Spencer Metzger (left in picture) opens his follow-up to the acclaimed Row on 5 next week – Chez Rose, a French bistro taking over the former premises of Little Social in Pollen Street, Mayfair. Like Row on 5, the new venue is part of Jason Atherton’s Social Restaurant Group. Jason (right in picture) shuttered Little Social […]
A bakery that morphs into a bistro and wine bar as day moves to night has opened in St John’s Wood High Street. No Forty Nine is from head chef Ella Williams (right – ex-Mountain and Crispin) and owner Jake Finn (left), who founded Cinder, a minute’s walk along the high street. Breakfast is served from […]
A rooftop food and entertainment venue featuring the largest retractable roof in UK hospitality and 12 independent kitchens opens in Newcastle city centre next week, on the upper storey of the former Debenham’s building in Eldon Square. Freight Island Newcastle – from the team behind Freight Island in Manchester – was due to launch last autumn but […]
Gary Maclean, Scotland’s National Chef, is to open a new restaurant called Kin in Edinburgh next week that celebrates the nation’s produce and culinary traditions. Seastoing 45 guests, Kin is part of The Roseate Edinburgh, a three-year-old boutique hotel converted from two Victorian townhouses on the capital’s West Side. Glasgow-born Gary made his name by […]
Born in New York and raised in Spain and France, Victor Garvey has been a chef since his mother sent him for work experience to a then little-known restaurant called El Bulli. This month, he is moving his Californian restaurant Sola from Soho, where it opened in 2019, to Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill – […]
Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant critics were writing about in the week up to 31st May 2026 The Guardian Skof, Manchester Grace Dent had to wait almost two years after its opening to bag a table at this “intensely relaxed yet still ferociously fancy” restaurant from former L’Enclume head chef Tom Barnes. Luckily it […]
Prolific chef Jackson Boxer launched his latest restaurant this week – Vesper in Exmouth Market, which he bills as his “tribute to London”. The venture takes its name – and possibly its colour palette – from Venus, the evening star. It occupies the former site of Taqueria, whose Notting Hill sister restaurant Jackson helped relaunch as Taq in […]
Appalachia, a restaurant inspired by cooking from the mountains of eastern USA, launches in Shoreditch next week – with former Smoking Goat head chef Ali Borer running the open kitchen. Set in a converted traditional pub near Old Street with a smart marble chef’s counter, Appalachia has replaced Counter 71, where chef Joe Laker served […]
New York celeb chef Jody Williams is opening a branch of her French-inspired Buvette in Covent Garden next week. She has taken over and extended the former St John Bakery in Neal’s Yard to create an 80-seat space that will be open from 8am every morning until 9pm (Sun-Wed) or 10pm (Thurs-Sat) – so not quite […]
Portfolio, the pioneering Champagne venue bringing top-class bubbles to Manchester, opens an ambitious restaurant next week as it completes a staged launch that began before Christmas. Billed as the UK’s first ‘Champagne boutique’, the city-centre venture is the brainchild of a quartet who want to change perceptions of the world’s most famous fizz: Cameron Foster […]
