Restaurants

There’s more to life than food, but not much more. Service is all-too-often overlooked. Truth is, service – alongside a number of other seemingly menial factors – can make or break an entire restaurant experience. No matter how outlandishly serene the food served by the latest highly-lauded chef on the block may be, the whole meal can be (and often is) ruined by zealously brusque, or just plain ignorant, waiting staff. Moreover, service that’s truly magnificent can make even the...

In the heart of the Square Mile, Farmer J adheres to growing demand for convenient, wholesome and affordable food. Providing ‘build your own field trays’, all produce is sourced from high welfare farms, predominately in the UK, with all food prepared each morning. Customers are provided with a field tray, each containing a grain, main, two sides and a sauce. These may include charred flank steak, roasted salmon fillets, or spicy harissa chicken that’s quick and easy to make at...

Contrary to little Britain’s modern-day shortcomings, London’s restaurant scene is something to be genuinely proud of. Forget Paris, forget Hong Kong, forget New York, even: it’s undeniable that our countless restaurants aren’t merely amongst some of the world’s most diverse, there’s genuinely something for everybody. Persistently seeking something new and exciting, the notion of generalised Chinese food, for instance, has become almost extinct amongst the city’s most food-obsessed. With so much focus on complexities and sincere authenticity, the whole prospect...

Of all London’s most accessible escapes - ‘daycations’, if you will - none are quite like Brighton. Less than two hours from St. Pancras (quicker by car), the illustrious seaside resort is as far-cry from so many of the UK’s dilapidated coastal towns best forgotten. It’s ‘Soho on Sea’, but with considerably less scooter-riding muggers. A creature of habit, I usually find myself eating at La Choza, a cozy Mexican restaurant, when in Brighton - or MEATliquor if I’m feeling...

It’s a brave soul that opens a new restaurant in Chinatown. Rental prices are notoriously expensive - around half a mill a year for a decent-sized place. How many meals do you have to serve just to cover those costs alone? So I arrived a Hot Pot for a pre-cinema meal hoping, for their own sake, it would be a success. The signs were good; ‘display eating’ has always been a popular choice of dining experience, from crêpes suzettes at...

It’s no secret that many of the world’s steakhouses are unashamedly masculine. Within such man caves of brawn and brew, men in their most pre-evolved state are an almost guaranteed fixture, coarsely yamming lavish cattle (nearly always Wagyu) washed down with the most expensive bottle of Merlot justifiable on the company credit card. It’s an old stereotype, but this tired notion of toxic masculinity is still showing no sign of wavering. At Macellaio RC, with four restaurants across London, the...

A BBQ restaurant has created a pizza with a difference - in a YORKSHIRE PUDDING. Rebels Smokehouse has created the combo after realising the traditional Yorkshire savoury provides a perfect base for the deep-sided Italian pizza-pie style dish. Owner Sean Singer said they were looking at nostalgic foods for their menu and were looking at the Chicago pizza when they had the tasty brainwave. Speaking from his restaurant in Beverley, East Yorks., Simon said: "I was working with co-owners Jason...

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.   Hoppers St. Christopher’s Place – Marylebone Following the resounding success of the Soho original, a new, larger Hoppers will launch this month. Opening in Marylebone, Hoppers St. Christopher’s Place will have space for 85, set across two floors, with a further outdoor space for 16. What’s more, the new restaurant is set to take bookings,...

Amorously known as ‘ladies’ finger’, you may be forgiven for believing that okra’s pet namesake is derived from a squalid woman who’d been rummaging around in the dirt of the vegetable patch - on discovering okra - in desperate search of something less assiduously unpleasant. I, for one, loathe okra. It’s less a matter of taste (which is has very little) but of emetic texture. When I recently voiced such angst on Twitter, the responses that followed were surprisingly less...