Oliver Peyton is often hailed as a visionary. Restaurants he has launched ‘ahead of their time’ include Mash & Air (Manchester), Coast, Isola and the Atlantic. None of these endured, not least because – once the novelty had gone – the basics of a good-value dining package were often absent. Presumably those who run the […]
Mrs Harden was not happy. Like her sister-in-law (also Mrs Harden) she knows by now that restaurant critics don’t just spend their lives checking out the latest Knightsbridge hotspots. But trekking to Brixton on a cold and windy night? Well, really. The many clouds overhanging our visit darkened further when the restaurant didn’t seem to […]
The Royal China group’s first venture on this Marylebone site was a luxuriously minimalist Japanese restaurant called Michiaki. It didn’t last. Now they’ve turned it – essentially unchanged – into a sort of club-class Royal China. Many readers will know that Royal China is widely regarded as the capital’s leading Chinese chain, so you might […]
Tips from City AM readers about hot new openings that might otherwise slip below the radar are always particularly welcome. One such message – to mail@hardens.com – alerted us to this newcomer on the Isle of Dogs. The walk to the restaurant from, say, Canary Wharf tube is a little bit under ten minutes, but […]
You would have to be a very gay cowboy indeed to dream up this new Broadgate branch of the Argentinean chain. Vast, semi-subterranean, upholstered with cowhide and lit with many chandeliers (style cliché of the moment), this is a steakhouse as might have been conceived by Liberace. My visit did not start off well: the […]
By 1873, Piccadilly Circus was the hub of the greatest empire the world had ever known – a suitable location a truly extraordinary restaurant interior. Remarkably, that neo-Byzantine fantasy still exists in pristine form today. The tenant of the site in recent years has been Marco Pierre White. His upscale venture called The Criterion was […]
Let’s use New York’s SoHo as an example of post-Industrial inner-city evolution. Rather over-simplified it goes something like this: 1) The artists move in, and the area gets a reputation for being ‘cool’ (rather than just dangerous). 2) Hipster-bankers move in, and start pricing out the artists. 3) Restaurants blossom. 4) Bloomingdales opens a ‘Downtown’ […]
Rarely do London restaurants come with more history than this veteran institution overlooking Regent Street – home of the longest-established Indian restaurant in what is now the greatest Indian restaurant city in the world. Established in 1926, it makes much of this history. Continuity, however, has sometimes been more apparent than real: immediately after WWII, […]
