An ambitious restaurant in a landmark building with a large terrace overlooking the Thames opens this weekend beside Richmond Bridge in leafy southwest London. Tower House, from the team behind Gold in Notting Hill, promises ‘modern Mediterranean food with old-world Italian roots reminiscent of home, in a spirit of relaxed care and warmth’. It is […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 9th November 2025 The Guardian Lilibet’s, Mayfair Grace Dent anointed her “new favourite restaurant”: Australian chef and Bone Daddies founder Ross Shonhan’s seafood specialist at the birthplace of the late QEII (fka ‘Lilibet’) – whose “turbo-chintz, Las Vegas-style royalist fever dream” […]
Chongqing noodle queens Charlene Liu and Liu Qian have opened the third branch of their cult brand Liu Xiaomian, inside new Czech-beer specialist pub The Stranded, opposite Charing Cross station. The duo have attracted a devoted fan base for their good-value wheat noodles (xiaomian), glass noodles and wontons served with ultra-spicy meat or vegan toppings […]
The former Launceston Place head chef has returned to the London dining scene with the opening of 74 Charlotte Street by Ben Murphy, on the site previously occupied by Monica Galetti’s Mere in Fitzrovia. Ben said he had “waited my whole career” to announce the first restaurant with his name over the door. “We’ve built […]
La Cage Imaginaire, a cute Hampstead Village bistro that featured in the latest Bridget Jones film, is closing down after 50 years at the end of this month. The 26-seat venue in Flask Walk serves homely French and Mediterranean food. Antonia Macone, who has owned and run it for the past two decades, says it […]
In one of the autumn’s most ambitious new openings, chef Matt Abé this week launched his first solo restaurant – Bonheur by Matt Abé – in the former premises of the iconic Le Gavroche in Upper Brook Street, Mayfair. Sydney-born Matt has spent almost 20 years working for Gordon Ramsay, most recently as chef-patron at his […]
Leading Lancashire pub/restaurant the Freemasons in Wiswell reopened this week following a short closure to prepare for the arrival of its highly experienced new chef-patron, Mike Shaw. Mike’s task will be to restore the pub to the culinary eminence it achieved under chef Steve Smith, who left last year after 15 years in which the […]
A new restaurant in Fitzrovia turns the focus on the cooking of Occitania, with dishes inspired by France’s Mediterranean coast, from the bouillabaisse of Marseilles and the rice of the Carmargue to Pâtes au Pistou from Nice. Maset, on Chiltern Street – which takes its name from vineyard houses in the region – is from Melody […]
The opening of two new neighbourhood French bistros in quick succession confirms the enduring popularity of classic Gallic cuisine in the British capital. Earlier this month, La Bouffe (pictured) launched in Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, from husband-and-wife team Lawrence and Emily Hartley, who own the Provence-inspired Le Petit Citron in Brook Green. They say the […]
Romanian-born chef Alex Craciun, who made his name at Jason Atherton’s Sosharu, has returned to London after nine years to open a Japanese-inspired restaurant called Aces Foodcraft in Fitzrovia. The restaurant, which opens tomorrow (1 November), operates on two levels: during the daytime it is relatively casual, with a seasonal à la carte menu, daily […]
