Restaurants

Just a couple of years ago, the notion of opening a successful, trendy café off the main drag of Balham High Road would have perhaps seemed unthinkable to anybody without a SW12 postcode. Yet what with nearby Brixton unexpectedly becoming the place to eat, with Clapham not far behind, it was only a matter of time before the surrounding areas would begin to follow suit. Set up by three friends and launched earlier this year, Brother Marcus is stylised as...

Before you get excited, Poke (pronounced “poe-kay”) and the multiple Poke Bars that have sprung up in London of late have absolutely nothing to do with Pokémon Go. Instead of serving slivers of pan-fried Pikachu or mock Squirtle soup, places like Mayfair’s Black Roe Poke Bar and Grill specialise in the Hawaiian dish traditionally consisting of raw fish - generally ahi tuna - served on a bed of short-grained rice. Opened in March, Black Roe is the latest venture from...

  Once home to Turnmills, world famous nightclub, the corner of Clerkenwell Road and Turnmill Street has, this year, seen the launch of to two brand new restaurants opening upon the site. The first, Sosharu, is the latest venture from Jason Atherton, heavily inspired by Japanese Izakayas, and in June Albion opened next door. Following successful openings in both Shoreditch and Bankside, this is the third outpost of the joint venture between Sir Terence Conran, Peter Prescott and Isabelle Chatel...

Generally speaking, I’ve never been a great fan of tasting menus. It’s less of a problem with the sheer quantity of courses served, than it is with the chef’s decision to commonly present an array of gratuitously pretentious dishes. All too often this leads to spending three hours (or more) sycophantically congratulating the kitchen staff and pretending to enjoy outrageous flavour combinations like white chocolate and raw sturgeon or foie gras and marshmallow. Combinations that have never worked, and surely...

We're all aware that wine is generally regarded as the ideal drink when it comes to accompanying food, yet in recent years a new contender has risen to prominence, with so many restaurants now offering specific beers paired alongside dishes, as well as (or sometimes instead of) wine pairing. Of course, food and beer have always been close friends, yet it is only more recently that so many of London’s restaurants other than a select few of London’s absolute finest,...

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. Dirty Bones – Shoreditch With two successful restaurants already operating on the other side of the city (one in Kensington, and the other in Soho), the team behind Dirty Bones are set to open a third site this month. Taking over a Grade II listed heritage building at the Shoreditch end of Bethnal Green Road, alike the...

There was a time when rum in the UK existed in little more than Bacardi and Malibu varieties to be enjoyed with a splash of diet coke for the conservative sorts or a mix of pineapple juice for the more adventurous. But the Caribbean spirit has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence over the past decade. Two years ago it was cocktails, with a craze for the mojito cocktail helping rum to become the UK's fastest-growing spirit, but today it’s a demand...

In modern day life, there are uncountable sources of irritation constantly flung at us from all directions, especially when eating out is involved. Dining companions immersed in the screen of their mobile phones, slates instead of real crockery, argumentative waiters, ‘gourmet’ burgers that are insistently over-cooked and over-sized... The list could go on and on - yet one thing that’s more infuriating than almost anything else is the ‘no-reservation’ culture that’s sweeping London’s restaurant scene – forcing us to queue...

Although of British descent, Theo Randall is a name that’s become synonymous with Italian food. Tracing back to family holiday road-trips through rural Italy, garnering plenty of food and wine along the way, Theo then spent a total of 17 years working at The River Café in Hammersmith – 10 of which were spent as Head Chef. It was here that he achieved his first Michelin star. In 2006, however, the chef decided to open his first solo venture, an...