Hide

LONDON “Quietly, however, without fanfare, the food at HIDE shines through, and it becomes apparent that the size of the restaurant, and the depths of the cellar, are details that will be quickly brushed past in the many, inevitable word of mouth retellings. Through the courses of raw tuna with prickly ash and Exmoor caviar,…

The Guide: Florence

FLORENCE, ITALY Florentines like to live life slowly and plentifully. To travel and wander through Florence, you naturally adopt the mindset of “dolce de far niente”. Amongst the abundant beauty that is there to absorb in the cobbled streets and the delicious whiffs of pasta sauces and coffee brewing, life progresses according to a leisurely…

Osteria Francescana

MODENA, ITALY “Cooking is the only way I know to bring the best of the past into the future. If traditions are put under glass, they stagnate, It is hard to stay one step ahead of nostalgia, but it is important to find that critical distance, to keep moving forward even when you are looking…

Cub

LONDON “A luxury sustainable drinks-led dining experience” dressed up as a breezy diner with an open bar-kitchen and sunny yellow banquettes. Scratch the surface and you’ll discover a many-layered restaurant project into which you can go as deep as you dare. Forgotten, unloved and underappreciated ingredients get restaurant-ready in the name of sustainability. Sounds goody-goody, but pleasure…

Pollen Street Social

LONDON “The restaurant where it all started for Jason Atherton when he went solo. Top quality British produce lies at the heart of the menu and the innovative dishes are prepared with great care and no little skill. The room has plenty of buzz, helped along by the ‘dessert bar’ and views of the kitchen…

A Wong

LONDON “A modern Chinese restaurant with a buzzy ground floor and a sexy basement. The talented eponymous chef reinvents classic Cantonese dishes using creative, modern techniques; retaining the essence of a dish, whilst adding an impressive lightness and intensity of flavour. Service is keen, as are the prices.” – Michelin Guide Cuisine: Chinese Star: *…

Margaux

LONDON France and Italy are the primary influences at this modern bistro, where classics feature alongside more unusual dishes. The wine list provides a good choice of varietals and the ersatz industrial look is downtown Manhattan. – Michelin Guide  Cuisine: European Vibes: This little cozy gem is just around the corner of my house and…

Duddell’s

LONDON “Two Michelin-starred Hong Kong spot Duddell’s has announced it’ll be opening its first ever branch in the UK.The new restaurant is in London Bridge’s St Thomas Church. There, they’ll be serving up the dim sum and Cantonese food with a modern twist that earned them their stripes in Hong Kong. At the helm will be…

Social Eating House

LONDON There’s something of a Brooklyn vibe to this Jason Atherton restaurant, with its bare brick and raw plastered walls and its speakeasy bar upstairs. It’s great fun, very busy and gloriously unstuffy; the menu is an eminently good read, with the best dishes being the simplest ones. – Michelin Guide Cuisine: Contemporary European Vibes:…

Xu

LONDON The second restaurant from the trio behind chic, minimalist Bao in Soho (which still has queues every night of the week) was always going to be an exciting affair. While other Chinatown shopfronts clamour for attention with red and gold and a parade of waving Lucky Cats, Xu’s inky-black façade is an exercise in…

Clipstone

LONDON Merlin Labron-Johnson’s first gig as head chef earned him a Michelin star within months of Portland opening. A year later and, alongside Quality Chop House’s Will Lander and Daniel Morgenthau, he’s creating a buzz with a second chilled-out neighbourhood restaurant. Clipstone is unfussy – stripped-back but not bare – with an open kitchen staffed…

Palomar

LONDON Pulse-quickening dance music, free-flowing drink, vibrantly flavoured dishes. These are commonplace enough in Israel’s fashionable restaurants, which are filled with beautiful people partying as if tomorrow may never come. London’s Jewish restaurants couldn’t be a bigger contrast. Many of them are still too worthy, too dull, or stuck in a kosher past that doesn’t…