In the heart of Kennington, a really handy all-purpose gastroboozer, which was already well into its stride on our early-days lunchtime visit. The latest ‘Renaissance’ pub will come as no surprise to those who’ve visited siblings such as the Avalon, in Balham. Its airy old premises, once a woody wine bar on one of Kennington’s […]
Adjacent to the Museum of London, a simple but satisfying City brasserie that makes a better than usual adjunct to a cultural day out. We have so many cultural facilities in London, many of them ‘world-class’, but how many of these come with dining facilities to which that epithet could similarly be attached? Various Tate […]
Atop Centre Point, a surprisingly – but not disagreeably – plain and straightforward dining room, with one of the finest vistas in town. To visit the landmark which is Centre Point is to be taken back to a different, poorer London. The building (completed in ’66) may at the time have been perceived as a […]
By Bart’s Hospital, a handy little wine bar/bistro, where the food happens to be both Italian and vegetarian – on our early-days visit, it was of consistently good quality. So here we are in a pretty backwater on the fringe of the City, in premises which look rather like a traditional wine bar-cum-bistro (which is […]
Tucked away in a basement courtyard just off the Strand, a simple suntrap café that makes an ideal secret sunny day hide-away. The sun is shining ferociously. The city is too busy. Oh, to escape to one’s own traffic-free semi-shaded courtyard, nestling within the rusticated stonework of a great Italianate palace, to be soothed by […]
In improving Covent Garden, a dining-and-entertainment venue where the food is better than par for the course; and a handy lunchtime rendezvous too. Sometimes even the smoothly oiled Harden’s inspection programme derails. As the subject of this piece is a cabaret venue, we had obviously intended to visit in the evening. Serendipity, however, had other […]
100 yards from Big Ben, a comfortable but institutional dining room, offering classic Roux-family Gallic fare, of consistently good quality. The critical world, in particular, is becoming less tolerant of the ‘same old formulae’ these days. That is not good news for openings such as this recent addition to the empire of the Roux family […]
In a small townhouse quietly located in the heart of Soho, a Gallic restaurant run by Alexis Gauthier, formerly of Pimlico’s celebrated Roussillon – on our early-days visit, there was no sign that the magic had transferred. Chef from well-known and long-established ‘hidden gem’ restaurant (Rousillon) sets up on his own in cute West End […]
Right by Fenchurch Street station, a smart but tightly-packed pizza-and-more operation that makes a handy rendezvous for travellers and, yes, locals. We admit to a degree of surprise that Tike, the smart Turkish operation that was until recently the neighbour to Fenchurch Street station, endured for such a brief time. Perhaps the answer is that: […]
A steakhouse on a scale of which Uncle Sam would approve, and offering good American steaks; Mayfair’s answer to Peter Luger’s, however, this is not. Imagine some sort of TGIF without the charm, and worse Muzak, and you begin to approach the style-horror of the new dining room of this supposedly five-star hotel. Then gross […]
