian by Waterloo Station, we weren’t aware that it was a spin-off of the excellent The Painted Heron in Chelsea. Once you know that, however, everything become clear. Like its […]
Off the Embankment, near the Savoy, a vast new pan-Asian bar/restaurant, modelled on (and run by the same team as) the original Paris establishment of the same name; on our early-dog-days-of-August visit it was not yet buzzing, but showed much potential as a romantic/party venue. They claim that the original Paris Buddha Bar – tucked-away […]
A stylish and buzzy Hoxton spot, with good cocktails and a buzzy atmosphere, but where the vegan fare is a decidedly acquired taste. ‘How about a trip to Hoxton’, we said to our friends, brightly. ‘There’s this new, er, vegan restaurant we’d like to check out. And they pride themselves of barely cooking much of […]
A case-study in ‘how not to do a restaurant opening’ (and that was leaving aside the ultra-mean portions); the design of this City newcomer is great, but is the current environment going to be receptive to this ostentatious spin-off from a West End original that was never such a ‘rave’ in the first place? How […]
A dull Gallic re-launch of the Mayfair dining room until recently tenanted by Angela Hartnett; the food on our early-days visit impressed only by its enormous prices. More mature readers may recall that the dining room at the Connaught used to be considered a truly great restaurant, with an unbroken tradition going back to the […]
Handily located near St Paul’s, a rare new-build restaurant (Norman Foster) offering surprising good Italian food on a number of levels. We weren’t frankly expecting much from this new City Italian – an offshoot of a fashionable Chelsea restaurant whose main virtue we’ve always thought to be its nicely-located al fresco tables. First impressions, however, […]
On the former South Kensington site of Lundum’s, an ambitious Gallic newcomer from a Lyonnais chef (Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex) of considerable repute; on our visit, food that was somewhat below expectation formed part of an experience which, taken as a whole, was rather bizarre. The French and the English are never going to understand each other. […]
Near Liverpool Street, a large new bar/brasserie in the Devonshire Square (re-)development, whose only real distinguishing feature appears to be that it has a large number of tables, many of them semi-al fresco. Once upon a time – 20 years ago, say – it was almost impossible to find a decent meal in the City. […]
Handily close to Oxford Circus (on the former Mash, RIP, site), the first UK outpost of a German chain of Italian cafeterias, specialising in pizza, pasta and salads; at off-peak times, it would make a handy pit stop – when busy, its attractions are rather difficult to see. Somehow the word ‘cafeteria’ doesn’t appear in […]
A classic Gallic brasserie style St James’s newcomer, on the former Fiore (RIP) site; despite some auspicious backing, it falls surprisingly flat across the board. **Note (27 June): We hear that, since this review was written, the ‘launch’ chef has left, and Pierre Koffmann himself is – at least for the time being – in […]
