How to get a table at Audley Public House
The Audley Public House is on the corner of North Audley Street and Mount Street in Mayfair, opposite the Purdey…
Is a soul the only thing unavailable in Harrods?
The Harrods bookshop, which I browse for masochistic reasons, is mesmerising: an homage to the lure of ownership. The first…
Jew and non-Jew: Unity Mitford and aristocratic anti-Semitism
I was touched but not surprised that, despite his illness, the King attended the 80th anniversary of the ‘liberation’ of…
Cornwall’s gypsies face eviction
‘Don’t use our real names,’ says the teenage gypsy. ‘Other gypsies will laugh at us.’ Even in a tracksuit, the…
Dictator dining
The Savoy Hotel is a theatre playing Mean Girls with a hotel attached to it, so you can expect it…
Not worth its salt: Wingmans reviewed
I see this column as an essay on cultural polarisation: artisanal butter can only take you so far into wisdom.…
A world without Jewish artists is a wasteland
It’s Christmas, and the far left have a gift for us in their stocking: a cultural boycott of Jews. They…
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains terrible art – but is filled with magic
For a press tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – the Church of the Resurrection, the…
Something out of a Spectator reader’s dreams: The Guinea Grill reviewed
Back to the past: it’s safer there. There is a themed restaurant dedicated to George VI of all people, near…
Ideal for winter: The Dover reviewed
For British people, America is an idea brought by cinema, and The Dover, the New York Italian bar and restaurant…
A light in the darkness: Home Kitchen reviewed
Home Kitchen is in Primrose Hill, another piece of fantasy London, home to the late Martin Amis and Paddington Bear.…
You’re spoiling us: The Ambassadors Clubhouse reviewed
The Ambassadors Clubhouse is on Heddon Street, close to Savile Row and the fictional HQ of Kingsman, which was a…
Toffee apples: a dangerous food for frightening nights
Bonfire night is more about burning Catholics than haute cuisine and it shows. I’ve always felt for Catholic friends at…
An inedible catastrophe: Julie’s Restaurant reviewed
At Julie’s at the fag end of Saturday lunchtime, Notting Hill beauties are defiantly not eating, and the table is…
As good as Noble Rot: Cloth reviewed
Cloth is opposite St Bartholomew the Great on Cloth Fair. People call this place Farringdon, but it isn’t really: it…
Curiously understated: Porthminster Kitchen reviewed
Porthminster Kitchen sits above Warren’s Bakery on St Ives Harbour, like a paradigm of the British class system in food.…
The unappetising truth about tasting menus
The tasting menu has fallen from fashion, and this is good. They are a curio – a window to the…
A slice of Paris in Crouch End: Bistro Aix reviewed
There is a wonderful cognitive dissonance to Bistro Aix. It thinks it is in Paris but it is really in…
A French restaurant Glastonbury would be proud to host: Café Lapérouse reviewed
I am working my way around the restaurants of the Old War Office (OWO), now an acronym and Raffles hotel…
Jeremy King has done it again: The Park, reviewed
The Park is the new restaurant from Jeremy King, and it sits in a golden building to the north of…
‘An uneasy place’: Chez Roux at The Langham reviewed
The Langham is a Victorian Gothic hotel opposite the BBC in Portland Place. It’s an odd place: haunted house near…
‘Grand and isolated’: The Wolseley City, reviewed
I am fretting about this restaurant column’s election coverage and then I alight on something superficially grand and lovely, which…
‘Great restaurants can’t thrive in Hampstead’: Ottolenghi reviewed
Ottolenghi is an Israeli deli co-owned by Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli Jew, and Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian Muslim. They met…