Rules restaurant in Covent Garden has been donated to the National Trust to protect it from the threat of developers – news that was reported this week as far away as the New York Times. Founded by Thomas Rule as an oyster bar in 1798, Rules is widely recognised as the oldest restaurant in Britain – a […]
An ambitious new restaurant called Calluna opened this week at Saltmoore hotel and ‘wellness resort’ near Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast. The restaurant serves a 10-course tasting menu to a maximum of 24 diners each evening, with a focus on hyper-seasonal food from the immediate surroundings and coastline. Dishes from the opening menu include […]
Colourful chef-patron Paul Clerehugh has moved his entire operation to a vacant pub nearby, following a disastrous fire that has closed his well-known music pub The Crooked Billet near Henley on Thames until next autumn at the earliest. The July blaze started in the beer cellar, destroying the kitchen and much of the interior and […]
Senegalese chef Khadim Mane has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £50,000 towards finding permanent premises for his restaurant Little Baobab following the sudden closure in July of its host, the Africa Centre in Southwark. Self-taught chef Khadim has developed Little Baobab over 10 years, initially as a pop-up project then as a stall at […]
Fast-moving chef Abbie Hendren has opened her debut restaurant in Kew, having moved on from Sally Abé’s well-regarded Teal in Hackney, where she was head chef at its launch in March. She has joined Trindle Stores, a two-year-old family-run grocery and coffee shop in Kew Village, the cluster of small shops around Kew Gardens station, […]
An East European chophouse will open next month in the crypt of St George’s Church in Hanover Square, a troubled site in Mayfair that has seen the departure of two previous restaurants in the past year. Elezar, which takes its name from the Hebrew eleazar meaning “God has helped”, is from a trio who share […]
Dishoom is to open its largest branch yet next week on the edge of Borough Market, having taken over two storeys in the west wing of the Hop Exchange, an extravagant Victorian edifice built as a hub for the brewing industry. Open for breakfast from 8am during the week (9am art weekends) until late, the […]
Chef Andrew Sheridan opens his latest venue today – a New York-inspired restaurant and cocktail bar in Liverpool’s Ropewalks area named Manhattan-style after the corner it sits on, Seel & Slater. The launch follows an astonishingly quick transformation of Gary Usher’s Wreck Bistro, which served its final meals last Sunday, having been acquired by Andrew’s Open […]
Covent Garden institution Christopher’s (pictured) has closed after 35 years, with Adam Byatt’s Bistro Union, Malaysian specialist Laksamania and Indian restaurant Black Salt in East Sheen also calling time at the end of September. In further closures, recent weeks have seen the company behind Belgravia’s 19 Motcomb Street placed in a creditors’ voluntary liquidation with […]
