Restaurants

When opening a new restaurant in an area that’s surrounded with competition, balance between the space’s food and ambience is of immeasurable importance. Instead of contrasting with harsh discordance, each of these elements are (generally speaking) best when purposely designed to intricately work in harmony with one another, but without being too overworked. Chef Shaun Rankin’s Ormer in the basement of Flemings’ Hotel in Mayfair, for instance, is a prime example of a new restaurant to strike that balance with...

Let’s face it, 2016 has been less than brilliant. Something to be thankful for, however, is the overwhelming number of remarkable restaurants to have opened in London over the past twelve months. We’ve compiled a selection of some of our favourites. Eneko at One Aldwych The first London restaurant from three Michelin-starred Eneko Atxa, Eneko at One Aldwych is an intentionally different entity to Azurmendi in Bilbao. Of course, the chef’s culinary expertise is delivered here, yet the ambience is...

Of all the central London neighbourhoods, none vaunt quite so many eating and drinking establishments as Fitzrovia. Though there are perhaps more restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and wine bars than there are people – the direct area has very little to offer in terms of other entertainment. Yes, Oxford Street is nearby but for any self-respecting Londoner the busy thoroughfare is a strict ‘no-go’ zone between mid-November and the end of January, once Christmas and the January sales have befallen....

For all the wonderful simplicity single menu demi-chains offer they are the anathema of fresh, seasonal and diverse cooking. In most instances you sense a replica version of the menu is likely stapled to the freezer to itemise the frozen boxes of readymade meals that line the shelves, and so it is that I have come to both be thankful for the straightforwardness but simultaneously cautious of the quality of any restaurant that champions such a system. Little Smoke is...

The problem with the term ‘Pan-Asian’ is the somewhat stereotypical model of a restaurant that often takes various dishes and techniques from the likes of Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and crams them all into the same shallow pigeonhole, often ending up with a result that’s less than authentic. Opened on the ground-floor at the back of Oxford Street’s huge Debenhams store, with an entrance directly opposite MEATliquor, Chi Kitchen is a ‘Pan-Asian’ restaurant with a menu that’s overseen...

With two successful restaurants already open on the west-side of the city the Gladwin Bros have already proven that people will travel (albeit only a short tube journey or bus ride from everywhere else in London) for good food. Yet with their latest opening - Nutbourne – it seems as though the team behind Rabbit and The Shed have set themselves their biggest challenge to date, in an attempt to entice customers to visit their new neighbourhood restaurant. Battersea is...

It would be fair to insist that Westminster’s Cinnamon Club, first opened in 2001, is still one of the most breath taking spaces for a high-end Indian restaurant in London. That’s without even considering the food from Michelin-starred Executive Chef Vivek Singh. The chef’s food has become so popular, in fact, that two offshoots (Cinnamon Kitchen and Cinnamon Soho) have also been rolled out across the city in the past fifteen years. Just a stone’s throw from Liverpool Street station,...

It is generally accepted that France is responsible for some of the best food in the world, so where better to start a culinary excursion than in Paris - home to some of the globe’s most highly regarded restaurants? First opened in 1898, the iconic Ritz hotel re-opened its revolving doors this summer after a lengthy multi-million-dollar refurbishment in attempt to drag the hotel kicking and screaming into the 21st century. And what with it being so easy to visit...

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. Ceru – South Kensington After offering a number of tasters around the capital, as well as having appeared a number of music festivals in recent years, Ceru will open its first permanent site this month. Taking over a site in South Kensington, the restaurant is heavily inspired by husband and wife team Barry and Patricia Hilton’s travels...