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Bibimbap Soho review – cheap and mostly cheerful Korean food
New Malden it ain’t The immediate area around Centre Point used to be a small hub of Korean restaurants until the Crossrail building works put the kibosh on that serendipitous gaggle of eateries....
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Duck Duck Goose review – Brixton Cantonese roasts just in time for Chinese...
Quack, quack, honk If there’s one thing that London isn’t short of, it’s Cantonese restaurants. For years it was the only kind of Chinese food widely available in the capital, with other cuisines from...
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Little Smoke review – Moorgate Smokehouse spin-off doesn’t have the chops
‘Little’ is the operative word and not in a good way I’ve been reviewing restaurants for long enough now to see multiple restaurants rise and fall, often at the same address. The small space at the...
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Le Dame de Pic, Four Seasons London review – Tower Hill hotel French needs...
In defence of the tasting menu. But not necessarily *this* tasting menu. There’s an unspoken rule that reviewers shouldn’t openly criticise each other’s work. This isn’t a conspiracy – we’re too...
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Farang review – Highbury hinterland Thai residency that must become permanent
San Daniele takes on a new life As someone with a reasonably high tolerance for spiciness, I had never really understood why some people were so adverse to chilli-infused foods that they would...
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What is Activated Charcoal? Everything you need to know
London’s latest wellness food fad explained – and debunked Update 5/03/2017 – added clarification about the sourcing of Pizzicotto’s activated charcoal pizza flour and responses received, so far, from...
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Jugemu review – Soho izakaya flies solo
Uniquely Japanese in more ways than one Eccentric cultural institutions usually lose something in translation when they’re transplanted outside of their home country. Monster truck rallies, Eccles...
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Lyle’s review – minimalist Shoreditch restaurant is exquisite despite its flaws
Defies both easy categorisation and expectations If there’s been one defining cultural aesthetic in the West over the past 20 years or so, then it has to be minimalism. Paring back everything to their...
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Rick Stein Barnes review – celebrity chef serves the only seafood in the village
TV CV only gets you oh so far I have little time for most TV celebrity chefs, but I’ll usually make an exception for Rick Stein. His genteel avuncular charm, childlike wonder and boundless yet measured...
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Holborn Dining Room review – the Instagram pie phenomenon
Aye for pie with an eye for pie One should never, ever underestimate the importance of how food looks. Attractive-looking food not only influences how we perceive its taste, but can get otherwise...
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Sparrow review – eating out takes flight in Lewisham
A southeast London restaurant worth getting excited about The idea that southeast London is a gastronomic desert bereft of anywhere good to eat out is a long-held canard. Although somewhat overstated,...
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Claude Bosi at Bibendum review – a classic building, a vaunted chef and the...
Like a regenerated Doctor Who, what’s old is new again. I tend to review new restaurants and Claude Bosi at Bibendum does technically count as a new restaurant, having only just opened at the beginning...
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The best and worst tonkotsu ramen in London – 2017 review update
Japanese pork bone broth noodle soup in the capital gets better. And worse. Although the deluge of ramen restaurant openings in London has lessened since its peak a couple of years ago, a bowl of warm,...
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Monty’s Deli review – street food bagels settle down in Hoxton
Jewish soul food reasserts itself in the East End Jewish food doesn’t have much of a visible presence in London to the casual observer. But that’s before you realise that many dishes that we taken for...
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Machi-ya review – Kanada-ya spin-off does Japanese comfort food
A review from someone who can tell the difference between chicken and pork tonkatsu Machi-ya is an odd name for a Japanese restaurant. A machiya is a traditional Japanese house that can be very...
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Madame D review – Gunpowder spin-off tries to scale new heights in Spitalfields
But doesn’t quite reach the summit. It’s odd watching the city of your youth gradually change and morph, almost imperceptibly, over the years. Commercial Street is a thoroughfare that links Hoxton and...
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Xu review – Bao spin-off brings new twists to Taiwanese food
New-wave Taiwanese food in old school surroundings Eagle-eyed Londoners will have noticed that an increasingly large number of new restaurants in London are branches, spin-offs and extensions of...
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Red Rooster at The Curtain review – the botched Shoreditch soul food transplant
Live music and a celebrity chef amount to a hill of beans I try to avoid mentioning celebrity chefs when writing about their restaurants. Apart from trying to avoid the cult of personality that most...
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Plaquemine Lock review – Creole and Cajun pub food on the Regent’s Canal
The gastropub cousin to Bocca di Lupo Most new restaurants launch in a blaze of publicity glory with press releases spamming inboxes, repetitively woolly social media chatter, oversubscribed launch...
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Old Tree Daiwan Bee review – the other Taiwanese restaurant on Rupert Street
Xu’s cheaper and more homely neighbour By accident or design, the sumptuously superlative Xu isn’t the only Taiwanese restaurant on Rupert Street. The West End’s most unlikely restaurant side street is...
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