Restaurants

Modern Indian food is in vogue. While Mayfair has reached saturation point, with a ratio of almost one Indian fine dining restaurant per local resident, surrounding areas such as Soho and Marylebone are thriving with more casual restaurants celebrating Indian and South Asian cooking (Kricket, Hoppers, Tamarind Kitchen). Bridging the gap between the two, a second branch of Hankies opened within the Montcalm Hotel near Marble Arch earlier this year, taking over Nirvana Kitchen’s former site. While Hankies’ original London...

Through the opulent lobby and down a spiral staircase - behind a seedy bar with low lighting and a floor-to-ceiling palette of red – The Curry Room is hidden beneath the The Rubens at The Palace hotel. Following a multi-million-pound refurbishment, the hotel now boasts upgraded rooms and guest areas, plus a complete dining overhaul. Alongside the aforementioned Cavalry Bar, The English Grill offers fine dining, while The Curry Room is the hotel’s latest restaurant opening, launched earlier this year....

I should come clean. Although I’m a particular fan of the cuisine - no stranger to jerk chicken and plantain chips are one of my favourite snacks - I am by no means a connoisseur of Caribbean food. This can, perhaps, be attributed to  spending the past 16 years  living on what’s arguably the wrong side of London in terms of  access to any exceptional Caribbean food hotspots.   And so, as we make the short walk from Finsbury Park...

This month, Chinese New Year celebrations will take place across the globe, celebrating the arrival of a new Lunar Year – Year of the Dog. Falling on Friday 16th February, many Chinese New Year celebrations will continue into the weekend, with plenty of official celebrations taking place in central London on Sunday February 18th (including an annual parade). Naturally, food is a huge part of Chinese New Year, with many Chinese and East Asian families using the time to cook...

The dining room interior at Flour & Grape is very Zone 6. It might even be satellite town suburban. There’s lots of uncool brickwork and cagey metal, low-hanging orangey glow lights and amongst it all are locals. Some of them may be a little more well-heeled than those you find in, say, Woking, but they’re locals nonetheless. All this pleases me greatly. I am very Zone 6 on account of having been born in it, and very suburban satellite town...

A stone’s throw from Smithfield Market, two of London’s most outstanding Michelin starred restaurants (St. JOHN and Club Gascon) exist and thrive within this often overlooked part of Central London: especially so far as eating out is concerned. I’ve recently reported on the boredom that can - and often does – accompany fine dining. Yes, the statement is one of those infuriating #firstworldproblems; but that not the point. The problem lies with all high-end restaurants (particularly the 60 restaurants in...

Saturday evening was frustrating. After a glass of wine in my local while I read the papers – the Times magazine was especially good that day – I conceived an almost overwhelming desire for a curry. I don’t often get food cravings, and my appetite, despite my rotundity, is small, but when I do they are powerful. Not to worry. I have recently moved to Clapham, and I knew there to be two good curry houses on the Northcote Road....

Pasta is big business in London restaurants at the moment, and it’s hardly surprising. Across the pond, many restaurants are employing a fast-casual approach to pasta. Del Posto chef Mark Ladner opened Pasta Flyer, a fast-casual pasta restaurant, in New York last year; joining Casa Barilla in California and Grass in Portland, Oregon, amongst others. Closer to home, a number of Italian trattoria-styled restaurants primarily dedicated to pasta have opened in London, also adopting an unequivocally casual approach. During 2016,...

With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, we pick London’s best new restaurant openings taking place over the coming month.   Jidori – Covent Garden Following the success of their Dalston restaurant of the same name, Natalie Lee-Joe and Brett Redman will open Jidori in Covent Garden this month, taking over a premises on Catherine Street. Like the Dalston restaurant, the new Jidori will have a prominent focus on Japanese yakitori, extending the original menu with...