A tiny and crammed Fitzrovia parlour, specialising in hot dogs and champagne; we couldn’t quite rationalise the appeal on our early days visit, but it was certainly already drawing in the punters. A small neon sign above an unimposing street frontage announces the name of this discreet newcomer. Might we be in Greenwich Village? Er, […]
In an impressive former granary north of King’s Cross, a (much larger) offshoot of the popular Clerkenwell café/bistro; an impressive all-rounder, it has quickly become surprisingly busy. The crowd at this King’s Cross newcomer – in the same former granary premises that Central Saint Martins now occupies – came as a bit of a disappointment. […]
A smart and understated international-crowd Mayfair Italian, with some similarities to La Petite Maison (with which it shares a co-owner); it’s a high-quality operation all-round but, at least in the early days, we found it somewhat unengaging. Mayfair these days is not for the likes of you and us (NFLYU). Sorry, that’s presumptuous. Perhaps you […]
Thirty-eight floors above the City, one of the world’s most ambitious indoor/outdoor elevated restaurants; prices are high, but the place was already into an impressive swing on our day-one visit – even though the trendy Japanese/South American cuisine is rather incidental, this will surely be one of 2012’s major talking points. Destination dining is a […]
In a busy Earl’s Court location, a surprisingly bourgeois French restaurant whose classic style will come as no surprise to those who’ve followed Eric Garnier since his Racine days; quality is good, but prices are high. Eric Garnier, co-founder (with Henry Harris, now sole patron) of Knightsbridge’s celebrated Racine, is a man who knows a […]
Despite its downmarket name, this rather tacky heart-of-Soho bar/restaurant offers quite ambitious Asian small plates at equally ambitious prices; we found it difficult to disagree with the seeming market view that the formula doesn’t really ‘gel’. Couldn’t we go somewhere better? Thus, rather rudely, replied a foodie friend to an invitation to lunch at this […]
Near Marble Arch, a small but bright tapas bar/restaurant which draws its inspiration from San Sebastian, and whose small dishes generally impressed on our early-days visit. We’ve never been too much troubled by ‘authenticity’. That pan-fried fish you washed down with a bottle of local plonk in some idyllic Aegean port is never going to […]
Near Piccadilly Circus, a vast subterranean space re-created by the owners of the Wolseley as an authentic Gallic brasserie on a huge scale; value is quite reasonable, but we are not convinced the formula really ‘works’. Many regular visitors to Paris will have their own favourite brasserie – a sort of home-from-home in the City […]
Near Marylebone station, a bright former boozer that’s now a ‘salumeria’ and restaurant, run by the same people as Latium; some of its dishes are of a very high standard. How long can a menu be? How many dishes can you squeeze in to two pages of A4 (plus blackboard specials)? And why would you […]
Mark Hix returns to his trendy Shoreditch roots to create an – ultimately rather conventional – steak (and chicken) house, in an impressive post-industrial space. Mark Hix made his name at the Caprice group, and then set up on his own. The first of his solo ventures was the Rivington, the opening of which was […]
