Back in 1979, with a civil war raging back home, chef Marouf Abouzaki arrived in London from Lebanon. He soon set up the first Maroush, in Edgware Road and since then his stable of establishments has grown pretty steadily. There are now half a dozen Maroushes proper, and roughly the same again of spin-off brands […]
The Hoxton hotel or, as they call it ‘urban lodge’. Sounds cool, huh? Edgy. Alternative. Young British Artists (YBAs) hanging. That sort of thing. In fact, the hotel is the latest idea from Sinclair Beecham – half the duo who originally brought you Pret A Manger. And if you could imagine London’s leading sandwich chain […]
Initial impressions of the latest re-working of this nicely obscure site, just off Regent Street, are upbeat. Its brick-walled dining room feels as much SoHo NYC as Soho W1. Thereafter, however, our experience was all downhill. Take the menu selection. What initially looks like a fairly standard brasserie affair, is actually oddly divided into small […]
Westminster – in the strict sense of the area around the Abbey – has traditionally been home to the back offices of church and state, plus a surprisingly large number of flats for what used to be called the working classes. It doesn’t sound like fertile restaurant-territory, and it isn’t. The past few years, though, […]
Retro seems to be coming back into fashion in the world of dining out. One aspect is a renewed interest in French cuisine in general, and old-style Gallic restaurants in particular. Another throwback is the resurgence of the supper club, of which recent examples, down Piccadilly way, include the Cuckoo and Pigalle clubs. Apart from […]
In recent times, the site of the restaurant we review today has been both an Est! Est! Est! and a Caffé Uno. Not promising for a place that’s set its sights on the ‘fine dining’ market, you might think. For reasons that are hard to pin down, history has demonstrated that it’s remarkably difficult to […]
If media is the circus of the age, Nick Jones is one of its ringmasters. His empire stretches from his HQ at Soho House- via restaurants in Mayfair, Notting Hill and, er, Tooting, plus a country house in the Cotswolds (Babington House) – to an oh-so-hip club in New York’s Meatpacking District. Come Oscar time, […]
Today we record impressions from our first-time – shame! – visit to the home of the UK’s most famously funky ‘three-star’ chef, Heston Blumenthal OBE. From London, take the Maidenhead train and then a ten-minute cab ride. If you’re going to spend this much money – and, make no mistake, you are – you might […]
Reviewing Moroccan restaurants is a real challenge. Everyone knows know that the menu is going to consist of the usual starters, followed by a choice of tajines and cous cous, with pastries for pudding. Not much mileage there for the poor scribe. And everyone knows that the interior is going to be in the dark […]
