It started with a faint twitch, or nervous restlessness. There was an almost involuntary desire to pull out the phone and snap away. Your author even managed to resist the temptation to quiz the servers about what made their dishes special. As an (unintentional) experiment, Gourmand Gunno spent two consecutive nights in restaurants without a plan to review either.
Carthusian monks were onto a good thing 900 years ago when they settled in Priorat. Located in the foothills of Catalonia, this remote region was the source of a monastery called Scala Dei. Translate the Latin to English and you get ‘stairway to heaven’, an apt metaphor for the dining delights of the area. A burgeoning boutique food and wine scene is underway in the region, as your reviewer and his comrades discovered on a recent trip.
In a world where first impressions count, many diners might naturally be put off Satyrio. Not only could the exterior do with a face lift, but to get there, visitors must navigate liminal London. Located on Aldgate High Street, Satyrio feels like it neither quite swanky City nor trendy Shoreditch. Step inside, however, and there is a lot – even if not everything – to like about this venue.
Your reviewer really wanted to like Sagardi. He has been visiting the Basque region for over 20 years, had one of his best meals of 2024 there and fell in love with Ibai when it opened in London last June. Fronted by a chef from the region and with other successful Sagardi branches around the world, there was so much to like on paper. Walk into the Shoreditch venue and you will be wowed on first impressions. We were let down though by both food and service.
Every neighbourhood should have a good Indian restaurant. Colaba ought to be West Hampstead’s. Named after a district of Mumbai, its quality of cooking would put it close Dishoom. However, our quartet left Colaba feeling severely underwhelmed by its service. Improve this and the venue could be a local star.
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.
It has become almost de rigeur for every tall building in the City of London to provide a dining experience on one of its higher floors. The claim of 14 Hills, that it offers “unapparelled” views of London, is perhaps hyperbole. Fortuitously, there is more to enjoy at this venue than just the views. 14 Hills delivers very solid if not quite ground-breaking cuisine at a reasonable price point.
How seriously can you take any restaurant that claims to take guests “on a sensory journey along the Amazon river and through Latin America?” You certainly can’t fault Amazonico for its desire to make a splash on the London dining scene. My recent visit there was everything I expected: big on bling and pricing at Mayfair levels. However, you get what you pay for and the quality of the cooking surprised positively to the upside…
One year on from my previous visit to Core and the venue goes from strength to strength. The quiet confidence exhibited by Clare Smyth and her team remains firmly intact and certainly not disrupted by the pandemic. Certainly if you want to be treated, then there are few better places currently to visit in London that rival Core…
The joy of new discovery – or serendipity – is one of life’s pleasures. So it was with Kolamba, a newish restaurant serving Sri Lankan food on the edge of Soho. Maybe no coincidence, but Sri Lanka was, of course, once known as Serendip. The premise behind Sri Lankan cuisine is a harmonious merger of sweet, savoury and sour flavours. It’s mostly executed very well here.
Restaurant venues which seek to twin food cultures rarely work. They speak of concept or novelty rather than underlying culinary ability or inspiration. Despite my inherent scepticism, Tokyo Pizza – the restaurant’s name gives one a pretty clear indication of what to expect – is perhaps onto something. The principle here is certainly a great one: take the much-loved Italian dough base and then top it with Japanese-influenced ingredients...
The Taka concept here is to take classic Japanese cooking principles and marry them with locally sourced British ingredients. A more cynical interpretation might be that it’s trying to appeal to as broad a target market as possible. The décor feels distinctly Japanese but the vibe is more London if you actually focus on what you’re eating, then it’s mostly pretty damned good....
Tradition and heritage are all well and good, but just because something worked in 1851 doesn’t mean it still will in 2020. It is therefore highly reassuring to see Scott’s continuing to deliver. It may have come a long way from its roots as an oyster warehouse, while the restaurant proper has migrated upwards from Haymarket to Mayfair, but the title of this review says it all: Scott’s, arguably, does the best fish in London.
For those who can’t or don’t want to get on a plane and head to Nice at present, Nice can come to you. Since its opening in 2007, La Petite Maison has been doing just one thing: serving consistently good Mediterranean food. Neither the credit crisis nor COVID has stopped it in its tracks. You won’t eat cheaply here, but you will undoubtedly eat well.
In many ways, Jikoni is the perfect place to go for a meal in these strange times. Consider that the restaurant’s name means ‘kitchen’ in Swahili. The emphasis is – and always has been – on informality; almost as if one were stepping into the proprietor’s kitchen. There are no airs and graces here. The principle of style over substance is almost inverted at Jikoni – an appropriate mindset, perhaps, for the COVID-19 world…
Hush represented a great place to begin the experiment of dining in the COVID-19 era. The venue remains a well-kept secret, tucked away in a discreet Mayfair courtyard. It was mostly business as normal at the restaurant. Hush has been around for over 20 years simply because it has continued to deliver consistently good - even if far from ground-breaking - food….
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. …
