Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 16 February 2020. Muse, London SW1 Grace Dent for The Guardian has declared it early this year: “I’ve found my restaurant of the year.” Not all of the critics who have reviewed Muse so far have enjoyed it this […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 9 February 2020. Casa do Frango, London EC2 “Tortured food v excellent ingredients unmucked-about — I know what wins every time” Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times was craving chicken and chips after enduring a TV show in which Heston Blumenthal made a […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 2 February 2020. Mei Mei, London SE1 Jimi Famurewa for The Evening Standard is the first to report on Elizabeth Haigh’s new Borough Market Kitchen outlet; the “tiny counter café” that’s “a meticulous, loving riff on the thrumming ‘kopitiam’ coffee shops that are […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 26 January 2020. Muse, London SW1 It wasn’t just us then. “Tom Aikens’s new bijou “experience-led” fine dining restaurant was greeted with snorts of derision as possibly the most pretentious ever.” But the last laugh is on us, as David Sexton […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 19 January 2020. Paradise, London W1 Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times booked for a return visit to Paradise immediately after her first, and even “felt so evangelical about the place” that she posted on Instagram about the mutton […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 12 January 2020. Bistro 46, Newcastle “It took me a while to get to Bistro 46, but I’m very pleased I made it.” The Observer’s Jay Rayner was still in the North, and dropped into Newcastle to review a […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 5 January 2020 – our first round-up of the decade. Allegra, London E20 Grace Dent for The Guardian had a hard time convincing friends to join her for a meal at Allegra. It’s just “so far away” and “Londoners […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 29 December 2019 – our last round-up of the year. Some more critics looked back over their past visits – perhaps we should call this week’s page “Review of the review of the reviews”? This week’s ‘best of the […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 22 December 2019. This week’s Christmas article / ‘best of the year’ round-up came from The Evening Standard’s Fay Maschler, whose ‘favourite restaurants’ article featured many of her friends from her decades of reviewing (and “do not necessarily adhere […]

Continue reading


Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 15 December 2019. This week’s Christmas article / ‘best of the year’ round-up came from Nicholas Lander in The Financial Times, who gave us his list of favourites (“in 2020, restaurateurs must offer the hospitality many of us crave”). […]

Continue reading