Whisper it rather than shout it, and certainly don’t tell everyone, but something very exciting is happening in the Gredos region of Spain. Drive two hours northwest from Madrid, where diners lack no shortage of plush restaurants, to encounter a truly different experience. Three days in the region left your reviewer and his group of five dining comrades swooning for both more of its food and wine.
From its name onwards, there is knowing coolness, a certain intentionality to what COR is seeking to achieve. It’s a place to watch in an upcoming district of Bristol. And if COR is seeking to ape what is arguably the best restaurant in England (Clare Smyth’s Core in plush Kensington, London), then why not? The team at Michelin have already awarded COR a Bib Gourmand; stars may beckon.
Just moments from Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, central train station and main shopping street, diners can imagine themselves transported to Spain. Parador 44 is a wonderfully conceived venture, set up by an enterprising couple of brothers. Visitors can sip sherry, eat top Basque-influenced nosh and then sleep upstairs in a handful of boutique hotel rooms. There is every reason to do all three.
It was not the most auspicious of starts. When my dining comrade and I descended on Bellazul it was pouring with rain. We arrived soaked. Welcome to England in April. It’s about as far from the Mediterranean as one could imagine. Open only for two months, Bellazul has the laudable intention of transporting diners to the sunnier climes of southern Europe. The venture is well-intentioned but does not totally succeed.
If New Quebec Street in Marylebone were my local high street, then I would be delighted. Luckily it is close to where your reviewer both lives and works. Zayna has been a long-standing favourite for curry. There’s also a great wine shop, a fishmonger and more. In addition, Boxcar is located on this street. Open since 2017, Gourmand Gunno corrected a long-standing anomaly by visiting it recently. Billed as a ‘neighbourhood restaurant’, it certainly constitutes a wonderful addition to the street, for both food and vibe.
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.
It is hard not to fall in love with the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, a landmark of Gothic Revival and High Victorian architecture. First opened in 1873 as the Midland Grand, the hotel received a new lease of life in 2011. The main dining room – now in its second iteration since the hotel’s reopening – is worth a visit, both for the décor and the food, even if atmosphere is a bit harder to come by.
The Pontcanna district of Cardiff is where it’s at when it comes to fine dining. Thomas represents a classy offering by former MasterChef star, Tom Simmons. His angle is a simple one: take classic British and French cuisine and give it a Welsh twist. Based on the quality of the output, Thomas would merit a Michelin star, but it won’t get one until it ups its service game.
Your reviewer has lived in the environs of St John’s Wood all his adult life. He has walked past Oslo Court many times. It’s an imposing Grade II listed block of flats opposite Regent’s Park. Prior to this week he had never entered. Inside sits an eponymous restaurant that has been open for over 40 years. Step inside and it is as if the clock were wound back. You’re happily in the early 1980s, albeit now paying 2023 prices.
Way back, in 2018, your reviewer and his dining comrade were privileged to eat at The Greenhouse. This was a gem of a restaurant that commanded two Michelin stars throughout its existence. Now sadly shuttered, that meal was particularly memorable owing to the quality of the cooking from a young chef named Alex Dilling. British born, but having trained in New York under Alain Ducasse and other luminaries, he seemed to be a talent to watch. It is now fitting that he fronts the recently opened new restaurant at the Hotel Café Royal. Within its first year, Dilling has again the award he deserves – two Michelin stars.
From cult magazine to mini restaurant chain in the space of a decade is an impressive achievement. Noble Rot – the term relates to the natural decay on some vines that allow for sweet wine to be produced – started out writing about the wine industry. Recently, it opened its third restaurant venue. Visiting, however, is not just about partaking in a glass or two. There is good food and a top ambience to enjoy.
When your reviewer was at primary school many years ago, he was told to avoid using the adjective ‘nice’ whenever possible, since it was a bland filler. We were instructed to try harder. If you’re launching a restaurant and even if you wish to show homage to a major city in the south of France, just don’t put the word nice in your name. It also opens the way for reviews titled “not so.” My hackles were therefore raised from the outset. Much of the crowd dining there (showy, glitzy, with their fast cars parked very nearby) didn’t do it for me either, but the overall experience was… pretty nice.
