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.
For those unfamiliar, Akira Back is a global phenomenon. He has more than 20 restaurants around the world. Each blends his unique style of Japanese, Korean and American, reflecting the countries in which he grew up. London is lucky to have its first Akira Back eatery, open now for three months in the recently launched Mayfair Mandarin Oriental. Both your reviewer and his dining comrade were impressed.
It was with high anticipation that Gourmand Gunno returned to Gymkhana for the first time since its recent garlanding as London’s only Indian restaurant with two Michelin stars. High hopes often leave scope for disappointment and while the food certainly pleased, in the final assessment there is no way that Gymkhana deserves both its stars.
From a modest café that opened over a hundred years ago, to a Michelin-starred celebrity hang-out, the history of the Ivy has been both varied and colourful. The brand remains an enduring one in the culinary world despite having opened Ivy spin-offs across the country, in towns such as Guildford. Its most recent venture has been to create an Asian sub-brand. Trading partly on its name, the ethos at Ivy Asia is full-on decadence with decent enough food to match.
Reviewers that see any restaurant describe itself as “eclectic” have good reason – often through bitter prior experience – to be sceptical. When your venue has an absurdly pretentious name and is located on an expensive street in Mayfair, then the trepidation should mount further. MiMi, named with yet more absurdity in homage to a fictional empress who travels across China, is however worth a visit. There is substance behind the show.
There is little more comforting than a proper pub, especially on a bitterly cold day in early January. Since its reopening in late 2022, Mayfair’s The Barley Mow – a venue with history dating back more than two centuries – has, once again, become a firm favourite among locals. Rightly so. Both the downstairs pub and the more formal dining room above deserve a visit.
Mayfair lacks neither glamorous restaurants nor private members clubs. Into the fray comes the Twenty-Two, located – you’ve guessed it – at 22 Grosvenor Square. Tucked into a listed Edwardian building, there is a restaurant upstairs and club below. There are also rooms to stay. It is a welcome addition to the existing plethora of similar nearby options but could be summarised more as accomplished than ground-breaking.
From cult magazine to mini restaurant chain in the space of a decade is an impressive achievement. Noble Rot – the term relates to the natural decay on some vines that allow for sweet wine to be produced – started out writing about the wine industry. Recently, it opened its third restaurant venue. Visiting, however, is not just about partaking in a glass or two. There is good food and a top ambience to enjoy.
Tom Sellars has been a name to watch in the restaurant industry for some time. Few have sufficient talent to open their first restaurant at the age of 26. To then go on and garner two Michelin stars is an impressive feat. Dovetale, located at the heart of the 1 Hotel in Mayfair, represents the next chapter in his story. Throughout, there has been a consistent emphasis on combining class with playfulness. Both were on show at our recent visit.
Mayfair does not lack for high-end restaurants, but 20 Berkeley pulls of the act of creating something totally novel. Think of it as a breath of fresh air relative to the style over substance vibe of nearby Amazonico, Bacchanalia, Novikov or Sexy Fish. There’s nothing showy or ostentatious about 20 Berkeley. Rather, it wears its class with subtlety; understated charm rather than self-conscious bling. It’s very British, and in being so, fills a gap in the market.
When your reviewer was at primary school many years ago, he was told to avoid using the adjective ‘nice’ whenever possible, since it was a bland filler. We were instructed to try harder. If you’re launching a restaurant and even if you wish to show homage to a major city in the south of France, just don’t put the word nice in your name. It also opens the way for reviews titled “not so.” My hackles were therefore raised from the outset. Much of the crowd dining there (showy, glitzy, with their fast cars parked very nearby) didn’t do it for me either, but the overall experience was… pretty nice.
