Let’s use New York’s SoHo as an example of post-Industrial inner-city evolution. Rather over-simplified it goes something like this: 1) The artists move in, and the area gets a reputation for being ‘cool’ (rather than just dangerous). 2) Hipster-bankers move in, and start pricing out the artists. 3) Restaurants blossom. 4) Bloomingdales opens a ‘Downtown’ […]
Rarely do London restaurants come with more history than this veteran institution overlooking Regent Street – home of the longest-established Indian restaurant in what is now the greatest Indian restaurant city in the world. Established in 1926, it makes much of this history. Continuity, however, has sometimes been more apparent than real: immediately after WWII, […]
A table for one, please’ – hardly had these words had time to echo around this almost totally empty restaurant, that I was shown to the very worst seat in the house, bang opposite the open kitchen entrance. So today, we review plate-stacking technology. Just kidding: the theme is nouvelle Indian’s this week. And after […]
The traditional curry house may now be the UK’s favourite restaurant format. Asian entrepreneurs not being a bunch to stand still, though, this week we review some of the modern ‘nouvelle Indian’ formats that continue to spring up around town. As an offshoot of Mayfair’s famous Tamarind, the opening of this Soho newcomer came with […]
How often do you go somewhere perfect – somewhere that totally lives up to all your expectations? Maybe we’ve been restaurant critics for too long, but we’d say: ‘almost never’. Most of the time, you can come away with some legitimate beef or other (and all too often, at least in this town, it has […]
Is picking a good restaurant just a matter of personal taste? If so, our job would be pretty pointless, so it is lucky that – after 15 years’ market research – we’ve pretty conclusively found that most people agree about most restaurants most of the time. There is a ‘Right Answer’. There are however a […]
How’s your Valentine’s booking coming along? One excellent choice – though for next year I’m afraid, given that it was fully booked by the end of January – is the subject of today’s review. From the outside, Maggiore’s gives every impression of wanting to ‘fit in’ alongside the mass-market outlets of Covent Garden. By looking […]
Rocco Forte’s mission to re-establish his family name as a force in hotels goes from strength to strength. He has snapped up some great continental properties, and opened top-level newcomers in British cities that previously had none: in Manchester or Cardiff, chez Rocco is the best place to stay. Not, however, the top place to […]
