Shikumen Dim Sum

MAY UPDATE: The blog post below was just from one meal, but unfortunately I do hear some bad feedback from my friends who went there. This restaurant appears to be inconsistent in their offering. I will update as I return but for now, don’t say…

B*A*M

Black Axe Mangal doesn’t really do kebabs in the way Mission Chinese Food doesn’t actually do Chinese food. Danny Bowien’s phantasmal not-quite-a-restaurant moved into swish new digs in the Lower East Side (NYC) last year and really has come a long way from its Mission…

Craft London Test Kitchen Tuesday

My first visit to Dock Kitchen was back in 2009, originally a pop-up that spun out from he and Joseph Trivelli’s (River Cafe head chef) Moveable Kitchen project. He was fresh off his River Cafe stint and was an early adopter of pop-ups, after MML,…

Parlour Chef’s Table

In 2014 I wrote about Jesse Dunford Wood’s fabulous Northwest London not quite a pub, not quite a restaurant which does remarkable porkchops, fantastic chilli arctic rolls and is one of the happiest places on Earth. It is quite rare to come across someone so…

Marianne

I do not usually get sentimental about forgetting to write up certain restaurants, but I have always felt guilty having never made space in my tiny corner of the internet for this lilliputian gem. You could say this entry is two years in the making,…

Piquet

The last time I savoured the most decorous pithevier in London was at Bistrot de Luxe. Slicing down the middle of the pie revealed a hot foie gras centre positioned in the bosom of juicily pink red-leg partridge. It gave me the biggest of hugs…

L’Arpège, Paris

I did wonder what words I could add to the millions already provided in better prose by better minds across the web. However such is the dream of eating Alain Passard cuisine that perhaps a couple thousand more wouldn’t hurt in this milestone year. The…

Takahashi

JUNE2016 UPDATE: 3rd visit, in-season Portuguese squid sliced into 3 very thin layers, stacked and nigiri. This is awesome. Katsuo tataki in tomato ponzu; and reflecting the season, house-made white peach ice cream with wakamomo. APRIL2016 UPDATE: On 2nd visit, I tried more of his…

Pitt Cue 2.0

I can’t remember when I was first at Pitt Cue’s southbank truck (searching my own twitter feed the conventional way is a near impossible task), but I do remember Jamie Berger introducing me to picklebacks – shooting whiskeys and chasing it with the briny pickleback…

Sosharu

This is the next in Jason’s ever growing Social empire that spans six cities, and is his seventh restaurant in London. I’m an Atherton fan, followed Jason since Maze days (been to all but City Social) and think his London restaurants are great. I don’t…

Sartoria

MAY 2016 UPDATE Saturday dinner, 1st week of May was not so successful. Great atmosphere however, but it seems Francesco is more patron than chef, even his front of house admit his appearance in Sartoria is a little random. This service was full, but kitchen…

The Palomar

The Palomar are coming up to their two year anniversary in May and I imagine the owners must be over the moon with their success thus far. They have amassed heaps of glowing praise, sweeping a number of ‘best of’ awards and sniping an empty…