Sometimes we just don’t get it. This Dulwich venture has clearly needed a lot of investment, and its backer (also involved in L’Etranger in South Kensington) is experienced. Why then is the new incarnation of this leafily-located Georgian mansion (previously called Belair House) so wide of the mark. For starters, why would anyone take such […]
As chef at Putney Bridge restaurant, Anthony Demetre proved that he could do the Michelin thing. He also worked out that it was not necessarily any sort of route to riches. (Nowadays those same premises trade as a branch of Thai Square). In conjunction with Putney Bridge’s former maitre d’, Demetre is now back in […]
Over the years, Chris Galvin has put in honourable service at both the Orrery (for which we won a star) and the Wolseley (which he helped launch). But for most diners, his name only became known with the opening – in partnership with his brother Jeff – of Galvin’s (‘Bistro de luxe’) in Marylebone last […]
A brilliant marketing wheeze – all possible fresh produce is sourced from the immediate environs of the capital – has already assured many column inches of coverage for this new restaurant in a former pub. Thanks to the location, they do indeed need all the PR they can get. Even the most accomplished estate agent […]
As we scribble this review, news reaches us of the sale of London’s most here-today-gone-tomorrow restaurant site. We’d guess that the new owners won’t preserve the name (Iniga), so it will go down in the annals as just the latest fatality at a Chelsea address that’s seen half a dozen name-changes in recent years. Today, […]
The Oxo Tower has long been a South Bank landmark. And such are the incomparable vistas enjoyed by its top-floor restaurant and brasserie that – despite perennially iffy standards – they’ve been packed for a decade. In contrast, the site at the foot of the building (whose view, more moodily, is as much of The […]
The Brackenbury in W6 has no great claim to fame nowadays. It’s an ideal neighbourhood spot (I should know, as I live only a few doors away), but there’s nothing to hint that when it opened in 1991 it was briefly at the forefront of London’s gastro-revolution. Nobody expected to find such good food in […]
Since it opened a few months ago, restaurant critics have been queueing up to damn this Kensington newcomer. Undaunted, however, we made our way to its bright and contemporary, but rather hard-edged premises, set amidst a longstanding cluster of restaurants, just off the High Street. A wind of change has blown down this street in […]
No sector amongst London’s impoverished selection of specialist food shops has had greater claim to Cinderella status than the pâtisserie. Part of the reason seems to be that quality baking has not traditionally been seen as an occupation fit for an Englishmen. Famous pâtisseries – in order of establishment, Bertaux, Sagne, Valerie and Blanc – […]
Maybe it’s because I’m not a Londoner’, as the song doesn’t quite go – after a quarter of a century here, the Smoke can still surprise me. I’d always heard the Columbia Road market was quite a spectacle, but had somehow never hauled myself out of bed early enough on Sunday to enjoy it. Nowadays, […]
