Kintan vs Jin Go Gae review – Japanese and Korean barbecue face-off
★★★★☆ / ★★★☆☆ / Barbecue/BBQ / Japanese / Korean

Kintan vs Jin Go Gae review – Japanese and Korean barbecue face-off

Chancery Lane vs New Malden Update 22/2/2015 – added extra comment about the weird booze at Jin Go Gae Every restaurant needs a hook (or, if you’re uncharitable, a gimmick) to stand out in London’s dizzying eating out market. Kintan claims to be the first Japanese barbecue (‘yakiniku-style’) restaurant in the capital. While technically true, as far … Continue reading

Il Sanlorenzo review – superb Rome seafood, shame about the service
★★★☆☆ / Seafood

Il Sanlorenzo review – superb Rome seafood, shame about the service

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

Antico Arco review – Rome fine dining near the Janiculum Hill
★★★★☆ / Italian / Modern European / Modernist

Antico Arco review – Rome fine dining near the Janiculum Hill

This review of a Rome restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage Londoners love to complain about The Big Smoke’s public transport and traffic congestion, but they haven’t seen anything until they’ve tried getting around Rome. The Eternal City’s minuscule metro and rail networks (minuscule for a major European capital at … Continue reading

Portland review – lamb tartare and pickled shiitake on Great Portland Street
★★★★☆ / Eclectic

Portland review – lamb tartare and pickled shiitake on Great Portland Street

Picture’s sleek new rival Coming up with restaurant names is not easy. With umpteeen restaurants opening a week in London, all the names that are both good and obvious have long been taken by now. But the guys behind Portland on Great Portland Street near the BBC’s Broadcasting House aren’t even trying. Given how its … Continue reading

Pipero al Rex review – quirky fine dining near Termini
★★★☆☆ / Italian / Modern European / Modernist

Pipero al Rex review – quirky fine dining near Termini

This review of a Rome restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage Restaurants named after their chefs, celebrity or otherwise, is pretty standard but a restaurant named after its sommelier/proprietor is a new one (for me at least). That’s the case at Pipero al Rex, Alessandro Pipero’s restaurant inside Rome’s Hotel Rex. The … Continue reading

All’oro review – glossy Rome fine dining
★★★☆☆ / Italian / Modern European / Modernist

All’oro review – glossy Rome fine dining

This review of a Rome restaurant is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage Update 19/2/15 – clarified language detail regarding Quandoo Love them or loath them, online restaurant reservation services such as OpenTable are now an integral part of London’s restaurant culture. This makes eating out in Rome seem all the more quixotic as … Continue reading

Hotbox review – the City barbecue miles better than Bodean’s
American / ★★★★★ / Barbecue/BBQ

Hotbox review – the City barbecue miles better than Bodean’s

Market stall BBQ settles down on Commercial Street Market stalls and street food tend to be underestimated and under-appreciated by many visitors to London. That’s their loss as street food vendors can often be far better than more established restaurants, as my group test of American-style barbecue eateries demonstrates. An increasing number of street food vendors are settling down in … Continue reading