Restaurant

‘An uneasy place’: Chez Roux at The Langham reviewed

29 June 2024 9:00 am

The Langham is a Victorian Gothic hotel opposite the BBC in Portland Place. It’s an odd place: haunted house near…

‘Grand and isolated’: The Wolseley City, reviewed

1 June 2024 9:00 am

I am fretting about this restaurant column’s election coverage and then I alight on something superficially grand and lovely, which…

‘Great restaurants can’t thrive in Hampstead’: Ottolenghi reviewed

18 May 2024 9:00 am

Ottolenghi is an Israeli deli co-owned by Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli Jew, and Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian Muslim. They met…

Dear Mary: how can I help pay for an expensive lunch without seeming rude?

4 May 2024 9:00 am

Q. My husband and I (both in our eighties) recently visited a carpet shop with a view to replacing the…

‘Five stars, no notes’: Arlington reviewed

20 April 2024 9:00 am

Arlington is named for the 1st Earl of Arlington and his street behind the Ritz Hotel. It used to be…

‘Can’t help but exude warmth’: Paper Moon at the OWO, reviewed

6 April 2024 9:00 am

Paper Moon is the Italian restaurant inside the Old War Office on Whitehall, now a hotel called Raffles London at…

Dear Mary: Can I still socialise with my virus-denying friends?

24 October 2020 9:00 am

Q. An old friend offered to treat me to a birthday lunch, provided I choose and book the restaurant myself.…

Is my phobia of upmarket restaurants misplaced?

26 September 2020 9:00 am

Scotching my bright idea of a stiff gin for Dutch courage in the bar across the road, Catriona bounded straight…

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…

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…

Breakfast for idiots: it was the wrong time of day for a visit to Gazelle Mayfair

20 October 2018 9:00 am

I couldn’t find Gazelle. I walked up and down Albermarle Street, in which Oscar Wilde once plotted his own doom…

Empty restaurants are becoming a bad habit of mine: Coq d’Argent reviewed

25 August 2018 9:00 am

I wouldn’t normally visit Coq d’Argent, which I think means the chicken of money. It is a moderately famous restaurant…

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…

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…

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…

The members of White’s fall into two categories: shits and bores

14 May 2016 9:00 am

On Sunday we were invited for lunch at Chez Bruno, an unbelievably posh restaurant in the south of France. At…

A gastronomic moron’s view of a legendary French brasserie

5 March 2016 9:00 am

Before we left for Sunday lunch at the Les Deux Garçons restaurant, Aix-en-Provence, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor. I’m…

Dear Mary: why are young women dyeing their hair grey?

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Q. I have lunch once a month with an old university friend. Over the years we have both thickened out…

To tip or not to tip

24 October 2015 9:00 am

As I grow older, I find myself increasingly reluctant to travel, which is why it’s been a few years now…

I once tried to buy coke from the head of Manhattan detectives

23 May 2015 9:00 am

This is as good as it gets. A light rain is falling on a soft May evening and I’m walking…