After a six-year, £73million investment, Guinness this week opened its Open Gate Brewery visitor experience in Covent Garden, complete with three eating spots from two high-profile chefs. The most glamorous option is Gilroy’s Loft on the fifth floor, where a menu of oysters and seafood is served by a team headed by chef Pip Lacey. […]
Ambitious French seafood restaurant Mazarine opened this week in Hanover Square, Mayfair, under former Le Gavroche head chef Thierry Laborde. Mazarine is from restaurateurs Khaled Dandachi and Fred Srouchi, the duo behind nearby Italian Sparrow Italia, who say the new venture is “conceived and curated with the discerning guest in mind”. Khaled added: “Mazarine in […]
A glossy new Cantonese restaurant called Dim Sum Library opens in Covent Garden next week, from the Hong Kong-based Aqua group, the people behind Aqua Shard and Hutong. Dim Sum Library has taken over the Long Acre address of the group’s former Italian restaurant Luci. Browsers will be able to watch the chefs in action […]
MasterChef: The Professionals winner Alex Webb opens his first restaurant as patron next week – seafood-focused Orion in Wimbledon Village. Classically trained Alex worked in top London kitchens including Hélène Darroze at the Connaught, Dinner by Heston and the Savoy before his 2020 MasterChef win, followed by a residency under his own name at the Intercontinental […]
The veteran teams behind two of London’s most influential restaurant groups from the past 30 years – upmarket Indian group MW Eat and Smithfield-based St John – this week announced moves that herald their retirement from leadership roles. MW, comprising Chutney Mary, Veeraswamy, Amaya and four Masala Zones, has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by […]
Former Kiln chef Tom Geoffrey has popped up to replace Khao Bird in the upstairs residency at the The Globe Tavern in Borough Market, where he is presenting Barang – his take on Cambodian cooking. Khao Bird decamped this month to permanent digs in Soho, and Borough regulars now have the opportunity to compare Cambodian […]
Restaurateur Martin Kuczmarski is launching two new retro-inspired Italian venues in quick succession – Martino’s in Sloane Square, Chelsea and Dover Street Counter, a few doors down from his flagship off Piccadilly. In both cases Martin has followed the low-profile but high-impact process that proved such a success last year with Dover Street, one of the […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 23rd November 2025 The Guardian The Shaston Arms, Soho Grace Dent was resolutely unimpressed by a pub that failed to bridge the gap between being an “old-school boozer” and “a cool restaurant that serves food at premium prices” – a […]
Calabrian-born chef Francesco Mazzei this week opened his latest restaurant – Mezzogiorno in the Corinthia hotel, just off Trafalgar Square. Francesco made his name in London with L’Anima, which opened on the edge of the City in 2008. He followed up by launching Radici, Sartoria and Fiume with D&D London (now Evolv), and ran a six-month […]
Our round-up of what the nations restaurant critics were writing about in the week to 16th November 2025 The Guardian 2210 by Natty Can Cook, Herne Hill Grace Dent enjoyed one of her best meals of the year at an “utterly classy” take on Caribbean cuisine from Nathaniel Mortley, a chef who worked at Oblix and […]
