The secrets of chicken soup
Catherine Chicken is sickly. She has swollen up like a barrage balloon with an evil face and dinosaur feet. She…
The best schnitzel in London: Schnitzel Forever reviewed
It is a truism that there is never enough schnitzel (‘slice’, German); or, rather, schnitzel does not get the attention…
Anything for a laugh
‘I went into show business to make a noise, to pronounce myself,’ Mel Brooks told Kenneth Tynan in 1977, in…
The torment of a tasting menu: Hélène Darroze at the Connaught reviewed
The Connaught Hotel’s formal dining room was always, to me, a place of childish myth; more comforting for being mythical.…
The best Greek salad I’ve ever tasted: INO Gastrobar reviewed
Soho is so gilded nowadays that even drug addicts look down on it. The wasteland without must match the wasteland…
A small victory in a bad year: José Pizarro at the RA reviewed
Piccadilly is losing its patina of dirt, its cadaverous character. It is overpriced and over-renovated,a meeting place for luxury goods.…
Sentenced to chicken: NoMad reviewed
NoMad is a new hotel in what used to be Bow Street Magistrates’ Court: a preening piece of mid-Victorian classicism…
How to get drunk on tiramisu
You can get drunk on tiramisu. I have done it. It takes two portions at least. You drink (I mean…
Dregs of fake Provence: Whitcomb’s reviewed
Whitcomb’s is in The Londoner hotel on the south-west corner of Leicester Square. The Londoner calls itself ‘the world’s first…
The Batman restaurant that’s totally bats: Park Row reviewed
There is a Batman restaurant in London, or rather there was: Savini at the Criterion on Piccadilly Circus. Savini was…
Has Covid killed criticism?
A world without criticism is just advertising
The real Greek: Lemonia reviewed
Lemonia lives in the old Chalk Farm Tavern in Primrose Hill, which is better known as the set of Paddington.…
Why The Sopranos remains the greatest gangster drama of all time
The Sopranos – the greatest television show in history – far outshines its progenitors, says Tanya Gold
Dining in nowhere: Bar des Prés reviewed
The residents of Mayfair are misnamed: they do not really live here. They live in Mayfair like I live on…
Scarface’s lair with nibbles: Louie reviewed
A French creole restaurant rises in the sullen ruins of London. It is called Louie, for French king or trumpeter,…
‘Lifeless and necrotic’: Native at Browns is an ode to joylessness
Browns is a famous fashion boutique in deepest Mayfair. It occupies a curved cream townhouse on Brook Street, which seems…
High on the hog: The Pig at Bridge Place reviewed
The Pig at Bridge Place is not a pig in possession of a country house, but I would be for…
A Damascene moment in London: Imad’s Syrian Kitchen reviewed
Imad’s Syrian Kitchen is an eyrie off Carnaby Street, a once-famous road which seems to exist nowadays to sell trainers…
The politics of eating lobster
Lobsters like to live in gullies on the sea floor, or under sand, and I understand how they feel. But…
An utterly convincing dreamworld: The Ritz reviewed
The Ritz is still here, and still gaudy. No grand hotel in London feels quite so complete, if pink; as…
Harry Potter meets Ikea: Backlot Cafe reviewed
Harry Potter is a fictional orphan locked in a cupboard by his aunt and uncle, after which he discovers a…
A careful parody: Noble Rot Soho reviewed
Noble Rot sits in Greek Street, Soho, on the site of the old Gay Hussar, which squatted here from 1953…
Bird-brained: Brood, by Jackie Polzin, reviewed
This is not a novel about four chickens of various character — Gloria, Miss Hennepin County, Gam Gam and Darkness…
Bad food is back: The Roof Garden at Pantechnicon reviewed
The Roof Garden is a pale, Nordic-style restaurant at the top of the glorious Pantechnicon in Belgravia — formerly a…
My road trip notebook: castles, Charles Darwin and Churchill’s cuddly toys
Before pandemic I thought I might drive across America, or even France. Now — what about Kent, the garden of…
