Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 30th June 2024 Evening Standard Akira Back, Mayfair Jimi Famurewa gasped when he stepped inside the extravagant new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair in Hanover Square. Sadly its headline restaurant, from Seoul-born, Las Vegas-based celeb chef Akira Back, had the opposite […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 23rd June 2024 Evening Standard Café Britaly, Peckham When this restaurant’s purist-baiting pitch first came to his notice, Jim Famurewa dismissed the whole enterprise as clickbait – “winking Britalian camp” and “a silly play for virality”. But when he […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 19th May 2024 Evening Standard Roe, Canary Wharf Jimi Famurewa delivered the first verdict on the “unfathomably huge” Canary Wharf follow-up to St James’s Market hit Fallow, and it’s a certified thumbs-up: “Roe is both big and clever,” he […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 5th May 2024 Daily Telegraph Francatelli, St James’s Restaurant critics like to give generous reviews but readers notoriously prefer stinkers. So this week they were in for a treat – led by William Sitwell, who was “bewildered” by the decision […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 28th April 2024 The Financial Times Alberta’s at The Windmill, Brighton Tim Hayward was “blown away” by Scottish chef Alistair Munro’s cooking at a “rackety, seedy Regency locals’ boozer” – a meal which prompted Tim to define an emergent new […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 21st April 2024 The Evening Standard Crispin at Studio Voltaire, Clapham Jimi Famurewa was impressed by the latest expansion of the East London-based Crispin brand, which “cements founding restaurateur Dom Hamdy’s HAM group as one of the capital’s most […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 14th April 2024 The Evening Standard The Bear, Camberwell Jimi Famurewa was nonplussed by a revamped neighbourhood boozer that had been closed for six years before being rescued by Teddy Roberts and chef Joe Sharratt, formerly of Brixton hotspot […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 7th April 2024 The Evening Standard The Shoap, Angel Jimi Famurewa thoroughly enjoyed himself at this “hybrid cafe, food shop and bar that bills itself as ‘London’s first Scottish deli’”, from Glaswegian former economist Gregg Boyd – a “brilliant … invigorating, […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 31st March 2024 The Evening Standard Yuki Bar, Hackney Bored of London’s small-plates scene and bewildered by the “ruinous” prices of London’s Japanese-inspired restaurants, Jimi Famurewa had the highest hopes of master sommelier Yukiyasu Kaneko’s tiny Hackney spot, anticipating […]

Continue reading

Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 24th March 2024 The Evening Standard Arlington, St James’s The first reviews are in, and the early indications are that Jeremy‘Comeback’ King, doyen of London restaurateurs, has a monster hit on hishands with his heavily hyped Arlington. “Getting a table […]

Continue reading