Classic Chelsea brasserie Le Colombier has announced it will cease trading at the end of the year, in a week which witnessed the closure of Pearly Queen in Shoreditch, Koyn in Mayfair and Café Below in the City. Lyon’s seafood specialist in Crouch End will also serve its final guests tomorrow (4 October) after six […]
The vaunted Chancery Rosewood hotel in the former US Embassy in Mayfair is now on a soft opening ahead of its formal launch on September 1st – without the promised revival of Richard Caring’s flagship restaurant Le Caprice. Following a seven-year conversion that reputedly cost £1 billion, the 144-suite hotel has unveiled its initial eating […]
Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand shut down without warning this week, just five months after its heavily publicised launch, with the chef saying the closure was “due to circumstances beyond our control“. The dining room of the Victorian Gothic former railway hotel, now run as the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, is regarded as one […]
A new casual sushi and sake bar called Noren opens in Mayfair this week, introducing the mini hand-roll ‘makezu’ sushi (pictured) to London, alongside a range of sakes, shochus, wines and beers. From the group behind Chisou, Noren has taken over the premises on South Molton Street vacated earlier this year by another Japanese venture, […]
Gordon Ramsay (right in photo) has acquired the former site of Le Gavroche in Mayfair, with chef Matt Abé (left) shifting from his flagship, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, to take charge of the as-yet-unnamed new venture. Michel Roux closed Le Gravroche, in Upper Brook Street, just over a year ago, ending […]
Mano Mayfair, a new restaurant offering “the vibrancy of Latin America with the unbridled glamour of late 1950s St Tropez”, is scheduled to open in Heddon Street before Christmas, although the return of the pandemic restrictions may have thrown the exact date into doubt. The concept comes from entrepreneur Alexis Colette and Romain Fargette, who […]
Israeli-born Australian chef Roy Ner opened his first restaurant in Europe this week, Jeru in Berkeley Street, Mayfair, bringing his luxurious interpretation of Middle Eastern cuisine to London. The smart restaurant was designed by Melbourne’s Studio Y and has a downstairs cocktail bar, Layla, along with a bakery at the front producing such delicacies as […]
The owner of Mayfair seafood restaurant Assunta Madre has been arrested in his native Italy on money-laundering charges. Gianni Micalusi was arrested with his two sons, his bank manager and accountant and is accused by Rome prosecutors of laundering nearly €900,000 in cash from “illegal activities”. He was remanded in custody. Micalusi, a rotund 52-year-old former fisherman, […]
From restaurateur frères extraordinaire Claude (Hibiscus W1) & Cedric Bosi (The Charlton Arms, Ludlow) – a new pub-with-rooms close to Esher Common – The Swan Inn launches today (20 May). The brothers have described the menu (overseen by Claude but delivered by head chef Justin West) as ‘English food from a Frenchman’; however it features traditional pub […]