Star chef Phil Howard will launch a specialist pasta bar in the heart of the West End next week. Notto opens on Thursday 3 November at 199 Piccadilly, a few doors along from the Royal Academy. It is the first pitch at the mid-market for a chef associated with the heights of fine dining, having […]
Mayfair’s “classy” (if sometimes “dull”) gastronomic temple, The Square, will re-open its doors on 20 November after a major refurbishment of its kitchen and dining room. Launched by Phil Howard and Nigel Platts-Martin back in 1991, the restaurant was sold to the MARC group (Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation) last year and has since undergone a redesign […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer reviewed The Other Naughty Piglet, a branch of Brixton’s Naughty Piglets inside Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new theatre in Victoria, The Other Place, where he found “a kind of modern British cooking with wallops of umami”. “Sometimes the cleverness is textural. A pile of white crab meat sits atop a heap of […]
⦿ The Guardian’s Marina O’Loughlin reviewed Trump Turnberry 6/10 in Ayrshire, where she arrived with “prejudices fully erect” and is told in a whisper, “We’re not allowed to talk politics.” “Yes, there’s a lot to loathe. I hate that the hotel celebrates Scottishness in a way only a tourist can love: charming doormen waft you indoors […]
A couple who met in the kitchen at St John are opening their first restaurant, Sparrow, in Lewisham at the end of March. Terry Blake and Yohini Nandakumar say they will use seasonal British meat and vegetables and cook their favourite dishes – which gives them a pretty broad canvas. Between them they have notched up experience at Bao, […]
The Raby Hunt near Darlington was the biggest winner in yesterday’s (snooze-worthy) 2017 UK and Ireland Michelin Guide announcements, with chef James Close bagging his second star. Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Bray returned to three-star status, having been omitted from last year’s guide during its residency in Melbourne. There were no other multi-star promotions this […]
Japanese-born, French-trained chef Yu Sugimoto has taken over the kitchen at Mayfair dining temple The Square following its sale by founding chef Phil Howard earlier this year. Sugimoto spent nine years at Le Meurice in Paris, where he rose to head chef, after beginning his career at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Restaurateur Marlon Abela, who […]
Just can’t wait for the opening of Phil Howard’s new restaurant, Elystan Street in Chelsea, at the end of this month? Well, you can have a sneak pre-taste (and at a significantly lower price) next Saturday, September 17, at Barnes Food Fair. Howard founded Mayfair thoroughbred The Square and ran its “brilliantly focused” (Harden’s Survey) kitchen for […]
Chef Phil Howard – perhaps best known for his 25 years at the helm of The Square, Mayfair – has announced that he and Rebecca Mascarenhas have paired up once again to launch a new restaurant. Elystan Street will open on Chelsea’s Elystan Street this September, previously the site of the stylish, but relatively short-lived Tom Aikens […]
Last week we reported that The Square in Mayfair (long-time baby of Phil Howard and Nigel Platts-Martin) had been sold to the Marc Group (Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation). Since then there has been quite a bit of speculation on the restaurant’s future, if indeed, it had one. Well we now know The Square will definitely […]
