Restaurants

Pride is a double-edged sword. To be in the right, I’ll take the most extreme measures, yet there's something oddly rewarding about being proven wrong, on occasion, especially when done with such pizazz, such finesse. At the beginning of last year, I visited Monica Galetti's pop up at the top of 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) for lunch. I'd never had the chance to visit Le Gavroche with Monica on board, but I'd heard great things, as well as...

Once a topic of controversy, even amongst the most carnivorous of us, veal (particularly Rose Veal) is becoming increasingly popular on the menus of high-end restaurants around London and the United Kingdom. A leading UK restaurant supplier, Lake District Farmers supply premium, breed-specific meats to fine dining establishments, providing customers with the full supply chain history. Working with a group of 50 Lake District-based farmers, the company renowned as “the hidden pearl of the Lake District” manages to produce some...

Just over a year ago, when Sartoria opened on the corner of Saville Row – like everybody else in London with a passion for food - I couldn’t wait to visit. Renowned as one of London’s finest Italian chefs (having previously worked at L’Anima), D&D London recruited Francesco Mazzei to run the kitchen of its swanky new venue. Bedecked with heavily starched linen and cutlery so heavily polished that neighbouring diners could be blinded with one misjudged mouthful – it...

A London fine-dining institution, lunch at Michelin-starred Galvin La Chapelle, behind Spitalfields, is an absolute delight. Instead of serving an exclusive menu of (often pompous) haute cuisine, the restaurant offers some of the best French gastronomic delights available in London, alongside one of the most stunning settings. The grade II listed location of brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin’s third restaurant has a long colourful history. At the end of the 19th century, the building was used as the parish of Bishopsgate and...

Imagine if Burger & Lobster were only to sell their overpriced burgers, if MEATliquor actually specialised in eco-conscious vegan treats, or if Le Gavroche were run by a Roman chef with a penchant for German brasserie classics. No, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but in terms of indication, the importance of restaurant names should never be overlooked. Just opened within the newly refurbished space at The Stafford hotel in St James, The Game Bird is as quintessentially...

By Jay Williams  Arriving early, I mooched around outside new Farringdon rib joint Hammer & Tongs just long enough to hear a member of staff outside muttering darkly into his mobile “we’ve got a reviewer coming in again tonight”.  Kind of how you might expect one of the three little pigs to say “we’ve got a wolf popping round again this evening”.  But after returning to our table later, a quick Google revealed the restaurant had recently been rinsed by...

With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, we pick the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month. MEATliquor - Queensway Since starting life as a food truck, MEATliquor has become one of London’s, if not the UK’s, best-loved comfort food institutions. The restaurant’s first permanent site opened behind Oxford Street in 2011, and 10 more venues have since opened across London, Brighton, Bristol and Leeds. This month, the twelfth site is set to open...

After what feels like years of waiting, I’ve found a number of genuinely brilliant restaurants close to my home. So when I’m (often) asked for restaurant recommendations, I constantly find myself waxing lyrical about these local treasures. With that comes a price, nonetheless: the only thing worse than an accusation of being biased is the whinging replies of: “Greenwich, oh that’s much too far.” “Zone 2? No way, I’ll need to bring my passport!” Or even worse, “Sorry, darling. We...

Switch on E4 on any given Monday night and ten minutes of Made in Chelsea will give you a rough idea of the veritable number of establishments this part of South West London has to offer. Glamorous clubs, private members bars and palace-like cafes serving high teas from shiny trinkets are accommodation enough to host an hour’s worth of bitching and whining. But far from being an isolated neighbourhood for the privileged few Chelsea is now awash with quirky cafes,...