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.
Vibrant, charming, chaotic. Just some of the adjectives that might be used to describe Brazil. Your reviewer speaks from experience, having visited the country over half a dozen times. The words also constitute a perfect representation for the experience at Tia Maria, a Brazilian restaurant located in South London.
“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.
Hello, it’s 2022. Maybe Chutney Mary hasn’t realised. Maybe it’s stuck in time, still in the era when it had premises in Chelsea rather than now in St James. But back in 2015, there was this thing called the… er, internet. Yes, Chutney Mary does have a website, but it has to be one of the most clunky your reviewer has seen for some time. It doesn’t even show the restaurant’s current menu. This disappointment represents an appropriate metaphor for a recent evening spent at the venue. Chutney Mary has much to do if it wants to stay relevant.
Every neighbourhood needs one. The eponymous Vins has created a gem of a community restaurant, which – appropriately enough – has a superbly composed wine list as well as a kitchen that serves up solid grub. One thing the pandemic has taught us all to value is our local area. Why bother going in to central London if you live in Canonbury, when you can simply visit Vins?
Gourmand Gunno has eaten a lot of steak in his life. Despite being married to a vegetarian, there remains something deeply satisfying – primeval even – about tucking into a bit of cow. While diners do not lack options for such an experience in London, it was a pleasure recently to return to Goodman for the first time since before the pandemic. The cooking remains on top form, albeit that you are paying elevated Mayfair prices.
Curry may be the country’s national dish, but that message hasn’t reached the Maida Vale district of London. Despite your reviewer having lived locally for over 20 years, not a single Indian restaurant has either thrived or survived over this period. Chakra, a mini London chain, recently chose to open its fourth outlet in the area. It’s a brave restaurateur that seeks to succeed where others have failed. Based on a recent visit, Chakra may not endure.
When visiting a part of England not known to your reviewer, the natural response is to do some research beforehand. On this occasion, it involved asking several friends and colleagues who hailed from/ had visited the area. All were unequivocal in their approbation of the Gunton Arms, a view echoed by the local taxi driver who drove us to this destination. Fortunately, the advice paid off. If on the north Norfolk coast near Cromer, then this is the place to go.
When I first visited Coya, shortly after its opening close on a decade ago, I really did not like it. I thought it too bling, more style than substance. Bigger, bolder and brasher (think Sexy Fish, Amazonico) have come onto the London scene since. At the same time, Coya seems to have matured, with a much greater emphasis on honing both cooking and service. A recent visit served to demonstrate just how good the venue is.
The top floor of trendy department store Selfridges is seeking to transform itself into a dining destination. The elevation allows guests to see parts of London in a new light, with the Shard, London Eye and other landmarks just visible, even if there are moments where you have to remind yourself that you’re eating in what’s basically a glorified food court. Din Tai Fung is probably the best of the bunch of outlets currently open and represents a London showcase for this established food venture. I have not been to any of the group’s other 170 worldwide outlets, but if you’re after dumplings served by robots in London, then this is the place to come.
Founder chef Saransh Goila doesn’t lack ambition. Rather, he may be suffering from a case of severe hubris. Read his website and it boldly claims that he has turned butter chicken “into a religion” in India. Enter his first London outlet and the sign that greets diners asserts that they will receive “quite simply the best butter chicken in the world.” With the bar set so high, disappointment is inevitably the only outcome.
If anyone is going to make German food cool in Britain, then it would likely be the D&D group. Their German Gymnasium restaurant in London has become a deserved destination venue (last visited by this reviewer in December) built around the whole experience – building, food and ambience. They’ve recently taken the same formula to Bristol, where Klosterhaus represents a novel addition to the city’s burgeoning food scene.
A name such as the Pig and Butcher leaves little to the imagination; you know what you’re likely to get. We were impressed therefore to see not only an elevation and execution of all things meaty, but also delivery on dishes beyond the obvious. That the Pig and Butcher, an Islington gastropub, has been operating for a decade and was packed on the recent weeknight evening when we visited is testament to its success.
Fallow take-one was a pop in Heddon Street. Such was its success, that take-two saw the restaurant move to a larger (and more bling) premises just off Haymarket in the very centre of London. While it may have lost some of its original intimacy and vibe, none of the ethos underpinning the restaurant nor the quality of the offering has changed. If it’s modern (and sustainable) British food you’re after, then Fallow is the place.
Chef-patron Santiago Lastra’s KOL restaurant was one of the hottest dining tickets of 2021. It had opened in 2020 but owing to the pandemic, only truly got going in last year. Your reviewer dined there seven days after the Government permitted indoor meals to restart. He loved it so much that he sought to rebook for the full nine-course tasting menu in the evening. Once again, the pandemic intervened and he had to wait until a recent Saturday March finally to take his seat. In the interim, KOL has – justifiably – received a Michelin star. It is undoubtedly merited. For diners after a novel and memorable experience in London, KOL is the place to go.
We all probably have a somewhat idealised vision of what we our perfect neighbourhood restaurant ought to look like. 28 Church Row (its address as well as the restaurant’s name), located just off Hampstead’s main drag, is a strong candidate, offering generally comforting food in an intimate but relaxed setting.
Sidechick does for roasted chicken what Patty & Bun has done for burgers. It’s perhaps no coincidence that the site is next door to the original P&B and that the venues share the same backers. The reason for paying a visit is not just for the opportunity to enjoy high-quality roast chicken, but also to revel in a vibe that sets Sideckick apart from its peers (Humble Chicken and Nando’s) on the same block.
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.
New experiences are good for the soul. What better, from a culinary perspective, than enjoying a sarap lechon? Know your Filipino: ‘sarap’ means delicious and ‘lechon’ is pig. At this pop-up venue on the site of the former Fallow, lucky diners can enjoy a whole suckling pig. Yes, you read that correctly. There is, of course, a caveat: you need to order it two days in advance, require a group of at least six like-minded individuals, and need to stump up £295. It’s not too steep a hurdle to climb and it’s undoubtedly worth every penny.
Israeli food has become cool in recent years. Almost every middle-class household owns at least one cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi, while the Palomar has been a destination venue in London since its doors opened in 2014. Expectations are now markedly higher than a decade ago, and while Bala Baya did shows flashes of potential genius, it was left wanting in several areas.
