Restaurants

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food It’s no secret that we Brits are extremely proud of our tried and tested queuing system. While there’s no set rule or law that requires us to spend life forming an orderly queue, we’re somehow born with an innate desire to follow societal norms, with queuing being amongst the most popular, taking place multiple times on a daily basis. In many ways, the notion of queuing is magnificent: supermarket trips, for instance, are already...

Have you ever looked at the al a carte options in a restaurant and thought, “I could eat everything on the menu”? It is one of Trip Advisor’s most common reviews for its most lauded restaurants, and now Gilgamesh in Camden Town is offering its punters the option of doing just that. From Teriyaki Fillet of Beef to King Prawn Tempura, Beef Panang and Black Rice Risotto, groups over ten will have the option of receiving one of every item...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food 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. Som Saa – Aldgate Following the success of their pop-up in Peckham, the team behind Som Saa will open their first permanent restaurant this month. Taking over an old fabric warehouse on Commercial Street, the new restaurant will offer a menu comprised of Thai dishes, although featuring a more multi-regional focus...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Within central London, there are very few retreats from the ides of modern day city life. Spaces that feel as though they’re not within zones one or two on the tube map, and places that aren’t inhumanely busy at even the most unsociable hours. However, one of those very few spaces is Shad Thames - an area of the Southbank between Tower Bridge and the Rotherhithe Tunnel that houses a number of old warehouse...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Originally opened as a pop-up in Chelsea, Kurobuta is the brainchild of Australian chef Scott Hallsworth, showcasing his obsession with Japanese food. And since the initial setup, the pop-up has become permanent and is joined by another restaurant near Marble Arch, followed by another which opened at the end of last year – joining the likes of Yo! Sushi, Burger & Lobster, and Polpo - taking over a sizeable portion of the fifth floor...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food In recent years, mostly thanks to a seemingly endless stream of single-menu restaurant openings – lobster has become extremely popular in London, and relatively accessible. Once reserved almost exclusively for flaunting wealth and ordering the most expensive single dish on a restaurant’s menu just in order to appear sophisticated and knowledgeable. Now it’s 2016 and there are countless establishments that offer whole, equitably sized lobsters for less than £20. The newfound availability is brilliant,...

By James Walker I had a date – a rare occasion for a guy that looks like a bargain bucket Damian Lewis. How did I decide to impress her? By taking to her to a restaurant that happened to be renowned for its queues. I’m not opposed to queueing. I’ve queued for far less than the Taiwanese street food served at BAO: a Pizza Hut, train tickets and urinals. But I usually have the comfort of waiting indoors. We spent...

Private Members Club. Three words often translated as: inaccessible, aloof and affected. Add ‘in London’ and it’s as good as an outstretched hand held vertically in front of your face. So, when I was invited for lunch at Blacks - a PMC in Soho, no less - my first thought was to check the dress code online, assuming I’d need to visit a long-forgotten area of my wardrobe for suitably smart attire. But, aside from a well-buried, ambiguous mention of ‘an...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food If some sort of culinary prohibition were introduced, limiting each national cuisine to be served only within its own motherland and thus forbidding any nation to serve even the slightest morsel of foreign food - would you choose to stay in Britain? It’s a question I’m asked surprisingly often, and my answer always ventures along the lines of applying for an ID card and boarding the first one way 12-hour flight to Tokyo. Yes,...