Les Trois Garcons was a real eye-opener when it was launched in 2000. Complete with stuffed animals wearing tiaras, that Brick Lane pub was not just the first truly cool opening in the East End – it also set a new London-wide standard for decadent, high camp decor. A couple of years later, along came […]
Borough was once the home of the famous ‘stews’, or brothels, of medieval London. It is now rapidly becoming a pleasure garden of a very different kind – a sort of mecca for food-conscious urbanites. As an example of how the casual London dining out scene is evolving, there are few areas more striking than […]
Generally speaking, London doesn’t ‘do’ wine bars or bistros and nowadays: the terms just seem so ’60s. Here we do ‘gastropubs’. When all’s said and done though, a gastropub is really no more than a bistro-in-a-pub. What to call this new concept near Smithfield? With such a strong lunchtime food emphasis and nowhere to stand […]
Very occasionally, Britain says boo to American cultural imperialism. Brunch, for example, may long have been a mainstay of the New York social scene (in particular) but it has yet to become as overwhelmingly popular here. Brunch has, however, particularly taken firm root in Notting Hill, presumably because it’s London’s closest equivalent to SoHo. They […]
It has been totally unsung in recent times, but Franco’s is one of the veterans of the London restaurant scene. Founded as Frank’s in 1946, its heritage puts in in the same vintage as better-known ‘period’ destinations such as Covent Garden’s Mon Plaisir. Such period charm as there may ever have been, however, was swept […]
As an act of witless cultural vandalism, the Dorchester’s Grill’s new look takes some beating. Out goes the characterful Spanish Baronial styling of 70 years’ standing. In comes a riot of Tartan High Camp that would not disgrace a Marriott in a Scottish golf resort. Dr Johnson’s observation – ‘The noblest prospect which a Scotchman […]
You don’t need much gumption to write about restaurants, but it does help not to be a mindless slave to cliché. A special wooden spoon award, then, to the recent Sunday Times reviewer – temporary, thank heavens – who noted the continuing prevalence of flock wallpaper in the capital’s Indian restaurants. As anyone with half […]
As evidenced by Tuesday’s review of Luciano, Marco Pierre White has not given up on quality restaurants. In recent times, however, to seems generally to have shied away from the higher levels of cuisine – notoriously a hard way of making money – towards more obviously commercial ventures. Thus he has been involved with a […]
Could Hoxton Square become London’s first all-restaurant square? Possibly not – the White Cube gallery probably wouldn’t convert very well – but they certainly seem to be having quite a crack at it. The latest addition to the fray is this new oriental venture, backed by the Japanese Canteen people. Unlike some of the places […]
