From a modest café that opened over a hundred years ago, to a Michelin-starred celebrity hang-out, the history of the Ivy has been both varied and colourful. The brand remains an enduring one in the culinary world despite having opened Ivy spin-offs across the country, in towns such as Guildford. Its most recent venture has been to create an Asian sub-brand. Trading partly on its name, the ethos at Ivy Asia is full-on decadence with decent enough food to match.
A visit to Horma Ondo is an experience. Take in the views, enjoy the food and wine. This is the sort of place where one could comfortably spend a whole day. It’s located in the hills outside Bilbao and easy to miss if one does not know the way. Fortunately my host was a local to the area and successfully navigated the winding road up to the venue. Once there, we relaxed and enjoyed the restaurant to the full.
Reviewers that see any restaurant describe itself as “eclectic” have good reason – often through bitter prior experience – to be sceptical. When your venue has an absurdly pretentious name and is located on an expensive street in Mayfair, then the trepidation should mount further. MiMi, named with yet more absurdity in homage to a fictional empress who travels across China, is however worth a visit. There is substance behind the show.
Kapara is big and bold, full of joy and exuberance. It serves as a wonderful reminder of the many good things about Israeli culture and constitutes a welcome addition to the London restaurant scene.
Legend, simply, would be the word to describe Dominque Crenn, the eponym behind this venue and its neighbouring Atelier Crenn. For those unfamiliar, she was the first female chef in the US to gain three Michelin Stars and currently commands a total of four. For those without the reservation skills or budget for her main restaurant, Bar Crenn – the one Star holder – is far from shabby.
Reviewers that see any restaurant describe itself as “eclectic” have good reason – often through bitter prior experience – to be sceptical. When your venue has an absurdly pretentious name and is located on an expensive street in Mayfair, then the trepidation should mount further. MiMi, named with yet more absurdity in homage to a fictional empress who travels across China, is however worth a visit. There is substance behind the show.
Brits have a well-known love for both curry and Chinese cuisine. What happens then, when you mix the two? India and China share a border and so some crossover must be inevitable. There has also been a long history of migration, with the Hakka of Canton having moved to Kolkata, bringing along with them many of their cooking techniques. It is this vein that Fatt Pundit happily taps into. Others should follow.
The restaurant trade is Darwinian. Only the fittest should survive. How Dim-t has endured for since the mid-2000s and expanded into a mini chain of half a dozen outlets is an absolute mystery to this reviewer. He and his dining comrade visited the Hampstead original and were mostly disappointed from start to finish.
Choosing a restaurant in London’s Chinatown is not for the faint-hearted. There are around 100 options within the space of just a few blocks. To the untrained eye, many look identical. Searching the Internet is may not help, since not all venues even have websites. Local knowledge can be advantageous. Feng Shui Inn was endorsed by a friend (whose family are also involved in the venture). It proved a worthy recommendation.
Diners who come to London’s Chinatown do not lack for options. There are over 100 places to eat within walking of the district’s famous Gerrard Street Gate. Baozilnn is not one of the best. Admittedly its flagship restaurant is located in London Bridge, but its Soho sister falls flat. In offering too many different things, it fails in producing memorable food in any area.
This is not your typical restaurant. It’s been open for over 40 years and it still does not have a menu. You turn up (reservations are recommended), tell the chef what you don’t want to eat, and Hunan will do the rest. Such was the joy of eating here and the culinary artistry on display, it is little surprise that Hunan is still going strong.
I’ve never been to Shanghai and did not live through the 1930s, but if Park Chinois is anything to go by, then it certainly would have been a wonderful period. This is the angle that this high-end Mayfair Chinese venue is going for. It’s full of old school charm; a sort of opulent decadence – albeit at prices not for the faint-hearted. Park Chinois was also so much better than I remembered it.
Many London venues serving Chinese food seem to be missing a trick. Nowhere does it say that dim sum should be all about just meat and fish. Even omnivores like vegetable-only offerings too. Fortunately, Phoenix Palace got the message. Plaudits to the venue for not just its food, but also the décor and overall experience.
If it’s authentic Chinese food your after, then Queensway is the place to come. Packed venues and queues snaking down the street speak to the popularity of the location. How to choose though from the plethora of options, many of which look – to the untrained eye – almost identical? In this case, a local’s recommendation paid off. Whether Goldmine is definitively better than some of its neighbours is hard to know, but is was certainly packed with atmosphere and delivered well on the culinary front
The regeneration of Paddington Basin in the last decade has been nothing short of remarkable, both in terms of newly developed office and residential space as well as multifarious eating options. By day, it is buzzing; on a Friday night, however, it was almost eerily quiet, particularly once the post-work drinking crowd had dissipated. We discovered this to our cost when we ended up being the last customers to leave Pearl Liang …
Times have changed. Twenty years ago, when I was first in London, in this venue men in pinstripes drank champagne while overlooking an ice rink. Now, the clientele is more diverse, the food multiple notches better, although the views more depressing. Hopefully the scaffolding surrounding much of the Broadgate complex will be gone once Crossrail is complete and then diners can get to appreciate better this outpost of Alan Yau’s ever-expanding empire. The impressive thing about Yauatcha is that its quality remains undiminished and remarkably consistent across branches
For as long as I’ve lived in London, Victoria is a place from which to catch trains and little else. Most of the time, the area resembles (as it does today) a building site. In other words, not somewhere one would consider coming for lunch. Things are admittedly changing, and for the better, but it was not to one of the newer places in the district to which I recently ventured, but instead to A Wong, a superb find worth seeking out.
Located a stone’s throw away from Chinatown and next door to the ever-popular Palomar, the ambitions of Xu (pronounced ‘shu’) are evident. Given that the team behind this venture also pioneered Gymkhana, Bao and Hoppers, expectations were high, but a recent lunchtime visit undoubtedly impressed. While perhaps somewhat lacking in atmosphere, the level of the food here was superlative.
Elephant & Castle is a depressing enough part of London to go to at the best of times. Exiting the underground station, the eye is confronted with an excess of cars and concrete. Those brave enough to navigate the roundabout can find themselves at Dragon Castle, a cavernous Chinese establishment that has been here for some time.
