Restaurants

On a balmy Summer’s afternoon in Rome, a reasonable lunch time had passed. Having traversed the city’s cobbled streets for the past six hours, fuelled on a breakfast of five espressos, I was irritably hungry. All of the restaurants littering the plazas surrounding the Pantheon had one key similarity: an overzealous waitress perched outside, attempting to reel potential customers through the door like prized Marlins. “Do you know James Blunt?” One particular waitress asked, presenting a blurry photograph taken with...

The only three Michelin starred restaurant in Madrid, David Muñoz opened DiverXO in 2007. The restaurant was quickly succeeded by the nearby opening of a less formal sister restaurant, StreetXO – an establishment with an off the wall, highly conceptualised menu. Nine years later, Muñoz brought his fine dining circus to London, launching StreetXO on Old Burlington Street, Mayfair. With a less formal atmosphere than DiverXO, StreetXO in London showcases the chef’s unconventional cooking style in an equally eccentric setting....

Although London became quickly proliferated with Chinese, Indian and French restaurants after the Second World War, Japanese restaurants were slow to catch on. Opened in 1974, Ajimura is documented as London’s first Japanese restaurant, eventually succeeded by a boom in popularity surrounding sushi. By the mid-1990s, sushi had become big business in London, notably showcased via futuristic conveyor belts. Established in 1994, Moshi Moshi was the UK’s first restaurant to employ a hypnotic conveyor belt, yet YO! Sushi’s strand of...

As I inspected my sausage roll’s bottom – searching, of course, for any signs of sogginess – I thought of Paul Hollywood’s. I thought of Paul Hollywood’s 52-year-old mahogany bottom strolling along a beach in Mauritius. In April, you may have seen the news stories: the Bake Off star whisked his new girlfriend, Summer Monteys-Fullam, 22, off to the sunny island for a tropical getaway. I wouldn’t have taken any notice. But then Summer said this: “You have turned me...

With plenty of exciting restaurant launches constantly taking place across the Capital, we pick London’s best new restaurants opening over the coming month. Brigadiers - City The latest restaurant from JKS Restaurants (BAO, XU, Sabor), Brigadiers will open within the Bloomberg Arcade next week. An Indian barbecue restaurant and drinking tavern, Brigadiers will house two designated bars: Blighters and The Tap Room, with a whisky vending machine, on-tap cocktails, Champagne and punch fountains, and fast-pour pints from self-serve beer taps....

British food is having a moment. As Londoners continue to embark on punishing quests for the new and exciting, promises of classic British comfort food have become something of a comfort blanket for so many of us. James Durrant’s The Game Bird opened within The Stafford Hotel last year and quickly garnered praise for its archetypal menu of refined comfort food; boasting the likes of steak and ale steamed suet pudding, whole dover sole and at least one type of...

The venison puffs at Hakkasan are a thing of beauty: mouthfuls of unequivocal brilliance. Insalubriously buttery, the pastry parcels (made with lard) are brushed with honey, smattered with a torrent of sesame seeds. Inside, hunks of venison have inherently rich flavour naturally remarkable with the honey and sesame, rampant with Chinese five spice. The filling is coated with a thick sauce that’s sweet, savoury, umami, delicious. Each bite is transcendent: an explosion of expertly amalgamated flavours. “The venison puff is...

When Dabbous closed, I felt bereft. Ollie Dabbous had cooked (or at least been involved with) some of the best meals I’d eaten. Ever. I longed and longed for the restaurant’s unique model of fine dining to fill the gaping hole in my heart and rumbling stomach. The restaurant and its eponymous chef’s cooking style has since been imitated, but never matched. Soon after the closure of Dabbous, Ollie worked on the launch of Henrietta in Covent Garden, but the...

What’s in a restaurant name, and does it really matter in this day and age? At the time of writing, London is home to more than 39,000 restaurants, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that so many struggle to conjure an appropriate title. Last year, Flavour Bastard managed to ruffle feathers with its opening in Soho, largely condemned for its name and boundary pushing fusion food. Along with now renamed Pussey Liquor and Sexy Fish, the respective restaurateurs appear to have been...