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.
Don’t break a winning formula is a useful principle. It’s one adhered to by the chefs at Honey & Co. Now in its second location (on Lambs Conduit Street, opposite Noble Rot), everything that made the original a success has been replicated here, in a larger and more grown-up setting. With the two owners hailing from Israel and having both worked under Yotam Ottolenghi during their careers, diners can rest assured that they will clearly be in good hands.
It’s rare for sceptical restaurant reviewers such as your author to be positively surprised by totally new culinary experiences. It’s even rarer for them to occur in a venue situated minutes from the British Museum in tourist-heavy central London that you could easily walk past without noticing. Abeno, which bills itself as “Europe’s original specialist okonomi-yaki restaurant” proves that you should not judge restaurants by either their location or exterior. Come visit and be positively surprised.
If the website of L’Oscar is to be believed, it is “a food lover’s lair.” On reading this, I reached for my dictionary and was reminded that lair means “a place where a wild animal, especially a fierce or dangerous one, lives” and alternatively, in Scotland, “a burial plot in a graveyard.” Neither is perhaps naturally associated with a dining venue. Sure, there was wild animal – in cooked form – to be consumed. Meanwhile, the combination of a low ceiling with oppressively dark lighting did bear some resemblance to a mausoleum. It’s hardly an enticement to dine.
The owners of the Rosewood Hotel seem – after several iterations – to have hit upon a winning formula for their restaurant. They have created an all-day brasserie of modern British classics with a few twists. It’s worked for years at the likes of the Wolseley or the more recently renovated the Ned. Similar to the latter, the Rosewood benefits from a glorious history and diners get to enjoy the spacious marble-pillared room which used to house Pearl Assurance…
