Any pub that employs a chef with credible restaurant CV now feels it has the right to append the prefix ‘gastro’ to its name. Many have installed josper grills or wood fires to buttress their claims. Renovate on old boozer may earn extra points. The Baring doesn’t try too hard. It doesn't need to either. This neighbourhood venue lets its quality speak for itself.
Your reviewer’s only previous visit to a Georgian restaurant was a disappointment. The passing of time and a desire to be open-minded provoked a recent visit to a new venue purveying Georgian cooking. It was well-conceived, but ultimately underwhelming.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Oxford students will take every opportunity to show off their erudition. With this maxim in mind, when your reviewer and eight of his chums returned recently to their Alma Mater for a reunion weekend, he was reminded of the famous line of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” In simple terms, the places where we dined some thirty years ago have stood the test of time.
Harrow is famous for its school, perhaps its eponymous hill, but little else. Although it is located less than ten miles from where this reviewer grew up, he was not aware of its dining options – until recently. Step forward Jay Rayner. I have long been a fan of the restaurant critic of The Guardian and have enjoyed several of his books, including My Dining Hell. This is a summary of his most damning reviews. 19 of the 20 places subsequently have shut. Fortunately, his recent piece on the incongruously named Panda’s Kitchen was praiseworthy – and rightly so.
People love to make lists, however arbitrary they may be. KOL is one of only two UK restaurants to rank in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, placing at number 17. It must, therefore, being doing something very good. Your reviewer had written two highly praiseworthy pieces about KOL in the past (see here and here), but a recent visit to the venue demonstrated to our group of four – all of whom were previously familiar with KOL – just how much it had raised its already strong game.
The Ledbury has become a byword for fine dining in London, perhaps no surprise given that its doors have been open for 15 years and that it has held two Michelin stars for more than half this time. However, the world has moved on. While the Ledbury was once, arguably, in a class of its own, others can now match and even beat the venue at its game. …
Want an antidote to power dining in Mayfair, but still an opportunity to enjoy incredibly high-quality food? Try Lucknow 49, the third Indian restaurant to have appeared on Maddox Street in as many years, but by far the most homely. The style of cooking is Awadhi, namely from the region of Lucknow in the north east of India, close to the Nepalese border. 49, more prosaically, refers to the street number
London does not lack for competition when it comes to high-end Indian restaurants, yet there is always room for more. When Indian Accent opened just under a year ago, expectations were certainly high for the venture, given the plaudits accorded to the original in New Delhi and its first offshoot in New York. Choosing to locate yourself on the same street as London’s Gymkhana is also tantamount to laying down a challenge; we can do at least as well, if not better than you. A recent visit saw both my dining comrade and I highly impressed by Indian Accent…
I had formed an instinctive dislike for Serge prior to entering. Located inside the currently uber-cool Mandrake Hotel, the building’s black-clad exterior and imposing bouncer at its front speak of exclusion and exclusivity. Fortunately, once inside the hallowed turf, the experience improved markedly. The waiting staff could not have been friendlier, there was a relaxed vibe in the dining room and the food was first-class.
No guesses either for the street number or for what formerly occupied this site. Yet its reinvention as a restaurant is undoubtedly a good thing. The legacy is all there – one only needs to look at the exposed brickwork and concrete floor – but the main reason for coming is, undoubtedly, the cooking.
A Tenth Wedding Anniversary is a significant event and so choosing a restaurant in which to celebrate is no trivial matter (especially for an amateur food critic). Nonetheless, after little consideration, my comrade and I elected Marianne. This was the third time we have visited it – and we have never been disappointed yet. Arguably, it is the best place to go for an intimate fine dining experience in London...
Southam Street sees the transformation of a formerly grotty pub at the non-fashionable end of Notting Hill into a destination venue offering cocktails, food and a members’ club. Based on a recent visit, the owners are definitely doing something right. My comrade and I liked the vibe, but were perhaps less impressed with the food. In the end, this may not matter – the angle Southam Street seems to be going for is perhaps more style than substance...
It’s a pity that the first thing any diner will think when they encounter this restaurant almost certainly relates to its name. Sure, it’s pretty silly (but surely no worse than Sexy Fish?), but that’s half the point – it gets people talking; they’re curious about the place, maybe intrigued enough to go and discover what the buzz is all about. My comrade and I were impressed during our visit, and sufficiently so that I would return.
Located a stone’s throw away from Chinatown and next door to the ever-popular Palomar, the ambitions of Xu (pronounced ‘shu’) are evident. Given that the team behind this venture also pioneered Gymkhana, Bao and Hoppers, expectations were high, but a recent lunchtime visit undoubtedly impressed. While perhaps somewhat lacking in atmosphere, the level of the food here was superlative.
The prefix, ‘neo’ means new. Any restaurant, therefore, which chooses to put this word in its name comes with a certain set of expectations attached. Fortuitously, Neo Bistro deserves such epithet. A recent lunch visit to the second venture from the team behind Farringdon’s Anglo was highly successful, in terms of concept, food and service.
Tucked down a side street in Soho best known for its guitar shops, Smoking Goat is paving the way for a new era of Thai cuisine. This is about as far removed from curry in a coconut milk sauce or a plate of stir-fried rice noodles as you can imagine. Instead, Smoking Goat is all about a profound explosion of flavours, mostly based around smoke, spice and soy
Go the restaurant’s website and you will be told that “the journey begins.” Diners at Vineet Bhatia will apparently experience “intrigue, surprise and adventure” on their visits to this restaurant. If I were asked for three adjectives to describe what I wanted to get out of a dining experience – and particularly one for which I was paying £175/head (admittedly with paired wines included) – then these would not initially be the first that would come to mind. Overall, our experience was very good, but by no means outstanding.
