Restaurants

An inedible catastrophe: Julie’s Restaurant reviewed

5 October 2024 9:00 am

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

21 September 2024 9:00 am

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

7 September 2024 9:00 am

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

7 September 2024 9:00 am

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

24 August 2024 9:00 am

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

10 August 2024 9:00 am

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

27 July 2024 9:00 am

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

6 July 2024 9:00 am

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?

11 May 2024 9:00 am

‘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

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…