Darkhorse Stratford restaurant review: more nag than stallion January 20, 2016 I'm calling January 2016 as the moment the restaurant template that's dominated London for the last five years finally jumped the shark. Far too many new openings appear to have been cobbled together, Inception-style, from my memories of other restaurants, from the interior design to the locally sourced, modern European menus. There's a cynicism to the uniformity. It's a formula that [...]
Mix it up: Low alcohol cocktails mean you can behave yourself without being a bore January 13, 2016 It's at this time of year that the puritanical prohibitionists start to circle. They can sniff out your Christmas excesses from 100 paces, and know that the New Year brings not only promise but promises, too. Dry January, sadly, isn't a prayer for clement weather. On top of the proselytising pressure to forsake alcohol for [...]
Burns Night: where to celebrate January’s hottest event in London January 13, 2016 Mr Fogg’s The waiting staff at Mr Fogg’s, a bar themed around the famous fictitious Victorian traveller of the same name in Mayfair, are swapping their military uniforms for kilts. Guests are invited to toast the Scottish bard with a glass of Glenmorangie Original 10yr whisky, sample haggis canapes and enjoy a recital of his [...]
Yum Som restaurant review January 13, 2016 Yum Som 1-6 Leadenhall St, EC3V 1PP WHAT? A recently opened Asian fast food restaurant serving up giant salads, grab and go boxes of meat and tofu noodles, as well as subs, soups, sushi and those neat little rice paper rolls. WHERE? It’s on the corner of Leadenhall Street and Bishopsgate, by everybody’s favourite towering [...]
Food trends 2016: black food, Persian food and cherry bakewell tarts January 6, 2016 Black to snack Bamboo blackened brioche buns, dark ribbons of squid ink pasta and even charcoal-infused water will herald the arrival of what might be this year’s least appetising food trend. In 2016 expect to eat black food, very black food, darker than the howling souls of the damned. Burger King Japan kicked off the [...]
Working Lunch review: Big Easy, Canary Wharf January 6, 2016 Big Easy, Crossrail Place, E14 WHAT? The third – and largest – Big Easy serving “low and slow” meat and seafood cooked in pit rooms that house two tonne US smokers. The sheer size of this venue – to give you an idea, it employs 170 staff – means it also accommodates an American breakfast [...]
Lessons in wine: Use Dry January to brush up on your wine critics and make a tidy profit January 6, 2016 The most important thing to remember is that a wine is subjective. Wine lovers should be guided by the critics, but at the end of the day the only thing that really matters is each individual drinker’s own enjoyment. With the arrival of the internet, it’s never been so easy to learn about and voice [...]
Oldroyd in Islington review: the ultimate local restaurant December 22, 2015 344 Upper Street, N1, www.oldroydlondon.com FOOD ★★★★☆ | VALUE ★★★★★ | ATMOSPHERE ★★★★☆ Cost for two with booze: £85 Oldroyd may have been open a little while now, but what nicer way to end a nice year filled with nice meals than a trip to one of London’s very nicest restaurants. Not best, necessarily, but [...]
Piquet restaurant in Fitzrovia is a former car-park that now serves snails to die for December 15, 2015 92-94 Newman Street, W1, piquet-restaurant.co.uk FOOD ★★★★☆ | VALUE ★★★★ | ATMOSPHERE ★★★☆☆ Cost for two with booze: £140 The part of Fitzrovia surrounding Piquet isn’t what you’d call atmospheric. At least not in a good way. To the north block after block of faceless office buildings recede into the distance; to the south lies the grubbier [...]
Sexy Fish: Ivy tycoon Richard Caring transforms Mayfair bank into aquatic restaurant – with installations by Damien Hirst and a 13ft crocodile December 4, 2015 Restaurant tycoon Richard Caring, owner of Caprice Holdings, has launched a new aquatic-themed restaurant in Mayfair's Berkeley Square. Sexy Fish will – as the name implies – serve fish and seafood and sits on the site of an old NatWest banking hall. The restaurant will join Caprice Holding's growing list of London restaurants, which include The Ivy, Le Caprice and 34. [...]