British, Oxford
Alex Gunz
No.1 Ship Street: Shipshape

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.

No.1 Ship Street: Shipshape
British, Covent Garden
Alex Gunz
Rules: The discreet charm of enduring tradition

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.

Rules: The discreet charm of enduring tradition
Portuguese, City
Alex Gunz
Bar Douro: Saúde

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.

Bar Douro: Saúde
Chinese, Soho
Alex Gunz
Plum Valley: Plum choice

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.

Plum Valley: Plum choice
Indian, Soho
Alex Gunz
Kricket: Good sport

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.

Kricket: Good sport

Les Gourmets des Ternes: A tiny piece of France, transplanted to London (January 2015)

Maybe a few decades ago the French felt that they deservedly had the most bragging rights when it came to culinary superiority. Times have changed though. Japan can claim to have more three Michelin-starred restaurants than France and in London, ask many diners what style of cuisine they currently rate most highly, and – best guess – it won’t be French.

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The Sportsman: Good, but maybe not worth its star (December 2014)

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What does a restaurant or pub need to do in order to get a Michelin star? This was the question I mused as a group of five us set out for a recent lunch at the one-starred Sportsman near Whitstable. Since the Sportsman has had this accolade since 2008, it clearly must be doing something right.

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Zorita’s Kitchen: The trouble with tapas (December 2014)

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I love tapas; it is a wonderfully communal way of eating, where the food does not impinge of the conversation and diners can sample a range of dishes. Indeed the idea of sharing platters, long-favoured by the Spanish, has now become close to ubiquitous on the trendy London dining scene.

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Cut at 45 Park Lane: Business class (December 2014)

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There is always something profoundly depressing about restaurants in hotels. Even if they have their own separate entrances, the atmosphere often seems to be one of transience and impersonality. Cut at 45 Park Lane (which one is forced to enter through the eponymous hotel) is little different.

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Crocker’s Folly: Not worth the wait (December 2014)

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When I first moved to London 16 years’ ago, I was lucky to have as my local boozer Crocker’s Folly, a quite remarkable pub, decorated in a high Victorian style with much marble and mirrors. The ales were great, they had a lovely weekly pub quiz and average pub grub (for the late 90’s). 

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Ma Goa: Flavour explosion (December 2014)

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Ma Goa: Flavour explosion (December 2014)

Our annual Christmas gathering of university chums and partners saw us in Putney on the Saturday before Christmas with Ma Goa as the venue. Modern and trendy it may not be, but in terms of food quality, this restaurant definitely deserves to be up there, ranking among some of the tastiest Indian food recently sampled in London.

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The Colony Grill Room: Not every restaurant can be a winner (October 2014)

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The Colony Grill is the latest venture from Corbin & King, but certainly not their best. Just as this famous restaurant duo gave us their take on the grand European café with The Wolseley, on the French brasserie with Zédel and the Austrian experience with Fischer’s, here is their interpretation of the traditional Grill Room of the 1920s.

Number 22: Moving on up (October 2014)

Back with a new look and feel, Herne Hill’s Number 22 has the potential to become a well-established local favourite. Large windows, tastefully coloured walls (bold yellow in the back part of the restaurant, acts as a perfect foil to the light blue in the main part), a banquette around the left side and a beautifully tiled bar in the centre create an overall sense of warmth and welcome. 

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Gauthier Soho: Impressed, but not wowed (September 2014)

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Just minutes from the sex shops of Soho is not perhaps the most obvious place to site a high-end French fine dining restaurant. Diners enter Gauthier (eponymously named after the head chef) through a discrete black door on Romilly Street and find themselves amidst an oasis of calm, a notable contrast to the outside world.