Our mission is remarkably simple. To tell it how it is!
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 30th March 2025 London Standard Tasca at Câv, Bethnal Green David Ellis hailed the “beautiful food and fair prices” at a new arrival in a “cool” neighbourhood, which landed in the very week that chancellor Rachel Reeves’s “thuggish budget […]
Peckham’s popular 081 Pizzeria is expanding, with its first offshoot opening next week in Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch. The new branch is considerably larger than the 20-seater in Peckham Rye, which wins praise in the 2025 Harden’s guide for its “superb selection of funky Neapolitan pizzas (from 72-hour fermented dough)” and additional dishes including arancini, […]
A new Thai restaurant taking inspiration from global barbecue techniques opens next week in Manchester. Bangkok Diners Club, from Ben and Bo Humphries, has taken over the upstairs dining room at the Edinburgh Castle, a historic pub in Ancoats that was revived to wide acclaim in 2019. The new kitchen replaces a well-received operation serving […]
US-based Korean celebrity chef Akira Back launches a new restaurant in a Mayfair luxury hotel next week – six months after making his London debut just a few minutes’ walk away in another hotel. Lilli by Akira Back, which opens on Wednesday 2 April, is an all-day restaurant at the new Montcalm Mayfair, a new 150-room […]
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 […]
