Restaurants

Eccentric, but warm and welcoming - Oslo is housed within Hackney Central’s redeveloped railway station building. Built in 1870 by the North London Railway Company, the two-storey building serves as not only a restaurant, but a bar and event space, hosting regular gigs throughout the week. The décor, which I am told draws on Nordic aesthetic, is somewhat moody with exposed bricks, dark wood table tops and interesting lamps . But it’s also cosy, with large windows and a lovely...

After London, Venice has quickly become my favourite European city. Compact, charming and boundlessly beautiful – with its picturesque vistas, compendium of canals and Italo-Byzantine architecture. Ignore the American tourist complaints of “this damn curb ain’t wide enough” or “what’s with all these goddamn tourists?”; avoid being fleeced for €80 to ride a gondola around the canals – and it’s almost impossible to avoid swooning over the city’s serene pulchritude. And so, it’s hardly surprising that restaurateur Russell Norman is...

Until recently, Leicester Square’s only redeeming assets were the Heliot at The Hippodrome Casino’s reasonably-priced steaks, or Burger King’s magical soft drinks dispenser – spilling various drinks we know and love but in outlandish, unfamiliar flavours. The rest of the square remained a toxic wasteland of woefully bad restaurants, the dreaded M&M shop and what’s perhaps London’s most overpriced cinema. On the edge of the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hampshire Hotel, Leicester Square Kitchen is the third restaurant from the group...

Peruvian food is big business in London, with so many Latin American restaurants and ceviche bars constantly launching within the capital. Since opening Ceviche in Soho, in 2012, Peruvian DJ-turned-restaurateur Martin Morales now has a four-strong portfolio of restaurants with strong Peruvian leanings. Morales is also the author of two cookbooks, with a brand new Andina recipe book published this month. On the corner of fashionable Redchurch Street and Shoreditch High Street, Andina (Morales’ second restaurant) opened at the end...

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.   Breddos Kingly Street – Soho Following the rapturous success of Breddos’ first bricks and mortar restaurant in Clerkenwell, a second will open in Kingly Street on 7th October, with a three-day soft launch period offering 50 per-cent off food. In partnership with Ennismore, the new taquerias is bigger than double the size of the original,...

While the best restaurant names were being handed out, I’d imagine Flavour Bastard (along with Sexy Fish and now renamed Pussey Liquor in East Dulwich) must have been taking a cigarette break. Since opening in Soho just under two months ago, Flavour Bastard has received a mixed reception, to say the least. Before visiting, I’d already (wrongly) gathered an idea of what the place would be like. But no matter how easy it may seem, it’s never okay to judge...

While being herded like cattle through Gatwick airport recently, one member of a particularly raucous stag weekend roared: “England – the only country with queues longer than the entire flight home.” Like the birth right to complain about literally everything, and to make terrible decisions at the Polling Station; queuing is so ingrained into our culture and every day lives, it’s almost as British as the Monarchy, the ‘stiff upper lip’, or wholly unnecessary apologies. To use the most well-mannered...

From the onset, I must admit I’ve never felt the need to visit a restaurant in the middle of the night. A bit of a traditionalist, perhaps; I feel night time is meant for sleeping, although admittedly, I have been partial to a midnight snack. VQ in Aldgate is by no means the first restaurant to offer 24-hour dining options, but its location on the ground floor of the Dorsett City Hotel does lend itself to extended dining hours. The...

Have you ever been to a restaurant so frightfully chic that it manages to justify dropping crucial vowels from its name, as well as charging double-figures for bowls of pulverised avocado? Sandwiched between a superfluous designer clothes shop and an Aston Martin “brand experience boutique”, MNKY HSE stands out on Dover Street - resembling a seedy nightclub owned by Peter Stringfellow, from outside. Blacked-out windows are placated with a brass monkey-shaped door knocker, plus a sounder of clip-board wielding security...