Jewelbox’ is an overworked critical cliché, but it’s hard to find any other term that aptly describes this dinky little outfit, near Carnaby Street. As you first go in, what strikes you is how absolutely tiny it is. Then you notice that someone has lavished a level of care on the intricate decor and lighting […]
Two earlier impromptu visits to this new(ish) East Ender, had found it impossible to find a table. Still, the wasted trips proved the place to be popular: sufficient incentive to plod back one last time down the grungy highway, north of Spitalfields Market. On a rainy Tuesday night, the place was impressively lively, but at […]
Are restaurant reviewers prone to collective hysteria? This might explain the occasions when a place manages to attract lots of favourable reviews, but turns out – for us, anyway – to be absolutely unremarkable. For most new restaurants, of course, the first goal is to attract any commentary at all. For this, it helps to […]
It’s nearly 20 years since the V&A famously promoted its restaurant under the strap-line ‘An ace caff with quite a nice museum attached’. Sadly, though, that the dining revolution of the intervening time too often passed over arts-venue catering. So despite ‘name’ backing from Oliver Peyton, we approached this new section of the National Gallery […]
We’re always a little dubious when people trot out the old cliché that ‘nine out of ten restaurants fail within a year’. Certainly, if you look at the sort of London restaurants that inspire any sort of critical attention, the evidence suggests that most survive; and for a few years at least. But around the […]
In New York City, the closest equivalent to our own esteemed Gordon Ramsay is Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Each man holds three Michelin stars for his ‘name’ restaurant, and each is the respective city’s highest-profile empire-builder. But whereas Ramsay’s restaurants are usually Michelin-pleasing French, J-G has tried his hand at a whole range of culinary styles, often […]
A few restaurants are so blindingly good they knock you off your feet. And a few more provoke dire disappointment. But most fall within the great middle band, with how well punters (and critics) react to them often depending on the pre-conceptions they have on arrival. Judging by its name and location, you would probably […]
How quickly Pimlico and Westminster – until recently, an almost totally overlooked zone of central London – is changing. This is never more apparent than on the ten-minute stroll from Victoria station to the newcomer we review today, during which time you are never very far from a building site. On arrival, you find an […]
We were mean-spiritedly looking forward to visiting this re-launched oriental (which was formerly called Sri Thai Soho). A press-scribbler of some note had used his Sunday column to proclaim it beyond dreadful, so we went armed with a full set of critical pencils, razor-sharp. This new establishment was even sibling to a City establishment (Hokkien […]
