Part of Oxford’s timeless allure is its narrow side streets. Visitors could easily miss Ship Street, despite it being footsteps away from both the city’s main tourist sights and one of its principal shopping thoroughfares. This would be a pity, since nestled halfway along lies an impressive boutique restaurant that could comfortably hold its own in London.
Guests know exactly what to expect when they go to Rules. Its website reminds visitors that not only is it the “oldest restaurant in London” but that it “serves traditional British food.” Your reviewer had not been in over 25 years, but no part of the experience was markedly different. Think of Rules less as a tourist trap for those on an olde England nostalgia trip and more as an institution that has, and will continue, to endure.
The Portuguese, it is often said, are Britain’s oldest ally. Almost everyone who’s ever travelled to Portugal speaks highly of the country and the hospitality of its people. Gourmand Gunno has been more times than he can recall. Yet it remains anomalous just how few good Portuguese restaurants there are in central London. Fortunately, Bar Douro is one of them.
The English idiom is an apt one for this restaurant – a rare gem amidst the bustle of London’s Chinatown. Plum Valley stands apart from many of the 70 or so restaurants packed into the area around Gerrard Street. It provides a bridge between traditional Cantonese dining – the mainstay of the district – and a more modern, upscale aesthetic. It’s a sleek, tranquil escape.
There’s something anarchic about deliberately spelling the name of your restaurant wrong – and somehow getting away with it. Kricket – a playful nod to the shared British and Indian cultural obsession with the sport – has grown up from its original Brixton pop-up inception in a shipping container. Visit their Soho outpost for a taste of modern Anglo-Indian cooking.
Part of Oxford’s timeless allure is its narrow side streets. Visitors could easily miss Ship Street, despite it being footsteps away from both the city’s main tourist sights and one of its principal shopping thoroughfares. This would be a pity, since nestled halfway along lies an impressive boutique restaurant that could comfortably hold its own in London.
Guests know exactly what to expect when they go to Rules. Its website reminds visitors that not only is it the “oldest restaurant in London” but that it “serves traditional British food.” Your reviewer had not been in over 25 years, but no part of the experience was markedly different. Think of Rules less as a tourist trap for those on an olde England nostalgia trip and more as an institution that has, and will continue, to endure.
The Portuguese, it is often said, are Britain’s oldest ally. Almost everyone who’s ever travelled to Portugal speaks highly of the country and the hospitality of its people. Gourmand Gunno has been more times than he can recall. Yet it remains anomalous just how few good Portuguese restaurants there are in central London. Fortunately, Bar Douro is one of them.
The English idiom is an apt one for this restaurant – a rare gem amidst the bustle of London’s Chinatown. Plum Valley stands apart from many of the 70 or so restaurants packed into the area around Gerrard Street. It provides a bridge between traditional Cantonese dining – the mainstay of the district – and a more modern, upscale aesthetic. It’s a sleek, tranquil escape.
There’s something anarchic about deliberately spelling the name of your restaurant wrong – and somehow getting away with it. Kricket – a playful nod to the shared British and Indian cultural obsession with the sport – has grown up from its original Brixton pop-up inception in a shipping container. Visit their Soho outpost for a taste of modern Anglo-Indian cooking.
What an anomaly: in 14 years of reviewing restaurants, your author must have been to the Wolseley at least 14 times but has hitherto failed to review the venue. Oversight, or simply an inadvertent error? It’s sometimes easy to forget just how consistently good the Wolseley is, making dining look effortless ever since its opening in the early 2000s.
Impala is a rare beast, a restaurant like no other that utterly defies classification. Six months on from opening, it is still almost impossible to get a table at the venue – your reviewer had his finger on the buzzer the moment new slots became available – despite it boasting 90 covers. There is a frenetic energy about the restaurant. Think big, bold and buzzing as well as crazy, charming and chaotic.
A grotty side street close to the railway arches, with a working man’s pub and council block in spitting distance, is not where you would expect to find one version of culinary heaven. However, for those intrepid diners willing to venture into the Bermondsey district of southeast London, a mighty feast awaits. Spend time in Dom Carnivoro and you could almost imagine you were in Brazil.
Pollen Street is a small, pedestrianised road just to the south of Hanover Square. Many passers-by could miss it. Which would be a pity, since it houses a delightful restaurant called Chez Rose. On a sunny day, three tables allow guests to sit outside. Indoors, the vibe is classic French bistro with a few modern twists. Close your eyes and you could almost believe you were in France.
‘Beef and liberty’ is a very English idea (see William Hogarth’s painterly interpretation). It appears too in the logo of Hawksmoor, the successful steak chain that seems to go from strength to strength. The latest outpost of its London empire – the group has also started to conquer the rest of the country plus America and Ireland too – opened recently in the Renaissance Hotel at St Pancras. It’s very good.
For almost thirty years, the denizens of Little Venice had enjoyed eating at The Red Pepper, a classic Italian restaurant. While the venue had seen its ups and downs over this time, it remained a local institution, and nearly always busy. Many lamented (if not your reviewer, entirely) its closure last year, and so it was with some excitement that its successor, the Little Red Pepper, recently opened on the same site. It has the potential to become another favourite.
Istanbul has just nine restaurants with Michelin Stars, despite a population of almost 16m (the comparable stats for London are 84, for just over 9m people). Neolokal is one of this haloed group and could easily hold its own in any capital city around the world. Its success derives not just from its location, but the ability of chef Maskut Askar and his team to successfully meld the old with the new.
One key rule in marketing is that if you name something with a homophone then be prepared for the obvious jokes. Mour, a new Mediterranean restaurant, is not a homage to Moorish cuisine but an abbreviation of the street (Seymour) on which it is based. If its website is to be believed, “life is better with more.” Your reviewer agrees with this sentiment and did enjoy Mour but was left wanting – cue the inevitable punchline – more.
If restaurants were judged on names alone, then Paradise ought to win prizes. Located minutes from one of the most famous Victorian cemeteries, the resting place was immortalised in a 1927 GK Chesterton poem. In The Rolling Road, he declaimed “for there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen, before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.” Your reviewer was disappointed that there were not more fine things on offer at a recent visit to this W10 restaurant.
Not that your reviewer knew it at the time, but it seemed kind of fitting that DJ Seinfeld’s club classic “These Things Will Come To Be” was playing when he walked into Island on a recent evening. There is a lot to like Island, but there are also some major flaws. Island feels kind of stranded at present, in need of a more coherent gameplan.
Italy may not be in this summer’s football World Cup, but were there a similar competition for food, then the country would be a sure-fire championship contender. For everything that is great about Italian food, diners should visit Ida, a neighbourhood gem in northwest London. A trip to this venue is like stepping into a bona fide trattoria.
If restaurants are experiences more than merely meals, then Sibilla plays in the premier league. The approach tells you everything you need to know: perched on a hillside above the river Aniene, guests know that they are set for a show. Combine a stunning location with top-notch local cooking plus a comprehensive wine list and you have a winning formula.
Keep it simple and do it well is a mantra that more restaurants should follow. If Barrafina were not enough for fans of all things Spanish, then Parillan, from the same team, takes things to another level. There are few better outdoor spots to eat and drink, sit back and relax anywhere in London.
