A laid-back but high quality gastropub that’s all the more welcome in the gastronomically deprived environs of Muswell Hill. Typical Conversations We Have with our Customers: No 14. Reader: ‘You don’t have many places in North London… that’s where I live.’ Us: ‘No. True. We don’t. We always struggle to find good places.’ Reader: ‘That’s […]
A basic Balham bistro, aiming to offer a true Gallic experience at reasonable prices; on our visit, however, the food was very up-and-down, and service was shocking. The first Gazette is hidden-away in Battersea, near the river. When we ventured there last year, we found a straightforward Gallic bistro with real potential, but also noted […]
A plain Smithfield establishment on the former Rudland & Stubbs (RIP) site, bearing the name of a former Caprice group executive chef; our early-days sampling of the meat-heavy English menu showed signs of promise, but the performance overall struck us as complacent. OK. So, for years, you’ve been a chef of some eminence (if perhaps […]
By the tracks at the new St Pancras, a run-of-the-mill ‘English’ pub-cum-brasserie, from Geronimo Inns, with ideas above its station. “Yeah it’s good… well, it’s all right… it’s fine.” Our old American chum was hesitating and giving the game away. If it was that good, why was he leaving so much uneaten on the plate? […]
Italian bistro-meets-Marylebone boozer – Claudio Pulze’s latest addition to London’s dining scene (his 50th!) is an odd and hard-to-characterise venture, offering good food at good prices, and friendly service too. Claudio Pulze has variously insisted that his latest venture, in Marylebone is (Ã la Gordon) “not a gastropub, just a pub that does food’ or, […]
A would-be-trendy Indian restaurant-cum-cocktail bar, on the Chelsea ‘Beach’; it offers good and sometimes innovative cuisine, but the atmosphere on our visit was rather flat. The site which is now Mokssh – pretty much opposite the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital – used to be home to a very good tapas bar called Lomo. Quite a […]
Something of a club for affluent Mayfair locals, this convivial basement Italian offers straightforward cooking at prices which would not be sustainable in most other parts of town. Chefs are a rather over-rated commodity. OK, let’s try that again. Many chefs are skilled and dedicated individuals and put their heart and soul into their cooking. […]
A brave, newly-built restaurant – on a rather obscure north-Islington site – which has attracted some very positive press reviews; on our early-days visit, the food – which has a touch of the ‘fusions’ about it – did not quite live up to expectations. We don’t like knocking brave new first-time ventures, but we would […]
The latest addition to the Gordon Ramsay stable, this Mayfair steak-specialist offers food of consistently high quality; prices are high, though, and neither the setting nor (in the early days) the service really measures up. Fans of Maze – the Mayfair petits-plats joint which has made quite a name for Jason Atherton – will know […]
Spruced-up and relaunched in spring 2008, this classic Gallic café/bistro retains its charms as a definitive heart-of-Soho rendezvous. No one ever went to Café Bohème for the food, and that’s unlikely to change. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with the straightforward Gallic nosh, and our quick re-inspection meal – after the handsome […]
