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Restaurant crowdfunding supremo Gary Usher has admitted he’s “f**cked up” over his budget for Kala, his new restaurant in Manchester. He said in an Instagram post that he “underestimated it completely”. Kala was pencilled to open late last year, but a new date of May 1 has been announced. Usher said he needs an additional […]
Leandro Carreira’s Bermondsey restaurant Londrino has closed, according to reports. Londrino opened in November 2017 and has received mixed reviews from pretty much everyone over its 18-month shelf life. Reporters’ thoughts have always been hugely variable, ranging from “not only stunning visually, but with exceptional flavour”, to “up itself, lacking generosity”, and “disappointing”. Before setting […]
Chef Alex Harper and chef restaurateur Robin Gill are reportedly planning to work together on a number of food projects at a new luxury London hotel. In a CODE Hospitality bulletin this week, an announcement said: “A central London project launching this summer. “The Dairy’s Lewis Wright will run front of house at the nature-led […]
Covent Garden stalwart Asia de Cuba will close at the end of February to make way for a new concept. Amidst a gush of NYC-imported hype, the Chino-Latino restaurant opened at Ian Schrager’s St Martin’s Lane Hotel in 1999. Back in the day, few venues could equal the aching glam of its beautiful Eurotrashy crowd […]
Thunderbird Fried Chicken, an established London street food vendor, is to open its first permanent site. Founded by former racing car driver Matt Harris in 2017, the business has until now been operating out of Street Feast’s Dinerama and Giant Robot sites. Harris’ new Brixton spot will be split across two floors on the frenetic […]
Prawn on the Lawn in Islington is to launch a 30-cover cocktail and oyster bar called Sawyer & Gray Lates. The seafood restaurant, which has a sister site in Padstow, Cornwall, will transform its day-time cafe, which sits next to its dining room proper, into a candlelit affair from 6pm Thursday to Saturday. The additional […]
Bia Rebel, Belfast Jay Rayner for The Observer was in Belfast, and visited the winner of the Best Cheap Eats category of last year’s Observer Food Monthly awards. “Happily, I can confirm our readers have impeccable taste.” Bia Rebel is run by chef Brian Donnelly (ex-Aubergine, Le Gavroche and Thornton’s) and his business partner Jenny […]
Carluccio’s is to revamp a key London restaurant as the first stage of a new £10 million investment programme. The Italian chain closed a third of its sites in 2018 after being hit hard in the casual-dining crunch, which saw a number of high-profile chains restructure amid increasingly challenging trading conditions. Carluccio’s has found money […]
Italian restaurant chain Polpo is expected to close sites and enter a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). The once-pioneering Venetian brand, which was founded in a torrent of social media excitement by Russell Norman and Richard Beatty in 2009, owes HMRC £550,000, according to a letter sent to creditors and which was first reported by Propel […]
Manchester’s bold and glitzy 20 Stories fared well in our 2019 guide. The restaurant, which launched last year, has so far lived up better to the D&D brand than some of its other launches, according to reporters. “It’s a beautiful space filled with beautiful people,” they said. But it turned out chef Aiden Byrne’s food […]
