Food

The parking is better than the food: Nando’s reviewed

28 July 2018 9:00 am

Nando’s, c. 1987, is a restaurant in the Great North Leisure Park, Finchley, N12, off the North Circular, which is my…

A Wimbledon-themed tea has little to do with tennis, but I loved it: Claridges reviewed

14 July 2018 9:00 am

Claridge’s is a toff sanctuary and one of the best hotels on earth. It specialises in its own myth, which…

Wedge salad in the shadow of the Tudors: Sargeant’s Mess reviewed

30 June 2018 9:00 am

Sargeant’s Mess (2018) is a tourist catcher’s net in restaurant form by the Tower of London (c. 1078). It has views…

A Soho House restaurant in Television Centre is as ghastly as it sounds: The Allis reviewed

16 June 2018 9:00 am

The Allis is a restaurant inside the new Soho House at White City — it is called White City House…

Food that’s prettier than you are: The Petersham reviewed

2 June 2018 9:00 am

The Petersham is a fading hotel on Richmond Hill. I went to a bar mitzvah there in 1986, which gives…

Here’s where you come to eat dreams – for £95 a head: Ollie Dabbous’s Hide reviewed

19 May 2018 9:00 am

Hide is a £20 million restaurant at the Green Park end of Piccadilly, on the three lower floors of a…

How I found curry heaven in deepest Mayfair: Indian Accent reviewed

12 May 2018 9:00 am

Indian Accent is an Indian restaurant in Albermarle Street, deepest Mayfair, on the site of Rohit Khattar’s Chor Bizarre (‘thieves…

It reeks of Alan Clark and the 1980s but all is forgiven for the food: Le Gavroche reviewed

5 May 2018 9:00 am

Le Gavroche is named for ‘the urchin’ in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and lives in a basement on Upper Brook…

If it’s austere calm you want, Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill is for you

21 April 2018 9:00 am

Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill is on Swallow Street, an alley between Piccadilly and Regent Street, which swallowed most of…

How Soho became so-so: Kettner’s Townhouse reviewed

7 April 2018 9:00 am

Sometimes I fret that Soho House & Co is doing to this column what it does to London. It places…

Too good for the kleptocrats of Knightsbridge: Harry’s Dolce Vita reviewed

24 March 2018 9:00 am

In 2007 Mikhael Gorbachev starred in a Louis Vuitton advert. He was driven past the Berlin Wall with Louis Vuitton…

As restaurants go, it’s important – and it knows it: the River Café reviewed

10 March 2018 9:00 am

Jilly Cooper’s fictional hero Rupert Campbell-Black has ‘never been to Hammersmith’. I have but I wish I hadn’t. I love…

A Soho steak house that used to be a pornographic cinema: Sophie’s reviewed

24 February 2018 9:00 am

Sophie’s lives in an old pornographic cinema at the south end of Great Windmill Street, Soho. It is opposite McDonald’s…

A new addition to north London’s underwhelming restaurants: Café Hampstead reviewed

10 February 2018 9:00 am

Café Hampstead is a new café in — big reveal! — Hampstead, the gaudiest of the old villages on the…

A glorious theatrical feast at the National: Foodwork reviewed

27 January 2018 9:00 am

There is a restaurant on the stage at the National Theatre in London. It is called Foodwork, and it is…

Tea in the hallowed grounds of Lord’s: The Long Room reviewed

13 January 2018 9:00 am

As dreams of winning the Ashes became, well, the only word is ash, for 4-0 is not a number even…

It’s survived universal suffrage and two world wars: restaurant Rules reviewed

16 December 2017 9:00 am

Rules looks as if it voted for Brexit, and now finds itself inside an eternal Christmas Eve, where it is…

Henrietta: a casual restaurant with formal food for people wearing hats

9 December 2017 9:00 am

Henrietta is a restaurant in a boutique hotel on Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, around the corner from the actors’ church…

Farmacy’s food is the worst I have eaten in London

25 November 2017 9:00 am

Farmacy, which opened last year, is London’s most fashionable ‘clean eating’ restaurant; it is, therefore, a restaurant for people who…

This new Bake Off diner is just half-baked Hollywood

11 November 2017 9:00 am

Knead is the first of Paul Hollywood’s new strain of bakeries that sell coffee, and which will encircle capitalism. This…

The queen of hotels

28 October 2017 9:00 am

Jean-Georges at the Connaught — formerly the Prince of Saxe-Coburg Hotel, but it was renamed during the first world war,…

Elle Decoration meets pub food

14 October 2017 9:00 am

The Mandrake is a new ‘design hotel’ in London, which means it is for people who treat Elle Decoration magazine…

Venice all tarted up

30 September 2017 9:00 am

Veneta is a Venetian restaurant inside the St James’s Market development south of Piccadilly Circus. I do not like this…

In silent misremembrance

14 September 2017 1:00 pm

Foxlow is near Golden Square in west Soho, where drunken hacks used to take long drunken lunches before having stupid…

A perfect feast with Roger Allam

2 September 2017 9:00 am

J Sheekey is one of Richard Caring’s older, and better, restaurants. Since he has dowsed the suburbs of London in…