Restaurants

Trends and crazes come and go with the turn of the season, yet it’s unlikely that the kitchens focussing on small sharing plates that arrive at the table as and when they are ready will be vanishing any time soon. And though this rapid increase in popularity has managed to divide opinion over the past year or so; it’s clear that sharing plates venues are the in thing for 2016. They are the the Pokémon Go, the Facebook politicians, and...

When Heston Blumenthal decided to take over the premises of his third restaurant in the village of Bray, in 2010, there was a certain amount of uproar between the local villagers. Fifteen years beforehand, the celebrity chef famed for his idiosyncratic approach to food and molecular gastronomy purchased The Ringers pub and turned it into The Fat Duck, which has since gained three Michelin-stars and was named the World’s best restaurant in 2005. Next, not content with owning just one...

Just north of Oxford Street, Fitzrovia is fast becoming the restaurant capital of London. However, quite problematically, besides eating and drinking establishments, the area has little else to offer in terms of leisure, and as a result there’s an incredible amount of competition between local restaurateurs. Fitzrovia is home to the likes of the ever-brilliant Dabbous, The Ninth, and the latest opening of Bao, which has already garnered Kardashian-level social media hysteria, not unlike its big sister restaurant in Soho....

A certain level of culinary competence is, of course, a necessary element for a restaurant to succeed. But although the food is generally the crucial criteria associated with a perfect dining experience, often overlooked components such as service, ambience and décor are also essential contributors, and are sometimes just as important. Jason Atherton’s Berners Tavern, fortunately, is one of the few London restaurants that manages to deliver on all four of these. The all-day dining menu is made up of...

With so many food trends having continued to flourish in 2016, it's often difficult to determine where one ends and another begins. The idea of 'Half plates', for instance (the specialty at Talli Joe), is fundamentally a new riff on the small plate culture that has taken London by storm, dividing opinions along the way. A modern Indian restaurant with Executive Chef Sameer Taneja at the helm (having previously led the kitchen at Michelin-starred Benares), Talli Joe is a refreshing new...

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. Chick ‘n’ Sours – Seven Dials Following the success of his first Chick ‘n’ Sours in Haggerston, having opened just over a year ago, Carl Clarke has announced plans to open a sister restaurant in the heart of Central London. Like the Haggerston space, the new restaurant’s menu will be short and punchy, offering a number of...

As far as dinner is concerned, there are few things more comforting than a high-quality steak, generously seasoned and cooked to absolute perfection. Though when eating out, the choice of ordering a steak is generally considered boring, and generally best left to the most unadventurous of diners. When reviewing restaurants, dishes that sound either ridiculously enthusing, or those that seem just plain ridiculous are generally encouraged - and when fraught with so much choice, steak can be very rarely placed...

It’s often believed that expensive cuts of meat are superior to the often overlooked cheaper cuts available. However, in almost every case, it is the cooking process that’s the most important when meat is concerned. A well cooked piece of offal with almost always taste better than a badly cooked expensive slab of flesh, with a pork dish from Kensington’s Launceston Place acting as a fine example. Tucked away on a street of the same name, the Michelin-starred Launceston Place...

You can always spot a good hotel by how many amenities it provides. Bars of chocolate that sit adjacent to espresso coffee machines, rolled towel/ waterbottle combinations that greet you in the gym and a plethora of bathroom items that lay invitingly across from the in-built bathroom TV can transform a hotel from simply providing a bed in a room to being a haven of ultimate tranquillity. The Arch, a boutique hotel in the heart of London, certainly qualifies in the...