Restaurants

As far as dinner is concerned, there are few things more comforting than a high-quality steak, generously seasoned and cooked to absolute perfection. Though when eating out, the choice of ordering a steak is generally considered boring, and generally best left to the most unadventurous of diners. When reviewing restaurants, dishes that sound either ridiculously enthusing, or those that seem just plain ridiculous are generally encouraged - and when fraught with so much choice, steak can be very rarely placed...

It’s often believed that expensive cuts of meat are superior to the often overlooked cheaper cuts available. However, in almost every case, it is the cooking process that’s the most important when meat is concerned. A well cooked piece of offal with almost always taste better than a badly cooked expensive slab of flesh, with a pork dish from Kensington’s Launceston Place acting as a fine example. Tucked away on a street of the same name, the Michelin-starred Launceston Place...

You can always spot a good hotel by how many amenities it provides. Bars of chocolate that sit adjacent to espresso coffee machines, rolled towel/ waterbottle combinations that greet you in the gym and a plethora of bathroom items that lay invitingly across from the in-built bathroom TV can transform a hotel from simply providing a bed in a room to being a haven of ultimate tranquillity. The Arch, a boutique hotel in the heart of London, certainly qualifies in the...

Just a couple of years ago, the notion of opening a successful, trendy café off the main drag of Balham High Road would have perhaps seemed unthinkable to anybody without a SW12 postcode. Yet what with nearby Brixton unexpectedly becoming the place to eat, with Clapham not far behind, it was only a matter of time before the surrounding areas would begin to follow suit. Set up by three friends and launched earlier this year, Brother Marcus is stylised as...

Before you get excited, Poke (pronounced “poe-kay”) and the multiple Poke Bars that have sprung up in London of late have absolutely nothing to do with Pokémon Go. Instead of serving slivers of pan-fried Pikachu or mock Squirtle soup, places like Mayfair’s Black Roe Poke Bar and Grill specialise in the Hawaiian dish traditionally consisting of raw fish - generally ahi tuna - served on a bed of short-grained rice. Opened in March, Black Roe is the latest venture from...

  Once home to Turnmills, world famous nightclub, the corner of Clerkenwell Road and Turnmill Street has, this year, seen the launch of to two brand new restaurants opening upon the site. The first, Sosharu, is the latest venture from Jason Atherton, heavily inspired by Japanese Izakayas, and in June Albion opened next door. Following successful openings in both Shoreditch and Bankside, this is the third outpost of the joint venture between Sir Terence Conran, Peter Prescott and Isabelle Chatel...

Generally speaking, I’ve never been a great fan of tasting menus. It’s less of a problem with the sheer quantity of courses served, than it is with the chef’s decision to commonly present an array of gratuitously pretentious dishes. All too often this leads to spending three hours (or more) sycophantically congratulating the kitchen staff and pretending to enjoy outrageous flavour combinations like white chocolate and raw sturgeon or foie gras and marshmallow. Combinations that have never worked, and surely...

We're all aware that wine is generally regarded as the ideal drink when it comes to accompanying food, yet in recent years a new contender has risen to prominence, with so many restaurants now offering specific beers paired alongside dishes, as well as (or sometimes instead of) wine pairing. Of course, food and beer have always been close friends, yet it is only more recently that so many of London’s restaurants other than a select few of London’s absolute finest,...

With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, here’s our pick of the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month. Dirty Bones – Shoreditch With two successful restaurants already operating on the other side of the city (one in Kensington, and the other in Soho), the team behind Dirty Bones are set to open a third site this month. Taking over a Grade II listed heritage building at the Shoreditch end of Bethnal Green Road, alike the...