Restaurants
An inedible catastrophe: Julie’s Restaurant reviewed
At Julie’s at the fag end of Saturday lunchtime, Notting Hill beauties are defiantly not eating, and the table is…
As good as Noble Rot: Cloth reviewed
Cloth is opposite St Bartholomew the Great on Cloth Fair. People call this place Farringdon, but it isn’t really: it…
Pity the restaurant critic
An atom is made of protons, electrons and neutrons, and protons are made of quarks, and a quark is the…
Curiously understated: Porthminster Kitchen reviewed
Porthminster Kitchen sits above Warren’s Bakery on St Ives Harbour, like a paradigm of the British class system in food.…
A slice of Paris in Crouch End: Bistro Aix reviewed
There is a wonderful cognitive dissonance to Bistro Aix. It thinks it is in Paris but it is really in…
A French restaurant Glastonbury would be proud to host: Café Lapérouse reviewed
I am working my way around the restaurants of the Old War Office (OWO), now an acronym and Raffles hotel…
Jeremy King has done it again: The Park, reviewed
The Park is the new restaurant from Jeremy King, and it sits in a golden building to the north of…
If you can stand the stress, The Bear is still possibly the best thing on TV
The Bear has been called ‘the most stressful thing on TV’ and I think that’s probably a fair description. It’s…
Why do people make excuses for surly staff?
‘You grab that table, I’ll get the drinks.’ I did as bid. A couple of minutes later, Paul was back,…
‘The food is as good as you will find in London’: Saison at Raffles London, reviewed
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
As the government withers this column falls to ennui and visits Pizza Express. As David Cameron, who left the world…