Say German cuisine to most people and the image that will likely form is one of sausage, served with some form of dense starch, either bread or potatoes. Say fine German dining and you might get a wry smile, raised eyebrows or the suggestion that you’re talking wurst (as the locals would say). Consult the Michelin guide though, and what it shows is that Germany commands ten restaurants with three Michelin stars, a comparable number to the UK (eight), given its larger population. Our group was lucky enough to visit Schanz, one of Germany’s most-garlanded restaurants, last week. We came away mostly wowed.
Step into Socca and you can almost kid yourself you might be in the Mediterranean. Sure, no expense has been spared at this venue (as is evidenced by its prices), but it is testament to the team that they have been able to create a warming vibe at Socca, from décor to ambience via its food. Think of Socca as an updated take on La Petite Maison, taking the culinary genius of Claude Bosi and the design aesthetic of Samyukta Nair (Koyn, Jamavar etc.). It has all the hallmarks of a Mayfair classic in the making.
In restaurant circles it would be a fair question to ask: having been the youngest chef ever to be awarded two Michelin stars (at the age of 26), where do you go from here? The career of Tom Aikens has certainly not been short of adventure. What diners can experience at Muse is a chef – now in his 50s – clearly having fun and being willing to push boundaries, even if overall execution was not always perfect
My last visit to The Bleeding Heart was around a decade ago. Much has changed in London in the ensuing period. However, at this venue, it is almost like being in a time warp. Wind the clock back to 2012, or even 2002/ 1992 and I doubt the experience would have been much different. Maybe there is something reassuring about old school French cooking in times of turbulence. Think of dining here as a rebuff to the modern zeitgeist. We loved the service and the wine, although the food left something to be desired.
“Excellent cooking, worth a detour” – the Michelin Guide’s criteria for the awarding of two stars – does Lalique a disservice. If there are good restaurants and then exceptional ones, Lalique comfortably falls into the latter category. Our group of six thought we had done well on a recent jaunt to the Bordeaux region having endured the prior hardships of two different private dining experiences at top Chateaux (Beychevelle and Palmer) – both of which would be worth a detour – but Lalique took things to a whole new level.
The bartender who made the Martinis with which we began our recent experience at Mere provided the perfect metaphor for the evening. The venue’s vodka or gin base of quinoa makes for an interesting talking point, but the assembly of the drink stressed aiming for a comfortable middle ground. In Mere’s view, Martini should be made neither too dry nor too wet. Put another way, Mere is full of good intention but never did quite enough to make the evening truly memorable or outstanding.
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.
Dining experiences do not come much better than Sketch. One almost struggles for sufficient superlatives. My dining comrade and I spent over four hours in the beautiful Grade II* Georgian townhouse which houses the venue on a recent Saturday night and felt wowed throughout. Since our previous visit in February 2019, Sketch’s fine dining room (where we spent the majority of our time) has gained a third Michelin star, making it one of only seven restaurants in the UK to hold such an honour. Success certainly hasn’t gone to its head, however. There remains the same winning combination of panache, exuberance and class.
The shoes of the Gay Hussar are big ones in which to step. Noble Rot’s second venture, located on the same site as this former London establishment, nonetheless do the job admirably. Homage to the Hussar is evident, from the artistic triptych of Soho life that adorns one wall on the first floor dining room through to a few original menu items that remain, albeit somewhat reinterpreted. After the success of their original Fitzrovia venture, the Noble Rot team have imposed their clear stamp in Soho.
With travel to Paris still problematic, what to do if you want old school French grub? Even if it has a certain charm of its own, Mayfair’s Shepherds Market will never be the Rive Gauche, but Le Boudin Blanc gives you a little taste of what being in France could be like. The restaurant is a Mayfair establishment, having been open for almost 30 years…
Sollip promised so much on paper. Sadly the reality was markedly different. At least our experience was memorable. In eight years of regularly writing on restaurants, Sollip achieved something no other venue had previously done: straight after his meal, your reviewer went to another restaurant for a second dinner – for he had been left wanting by Sollip, in every sense of the term.
