In the rag trade section of Fitzrovia, a large, stylish and cheerful brasserie whose compelling all-round formula is already packing ’em in. Our first surprise on visiting this attractive-looking newcomer, was that, despite the name, it’s as proper a brasserie as you’ll find – a sort of younger and trendier Wolseley. What good news! Despite […]
Near the Apple Store, a contemporary Italian restaurant whose rather retro culinary style contributes to a style surprisingly redolent of ‘old Mayfair’; a useful enough place, it seemed to us to lack the distinction necessary to become a real ‘destination’. All praise to AA Gill! The Sunday Times’s columnist may be famous for not talking […]
On the former Chelsea site of Aubergine, a welcoming and elegantly-styled new Italian restaurant; the cooking, though, is tame. Honey, we forgot the food! Are we imagining it, or is there a bit of a spate of restaurant at the moment which are very nice in every way’ except that the food is entirely unremarkable? […]
A grandly housed Japanese restaurant, just south of Trafalgar Square; standards struck us as solid, rather than anything more, but good bento (and so on) deals make this a handy daytime option – by night, its ambience would make it suitable for a not-too-serious business meeting. There’s a whole new quarter opening up in the […]
Elegantly housed in Battersea Square, a smartly turned-out brasserie where food and service don’t quite live up to appearances; for oyster-lovers, though, this may be a place worth seeking out. Initial reactions to this smart Battersea brasserie are largely of surprise. What is this elegant establishment doing, well, here? Brasseries – arguably the most useful […]
Grandly housed in the hotel adjacent to Victoria Station, this Cantonese dining room offers airy surroundings and good-value dim sum (and lunch) menus, making it an ideal daytime rendezvous; by night, it looks set to appeal particularly to the business market. Thanks to the re-launch of St Pancras, railway station hotel refurbishment is rather topical […]
Just off Regent Street, a potentially useful brasserie, under the same ownership as Ottolenghi, and in a broadly similar (if more ambitious) style; format and location are undoubtedly very handy, but these attractions are undermined by high prices. Upmarket deli/pâtisserie Ottolenghi has a legions of fans, many of whom have been keenly awaiting the opening […]
Bringing the style of New York’s hip Meatpacking District to Leicester Square, a glamorous establishment which brings a lot of style (with prices to match) to a menu inspired by the spicy street food of the Orient. Jean-Georges Vongerichten is, arguably, the most influential chef/restaurateur in the world. He runs a world-class French restauraurants (Jean-Georges, […]
A former inn, prettily located on Wimbledon Common, whose interior has been converted to a large, contemporary-style dining room offering rich cooking of high quality; though many aspects of the operation are individually impressive, we left feeling that the experience’š in these admittedly early days, did not entirely ‘gel’. What could be more English than […]
Near Brompton Cross, a relaunch of Papillon as a good all-round-Italian; in fact little, except the cuisine, seems really to have changed from the former régime. Don’t they have enough Italian restaurants round Brompton Cross? Undaunted, the owners of Papillon – a rather useful French restaurant, we always thought – have recently re-named it, and […]
