A new ultra-high-end sushi restaurant opened in Mayfair this week, with lunch starting at £180 a head for 17 courses and evening menus at £280 and £380 for 20 courses. Taku, in Albermarle Street, showcases the skills of sushi master Takuya Watanabe, formerly of Jin in Paris, which became the first sushi omakase restaurant to […]
An independent restaurant faces closure after losing £50,000 in a bank account scam. Natalia Ribbe and Jackson Berg of Barletta, at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate, say they have been “totally crippled” by the fraud. A friend has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help keep them in business. Natalia noticed suspicious activity in their […]
Gary Jones has left Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons after 23 years as executive head chef, to “pursue new opportunities”. Earlier this year, he was presented with the prestigious Special Award by the Craft Guild of Chefs (pictured) for making a ‘significant impact on the industry’. Previous winners have included his boss at Le Manor, Raymond […]
Gary Neville (right in pic) and Ryan Giggs (left) have signed bartender brothers Joe and Daniel Schofield to replace Tom Kerridge running the signature restaurant at the Stock Exchange Hotel, the luxury Manchester hotel they opened in 2019. The celeb chef recently announced he would be “parting ways” with the former footballers with the closure […]
A natural wine bar in Shoreditch with food by guest chefs will mark its official launch next week, following a fortnight’s soft opening. Oranj occupies a 2,000 sq ft Victorian warehouse in Bacon Street, and will serve Belgian beers alongside low-intervention wines. Founder Jasper Delamothe, hitherto best-known as a bar designer, launched Oranj as a […]
London’s on-going love affair with handmade pasta has received a double boost with the launch of two new live-action operations offering slightly different takes on Italian comfort food. Spagnoletti, part of the St Pancras Hotels Group on the Euston Road, describes itself as an “Italian flour lab” over two floors, with chefs Manuele Bazzoni and […]
The Bleeding Heart Tavern in Farringdon on the edge of the City of London is relaunching next week as a wine-bar – with food at half-price for the first week to anybody who identifies themselves as a “friend”. The tavern was first recorded in 1746 in an area notorious for drunken debauchery, while Charles Dickens mentioned […]
Booking is now open for the 2023 edition of Obsession, the gastronomic festival hosted each year by Northcote hotel and restaurant near Blackburn in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley. The event runs over 17 nights from January 20 to February 5, and features 20 leading chefs. Star guest chefs include Portugal’s Ricardo Costa of the Yeatman Gastronomic […]
Diners can help alleviate homelessness by donating £1 per table at more than 540 restaurants, pubs and hotels around the UK between now and the end of the year in the charity StreetSmart’s annual fundraising drive. Chef and StreetSmart ambassador Monica Galetti (pictured), of restaurant Mere in Fitzrovia, is among the volunteers who provide daily […]
Peter Sanchez-Iglesias is relaunching his flagship restaurant Casamia – this time as an Italian restaurant called simply Casa. The new venture opens on 16 November, next-door to his Spanish tapas bar Paco Tapas in the harbourside former Bristol General Hospital building. The new Casa is to some extent a reimagining of the original Casamia, a family […]
