The Duck and Rice, the Soho pub that combines Cantonese food with British boozer, has opened a first spin-off – a full decade after its launch – in the redeveloped Battersea power station. The new branch is twice the size of the original, seating 185, and instead of looking like a spruced-up old pub is […]
The Coconut Tree group of Sri Lankan restaurants faces collapse after failing to meet the terms of a company voluntary arragement (CVA). The West Country-based group has eight branches; a ninth, in Cardiff, closed in March. The group was founded by five Sri Lankan friends who took over an old Cheltenham pub in 2016, winning […]
A smart new northern Chinese restaurant called Mulan Noodle with an open kitchen producing hand-pulled noodles has opened on Acre Lane, between Clapham and Brixton in South London. Mulan also offers live traditional Chinese music on Friday and Saturday nights, featuring instruments including a 21-string zither called the guzheng and the pipa, a four-stringed lute. […]
A new restaurant opens next week on the Sandridge Barton wine estate beside the River Dart in Devon’s South Hams. Roam promises to offer ‘bold, bistro-style’ cooking rooted in European and Basque traditions, with a menu that changes regularly to ‘reflect what’s best right now’. Roam has replaced restaurant Circa at the same venue, on […]
An ambitious new Middle Eastern restaurant with cocktails from Mr Lyan Studio has opened in St Christopher’s Place, just off Oxford Street in London’s West End. Noreen, from Bahrain’s long-established Al Abraaj restaurant group, showcases dishes from the Arabian peninsula to the Levant. Mehdi Hani, head chef at Harrods for the past four years, has […]
Ed Templeton of Carousel (left in picture) has linked up with actor and fellow Highbury resident Theo James (right) to launch a Rome-inspired local restaurant called Lupa, after the she wolf who nursed the ancient city’s founders, Romulus and Remus. The kitchen is led by Naz Hassan (centre), the Bangladeshi-born former head chef at Pidgin […]
East Anglia chef Mark Poynton has relaunched his restaurant-with-rooms at Fen Ditton on the edge of Cambridge under new backers and a new name as Ancient Shepherds with Mark Poynton. He operated the venue – a former village pub dating from 1580 – as MJP @ The Shepherds for five years until May this year, when […]
A new restaurant called Canal opens next week from the team behind Crispin, Bar Crispin and Bistro Freddie, overlooking the Grand Union Canal in Westbourne Park. In the former HQ of the London Taxi Drivers’ Association, now the Mason & Frith hotel, the all-day restaurant promises to “celebrate the best of British and European produce […]
Top chefs Tom Brown and Brad Carter have teamed up to launch a surf-and-turf restaurant – or as they otherwise put it “a traditional steakhouse with a coastal twist” – in King’s Cross. Island opens next week at Mare Street Market in Lewis Cubitt Square. Tom, who made his name with east London seafood specialists Cornerstone […]
Chef Scott Hallsworth is to install his Freak Scene concept at 100 Wardour Street in Soho for a four-month residency, bringing a funky pan-Asian edge to the Evolv Collection, formerly known as D&D London. Evolv’s new chief executive, Martin Williams, is looking to modernise the group and appeal to a broader, younger customer base. Scott, […]