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Reviews

Sinking feeling: The furniture at Pearl Liang is reassuringly dysfunctional

Pearl Liang, 8 Sheldon Square, London W2

One restaurant group dominates the dim sum scene in London. Is Pearl Liang set to steal its crown?

Inside Reviews

The décor at Kitchen W8 is rather stark but it's all indefinably cool

Kitchen W8, 11-13 Abingdon Road, London W8

Saturday, 27 February 2010

I've been accused, once or twice, of being an unadventurous traveller. "Is there any danger of your reviewing a restaurant outside the immediate environs of south London," asked a recent, sarcastic email, "where, I understand, you were born, grew up and have always lived? Would you like to try somewhere further afield? Not outside London, obviously, since that might fatally disorientate you. But perhaps some other bit of the metropolis?"

Le Relais de Venise's interior features dull-maroon banquettes and a ghastly explosion of peach flowers at its centre

Le Relais de Venise 120 Marylebone Lane, London W1

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Once you’re in, it won’t take long to order at Le Relais – it’s steak or nothing. But is it worth queueing up for?

In the dining room, the high-end glamour gives way to a mini-canteen, arranged around an open kitchen, with pots and pans dangling overhead and a wall of chunky sawn-off logs

HUNter 486 at The Arch Hotel, 54-60 Great Cumberland Place, London W1

Saturday, 20 February 2010

Praising a hotel restaurant is like complimenting a fat person on their footwear; you focus on the positive, and try to ignore what's going on upstairs. No one actually wants to eat in a hotel, apart from residents who can't be bothered to put their coats on. Hence the proliferation of big-name chefs recruited to turn London's grand hotel dining rooms into destinations in their own right.

Hoxton hip: Conceptually, More is all over the map

More, 104 Tooley Street, London SE1

Sunday, 14 February 2010

Livebait and The Real Greek are now chains –but is it third time unlucky for the team's latest venture, More?

The Seafood Restaurant, Riverside, Padstow, Cornwall

Saturday, 13 February 2010

There's something about Rick Stein that doesn't irritate people as much as other TV cooks and celebrity chefs do. Perhaps it's his looks: that exiguous grey hair, the honest brow and the guileless smile conspire to make him resemble a trustworthy fishmonger. To dwellers of Padstow, he may have become too ubiquitous a presence – four restaurants, a delicatessen, a patisserie, a gift shop, a seafood cookery school and 40 hotel bedrooms make up his phenomenal gastronomic/catering empire – but he's managed to retain the image of a basically decent cove with a charming obsession about all things fishy and crustacean.

The restaurant is a deft mix of olde worlde and crisp newness - the original timbers have been teamed with subtle glass panelling, angular upholstered chairs and white-painted exposed brickwork

The Artichoke 9 Market Square, Old Amersham, Bucks

Sunday, 7 February 2010

It may be tucked away in an olde-worlde small town, but The Artichoke has the Michelin inspectors in its sights

The restaurant's high-ceilinged Georgian dining-room feels deluxe but quirky

21212, 3 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

Saturday, 6 February 2010

The mystery object, a crisp, greyish wafer dusted in sweet white powder, was passed back and forward between us. To our growing frustration, neither of us could identify it, though the taste was intense and maddeningly familiar. Could it be parsnip? Dried fish skin, possibly? Defeated, we asked the waiter for a formal ID. Of course! It was a Savoy cabbage leaf, dried and coated in vanilla sugar. If, as Shirley Conran claimed, life is too short to stuff a mushroom, what kind of maniac would want to subject a cabbage leaf to such treatment? And why?

Home help: Angela cooks up her Thai red curry in Toby's kitchen

An Angela at my table: Toby Young invites a local chef to cater a dinner party at his home

Sunday, 31 January 2010

The average UK temperature in the first week of January was -2.1 degrees, and things haven't improved that much since.

The décor is pale gold, while recessed ceiling lights fight with giant chandeliers and discreet side lights to create a dim and churchy atmosphere

The Bingham Restaurant, 61-63 Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey

Saturday, 30 January 2010

When it's freezing out and the Snow Queen seems to have parked a shard of ice in your heart, it's not the ideal time to consider the loveliness of the river terrace at the Bingham Hotel, Richmond.

The pale wood floor and tables, mushroom-coloured walls and beige upholstery don't betray the restaurant's ethnic origins

Tamada, 122 Boundary Road, London NW8

Saturday, 23 January 2010

Sunday lunchtime can be the loneliest time of the week for the exiled traveller, yearning for the comfort food of their distant homeland.

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