A restaurant dating back to 1757 will launch its first outpost in London’s Chinatown next week – introducing a new variety of noodles to the capital. Songhelou in Wardour Street is descended from a restaurant that opened during the Qing dynasty in Suzhou, a city about 50 miles west of Shanghai. The long-lived Qianlong Emperor is […]
Leeds favourite The Swine That Dines reopens next week under a new name and in new, larger premises – as the Swine Bistro in Headingley. The original Swine, a former sandwich shop on North Street in the city centre, has won increasing fame for founders Stu and Jo Myers in its 12 years – scoring an […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 23rd March 2025 London Standard Senza Fondo!, Shoreditch David Ellis was primed to castigate this cod-Italian for its childish promise of “bottomless lasagna” (misspelt, he snootily corrected: it should be the plural form, lasagne), for the exclamation mark in […]
Fulham Football Club has announced its two latest signings for next season – chefs Alex Dilling (left) of the Café Royal and Oli Marlow (right) of Roganic in Hong Kong and Aulis in Phuket – who will be overseeing match-day meals in the Gourmet restaurant of the club’s imposing new Riverside stand. Adam Byatt of Trinity […]
Soho restaurateur Nima Safaei opens his third venue in the district next week – a quick-service pasta bar that will not take bookings. Like its sibling Italian restaurants – 40 Dean Street, Nima’s original venue, opened in 2010, and 64 Old Compton Street, which followed last year – the new venue takes the name of its address: 27 […]
An ambitious new restaurant headed by a former River Cafe chef opens in a Grade II listed townhouse opposite the Natural History Museum in South Kensington next week. The Lavery – named after a former resident, Irish-born artist Sir John Lavery – has taken over the premises of the former Cromwell Place café, and will offer […]
The Peat Inn, one of Scotland’s leading restaurants for several decades, is on sale with chef-patron Geoffrey Smeddle and his wife Katherine deciding to move on after 19 years. The 250-year-old inn near St Andrews in Fife wins consistent praise in the Harden’s guide for its ‘old-school class’ and has been a regular on the […]
Pimped-up sandwiches are having a moment, with no fewer than three upmarket venues opening in London in quick succession. First up is Crunch, rhymingly billed as ‘a contemporary hack to a traditional snack’, which has opened in Dean Street, Soho after two years as a stall in Old Spitalfields Market. The ‘hack’ consists of non-sweetened […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 16th March 2025 London Standard Calong, Stoke Newington David Ellis was puzzled at this pop-up-gone-permanent restaurant from Joo Won, the Korean-born former head chef at the Galvin Brothers’ Windows. If his ambition was to produce London’s best Korean food, […]
Iconic Southall restaurant Brilliant is to close next month after 50 years, to be replaced by the new Brilliant Gastro in the town’s nearby Green Quarter. The restaurant was founded by Gulu Anand in 1975, becoming a stalwart of the west London suburb’s famous south Asian dining scene, with guests including King Charles. The founder’s […]
