A lavish Maltese-owned Japanese restaurant has opened in a Grade II-listed former bank in Marylebone. Converted at a reputed cost of £15million, it features a cocktail bar in what was the underground safety deposit vault. Aki – from ‘akitsu’, an old Japanese word for dragonfly – is a short walk from Oxford Circus in Cavendish Square. […]
Influential Liverpool chef Paul Askew and his son Harry have found a permanent home for Barnacle, their ‘Scouse brasserie’ – in a grand Grade II-listed building formerly occupied by the Royal School for the Blind in the city’s Georgian quarter. Named after Paul’s seafaring father, Captain ‘Barnacle Bill’ Askew, the restaurant champions produce grown on […]
Two London institutions combine next week with the opening of a new café from the St John stable at the London Review Bookshop, around the corner from the British Museum in Bloomsbury. Launching on Wednesday 1st October, the new venture replaces the London Review Cake Shop that has been sorely missed by regulars since closing […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week to 21st September 2025 London Standard Carbone, The Chancery Rosewood, Mayfair David Ellis suffered a “night of glitz, glamour and ennui” at the latest branch of a New York-based global group which is the headline restaurant of the swanky new Mayfair […]
Former El Bulli chef Rob Roy Cameron next week launches a Basque-inspired restaurant in Soho called Alta, after northern Spain’s Alta Navarra region. Rob spent 10 years working in Spain and was Albert Adria’s right-hand man for the opening of 41 Degrees – the offshoot of restaurant Tickets – and later at Hoja Santa, both […]
The Evolv group unveiled its latest take on the London chop house this week in the shape of a new tavern designed for the City, featuring classic British comfort food and “proper pints” at £5. The Liverpool Street Chop House & Tavern has taken over the former site of the New Street Grill, which was […]
Kudu, Richoux and Chick’n’Sours all reappeared this week at unfamiliar addresses as London restaurateurs reshuffled their packs for the winter. Kudu, until recently a ‘collective’ of four venues in southeast London from Amy Corbin and Patrick Williams (pictured), has moved to a prominent corner site opposite La Fromagerie in Marylebone – marking a big shift from […]
The fast-expanding Public House Group soft-launched its latest London pub this week – The Hart in Marylebone, behind the Wallace Collection and next door to the currently closed Chiltern Firehouse. Known as The Flowerhouse for the past four years, The Hart has three storeys with a bar at ground-floor level leading up to a restaurant on […]
After more than 30 years as leader of the gastronomic pack in the West Country, Michael Caines has made his London debut as a chef-restaurateur this week at the Stafford hotel in St James’s. The new venture brings a flavour of his native region, with the menu name-checking fish and seafood from Brixham in Devon […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week to 14th September 2025 The Times Legado, Shoreditch Giles Coren was the first of the critics into print on the merits of Spanish chef Nieves Barragan’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to her phenomenally successful Sabor. His verdict: “Legado is set fair to […]
