One key rule in marketing is that if you name something with a homophone then be prepared for the obvious jokes. Mour, a new Mediterranean restaurant, is not a homage to Moorish cuisine but an abbreviation of the street (Seymour) on which it is based. If its website is to be believed, “life is better with more.” Your reviewer agrees with this sentiment and did enjoy Mour but was left wanting – cue the inevitable punchline – more.
If restaurants were judged on names alone, then Paradise ought to win prizes. Located minutes from one of the most famous Victorian cemeteries, the resting place was immortalised in a 1927 GK Chesterton poem. In The Rolling Road, he declaimed “for there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen, before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.” Your reviewer was disappointed that there were not more fine things on offer at a recent visit to this W10 restaurant.
Not that your reviewer knew it at the time, but it seemed kind of fitting that DJ Seinfeld’s club classic “These Things Will Come To Be” was playing when he walked into Island on a recent evening. There is a lot to like Island, but there are also some major flaws. Island feels kind of stranded at present, in need of a more coherent gameplan.
Italy may not be in this summer’s football World Cup, but were there a similar competition for food, then the country would be a sure-fire championship contender. For everything that is great about Italian food, diners should visit Ida, a neighbourhood gem in northwest London. A trip to this venue is like stepping into a bona fide trattoria.
If restaurants are experiences more than merely meals, then Sibilla plays in the premier league. The approach tells you everything you need to know: perched on a hillside above the river Aniene, guests know that they are set for a show. Combine a stunning location with top-notch local cooking plus a comprehensive wine list and you have a winning formula.
Gourmand Gunno’s previous blog entry was penned just over 100 days ago, on 11 March, when the world was a very different place. Hopefully his next will occur in July. Read on for what Gourmand Gunno has both liked and lamented about the food scene over the last three months, encompassing everything from home cooking to home deliveries…
May 2014 seems like an age ago. In the world of restaurants, especially in London and all the more so in Soho, it is akin to a lifetime. Yet almost six years on from when the Palomar first opened its doors, the venue has lost none of its allure. If it was love at first sight back then, a recent visit reignited all the original passion.
Diners around the Charlotte Street/ Goodge Street nexus have an ample range of dining opportunities. Ampéli – open since January – does, however, bring something new. Eastern Mediterranean (a nice broad catch-all, encompassing everything from Italy to Israel) is definitively on-trend while Greek food and wine – Ampéli’s angle – is both overlooked and underappreciated.
The Ledbury has become a byword for fine dining in London, perhaps no surprise given that its doors have been open for 15 years and that it has held two Michelin stars for more than half this time. However, the world has moved on. While the Ledbury was once, arguably, in a class of its own, others can now match and even beat the venue at its game. …
Barrica offers a masterclass in sherry and tapas pairing . Similar to Bar Pepito, both venues share an ethos of trying to create an eating-drinking space that would not feel out of place in Spain. Barrica is a light and spacious as Pepito is dark and cramped (in a good way). In Barrica, take in the chequerboard floor, marbled counter and swinging jamons…
Themed restaurants rarely work. That’s the opinion of this reviewer. They just try too hard. The reality tends to be a disappointment; as the cliché goes, just as it’s hard to put lipstick on a pig, it’s equally difficult to assume that a cycling outlet can also work as a fully-fledged pizza restaurant…
Gourmand Gunno has been a regular traveller to and frequent advocate of Israel. There is much to love about the country and its food. The Coal Office, located in the Granary Square development behind King’s Cross, is the latest iteration of Israel’s potential and perhaps the venue in London that most faithfully captures the vibe of high-end dining outlets in Tel Aviv. Formal it is not, yet beneath the buzz, this is an incredibly slick operation.
Ask most people to come up with expressions they typically associate with Italy and you might find ‘good food’ and ‘chaotic organisation’ mentioned. It would, however, be relatively rare to see both used in the same sentence. As far as Norma – a new Italian venture is Fitzrovia is concerned – where it excelled in food, it failed in service.
That Anne-Sophie Pic’s London outpost has just received its second Michelin star speaks volumes. A visit here is undoubtedly an elevated dining experience which delivered across the board. It would be easy to feel awed – given the grand location (inside the Four Seasons Hotel, which itself is housed in the former London Port Authority building), much-garlanded chef and already mentioned stars – but, the prevailing impression is one of genuine welcome….
Want an antidote to power dining in Mayfair, but still an opportunity to enjoy incredibly high-quality food? Try Lucknow 49, the third Indian restaurant to have appeared on Maddox Street in as many years, but by far the most homely. The style of cooking is Awadhi, namely from the region of Lucknow in the north east of India, close to the Nepalese border. 49, more prosaically, refers to the street number
Visit the homepage of the Ivy and the word that stands out most strongly is ‘modern’, which prefixes the perhaps less glamorous ‘British restaurant’ descriptor. Sceptics might suggest a case of trying too hard, whereas a more generous interpretation would highlight that the success of this stalwart restaurant brand lies in its ongoing relevance. concept. A large group of us recently descended on the Soho branch of the ever-expanding empire and came away impressed by the execution if not outright wowed. ..
Say Four Seasons to anyone with knowledge of the hospitality industry and they will probably look longingly. For those unaware, this 90-strong hotel chain present in 39 countries has a well-deserved reputation for offering some of the best luxury experiences available. A recent event saw your reviewer have the fortune to visit the chain’s Hampshire venue, set on the edge of the New Forest in the village of Dogsmerfield…
With half a dozen restaurants and a similar number of books to his name, as well as a regular newspaper column, superstars in the culinary world don’t come much bigger than Yotam Ottolenghi. He has arguably done more to change eating habits in London over the last decade than any other figure, making the fusion of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food mainstream. Nopi, his relatively upscale Soho venture, hits all the spots in terms of both vibe and food.
Chandos Road, in Bristol’s Redland area, has become one of the city’s culinary destinations. Nearby Wilks boasts a Michelin star and I loved my visit to Wilsons last year. Boutique seems to be the unifying principle behind all these restaurants, working on the premise of small and intimate equals good. This is the angle pursued too by Otira, and while there were several notable positives, it was hard to escape the idea that its owners were perhaps simply just trying too hard. Thought of another way, if you asked most people – regardless of their culinary bent – what Argentinean tapas and rustic New Zealand cooking had in common – then the answer would probably be something along the lines of ‘very little.’ This hasn’t stopped the proprietors of Otira from trying to cram the above two concepts into one venue.
Germany has contributed many things to the modern world, but culinary impact is not one of them. While London has its own dedicated Austrian and Swiss restaurants, there is a certain irony attached to locating the city’s first dedicated German offering on the site of a former gym. Fine dining this ain’t. However, if it’s hearty comfort food you’re after, then the Gymnasium is the place to go.
