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.
Zorita’s Kitchen: The trouble with tapas (December 2014)
Les Trois Garcons: Deliciously decadent (December 2014)
I first visited Les Trois Garcons when it opened around 15 years ago. I loved it then and I still love it now. Shoreditch has changed a lot during this time, but the evidently successful formula here has not. We all probably play the game – if you had a restaurant, how might you choose to furnish it?
Cut at 45 Park Lane: Business class (December 2014)
Goodman Mayfair: Good times (December 2014)
There is something deeply satisfying about eating a slab of meat. Admittedly it is not an experience one would want to do every day, but when doing, it is worth doing properly. There are indeed few better places to enjoy such a delight than at Goodman, although be warned, the experience does not come cheap.
Crocker’s Folly: Not worth the wait (December 2014)
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.
Maguro: Small, but beautifully formed (November 2014)
The Nobody Inn, Doddiscombleigh: Something for everybody (November 2014)
The Colony Grill Room: Not every restaurant can be a winner (October 2014)
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.
Chiltern Firehouse: Impressed (October 2014)
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.
Gauthier Soho: Impressed, but not wowed (September 2014)
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.
Kurobuta Marble Arch: On-trend, if not for all (September 2014)
It seems that if you want to attempt to ensure success in opening a London restaurant then there is a fairly simple formula to follow: you hire a chef formerly at a prestigious restaurant (in this case, Nobu); you offer pan-Asian fusion food; you make all the dishes obligatory for sharing; and you staff the place with trendy and good-looking people.
The Palomar: Every reason to go (August 2014)
As a seasoned London restaurant-goer, it is relatively rare, but nonetheless highly pleasurable, that when leaving an establishment after eating I was smiling from ear-to-ear, struggling to find enough superlatives to praise the place and thinking that I needed to make my next reservation as soon as possible.
Bombay Nights: Good local Indian (August 2014)
Bilbao Berria: Spanish success (August 2014)
The construction work blighting Regent Street meant that we missed the entrance to Bilbao Berria on our recent visit. It took two phone calls to the front desk to establish the exact location, and even then, the exterior is somewhat nondescript, located incongruously next to a branch of the ubiquitous Pret a Manger.