The Chisou empire’s Great Portland Street outpost Of all the London restaurants to have closed in the past year or two, few have wounded me as much as the unexpected closure of Ten Ten Tei. That budget Soho restaurant wasn’t perfect. Aside from the iffy service, one of its chief sins was its smorgasbord menu … Continue reading
Farringdon Britalian is a mash-up in more ways than one Although there are Italian restaurants of every shape and variety in London for all budgets, it’s the expensive ones that I’ve always found most amusing. Along with French and Japanese, Italian restaurants can easily get away with charging high prices that would be harder for … Continue reading
The successor to Newman Street Tavern I rarely get upset when a restaurant closes, no matter how good it was. At the risk of sounding trite, nothing in this life lasts forever. Even so, I was mortified to hear that Newman Street Tavern, an elegant restaurant serving reliably well-crafted French-ish dishes, was closing to be replaced by a … Continue reading
Italian food from Wild Honey and Arbutus The Barbican Centre may be a supreme example of Brutalist architecture and a fine place to take in a film or exhibition, but it’s been a barren wasteland for food with branches of Benugo, Cote and other such dens of last resort as your only in-house dining choices up until … Continue reading
Bargain seafood in the West End – hallelujah! Update 12/3/15 – added extra tuna steak photo Seafood in London has a reputation for being expensive, but Rex and Mariano shows that it doesn’t have be like that. Created by some of the masterminds behind Burger and Lobster, Rex and Mariano uses a couple of sneaky tricks to … Continue reading
This review of a Rome restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage Seafood isn’t the first thing most people associate with Italian cuisine, if only because it doesn’t fit the stereotypes of Italian food deeply embedded in our collective consciousness – pizza, pasta and tiramisu. Seafood features prominently in many of Italy’s regional … Continue reading
This review of a Vienna restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage. The Sacher Hotel is perhaps the most famous of Vienna’s grand and opulent hotels if only for one thing – the Sachertorte. This chocolate sponge cake has a layer of apricot jam in the middle and the entire thing … Continue reading
Will I come back here thyme and thyme again? Much to Wicket’s horror I’m not a huge fan of Christmas. It’s not that I have anything against it, I just never got into the swing of celebrating a traditional Christmas with all the trimmings. Even so, I ended up having a Christmas dinner of sorts … Continue reading
This review of a Las Vegas restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage. Although famed French chef Joel Roebuchon has branches of L’Atelier in both London and Paris (among others), my first experience of his cooking wasn’t in either of those close-by locations, but in comparatively far-flung Las Vegas. Strictly speaking … Continue reading
Italian food to write home about For most people Italian restaurants fall into one of two clichéd ruts: pasta or pizza. There’s much more to Italian cuisine than what New Yorkers would call ‘red sauce’ food and even then there can be a world of difference if one dines at a quality restaurant instead of … Continue reading
