A simple but pretty-much-perfect Gallic bistro, on a Primrose Hill corner site that’s seen a number of occupants in recent years. What are you looking for in a restaurant? Glamour, excitement, novelty? This is not the place for you. If, on the the other hand, your idea of perfection in a no-nonsense Gallic bistro, you […]
Old-school in all the best ways, this (relaunched) Mayfair restaurant is one of two truly English grand hotel dining rooms in town (the other being the Goring); a soothing and clubby sort of place, it offers an experience of uniformly high quality, but at prices which give nothing away. Favourable first impressions of the panelled […]
Fronting on Park Lane, a classic brasserie-style operation, where the attractions of good Gallic food and service are overwhelmed by depressing design and high prices. Is it deliberate that hotels often get things so desperately wrong? Do they just not understand the concept of ‘restaurant’? Have any of the people who commission new hotel-restaurants every […]
Alain Ducasse’s re-launch of a grand (but quite small) brasserie, near the place Wagram, offering an almost exclusively fishy menu; it offers food of solid quality, but the service adds little joy to the place. Celeb chefs haven’t made a big hit in London by running classic restaurant sites. Think of MPW’s recent sales of […]
A grand and agreeable brasserie, handily located in the heart of the City; it offers good (and reasonably-priced) wines and friendly service, but seems to us to ‘miss’ fractionally on the food front. The look and feel of a classic brasserie is, for our money, very difficult to beat, and this lofty former banking chamber […]
A good but pricey ‘eco-chippy’, from celeb-chef Tom Aikens, which offers a very handy Chelsea stand-by – just two minutes’ walk from a road (King’s) that’s always been infamously short of decent places to eat. Note to reviewers everywhere: Chelsea is expensive. Most houses there cost £millions. The locals are not stuck for a bob […]
In an emerging part of Battersea – near the Dogs’ Home – a surprisingly good Italian, where pizza is just one part of a satisfying overall package. What’s in a name? Does Three Bridges say ‘Italian’ to you? Is location everything? These are the sorts of questions inspired by an early-evening visit to this new […]
Not far from Sloane Square, a good all-rounder – in modern ‘Chelsea trattoria’ style – that has finally convincingly shaken off its pizzeria-origins. Perhaps there really is something in third time lucky. Not that it’s something you often see in the restaurant world – not under the same name anyway. Vivezza – associated with the celebrated […]
On the sixth floor of the city-centre Urbis centre, a smart modern bar/brasserie – on the former site of Mont (RIP) – offering pleasant but unremarkable cooking, and a smart and discreet setting perhaps most obviously suited to a business lunch. Well, it couldn’t be said we’re lagging on this one. We find ourselves sitting […]
The former Balham Bar & Grill, modestly revamped, and now owned by Sam Harrison of Sam’s Brasserie (W4) fame; it remains a friendly and stylish spot, but the food is still rather an incidental attraction. Nick Jones is one of the most successful club-proprietors of our day, and his Soho Houses – recently acquired by […]
