American-based Korean celeb chef Akira Back is no longer headlining the restaurants at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Mayfair, which he joined amid much fanfare at the hotel’s launch in June last year. The hotel’s two restaurants, Akira Back and Dosa, and two bars, ABar Lounge and ABar Rooftop, were quietly rebranded this week without his […]
Congolese chef Joyce Kudia opens her first permanent site this week at Boxhall City food hall near Liverpool Street station, having made her name as a contestant on Channel Four’s ‘Five Star Kitchen: Britain’s Next Great Chef’. Joyce, who has worked as a private chef, was also the first resident chef at Boxhall City’s rotating […]
A new all-day café and restaurant with a distinctly Irish accent has opened on the harbourside at Newhaven in Edinburgh – just in time to welcome visitors to the Edinburgh Festival. Norah is the debut venture from Dublin-born chef Claire Hanrahan and her partner Andrew Ainsley – and is named after Claire’s late grandmother Norah from […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week to 11th August 2025 London Standard Noisy Oyster, Shoreditch David Ellis had a rotten time at a place that bills itself as a ‘seafood bistro of the future’ but was so bad that he asked himself: “Is this what restaurants are now? […]
The luxury Raffles Hotel at the Old War Office in Whitehall has quietly opened an all-day café in its grand courtyard, replacing the smart Café Lapérouse which closed earlier this year after a two-year stint in a newly installed glass pavilion. The new Café Ciel specialises in pastries, sweet treats and brunch, with cocktails and […]
A Thai restaurant whose “unapologetically spicy” cooking is based around pastes pounded by hand using a pestle and mortar opens tomorrow in Peckham, from a pair of chefs who have worked in some of London’s most exciting Thai kitchens. Kruk – a mash-up of Thai words ‘klook’ meaning to mix or stir and ‘krok’ meaning mortar […]
A self-service wine bar has opened in what its founders describe as a “dream” location in Newcastle. The Angels’ Share has taken over a former Boots chemist’s shop on St George’s Terrace in Jesmond, and has 36 wines available at the tap of a contactless card as well as more standard bar and waiter service. […]
Striking Chelsea restaurant Fantomas has shut abruptly after less than a year in operation, with the departure of its highly rated chef Chris Denney. The restaurant’s website said it has closed for “an exciting transformation. This autumn, we’re returning reimagined and ready for a new chapter.” For his part Chris, who made his name at […]
Gordon Ramsay and Tom Kerridge are to be dropped by Harrods as the Knightsbridge department store reverses its policy of recruiting celeb chefs to give its restaurants star appeal. The clear-out begins this Saturday with the closure of Sushi by Masa, from New York-based Masayoshi Takayama, with Kerridge’s Fish & Chips frying until the end […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week to 3rd August 2025 London Standard Lil’ Nashville, Chiswick David Ellis whooped, hollered and kicked up his heels at a ‘country bar and kitchen’ in west London that is “better considered a kind of theme park ride”, offering line-dancing accompanied by Southern-style […]
