Macellaio RC Union Street review – the Italian steakhouse that can’t tear itself away from pizza
★★★☆☆ / Italian / Pizza / Steak/chophouse

Macellaio RC Union Street review – the Italian steakhouse that can’t tear itself away from pizza

‘What’s an Italian steakhouse?!’ The answer, of course, is a restaurant that serves steak cut from Italian cows. It’s a revealing response – pasta, pizza and pesto cast such a shadow over the perception of Italian food in our collective imagination, that anything else is literally inconceivable. If goldfish really do have a memory of just three seconds, then our gestalt intelligence is seemingly limited to just three things per subject. Continue reading

Mercato Metropolitano review – the Southwark street food hall trying to be everything to everyone
★★★★★ / ★★★★☆ / ★★★☆☆ / ★★☆☆☆ / ★☆☆☆☆ / Street food/food court

Mercato Metropolitano review – the Southwark street food hall trying to be everything to everyone

Halfway between Elephant & Castle and London Bridge, but nowhere in particular Updated 30/9/2019 – added reviews of new traders and updated the reviews of Badiani, Duman, Little Sicily and Turkish Garden Updated 16/4/2019 – added hyperlinked table of contents, corrected spelling and grammatical errors The weird thing about street food in London isn’t the … Continue reading

Pescheria Assunta review – there’s nothing at all fishy about the London branch of this Rome seafood restaurant
★★★☆☆ / Italian / Seafood

Pescheria Assunta review – there’s nothing at all fishy about the London branch of this Rome seafood restaurant

The Italian seafood restaurant that moved from Mayfair to Earl’s Court I had eaten my fill, but I was not satisfied. As the hapless staff flailed at even the most basic tasks, the feeling started to drain from my numbed backside and legs from sitting for so long, while my phone – my only bulwark … Continue reading

2018 can sod off – the restaurants London has lost and their next best replacements
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2018 can sod off – the restaurants London has lost and their next best replacements

Closure to the year in restaurants 2018 has been one hell of a year for restaurants in London. While plenty of new restaurants have opened, an alarmingly large number of restaurants have closed their doors forever. Much has been written elsewhere about the perfect storm of conditions that have led to this industry-wide reckoning, with … Continue reading

Sorella review – pivoting from one cuisine to another in hard times
★★★★☆ / Italian

Sorella review – pivoting from one cuisine to another in hard times

The Manor transforms into an Italian It’s tough times for restaurants with household names and independents alike having to close up shop all across the country. Skyrocketing business rates, a continuing staffing shortage, rising wages, intense competition (especially in London) and, in some cases, overaggressive expansion and impatient investors are all playing their part in … Continue reading

Magpie review – Modernist food served ‘Dim Sum’-style in Mayfair
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / Modern European / Modernist

Magpie review – Modernist food served ‘Dim Sum’-style in Mayfair

The Pidgin sequel takes flight but doesn’t quite soar Update 10/04/2019 – this restaurant is now closed I once wrote that it’s rare for a restaurant to relocate inwards from the suburbs to the centre of town, rather than other way around. Recent events are proving me wrong, showing that such a move (or sprouting … Continue reading

Blue’s Smokehouse Twickenham review – dire suburban barbecue fit only for meatheads
★★☆☆☆ / Barbecue/BBQ

Blue’s Smokehouse Twickenham review – dire suburban barbecue fit only for meatheads

The meal so bad, I had to apologise to my dining companion The cliché about the suburbs, especially those south of the river, is that there’s nowhere good to eat. That’s not quite true anymore, if it ever was, especially as London’s property crisis and the increasingly brutal restaurant market push more and more restaurateurs … Continue reading

The best and worst gelato in London – 109 scoops of Italian ice cream and 37 gelateria reviewed
★★★★★ / ★★★★☆ / ★★★☆☆ / ★★☆☆☆ / ★☆☆☆☆ / Best and Worst group tests / Italian

The best and worst gelato in London – 109 scoops of Italian ice cream and 37 gelateria reviewed

All gelato is ice cream, but not all ice cream is gelato Update 24/8/2016 – added Badiani review, updated some links and fixed one location error Update 13/9/2016 – added Urban Ice review, updated some links It’s easy to joke about the cold and wet English summer, but those jokes will be a fond, distant … Continue reading