Dynamic Glasgow restaurateur Nico Simeone has closed his fish specialist Sole Club to make way for a new pan-Asian concept, Extra_Ordinary, headed by Australian-born chef Tobias ‘Toby’ Fiegel (pictured). Sole Club, which combined experimental seafood cuisine with classic fish ‘n’ chip shop fare, opened in February last year in the Finnieston premises where Simeone founded […]
Café Britaly, the hybrid British caff/Italian comfort food restaurant that opened to critical acclaim in Packham last year, has closed down after just eight months. Co-owners Richard Crampton-Platt (left in picture) and Alex Purdie (right) say they were unable to build enough momentum to generate sustainable revenue in the face of “challenging trading conditions, which were […]
Top pizza independent Santa Maria has opened a new branch in Kew, taking over the premises long occupied by Bruce Poole’s The Glasshouse. Santa Maria has expanded very slowly since its launch by Neapolitan-born founders in Ealing in 2010, with branches opening in Fulham, Fitzrovia and most recently Islington. Combining “top-quality ingredients and fabulous bases”, […]
An upmarket pub and restaurant boasting a Basque chef, its own branded caviar and state-of-the-art draught Guinness opens in Belgravia next week. The Prince Arthur, in Pimlico Road, also has a fishmonger counter in the bar offering seafood from Spain and Cornwall to eat in or take home. The venue is divided into ‘The Pub […]
Studio Frantzén at Harrods has closed permanently after only two years, and plans to relocate to a new address in London this summer. It will be replaced by the new in-house Grill on Fifth, which opens next week. Swedish superstar chef Björn Frantzén’s London outlet has been the marquee attraction headlining the Knightsbridge department store’s […]
Gary Usher has announced the closure of Burnt Truffle in Heswall on the Wirral, his original crowdfunded venture, just short of its tenth birthday. Almost 900 individual donors pledged £100,000 in what Gary believes was Britain’s first non-investment restaurant fundraising campaign, enabling him to open Burnt Truffle in July 2015 as a follow-up to his […]
An ambitious new West African restaurant has opened with little fanfare in Baker Street. Shakara, close to Marylebone’s Chiltern Firehouse, offers cooking inspired by Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia accompanied by live music. Chef Ayo Adeyemi has helped curate the opening menu following a two-year stint at highly rated restaurant Akoko, while former MasterChef: The […]
Giorgio Locatelli has closed his Marylebone flagship after 23 years, indicating that the decision was forced on him and that he has no plans to quit the London restaurant scene. The tousle-haired Italian chef and his wife Plaxy opened Locanda Locatelli 23 years ago in the Hyatt Regency – Churchill hotel, off Portman Square. The […]
A new long-term guest residency opens at Highbury’s Compton Arms next week. Rake, from chef duo Jay Claus and Syrus Pickhaver, promises “unfeigned, restorative British” fare with a focus on whole-beast butchery and sustainable fish from Cornwall. The pair have a combined 20 years’ experience in highly rated establishments including Quo Vadis, Brat and Acme […]
A new restaurant channeling a retro take on the French Riviera will land at The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge this month. La Môme, a spinoff from an original in Cannes (pictured), has taken over the premises occupied for 15 years by chef Marcus Wareing’s high-profile flagship. Twin restaurateurs Ugo and Antoine Lecorche launched the original […]