There was one particular moment at Humo when your reviewer had to struggle hard to keep a straight face. The server was introducing our trout and caviar starter. He highlighted how the trout had enjoyed its life in a river in Hampshire before meeting its death in an Ike-Jine Japanese fashion which is supposed to minimise pain by paralysing the nervous system. Conveniently for diners, it also preserves the quality of the fish fat. Said trout is then smoked over oak. It is next topped with 3-month aged caviar, which is stored at exactly minus one degree in order to promote freshness. Perhaps it was the earnestness of the description. Maybe it was the length of time it took. Sure, we all want to be entertained when we go out – and have no doubt, there is no shortage of quality on show at Humo – but it was hard to escape the notion that the venue just took itself a little bit too seriously.
Step into Socca and you can almost kid yourself you might be in the Mediterranean. Sure, no expense has been spared at this venue (as is evidenced by its prices), but it is testament to the team that they have been able to create a warming vibe at Socca, from décor to ambience via its food. Think of Socca as an updated take on La Petite Maison, taking the culinary genius of Claude Bosi and the design aesthetic of Samyukta Nair (Koyn, Jamavar etc.). It has all the hallmarks of a Mayfair classic in the making.
One of your reviewer’s fondest culinary experiences of last year was sitting in the Spring sunshine in Boston’s Back Bay district and eating a wonderful composition of charred octopus served with spicy nduja and fledgling potatoes. The venue in question was cult seafood outlet, Saltie Girl. Good news for Londoners: the group’s third venue (number two is in LA) opened in London late last year. Your reviewer liked it so much, he visited twice in a week.
The stork, after whom this restaurant is named, is famous for the long distances (up to 2,000 miles) that it can travel. That’s an impressive achievement and so is the ambition of the backers behind Stork, whose aim is to bring the joys of both African food and its broader culture over many miles to other cities. While the concept is laudable, your reviewer felt that Stork remains on a journey. To continue the bird metaphor, great you’ve travelled so far, but now you seem a bit tired to perform.
I’ve never been to Shanghai and did not live through the 1930s, but if Park Chinois is anything to go by, then it certainly would have been a wonderful period. This is the angle that this high-end Mayfair Chinese venue is going for. It’s full of old school charm; a sort of opulent decadence – albeit at prices not for the faint-hearted. Park Chinois was also so much better than I remembered it.
Hopes were high for dining in Chantelle Nicholson’s latest restaurant, Apricity. The chef had built a prior strong reputation for pioneering hyper-seasonal, local and sustainable approaches in her previous ventures in Earl’s Court and Hackney. Critics have mostly lauded her newest restaurant and its whole circular economy angle captures wonderfully the current zeitgeist. Despite such a backdrop, your reviewer and his dining comrade left somewhat underwhelmed.
Put a lower case d and e next to each other in a trendy font and – voila – it resembles a leaf. This is wonderfully convenient for the deliciously Ella brand, which can now be abbreviated just to ‘de’. For the unaware, the eponymous Ella has her products across many supermarkets, is the publisher of several cookbooks and has a restaurant in central London. Its name leaves no ambiguity over what it does: serving vegetarian food which would please even the most hardened carnivore.
Restaurant reviewers by their very nature tend to be a sceptical bunch, with high expectations and hard to please. Just as goalkeepers are often remembered for the bloopers they concede rather than the saves they make, truly bad service always trumps cooking of whatever standard. Even with such a jaundiced world view, Gourmand Gunno can confidently state that his curry at Manthan was one of the best he has enjoyed recently.
Gourmand Gunno has eaten a lot of steak in his life. Despite being married to a vegetarian, there remains something deeply satisfying – primeval even – about tucking into a bit of cow. While diners do not lack options for such an experience in London, it was a pleasure recently to return to Goodman for the first time since before the pandemic. The cooking remains on top form, albeit that you are paying elevated Mayfair prices.
When I first visited Coya, shortly after its opening close on a decade ago, I really did not like it. I thought it too bling, more style than substance. Bigger, bolder and brasher (think Sexy Fish, Amazonico) have come onto the London scene since. At the same time, Coya seems to have matured, with a much greater emphasis on honing both cooking and service. A recent visit served to demonstrate just how good the venue is.
