Food

A tax on intellectuals: Terrace Cafe at the British Library reviewed

14 March 2020 9:00 am

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and it sits like a red-brick crab on the…

I have always liked angry food: Ugly Butterfly reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Ugly Butterfly is a zero-waste restaurant and champagne bar on the King’s Road, Chelsea. The ‘champagne bar’ addition is so…

Criminally good food: The Yard at Great Scotland Yard reviewed

15 February 2020 9:00 am

The Yard is a defiantly themed restaurant in Hyatt’s new Great Scotland Yard Hotel, an Edwardian red-brick block which once…

The food is almost too superb: Wild Honey reviewed

1 February 2020 9:00 am

Wild Honey is a ludicrous name for this restaurant: there is nothing wild about it, and I do not think…

Fairy food for fairy wives: Julie’s Restaurant reviewed

18 January 2020 9:00 am

Julie’s is a 50-year-old restaurant in Holland Park, London, newly emerged from three years of closure as plushly renovated as…

This food needs a little less grandeur, and a little more love: Simpson’s in the Strand reviewed

21 December 2019 9:00 am

Simpson’s in the Strand stopped serving breakfast in 2017, after it had been renovated to stop it smelling of cabbage.…

Sumptuous, remote – and forgettable: Locket’s reviewed

14 December 2019 9:00 am

Locket’s is a new café from the owners of Wiltons in Jermyn Street. Wiltons is the restaurant that dukes visit…

Nauseating, but I like the garlic bread: Legoland Windsor reviewed

30 November 2019 9:00 am

The theme music to Legoland in Berkshire is the theme music to The Exorcist. It appears from speakers hidden in…

Back in the Babington Triangle: Roth Bar & Grill reviewed

16 November 2019 9:00 am

The Roth Bar & Grill exists on an art-farm called Durslade in Bruton, Somerset, which is also the country outpost…

Stringfellows for the sex robot age: Bob Bob Cité reviewed

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Bob Bob Cité is a restaurant dangling like testicles from the underside of the Leadenhall Building in the City of…

An enemy of the people? Or an above-average sandwich chain? Pret A Manger reviewed

19 October 2019 9:00 am

The sandwich restaurant Pret A Manger is accused of harbouring centrists. Those are words I never thought I would type,…

I’ve had my fill of brasseries: Moncks reviewed

5 October 2019 9:00 am

If you review restaurants professionally you would not think Britain wanted to leave the EU. You would think she wanted…

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…

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…