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 […]
Ranjit Mathrani chairs MW Eat, the highly influential London group whose first restaurant, Chutney Mary, opened 35 years ago this month. A former senior civil servant and merchant banker, he runs the company alongside his wife Namita Panjabi (right in photo), the first Indian woman to become a merchant banker, and her sister Camellia Panjabi […]
The Criterion in Piccadilly Circus, one of the West End’s most famous and lavish restaurant sites, is to re-open next month as a branch of the Indian restaurant Masala Zone. Designed by architect Thomas Verity in the Neo Byzantine style, the glittering, Grade II-listed Criterion opened in 1873 and hosted the movers and shakers of […]
50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo, London, WC2 (****) in The Evening Standard visited the latest Neapolitan pizzeria to import itself into London (following on from L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, which recently opened in Baker Street – the first branch in Stoke Newington is no more). Despite almost everything about the place – the location (Northumberland […]
MW Eat (Masala World) has relocated its Chelsea stalwart Chutney Mary to St James’s, which opens in its new home today (1 June). Masala Grill has replaced the “aristocrat of the Indian world” at its old King’s Road site following a major refurbishment. Chutney Mary moved to St James’s Street (the former site of Marco […]