Drive 120 miles southwest of London and you reach the bucolic Somerset town of Bruton. With several top restaurants (including one Michelin-starred venue – Osip), it’s been a foodie destination for some time. For a taste of the region lazy Londoners can journey just to Mayfair. Farm Shop is a cool venue – both retail outlet and restaurant.
The Fat Badger: Magical mystery tour
A venue without either a formal entrance or a menu might not be everyone’s idea of a fun experience. But this is precisely the point. Create a mystery and you make things kind of cool. There’s a cachet value – you’re either in on it, or you’re not. Such is the zeitgeist of 2025 London. Overcome your prejudices and visit the Fat Badger. You will not be disappointed.
Seymour Kitchen: Pure Persian pleasure
Kindling: Simply steak
The Brighton dining scene seems to go from strength to strength. Kindling, open now for just over a year, is a worthy addition. Its frontage leaves nothing to the imagination, with the words ‘simply steak’ written just below the venue’s name. This, however, does Kindling a disservice. There’s more than meat on the menu and execution elevates the restaurant.
Mount Street Restaurant: Art gallery in a pub
If you want to lunch with Lucien or dine with Damian (Freud and Hirst respectively), then Mount Street Restaurant might be the place for you. Rumour has it that £50m worth of art hang on its walls. If only the kitchen produced food that was sufficiently exulted to match the quality of the paintings. Mount Street might look impressive, but the food felt to us like posh pub grub – at Mayfair prices.
Kotta Sushi: Gotta love Kotta
It would be easy enough to live in London and never know of the existence of Violet Hill. Once in this small district nestled between Maida Vale and St John’s Wood with a cute park, it would equally be quite possible to walk past Kotta Sushi without appreciating it. Your reviewer has lived in the area for over 25 years and yet a recent visit was his first. It won’t be his last.
Chewton Glen: Hot for Hampshire
There should be a lot to like about Chewton Glen. A 5-star hotel dominated by an 18th-century manor set in 130 acres of impressive grounds on the coastal side of the New Forest. The main room where guests dine is beautiful too – light-filled and spacious with a pleasant hum of atmosphere. Although a lovely experience, neither the food nor the service quite hit London standards – a curse that so often afflicts posh country hotels.
Freed from reviewing – almost
It started with a faint twitch, or nervous restlessness. There was an almost involuntary desire to pull out the phone and snap away. Your author even managed to resist the temptation to quiz the servers about what made their dishes special. As an (unintentional) experiment, Gourmand Gunno spent two consecutive nights in restaurants without a plan to review either.
Stairway to heaven: dining in Priorat
Carthusian monks were onto a good thing 900 years ago when they settled in Priorat. Located in the foothills of Catalonia, this remote region was the source of a monastery called Scala Dei. Translate the Latin to English and you get ‘stairway to heaven’, an apt metaphor for the dining delights of the area. A burgeoning boutique food and wine scene is underway in the region, as your reviewer and his comrades discovered on a recent trip.
Satyrio: Hidden gem, needs polishing
In a world where first impressions count, many diners might naturally be put off Satyrio. Not only could the exterior do with a face lift, but to get there, visitors must navigate liminal London. Located on Aldgate High Street, Satyrio feels like it neither quite swanky City nor trendy Shoreditch. Step inside, however, and there is a lot – even if not everything – to like about this venue.
Sagardi: Wasted potential
Your reviewer really wanted to like Sagardi. He has been visiting the Basque region for over 20 years, had one of his best meals of 2024 there and fell in love with Ibai when it opened in London last June. Fronted by a chef from the region and with other successful Sagardi branches around the world, there was so much to like on paper. Walk into the Shoreditch venue and you will be wowed on first impressions. We were let down though by both food and service.
Colaba: Well-sated, but poorly served
Every neighbourhood should have a good Indian restaurant. Colaba ought to be West Hampstead’s. Named after a district of Mumbai, its quality of cooking would put it close Dishoom. However, our quartet left Colaba feeling severely underwhelmed by its service. Improve this and the venue could be a local star.
Barrafina: A love story, still going strong
“Because it’s cooked with love” was the answer given by our garrulous host when asked what made Barrafina’s tortilla better than those of its rivals. Such a response may sound trite or flippant. However, it serves as a perfect expression for Barrafina’s cooking. 18 years’ on from when the first branch opened and now up to 5 outlets, it was abundantly evident to both your reviewer and his dining comrade on a recent visit to the Covent Garden site that this love story remains very much alive.
Kinsale and surrounds: a corking time in southwest Ireland
Colour is the first thing you notice when flying into Cork in Ireland’s south and then driving west. It’s like seeing forty shades of green, as our host for the weekend put it. Beyond the stunning countryside, there’s the coastline; the blue of the Atlantic that stretches from here across to America. The locals are rightly proud of the scenery. Working with and respecting both land and sea informs the approach to cooking in County Cork. The holy trinity of local, seasonable and sustainable features strongly. Almost all we ate was delicious too.
Schloss Roxburghe: Grand plans
There is oodles of potential at this luxury hotel close to the border between Scotland and England. Like many similarly styled venues, the somewhat pretentiously named Schloss (German for castle, if you were not aware – despite the venue’s lack of connections with the country) suffers in comparison with fine dining options in London. Its cuisine will also never show at its best when catering for large groups. But have no doubt, the setting is stunning and the recently installed Head Chef has grand plans.
Long Chim: Come try?
If eating out were like competitive sport, then it is certainly a statement of intent on the part of Long Chim to locate itself almost next door to Speedboat Bar. The latter is fronted by chef Luke Farrell and backed by the increasingly ubiquitous (and highly successful) JKS team. However, in the Long Chim corner stands David Thompson, a chef who has probably done more for Thai food in the UK than any other. While a city like London clearly does have room for both venues, diners only have so many pounds in their wallets and finite free evenings. Were it a direct competition, this reviewer knows where he would prefer to spend his money.
Nipotina: Gotta love Granny
Think of Nipotina as a homage to all things Italian, but spruced up for the Mayfair dining crowd, with prices to match. The restaurant is a class act, but only to be expected given the success of nearby dining venues Jamavar and Mimi Mei Fair, owned by the same group. At Nipotina, a chef from Turin is installed to prepare food with an emphasis on home-cooked classics, particularly from the south of the country.
Ambassadors Clubhouse: Club class
In an alternative world, imagine the London dining scene without JKS. The restaurant chain developed by the Sethi siblings has gifted the city with the likes of Gymkhana, Trishna, Brigadiers, BiBi, Hoppers and more. Diners’ knowledge of the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent would be much the poorer without their outlets. Despite its pretentious name, Ambassadors Clubhouse is a valuable addition to their suite of restaurants. In many ways, it represents the JKS team going back to its roots.
Mimi Belsize: Mayfair, maybe?
It is roughly three miles from Belsize Park, a comfortably wealthy north London suburb, to Mayfair. Or step out of one of the grand houses close to the euphemistic ‘Belsize Village’ square and you will find Mimi. More than a neighbourhood local, Mimi felt to this reviewer that it would be much happier in W1 than NW3. If glitz and glamour is what you want – without the central London hike – then Mimi is for you.
Thomas Pub-it: Among the best gastropubs in W1
Few may have heard of Thomas Cubitt, but many may have visited the mini pub chain that is named in his honour. For the unaware, the gentleman in question was a British master builder, renowned for developing much of the late Georgian and early Victorian architecture that defines London. Wind the clock on to the 21st Century and many of his buildings have been reincarnated as up-market pubs.