Food

‘The food is as good as you will find in London’: Saison at Raffles London, reviewed

11 November 2023 9:00 am

The Old War Office (bad acronym OWO) on Whitehall is now a Raffles hotel: you can stay in Winston Churchill’s…

‘They do better spaghetti bolognese in Hampstead for a tenner’: The Lobby at The Peninsula, reviewed

28 October 2023 9:00 am

The Peninsula is a new hotel at Hyde Park Corner. It is part of the trend for absurd expense: rooms…

‘Well-priced and skilful’: Masala Zone, reviewed

14 October 2023 9:00 am

There are cursed restaurants and cursed women, and this makes them no less interesting. One is Maxim’s in Paris, which…

Fine food in a fine restaurant: Origin City reviewed

30 September 2023 9:00 am

Origin City is a good name for this restaurant, whether it knows it or not. It is at West Smithfield,…

As gaudy as Versailles: The Duchess of Cornwall in Poundbury reviewed

16 September 2023 9:00 am

Poundbury is the King’s idealised town in Dorchester, built on his land to his specifications: the town that sprung out…

Bruton is suddenly the place to be – and I have a theory why: At the Chapel reviewed

2 September 2023 9:00 am

At the Chapel, Bruton, is a restaurant and hotel in a former chapel in Bruton. This was once an ordinary…

A Margherita in Tolkien’s Middle-earth: Pizza in the Courtyard at Sarehole Mill reviewed

19 August 2023 9:00 am

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

5 August 2023 9:00 am

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

22 July 2023 9:00 am

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

8 July 2023 9:00 am

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

24 June 2023 9:00 am

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

10 June 2023 9:00 am

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

27 May 2023 9:00 am

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

13 May 2023 9:00 am

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

29 April 2023 9:00 am

Lady Bamford’s Cotswold fairy-land Daylesford Farm has sprouted leaves. It is no longer a farm shop, which should be a…

Serious about its whimsy: Sessions Arts Club reviewed

15 April 2023 9:00 am

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

1 April 2023 9:00 am

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

18 March 2023 9:00 am

Mister Nice is not so much a restaurant as a pre-dawn thought flung into the drag between Piccadilly Circus and…

Too perfect for Instagram: Cédric Grolet at the Berkeley reviewed

4 March 2023 9:00 am

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

18 February 2023 9:00 am

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

4 February 2023 9:00 am

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

18 January 2023 10:00 pm

Scott’s, Richmond, is a fish, champagne and oyster bar, and a new branch of Scott’s, Mayfair. The original Scott’s was…

Rich pickings: Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal reviewed

7 January 2023 9:00 am

Alex Dilling at the Hotel Café Royal is a minute restaurant above Regent Street, which has the type of British…