Reviews

J Sheekey Oyster Bar, 28-32 St Martin’s Court, London WC2 (020-7240 2565)

Saturday, 14 March 2009

J Sheekey (the J is for Josef, the market stall-holder who in 1893 was graciously allowed by Lord Salisbury to sell fish and shellfish on his new manor of St Martin's Court, provided he served meals to Salisbury's theatre-going pals) is a legendary eating-house. I remember my mother pointing it out as a London landmark, along with Fuller's Cake Shop and Fortnum and Mason (this was the late Fifties, and food was clearly on her mind). I've always loved its solidity and class, even when it was getting down-at-heel in the 1980s. The mash carefully piped round the perimeter of your sea-bass was always the best mash. I once saw Anita Brookner lunching there with her agent, holding a cigarette in the same hand as her fork and taking puffs between mouthfuls: the epitome of ladylike decadence.

The corn supremacy: Piazza by Anthony

Sunday, 8 March 2009

Piazza by Anthony, The Corn Exchange, Call Lane, Leeds, tel: 0113 247 0995

The crunch bunch: More on-site bakeries

Sunday, 8 March 2009

Franco Manca, 4 Market Row, Electric Lane, Brixton, London SW9

Saturday, 7 March 2009

Like an unsigned band that scores a hit record, or an obscure artist nominated for the Turner Prize, Franco Manca has gone overground. This tiny artisan pizzeria in Brixton market, open only at lunchtimes and offering just six varieties of pizza and two wines, is under siege, following its victory in the "Best Cheap Eats" category of Time Out magazine's annual food and drink awards.

Franco Manca, 4 Market Row, Electric Lane, Brixton, London SW9

Saturday, 7 March 2009

Like an unsigned band that scores a hit record, or an obscure artist nominated for the Turner Prize, Franco Manca has gone overground. This tiny artisan pizzeria in Brixton market, open only at lunchtimes and offering just six varieties of pizza and two wines, is under siege, following its victory in the "Best Cheap Eats" category of Time Out magazine's annual food and drink awards.

Michelin star: Bibendum

Sunday, 1 March 2009

Bibendum, Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3, tel: 020 7581 5817

Crunch bunch: More blasts from the past

Sunday, 1 March 2009

The Old Bakery, 26-28 Burton Road, Lincoln

Saturday, 28 February 2009

I've heard from several people about the Old Bakery in Lincoln: they told me it has two Michelin stars, the most amazing fusion cooking, the most stunning early-Victorian dining room, the most elaborate cheeseboard, the prettiest waitress in The East, the longest waiting list for a table outside of El Bulli ... How foodies love to exaggerate. But with endorsements like these, I had to investigate.

Spoilt for choice: The Commander

Sunday, 22 February 2009

The Commander, 47 Hereford Road, London W2, tel: 020 7229 1503

Terroirs, 5 William IV Street, London WC2

Saturday, 21 February 2009

The flow of press releases announcing new restaurant openings has slowed to a trickle. Planned launches have been aborted before take-off, and roll-outs hastily rolled back in. As the recession bites, restaurants around Britain are closing their doors – around 100 in January alone, according to a recent report in The Independent – taking with them the pension plans of well-known figures such as Antony Worrall Thompson and Jean-Christophe Novelli. Even for an industry with a perennially high churn rate, these are turbulent times.

The crunch bunch: Restaurants with shops

Thursday, 19 February 2009

Daylesford Organic CaféDaylesford, near Kingham, Gloucestershire, tel: 01608 731 700The café attached to Britain’s most glamorous farm shop recently gained a Michelin Bib Gourmand award, making its fare even more popular Sonny’s94 Church Road, London SW13, tel: 020 8748 0393Recent face-lifts have breathed new life into this buzzy Mod Brit local and its well-stocked food shop next door, but both are as friendly and neighbourly as ever Carluccio’sQuakers Friars, Cabot Circus, Bristol, tel: 0117 933 8538There are now more than 40 Carluccio’s across Britain. This newcomer follows the formula of matching an easygoing Italian caffé with a well-stocked deli

A new reign: Terroirs

Sunday, 15 February 2009

Terroirs, 5 William IV Street, London WC2, tel: 020 7036 0660

The crunch bunch: More winning wine bars

Sunday, 15 February 2009

The Avalon, 16 Balham Hill, London SW12

Saturday, 14 February 2009

What do you want from your friendly neighbourhood gastropub? Striking the right balance between pub and gastro is a tricky business, like getting the correct proportions of gin and Cointreau in a White Lady. You can't afford to dispense entirely with the pints-and-pork-scratchings, pubby stuff, or your inherited clientele will totter uncertainly off elsewhere. But if you start offering pub customers "confit leg of venison" in a "star anise jus" for £13.50, you've got to ensure the quality matches the pretension.

Anyone for squacquerone?: Bocca di Lupo

Sunday, 8 February 2009

Bocca di Lupo, 12 Archer Street, London W1, tel: 020 7734 2223

The crunch bunch: Good-value trattorias

Sunday, 8 February 2009

The Lido, Oakfield Place, Clifton, Bristol

Saturday, 7 February 2009

The sunlight dances on the infinity pool, as a swimmer completes another lazy lap. At our table high over the water, we're sipping Macabeo and mopping up chilli-spiked clam broth with a hunk of thick-crusted bread, fresh from the wood-fired oven.

Diamond gyozas: HoSt

Sunday, 1 February 2009

HoSt, 31 Hope Street, Liverpool, tel: 0151 708 5831

The crunch bunch: More noodle nuggets

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Sushinho, 312-314 King's Road, London SW3

Saturday, 31 January 2009

Brazilian-Japanese fusion cuisine? No, I've never heard of it either. Pacific Rim cuisine, yes. French-Hawaiian cooking, sure. Anglo-Thai-Vietnamese, OK. But combining the food of Rio and Tokyo on the same menu seems bizarre. Brazil has given the world's restaurants enormous slabs of seared meat, cassava and a bean stew called feijoada in whose black depths disgusting porky intestines can be found lurking. Japan, by contrast, deals in sushi, sashimi, miso, tofu and soy, and emphasises subtlety and visual delicatesse in its toy dishes. The food cultures couldn't be more different. Yoking them together is like persuading Ronaldinho to consort with the comic-strip heroine from an anime film. But I'm told that Sao Paolo houses the largest Japanese population after Japan itself, that it's a century since the first immigrants arrived and that Liberdade (or Japan Town) is crammed with cleverly adapted sushi joints. Some form of mongrel cuisine has clearly become popular in the south American metropolis. What can it be like?

Fifty not out: Boundary Restaurant and Bar

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Boundary Restaurant and Bar, 2-4 Boundary Street, London E2, tel: 020 7729 1051

The crunch bunch: Restaurants with cafes

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Boundary, 2-4 Boundary Street, London E2

Saturday, 24 January 2009

Anyone looking for a neat illustration of the Two Britains would find the polarity starkly showcased in the Shoreditch area of east London. Just off Shoreditch High Street, where Brick Lane market peters out into a grungy warren of warehouses and strip pubs, are hidden some of the capital's most opulent palaces of entertainment.

A brasserie with bells on: Bob Bob Ricard

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Bob Bob Ricard, 1 Upper James Street, London W1

The crunch bunch: All-day breakfasts

Sunday, 18 January 2009