Part of the beauty of the London dining scene is that there is a plethora of choice. Like the citizens of this city, there is huge diversity. However, the darker side of the city’s culinary dynamism is that it is relentlessly Darwinian: if you don’t get it right, you will fail. The statistics bear this out: some 50% of central London restaurants shut within a year of opening. I fear Ikoyi may be one of them.
Mere: A top experience (November 2017)
Bertha's Pizza: Keep it simple (November 2017)
Bristol has seen quite a redevelopment of its dockyard area in recent years and Bertha's comprises one of a group of relatively new dining outlets located just beyond the M-Shed. Decorated in bright hues, the place sets itself up as a fun, family-friendly sort of venue. Or at least this was our view. The menu, however, suggested a severe deviation from this proposition, so much so that even the adults struggled with some of the pizza options. Message to Bertha's: keep it simple...
Gogi: Gone downhill (November 2017)
When it opened in 2013, Gogi offered something different amid the rather staid Little Venice dining scene. Based on how busy the restaurant was on a recent Friday night when my comrade and I visited, Gogi must clearly still be doing something right. However, we could not help feeling that food standards had slipped, the place was poor value for money and the service little more than perfunctory.
Flavour Bastard: Eye-catching (November 2017)
It’s a pity that the first thing any diner will think when they encounter this restaurant almost certainly relates to its name. Sure, it’s pretty silly (but surely no worse than Sexy Fish?), but that’s half the point – it gets people talking; they’re curious about the place, maybe intrigued enough to go and discover what the buzz is all about. My comrade and I were impressed during our visit, and sufficiently so that I would return.
Brown’s at the Quay: Pigs and lipstick (October 2017)
Worcester, although picturesque with its cathedral and the majestic River Severn, does not offer a lot of fine dining options. To describe Brown’s (no relation to the chain, despite some disarming similarities) as such is perhaps over-generous. It certainly punches above its weight, and represents generally poor value for money.
A. Wong: Hard to go w(r)ong (October 2017)
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.
Roka Mayfair: Doesn’t rock for me (October 2017)
I first reviewed this branch of Roka not long after it opened in summer 2014. Since then, I have been back probably half-a-dozen times both for lunch and dinner, but on each occasion – and despite being willing to give the place the benefit of the doubt (again) – I have been disappointed. A recent weekday lunch did nothing to change my impression.
The Five Fields: Five Stars (September 2017)
Cubé: Maths gone wrong (September 2017)
Xu: Xuting out the lights (September 2017)
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.
Aline: Over-priced and underwhelming (August 2017)
The title says it all. The restaurant has few redeeming features and serves very average Middle Eastern food at a Mayfair mark-up. Service was among the most gauche I had witnessed recently. And, the lamp fittings are so badly designed that almost every customer in the place seemed to bang their head on them.
Neo Bistro: Modern dining (August 2017)
The prefix, ‘neo’ means new. Any restaurant, therefore, which chooses to put this word in its name comes with a certain set of expectations attached. Fortuitously, Neo Bistro deserves such epithet. A recent lunch visit to the second venture from the team behind Farringdon’s Anglo was highly successful, in terms of concept, food and service.
The Summerhouse: Canal-side dining – all year round (July 2017)
The Summerhouse has become a much-loved Little Venice/Maida Vale institution, busy all year despite its name, and an undoubted improvement on its predecessor, The Boat House. The main attraction here is the bucolic view of the Grand Union, its passing barges and waterfowl. On a sunny summer’s evening, it was a perfect place to wind down and relax
Mews of Mayfair: What’s not to like? (July 2017)
Jamavar: Food great; service not so impressive
Visit-one to Jamavar in March for a work lunch filled me with the belief that this could be among the best Indian restaurants in London. A second visit, on a recent Saturday night sampling the full tasting menu reinforced the notion that Jamavar has a lot of potential; but, our experience was let down by the service.
Kai: High-end, but worth it (July 2017)
Laksha Bay: When in Wapping (July 2017)
The word Wapping generally brings to mind either images of dastardly deeds in the docks of Victorian London or Rupert Murdoch’s destruction of the British newspaper industry, not a place for culinary surprises. Yet this is precisely what experienced when seeking an Indian meal after a mini pub crawl in the area.
Hawksmoor Borough: High standards maintained (July 2017)
The wonderful thing about Hawksmoor is its consistency – you know you are going to get a damned fine piece of steak. Borough is the fourth of the eight-branch chain I have visited (after Air Street, Gulidhall and Seven Dials) and the standards set on previous visits were more than adequately maintained here.
Ippudo: Ramen comes to London (July 2017)
Back in the early 2000s when I had the misfortune of working in Canary Wharf, it was a culinary graveyard, redeemed only by the fact that the West End was at least reachable in around fifteen minutes. Although the Wharf remains (to my mind) a thoroughly depressing place in which to work with woefully inadequate transport infrastructure, it is at least pleasing that the range of dining options seems markedly to have improved. Indeed, on each – increasingly rare – occasion I venture to the area, several new places are open. A recent visit to Ippudo, a newish Japanese outlet specialising in ramen impressed, location notwithstanding.