From the Club Gascon people, an oddly Provençal incursion into the heart of legal-land; staff are charming, and the bright interior is pleasant enough, but we’re not at all sure that the formula is right for such a businesslike part of town. Chancery Lane, the high street of the London legal world, was until very […]
The Deco-ish dining room of the palace-hotel by the Thames offers a straightforward formula which was generally achieved to a good standard on our early-days visit; wine prices are very high though – the sort of ‘celebration’ meal to which such a room is ideally suited could end up very pricey indeed. The Savoy is […]
Very like its Notting Hill namesake, a competent but quite pricey Chelsea chippy, whose point it is rather difficult to see. We hadn’t felt in any great rush to check out this new Chelsea spin-off of the Notting Hill chippy of the same name: we went to the original when it just opened, and remembered […]
A smart and comfortable chain-prototype Indian, which makes a very useful addition to the West End. What do you want in a chain-style restaurant in the heart of the West End? Comfort? Space? Perhaps an interior with a bit of drama? Good food? Friendy and efficient service. Looked at a whole, this Covent Garden newcomer […]
From the Arbutus team, a grandly recreated Gallic brasserie, a couple of minutes walk from Charing Cross; a day-one visit revealed it to be a quality operation – indeed, its ‘offer’ would arguably be better if it were rather less ambitious. The popular team behind Arbutus and Wild Honey – who’ve stormed the capital in […]
On a barely furnished Bayswater corner, the UK’s self-proclaimed first cornmeal pizza crust restaurant; our visit suggested that it’s a concept worthy of wider diffusion. The phrase ‘concept new to the UK’ is one that chills the blood. How often have we heard that before? So it was with a sense of duty rather than […]
A potentially remarkable revival of an almost unknown Greek restaurant, in Fitzrovia, established in 1936; its interior is one of the most impressive in the West End, and the food is good too, but any sense of occasion is still lacking. Not often we get to review a restaurant that opened in 1936, and still […]
In Soho, one of the first four branches (two in London, two in NYC) of a new-concept ‘low-carbon’ chain; as chain-style veggie outlets go, it’s not a bad place, but a bit more jollity might not go amiss. It’s rather difficult to know quite what to make of ‘the planet’s first low-carbon restaurant’. One of […]
A relaunch of a charming Chelsea boozer as a slightly self-consciously-fashionable rendezvous for the local gilded youth; judged by the standards of such places, the food is pretty good. As far as we can see, Time Out hasn’t reviewed the relaunch of the Chelsea pub which used to be best known as George Best’s local. […]
A welcoming new Mayfair Italian with a happy soul; our early-days meal was a little up-and-down, but this is a destination which looks set for success nonetheless. Harden’s reviews are sometimes criticised for not talking enough about the food. We’re never quite sure why. Sir Terence Conran, who’s made a lot of money feeding people, […]
