Jay Rayner in The Observer keeps things on The Straight and Narrow, a piano bar and restaurant in east London’s Docklands… “Food and music are meant to go together. Jazz, which is what I have spent most of my adult life at the keyboard wrestling with, was born in restaurants like this. “The Straight and Narrow has […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer reviewed Plot in Tooting, “a sliver of a restaurant serving terrible cocktails and great food in one of south London’s traditional covered markets”. “Thick curls of squid, crusted with a chorizo crumb on a salad of tomatoes that taste of something, is a bit of textural fun. It’s followed by a dainty […]
The Ned, a new hotel and membership club boasting no fewer than nine separate restaurants, has opened in a disused bank building plum in the middle of the City of London. Named after its architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, the grand building was opened in 1924 as the City headquarters of the Midland Bank. The £200m hotel conversion is […]
All-day restaurant The Vincent in Hackney Downs is the latest project from the trio behind the Sebright Arms live-music pub in Bethnal Green. Charles Ross, Richard Temple and Jamie Hempseed plan to open The Vincent this month, serving pastries and coffee in the morning and brunch at weekends. The lunch and evening menu, also available to take away, […]
The team behind hit Hackney venue Pidgin are to open a modern British interpretation of a Chinese dim sum restaurant in Mayfair, with service based around trolleys and trays laden with small plates. Magpie launches in Heddon Street, off Regent Street, next month. True to its name, dishes will be “stolen” from an eclectic range […]
Cartel, a new taqueria and late-night tequila bar in Battersea, is the latest in the new wave of Mexican taco joints that is sweeping across London. Named in what seems a clear reference to the Mexican narco wars involving drug cartels that have cost 100,000 lives in the past 10 years, the venue must also be an early front-runner in the “poor taste […]
Michel Roux Jr, from the cooking dynasty that has personified French cuisine in Britain for half a century, is to oversee an establishment serving traditional English food. The Wigmore bar, in Regent Street’s grand Langham hotel, will offer dishes inspired by the English pub and tavern, such as raised veal and ham pie and devilled lamb’s kidneys – although diners will […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer reviewed Koj, MasterChef finalist and former City banker Andrew Kojima’s “cheerfully low-key” Japanese comfort food joint in Cheltenham. “Koj Fried Chicken – work out the initials yourself – is halfway between the softness of American southern fried, and the full-on crunch of Japanese karaage. Sesame flavoured mayo sends it happily on its […]
The Duck & Waffle 24-hour high-rise restaurant in the City is launching a more casual spin-off, Duck & Waffle Local, in the new St James’s Market development behind Piccadilly Circus on May 3. The new branch is designed to be “fast and accessible”, with customers ordering at a counter overlooking the kitchen before being shown […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of the Observer reviewed Box-E, an 18-seater set inside a shipping container on Bristol’s Wapping Wharf, by Elliott Lidstone, former head chef of L’Ortolan and then of the Empress pub in Hackney. “I’d go so far as to say there’s a defined Bristolian style. It’s rooted in the love of the small bistros of France, championed by the late […]