Ella Canta review – hotel restaurant brings modern Mexico to Mayfair
★★★☆☆ / Mexican

Ella Canta review – hotel restaurant brings modern Mexico to Mayfair

Mexico City celeb chef opens outpost in the badlands of Park Lane Update 27/8/2018 – corrected erroneous star rating in end-of-review summary If you’ve told me a few years ago that a Mexican restaurant, backed by famed chilango celeb chef Martha Ortiz, would open within the bowels of the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane then … Continue reading

Coal Rooms Peckham review – a train station restaurant that isn’t a dreary chain
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / Steak/chophouse

Coal Rooms Peckham review – a train station restaurant that isn’t a dreary chain

Plus a beast of a bacon sandwich Salvaging, reusing and repurposing old fittings and furnishings to adorn new restaurants is nothing new; it’s been an ongoing trend in the English-speaking world for at least a decade, if not more. Renovating old buildings, while judiciously paying homage to their original purpose, has received less attention but … 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

Sparrow review – eating out takes flight in Lewisham
★★★★☆ / Eclectic

Sparrow review – eating out takes flight in Lewisham

A southeast London restaurant worth getting excited about The idea that southeast London is a gastronomic desert bereft of anywhere good to eat out is a long-held canard. Although somewhat overstated, especially in boroughs with relative wealth and proximity to Zone 1, there is an element of truth to it. With the locals spending the … Continue reading

Kiln review – Smoking Goat sequel dazzles Soho in a different way
★★★★★ / Thai and Lao

Kiln review – Smoking Goat sequel dazzles Soho in a different way

Less of a sibling and more of a cousin Second acts are hard, whether you’re switching careers, releasing a second album or opening a follow-up restaurant. With the latter, the easiest ways forward is to copy the same template as the original or dilute your idea for a wider audience. Sometimes, second restaurants feel like … Continue reading

Café Monico review – vaguely French brasserie is less grand and more grandiosely shallow
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic / French

Café Monico review – vaguely French brasserie is less grand and more grandiosely shallow

Corbin and King have nothing to worry about Update 24/4/2021 – this restaurant has now closed What’s old is new again. This phrase comes to mind when witnessing the resurgence in appreciation of the grand French/continental-style brasseries that now crop up occasionally in London’s wealthier neighbourhoods. Once seen as fusty, the best of these brasseries … Continue reading

Foley’s review – a weird but not necessarily wonderful Fitzrovia restaurant
★★★☆☆ / Eclectic

Foley’s review – a weird but not necessarily wonderful Fitzrovia restaurant

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

Bukowski Grill Soho review – bandwagon burgers and barbecue
★★☆☆☆ / Barbecue/BBQ / Burgers

Bukowski Grill Soho review – bandwagon burgers and barbecue

A waste of Soho real estate Update 19/06/2020 – this restaurant has now closed I haven’t heard the name Bukowski Grill in years – not since my round up of London’s best non-chain burgers. The Shoreditch branch of Bukowski fared poorly in those burger stakes, so it was no surprise when superior burger purveyors expanded far more rapidly … Continue reading