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.
In Gourmand Gunno’s decade-plus of restaurant reviewing, Toba is the first Indonesian restaurant he has visited. This is anomalous. It is also not through lack of trying. Your reviewer remembers first trying nasi goreng when in Amsterdam as a teenager and loving it. The Netherlands is replete with Indonesian options, a legacy perhaps of its colonial history. London, however, is curiously lacking. Toba is therefore a very welcome addition. Other restaurateurs should follow in its footsteps.
When my dining comrade announced to me that he had booked a Greek restaurant for our planned get-together, the prospect sounded highly enticing. When there was a chance to swap a cold and damp November day in London for the warmth and charm of Greece – if even just for a couple of hours – then what could be more enticing? Sadly, promise and delivery at Estiatorio Milos were two very different things.
Hello, it’s 2022. Maybe Chutney Mary hasn’t realised. Maybe it’s stuck in time, still in the era when it had premises in Chelsea rather than now in St James. But back in 2015, there was this thing called the… er, internet. Yes, Chutney Mary does have a website, but it has to be one of the most clunky your reviewer has seen for some time. It doesn’t even show the restaurant’s current menu. This disappointment represents an appropriate metaphor for a recent evening spent at the venue. Chutney Mary has much to do if it wants to stay relevant.
Fallow take-one was a pop in Heddon Street. Such was its success, that take-two saw the restaurant move to a larger (and more bling) premises just off Haymarket in the very centre of London. While it may have lost some of its original intimacy and vibe, none of the ethos underpinning the restaurant nor the quality of the offering has changed. If it’s modern (and sustainable) British food you’re after, then Fallow is the place.
‘No,’ was what I wanted to scream straight out when first I learned about Farzi Café. Everything about it struck me as wrong or offensive. The restaurant is subtitled as being a ‘modern spice bistro’ (what is that supposed to mean?), it is backed by ‘the Czar of Indian Cuisine’ (per the details on its website) and I learned through the Internet that farzi means ‘fake’ in Urdu. Add into this that London’s newest batch of Indian openings have all met with mixed reviews, and my expectations were certainly low heading to Farzi Café. The good news, however, was that they were comfortably surpassed…
Beyond a handful of restaurants, several books, a regular Guardian column and the now-guaranteed presence of zaatar in every self-respecting middle-class larder, Yotam Ottlolenghi has spawned a generation of professional chefs. Ramael Scully is one of these, now plying his trade under a restaurant in his own surname. If his mentor became famed for successfully combining genuinely eclectic ingredients from across the Middle East, then Scully goes one step further. Scully is a celebration of joyful and inventive cooking…
Part of the beauty of the London dining scene is that there is a plethora of choice. Like the citizens of this city, there is huge diversity. However, the darker side of the city’s culinary dynamism is that it is relentlessly Darwinian: if you don’t get it right, you will fail. The statistics bear this out: some 50% of central London restaurants shut within a year of opening. I fear Ikoyi may be one of them.
The Haymarket Hotel (part of the Firmdale Group) has a lovely vibe to it. Post a relatively recent refurbishment, it feels distinctly cool. There is a boldness to the place in terms of its bright colours, quirky décor and statement modern art adorning the walls. So far, so good. Logically enough, therefore, you would expect the hotel’s restaurant also to be pretty decent. Three of us visited on a recent weekday evening and came away generally underwhelmed. In summary, it was lot of money spent on a mostly forgettable culinary experience
