Tanya Gold

The untold story of Judy Garland

21 September 2019 9:00 am

Judy Garland is now a myth, a paradigm and a warning: don’t let your daughter on the stage! It’s the…

It’s so easy to go mad in Oxford: Chiang Mai Kitchen reviewed

21 September 2019 9:00 am

Oxford is a pile of medieval buildings filled with maniacs, and is therefore one of the most interesting places on…

I wouldn’t suggest you eat here, but I doubt there’s a better place to drop acid: Camelot Castle reviewed

7 September 2019 9:00 am

The Camelot Castle Hotel is a pebble-dashed late-Victorian excrescence on a cliff. It overlooks the ruins of Tintagel Castle. A…

Like Twitter, but with food: Market Hall Victoria reviewed

24 August 2019 9:00 am

The Market Hall Victoria is an international food shed opposite the station terminus. I have long hated Victoria, thinking it…

Lunch on Leonard Cohen Island: The Pirate Bar reviewed

10 August 2019 9:00 am

The Pirate Bar is an oddity, even for this column: a bar and restaurant themed in homage to a pirate,…

A hotel dressed like the Queen Mother: Siren at the Goring reviewed

27 July 2019 9:00 am

The Goring is a tiny grand hotel near Victoria Station and the Queen’s garden wall. Victoria is not pleasant —…

The devil eats Prada: Patisserie Marchesi 1824 reviewed

13 July 2019 9:00 am

The Prada Café is both a cake shop and a historical inevitability. It sits on Mount Street, almost opposite the…

I didn’t know kosher food this good existed: Decks in Tverya reviewed

29 June 2019 9:00 am

Decks is a restaurant built on the Sea of Galilee. It is Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu’s favourite restaurant (it is…

An alternate reality in Heathrow’s Terminal 5: Fortnum & Mason reviewed

15 June 2019 9:00 am

I am obsessed with Fortnum & Mason, and the jams of the England that never was but could be. It…

Children of the revolution: Protest has become so puerile

8 June 2019 9:00 am

As the left sinks into psychosis, what remains? The answer is sugar, profanity, snacks and toys. Protest now resembles Clown…

A princess of greasy spoons: Café Diana reviewed

1 June 2019 9:00 am

Café Diana is a Princess Diana-themed greasy spoon in Notting Hill Gate. It is a mad place, but it is…

Tantrums and a top-notch tabbouleh: Ergon House in Athens reviewed

18 May 2019 9:00 am

Ergon House is an epicurean boutique hotel in downtown Athens. (I quote the blurb — I never write ‘boutique’ willingly.)…

Soho hasn’t deteriorated – you have: Kiln reviewed

4 May 2019 9:00 am

Each suburban soul yearns for the Soho of their youth. It isn’t that Soho was better in the 1990s when…

The ideal restaurant for the mythical Spectator reader: Bellamy’s reviewed

20 April 2019 9:00 am

Bellamy’s is a Franco-Belgian brasserie in Bruton Place, a dim alley in the charismatic part of Mayfair; the part that…

The joy of garlic and easy listening: Pucci in Mayfair reviewed

6 April 2019 9:00 am

I grew up in south-west London in the 1970s when Italian restaurants had exposed brick walls and paper tablecloths in…

Farringdon’s Quality Chop House is macabre, but at least it has character

23 March 2019 9:00 am

I love the drug of television, which is slightly less awful than the drug of social media because the conversation…

(Ambroise Tézenas)

Pale pomp and £100 Beijing duck: Imperial Treasure reviewed

9 March 2019 9:00 am

Imperial Treasure is a restaurant in the part of St James’s where Leopold von Hoesch, the German ambassador to George…

Credit: Jake Eastham

A temple to small food in a room for rich people: the Ledbury in Notting Hill reviewed

23 February 2019 9:00 am

A serious restaurant for serious times: the Ledbury in Notting Hill. It’s a good time to do it, as the…

Eclairs, cheesecake and unhappy women: Cakes & Bubbles reviewed

9 February 2019 9:00 am

Cakes & Bubbles is an unhappy woman’s restaurant. I thought it was a child’s restaurant, but I took a child…

If Tony Blair was still prime minister, I’d be less terrified of Holborn Dining Room

26 January 2019 9:00 am

The 1930s aesthetic is not quite as fun as it used to be. You can enjoy the detritus of fascism…

This is a restaurant for affluent halfwits: Bob Bob Ricard reviewed

12 January 2019 9:00 am

In January, you could go to Bob Bob Ricard in Soho. I do not know why it is called Bob…

Fortnum and Mason

This is capitalism as its most gaudy: Fortnum & Mason reviewed

15 December 2018 9:00 am

I admit I had a falling out with Fortnum & Mason a few years ago over its new brasserie on…

David Schwimmer has produced a new film of Alexander Zeldin’s play LOVE for the BBC. [Photo: Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images]

David Schwimmer on his new BBC film

8 December 2018 9:00 am

There is very little art about modern poverty, because who wants to know? It is barely acknowledged, unless there is…

A cruise-ship menu inside a giant Venetian cake: Caffè Concerto reviewed

1 December 2018 9:00 am

Caffè Concerto is a chain of Italian cafés sprouting, lividly, across London and the world. There is one on Piccadilly,…

It’s a Jewish homage to the Wolseley, and that is no bad thing: Tish reviewed

17 November 2018 9:00 am

Tish is a new grand café in Belsize Park, north London, but kosher. There are not really enough Jews to…