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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Two new London restaurants which open on the same day next week have been named in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth – Lilibet’s in Mayfair (pictured) and The Elizabeth in Belgravia – in the same month that the £20,000 a night Elizabeth House penthouse suite was unveiled at the new Chancery Rosewood hotel in Grosvenor Square. […]
Swedish chef Joakim ‘Jokke’ Almqvist launches the latest edition of Punk Royale, his “messy, no-bullshit” take on Nordic fine dining, in London today (12 September) – vowing “we’re not here to play it safe“. Jokke founded Punk Royale in Stockholm in 2015 and followed up with branches in Copenhagen and Oslo. The new venue, just off […]
😵 Closure rate lowest in a decade 🚀 Net openings the highest since Brexit 📈 Prices rises at expensive restaurants double that of cheaper ones The capital is experiencing a restaurant opening rate consistent with the start of a boom according to the latest figures featured in the new edition of Harden’s London […]
