Restaurants

For those familiar with the White City of old, put everything you know to one side for a moment. With the development of Westfield, the re-imagining of the BBC building and the arrival of restaurants such as Homeslice and the brand new Japanese dining hall Ichiba: I’m not sure you’d even recognise the place. I certainly didn’t. Opened just four months ago, Wellbourne Brasserie is one of those new restaurants - just a few steps away from White City station,...

The Ninth is a modern French restaurant, by description – but chef Jun Tanaka’s menu delves so much deeper. Having worked alongside chefs such as Michel Roux Jr, Eric Chavot and Phil Howard, British-Japanese chef Jun Tanaka opened his first solo restaurant in 2015 (the ninth restaurant project to have featured his involvement, hence the name). Operating amongst fierce competition on Charlotte Street, the restaurant was quickly awarded a Michelin star: becoming a rare model of genuinely enthusing restaurants so...

"Anyone who knows anything about decent food in Leeds knows The Foundry", Yorkshire-born chef and MasterChef runner-up Matt Healy said shortly after unveiling his homecoming venture earlier this year. Under the stewardship of Phil Richardson and Shaun Davies the Holbeck restaurant has become the centrepiece of an urban regeneration project that has seen a once destitute part of the city become one of its most fashionable spots. It’s quite a mantle to inherit for the relative newcomer Healy, but it’s...

A moral quandary has emerged on the culinary front concerning the length of time writers should wait before undertaking reviews. Where critics argue that they should get in early to ensure punters are well informed from the off, chefs debate they should be allowed time to get their feet under the table, so to speak, in order for the restaurant to be judged fairly. It all started on the west coast of America. On the fourth evening of service, The Hollwood Reporter critic...

When Selin Kiazim and Laura Christie opened Oklava in 2015, I vividly remember finding unexpected pleasure in some of the menu’s humbler dishes. The pide was fine, as was the breast of lamb with yoghurt and pomegranate molasses; but neither were as unforgettably vivid as the modest pearl barley side dish. Cooked similarly to risotto, with sour cherries, the dish was finished with pul biber-infused butter, yoghurt, kale crisps and a blizzard of pecorino cheese. I’ve attempted to recreate the...

The famous postcode of NW3 is known for impeccable homely feel, leafy streets and its ruthless approach to neighbourhood restaurants: with refined palettes to serve and high rents to pay, only the best survive. Enter Delicatessen, a confusingly-named modern Middle Eastern restaurant from the owners of similarly kosher restaurants Head Room Cafe, Pzazza, and Soyo. It’s nicely placed in the middle of the buzzy Rosslyn Hill, with Carluccio's on one side and Café Hampstead on the other. That’s confidence for...

With the launch of Gazelle in Mayfair, Rob Roy Cameron’s food at Tony Conigliaro’s Untitled has been somewhat overlooked. With a captivating approach to ‘molecular mixology’, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Conigliaro’s elaborate drinks have become a significant talking point here. In addition to the food menu filled with Japanese flourishes, Untitled bar and restaurant also serves a monthly tasting menu. On the second Sunday of each month, executive chef Rob Roy Cameron (formerly of El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia) curates...

As French master chef Auguste Escoffier once said: “Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness." First inspired largely by the food of Italy, French cuisine has since become some of the globe’s most well-known and respected – particularly in terms of fine dining. Though Paris is often considered the world’s restaurant capital, London is home to a vast number of remarkable French restaurants, headed-up by Chefs of all different nations. Tying in with Bastille Day (14th July), we’ve compiled...

Hotter than a Central Line tube carriage during rush hour, St Leonards has quickly become one of the summer’s most critically-acclaimed new restaurant openings. Named after its address (on Leonard Street), the restaurant is the latest project from chefs Jackson Boxer and Andrew Clarke, having worked together at Boxer’s first restaurant, Brunswick House, in Vauxhall. As venerable Shoreditch appeared to have leaped from ‘up and coming’ to ‘up and came’, St Leonards follows a recent succession of highly lauded local...