Brindisa Tapas bars have just celebrated their 25th anniversary. Harden’s caught up with founder Monika Linton HARDEN’S: Monika, many congratulations on the first quarter century of Brindisa Tapas – but the bars are just the tip of the iceberg, the most visible aspect of the import company you set up in 1988 to import Spanish food. […]
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 […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 5th January 2025 The Guardian Juliet, Stroud Grace Dent gave a big thumbs-up to this modern European bistro from sculptor Daniel Chadwick, owner of the Woolpack in nearby Slad and her “favourite type of hospitality character… vision-led, distinctly non-corporate and […]
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 […]
A “no-nonsense music pub” serving “old-school pub food” opens in a historic Camden setting next week from the people behind Le Bab and Kebab Queen. The Dark Horse has taken over the Grade II-listed former horse hospital and stables in Camden Market from The Farrier, which closed just two months ago. “The Dark Horse is […]
A dining pub promising “traditional but gastro” cuisine opens next week in Oxfordshire within walking distance of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons – with a former Manoir chef running the kitchen. The Bat & Ball in Cuddeston is a 16th-century coaching inn that was closed down in 2023 by its previous owners, Admiral Taverns – sparking a campaign […]
Russian restaurant Zima has opened a new branch in Notting Hill, a decade after the Soho original launched next-door to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club. The Christmas opening came just two months after the sudden death of founder Alexei Zimin at the age of 52, while visiting Belgrade in Serbia. A writer-turned-chef and television personality, Zimin […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 22nd December 2024 London Standard Wiltons, St James’s David Ellis might be the only person ever to have paid his bill with a Tesco credit card at this bastion of moneyed Englishness (est. 1742) – but he was a sucker […]
Highly rated Edinburgh seafood fixture Ondine is to close temporarily at the end of the year, before reopening at an as-yet undisclosed location in the city centre – with a second branch launching in St Andrews on March 1st. The move has been forced on its founder, chef Roy Brett, by protracted work on the building […]
