Food and Drink

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, TLE_Food With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, here’s our pick of the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month. Bao – Fitzrovia One of last year’s hottest new openings, Soho’s Bao still demands queues around the block during peak lunch and dinner hours. Having began life as a still ridiculously popular street food stall in East London’s Netil Street Market, Bao arrived in Soho last summer with a tiny 32-cover permanent...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Russian cuisine is woefully underrepresented in London and, as a result, is generally under-appreciated amongst city dwellers. While the city’s restaurant scene is arguably one of the globe’s finest, embracing a vast melting pot of cultures - with so many restaurants now focusing on regionality, as well as nationality, we’re still not spoilt for choice when it comes to Russian food. Even London’s most prominent Russian restaurateurs rarely open ventures within the city that...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Strength: 5.4% Brewed: Tottenham Hale, London Named after the old Cockney name given to the De Beauvoir area of London, where the brand was born in 2011, Beavertown Brewery now operates from a site in Tottenham Hale. Having upgraded to a premises with a 50HL Brew House to work from, Beavertown have become renowned for crafting a core range of stunning beers, as well as some more adventurous seasonal offerings – not forgetting the fact that the brewery boasts...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Inspired by Italy’s rustic piazzas, as well as the nation’s famously relaxed dining experience and prominence on fresh, seasonal ingredients – S.Pellegrino’s ‘Live in Italian’ residency is set to take over the fifth floor terrace of Harvey Nichols this summer. Taking place from 11th July to 7th August, the pop-up will deliver a strong focus on Italian cuisine, with four special events taking place every Tuesday evening, each hosted by a Michelin-starred Chef. Meanwhile,...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Although now better known as a graveyard for abandoned shopping trolleys, and for its water the colour of stout-soaked military uniforms – the River Thames was, once upon a time, the beating heart of our fair city. In the 18th century, for instance (before England had become an international laughing-stock) the river was the main source of London’s trade, with West India Docks acting as one of the globe’s busiest ports. And while the...

Blue Wine is set to hit European markets and expected to be on shelves within the next two months in the UK. GIK has been created in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country and Azti Tecnalia and is expected to be a big hit in the UK, where drinkers prefer sweeter styles of wine. The wine is created using a blend of red and white grapes predominantly sourced from vineyards in La Rioja, Zaragoza, Leon and Castilla-La Mancha, and is hued...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food  Opened last year, The Richmond is a neighbourhood restaurant in East London, perched upon the intersection of Dalston, Haggerston and London Fields. Set up by Australian chef and restaurateur Brett Redman and fashion consultant Margaret Crow, the restaurant’s menu is heavily built around oysters, comfort food, and produce from the sea – with East London’s first raw bar. As for the drinks, a strong list of natural wines is joined by a selection of...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food One of Russia’s most celebrated Chefs, Alexei Zimin is generally credited with having changed the way that Russians eat. As well as editing Russia’s most prominent food magazine – Eda, the chef opened the wildly successful Ragout restaurant in 2010, before opening a cooking school of the same name, having trained at London’s Le Cordon Bleu, and within the kitchens of restaurants from chefs that include Raymond Blanc and Michel Guérard. In addition, Zimin...

Photo: Bella West By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food It’s a humid Friday afternoon and I’m scanning through the menu of Dumplings’ Legend while awaiting the arrival of Jay Rayner, author, columnist, jazz pianist and, of course, one of the UK’s most celebrated restaurant critics. Located upon Gerrard Street, the epicentre of London’s ‘Chinatown’, this is a peculiar choice of restaurant to meet for lunch. Not only is the menu framed and proudly displayed on a board outside, various restaurant...