Globe-trotting ex-Palomar chef needs to settle down Fusion food is one of those misguided and blingtastically tacky relics of the 1980s that should’ve died long ago along with shoulder pads, the New Romantics and Thatcherism. Foley’s doesn’t serve fusion food, strictly speaking, but its menu does swagger across the globe pulling in ingredients and techniques from … Continue reading
Hirst and Hix light up Waterloo The food at most art gallery and museum in-house restaurants tends to be mediocre bordering on abysmal. Club sandwiches that you wouldn’t want to be seen dead with and Caesar salads almost as old as Rome itself are usually the order of the day. Pharmacy 2 shows that doesn’t … Continue reading
Steakhouse and pub all-in-one Update 19/7/21 – this restaurant has now closed The original Hill and Szrok is a butchers in Broadway Market that branched out into catering. Re-purposing its central marble slab into a communal table, the butcher turned into a self-described ‘cookshop’ at night. ‘Cookshops’ are apparently the Regency-era precursors to restaurants in … Continue reading
Red Alert! Update 10/5/18 – this restaurant has closed Thanks to restaurants, I now detest the word ‘concept’. In restaurant management and public relations speak, ‘concept’ generally refers to the restaurant’s overall feel from cuisine and service style to atmosphere. Unfortunately, the word has now, in many cases, devolved to simply mean ‘gimmick’. Far too many … Continue reading
Big and small plates of charcoal grilled and baked meat Brindisa is one of the older tapas mini-chains in London, having sprouted as an off-shoot of a Spanish goods import operation more than a decade ago. Perhaps because its existence is therefore taken for granted, it’s rarely spoken of in the same excitable or reverential tones … Continue reading
Bargain West End grilled meat The idea of a restaurant that serves just chops sounds startlingly modern, but it’s actually quite an old idea. London used to be covered in chophouses – restaurants that, from the late 17th century to the end of the 19th, catered exclusively to men and plied them with booze and cuts of meat. … Continue reading
It’s not as French as you think, nor as good as you’d hope It’s well known that media ownership in the UK is concentrated in the fat, gold-encrusted hands of an increasingly small group of notorious moguls, shadowy oligarchs and ex-porn barons. While restaurant ownership is far more diversified, in London at least, a similarly small … Continue reading
Peanut butter burgers and chocolate chilli bacon sides There are so many burger restaurants in London that it takes something special for one to stand out. Unfortunately for Bobo Social, it didn’t start out well and stood out for all the wrong reasons. While Bobo Social is attractive enough, the small two-floor restaurant fills up quickly, … Continue reading
Eat like a student on Stroud Green Road 121 Stroud Green Road has been a cursed address for eateries. Over the past three years or so, the site has been home to a caff, a noodle bar, a fried chicken take away joint and a Turkish restaurant (where I once spied one of the owners … Continue reading
Treading water or better than ever? When I first dined at Pizarro shortly after it opened in the autumn/winter of 2011, I noted a few niggling blemishes and hoped they’d be ironed out. After a longer delay than initially planned, I made a return visit on a weekend evening with Templeton Peck, Socialist Worker and … Continue reading
The Picky Glutton 
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