Roux at Parliament Square review: A recent makeover brings the decor back in alignment with a sophisticated lunch menu March 6, 2018 Named after its patron Michel Roux Jr, this formerly fusty French fine-dining stalwart in Westminster was given a makeover last year to reflect the shiny fame of its current head chef, Steve Groves. After jaunts at a string of Michelin-starred restaurants, Groves joined the staff after winning Masterchef: The Professionals in 2009 and then graduated [...]
Working Lunch at Temper City: This steak and curry house is hot in every sense of the world February 6, 2018 Temper city 2 Angel Court, EC2R WHAT AND WHERE? Temper City is the second restaurant from Neil Rankin, the barbecue king behind Pitt Cue and Smokehouse, set in a warehouse-style hideaway in Angel’s Court. If you’re familiar with the tacos and tortillas of Soho, this one shakes it up for the City slickers with [...]
Island Poké review: Hawaiian street food has hit the streets of Canary Wharf this week, so we try it out to see if it’s any cop December 5, 2017 Island Poké Broadgate Circle, EC2M WHAT? If you haven’t already said aloha to poké, the biggest street food trend of the year, then you better hurry up because there isn’t much of 2017 left. Pronounced pok-eh, the word means “cut” or “dice” in Hawaii. WHERE? The one we visited was nestled into the second tier [...]
This is what it’s like to be a young chef in London, from Michelin trainees to pop-up proteges November 2, 2017 Depending on who you speak to, young chefs are either the rock stars of the 21st century, or the last vestige of a Victorian-style workforce, toiling away in cramped conditions under tyrannical bosses for pay that makes nurses look like millionaires. What’s beyond question is that London is one of the most exciting culinary cities [...]
Fitness advice: How can you keep fit around all of these end-of-year parties? October 31, 2017 For many people, November is the start of the hardest time of year for keeping fit. Cold weather makes us crave stodgy comfort food, and that’s before you factor in the parties. But rather than wait until the new year for yet another resolution to get fit or lose weight, how about trying to [...]
Nobu Shoreditch review: Sophisticated Manhattan-style dining arrives in London’s coolest postcode October 27, 2017 The ever-expanding Nobu empire of classy and upmarket Japanese restaurants plants an incongruous outpost in the gritty hipster bricklands of Shoreditch. A cavernous basement lounge hidden beneath the first Nobu hotel in London, the restaurant exudes the refined early-era Bond-villain aesthetic of Tokyo’s fine dining scene. A giant glass wall allows an adjacent light well [...]
It takes a village: How Simon Rogan transformed a Cumbrian town into an international culinary destination July 6, 2017 The village of Cartmel lies just beyond the boundaries of the Lake District. It’s quietly beautiful, with squat stone buildings, rows of shops selling postcards and tourist knick-knacks, and a 12th century priory that dominates the town square. You can find lazy, bucolic idylls like this dotted across this part of the world; it’s the [...]
How to mix: Happiness Forget’s Forest Hill, a cocktail using mezcal and a new spirit made from birch sap June 1, 2017 There must be a lot of expectation on your shoulders when you run one of the World’s 50 Best Bars. But Rhys Wil- son, general manager at Happiness Forgets in Hoxton Square, puts his high profile gig at the tenth best bar in the world to good use, namely pro- moting young bartending talent through [...]
Losing weight means a new diet plan, whether you like it not. Here’s how to find the best diet for you May 23, 2017 Although hitting the gym isn’t for everyone, nutrition is something we literally can’t avoid. But there’s a problem: everybody thinks they are a nutritionist these days, meaning it can be very hard to determine fact from fiction. Does the latest health fad really work, or is it just another urban wives’ tale? Over the [...]
Working Lunch review: Bocca di Lupo is the place to wolf down Italian small plates in the West End April 26, 2017 Bocca di Lupo 2 Archer Street, W1D WHAT? A small-plates restaurant that prides itself on regional Italian cooking, a considered wine list and a fizzy atmosphere. The bar stretching alongside an open kitchen puts the theatre in Theatreland, but the rear dining room is a more intimate, austere affair. WHERE? Jostling for attention in Soho, [...]