A Margherita in Tolkien’s Middle-earth: Pizza in the Courtyard at Sarehole Mill reviewed
Sarehole Mill is four miles south of the centre of Birmingham. If this were a fairy tale, and it should…
‘Thinks of the diner, not the chef’: Claridge’s Restaurant, reviewed
The BBC made a very odd documentary about the renovation of Claridge’s: The Mayfair Hotel Megabuild. They filmed, agog, as…
Big Little Bavaria on Thames: Bierschenke bierkeller reviewed
I am not sure the vast Bierschenke bierkeller in Covent Garden is successful, even if it is skilful: I worry…
A taste of 1997: Pizza Express reviewed
As the government withers this column falls to ennui and visits Pizza Express. As David Cameron, who left the world…
As good as pub food gets: The Red Lion, East Chisenbury, reviewed
The Red Lion, East Chisenbury, is in the Pewsey Vale on the edge of Salisbury Plain. Wiltshire’s strangeness surpasses even…
Home cooking, but idealised: 2 Fore Street reviewed
The restaurant 2 Fore Street lives on Mousehole harbour, near gift shops: the post office and general store have closed,…
Wuthering Heights in Devon: the Pilchard Inn, Burgh Island, reviewed
The Pilchard Inn sits at the entrance to Burgh Island, a minute tidal island off the coast of south Devon.…
A themed restaurant done right: The Alice, Oxford, reviewed
The Alice lives in a ground-floor room of the Randolph Hotel in Oxford, which venerates the fantastical and the savage,…
Faultless food with the promise of vengeance: The Trough, reviewed
Lady Bamford’s Cotswold fairy-land Daylesford Farm has sprouted leaves. It is no longer a farm shop, which should be a…
The complex genius of Mel Brooks
Jeremy Dauber highlights the tension within Brooks of warring Jewish archetypes, personified by Max and Leo in the masterpiece The Producers
Serious about its whimsy: Sessions Arts Club reviewed
The Sessions Arts Club is a restaurant inside the Old Session House in Clerkenwell, a pale George III building where…
Eat here now: Darjeeling Express reviewed
Darjeeling Express lives at the top of Kingly Court, just off Carnaby Street, which was once the world-famous embodiment of…
All mirrors and monochrome: Mister Nice reviewed
Mister Nice is not so much a restaurant as a pre-dawn thought flung into the drag between Piccadilly Circus and…
The cult of Morse
As the cult series draws to its conclusion, Tanya Gold travels to Morsefest in Oxford to meet the detective’s devoted followers
Michael Caine: no, Zulu doesn’t incite far-right extremism
Michael Caine and the pursuit of happiness
Too perfect for Instagram: Cédric Grolet at the Berkeley reviewed
The Cédric Grolet at the Berkeley lives in the shiniest hotel in Knightsbridge, though I prefer the Mandarin Oriental, because…
An innate contradiction: Mount St Restaurant reviewed
The Mount St Restaurant lives above the Audley Public House on Mount Street, ‘a traditional neighbourhood pub, carefully restored, and…
Still thrilling: the Wolseley reviewed
Restaurant and dog years are similar, and so the Wolseley, which is 20 this year, seems as if it has…
Better than the original: Scott’s Richmond reviewed
Scott’s, Richmond, is a fish, champagne and oyster bar, and a new branch of Scott’s, Mayfair. The original Scott’s was…
Petrol, seawater and blood: the horror of Cornwall
Tanya Gold talks to cult director Mark Jenkin about his ominous vision of Cornwall
Rich pickings: Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal reviewed
Alex Dilling at the Hotel Café Royal is a minute restaurant above Regent Street, which has the type of British…
Beyond satire: Richard Caring’s Bacchanalia reviewed
Bacchanalia is the new restaurant from Richard Caring – I sense he would like me to call it a ‘landmark’…
The best Ukrainian restaurant you will find: Mriya reviewed
Mriya lives at the end of Old Brompton Road where South Kensington turns into Earl’s Court and, as if by…
The rich complexity of Britain’s Jewish population
There is no single community, Harry Freedman stresses, but a multitude of voices ranging from the liberal to the ultra-orthodox
Another wasteland lost: Battersea Power Station reviewed
The rude fingers of Battersea are repointed, and barely rude at all. The power station by Giles Gilbert Scott and…
