This year marks the 20th year of StreetSmart, a campaign raising funds for homeless charities through restaurants nationally every November and December. The charity has raised over £8.2 million across two decades, through the simple idea of adding a voluntary £1 to diners’ bills throughout the festive months. StreetSmart raised a staggering £587,000 in 2016 and in this […]

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Cartel, a new taqueria and late-night tequila bar in Battersea, is the latest in the new wave of Mexican taco joints that is sweeping across London. Named in what seems a clear reference to the Mexican narco wars involving drug cartels that have cost 100,000 lives in the past 10 years, the venue must also be an early front-runner in the “poor taste […]

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Sam and Eddie Hart, the brothers behind the soaring Barrafina group, opened their latest venture this week, the Mexican-inspired El Pastor taqueria near Borough Market. “Al pastor“, or shepherd-style, is where the taco meets the kebab – a Mexico City staple with its origins in the Arab shawarma. Sam Hart acquired a taste for the style while […]

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Quo Vadis, the Soho veteran rated as “particularly charming” by the Harden’s Survey, reopens on Monday after a six-week nip and tuck which will allow its hip young stablemate Barrafina to bunk up in the same address in Dean Street when its lease in nearby Frith Street comes to an end in November. The re-shuffle of Sam and Eddie […]

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