Restaurants

Even the absolute best food isn’t necessarily memorable, all of the time. Yet food that does standout as being memorable, is not always remembered for the right reasons. A combination of the two, however, is an extraordinarily rare occurrence. From hundreds of dishes sampled over the past two years, less than half of my top ten most memorable dishes have been particularly desirable. Most, in fact, have been so deplorable, so utterly grotesque they’re borderline offensive. At the top of...

Have you ever robbed a casino? No, nor have I. But after visiting the Heliot Steakhouse at The Hippodrome, I found the outstanding value enough to make most anyone feel like a member of the Rat Pack in Oceans 11. Quite honestly, I had my doubts about the restaurant before visiting. Although having heard nothing but praise, my partisan preconceptions of the place included an unsavoury concoction of Leicester Square, men in polyester suits vaunting their wealth while supping dry...

With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, we pick the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month. Lupins - Southwark Named after the English garden flower, Lupins is the latest project from Lucy Pedder and Natasha Cooke – set to open this month in Flat Iron Square near London Bridge. Having previously worked together in the kitchen of Medlar in Chelsea, The Sand’s End, and having opened The Cross Keys together in 2015 –...

By Maggie Majstrova, @foodstrova The London food scene is ever-changing, with restaurants focusing on one food type having become a popular choice over the last year or so. Alas, this choice introduces added pressure: if you decide to keep your menu simple, punters will inevitably expect (or at least hope) each item will be cooked to perfection. Part of Whitebread PLC, owners of Premier Inn and Costa Coffee, Bar + Block Steakhouse on York Way is one of these restaurants....

Every year as the great British summer begins to draw to a close millions of people descend on Notting Hill to embrace its vibrant Caribbean heritage in Europe's biggest street party. Amongst the vibrant costumes and traditional dances two facets that are guaranteed to pull big crowds is the carnival atmosphere and plethora of West Indian food on offer - but you don't have to wait until August to get a taste of that. Founded by Jamaican Josh De Lisser and...

Regardless of the fact that Jamie Oliver was instrumental in making my generation’s school dinner’s inexplicably bleak, I’ve always respected the chef’s devil-may-care approach to cooking. Still, I’d trade all of the champagne and caviar in the world for just one last turkey Twizzler, no matter how disgusting they really were, on reflection. When he The Naked Chef was first broadcast, almost 20 years ago, I was too young to understand the appeal. But when I first began to cook...

Operating from a site towards the Regent’s Park end of Great Titchfield Street, Mac & Wild’s first bricks and mortar site is possibly the most honest restaurant I’ve ever visited. Stylised as a Scottish restaurant but without any gimmicky tartan check, bagpipes or tam o’ shanter caps, Mac & Wild has a prominent focus on game meats (sourced from Ardgay Game, run by the restaurant founder Andy Waugh’s Father and Brother), and serves enough whisky to wash an elephant. And...

Have you ever been to a high-rise restaurant so bad, so incomprehensibly grim, that you’ve genuinely considered jumping from the top floor, if only to spite them? Madison, owned by D&D London, is a rooftop restaurant and bar on the top of the One New Change shopping centre in the heart of the city, boasting astonishing views of nearby St Paul’s Cathedral. It is less of a restaurant than a place to grab an after work drink and bite to...

In a similar vein to Marco Pierre White, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey – Marcus Wareing has become a TV chef personality whose equal parts loved and loathed. Over the past three years, the chef has perhaps become best known as the second toughest judge on MasterChef: The Professionals, but he’s also the name behind three London restaurants. At one end of the spectrum, Marcus at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge is the chef’s two Michelin-starred mother ship, offering one of...