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Cocktails in the City at The Four Sisters Townhouse
I’ve never worked in the City, but I remember going out there many years ago with Gibson, because it was a good halfway point between my office in London Bridge and hers in Farringdon. Heading back a...
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A taste of Smith and Wollensky at the Adelphi Bar
I’ve never been to New York, but I’ve known of the great American steakhouse Smith & Wollensky ever since I read American Psycho many years ago. As a discerning psychopath, wealthy protagonist...
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Buns that wow at Mr Bao
I first tried the bao at the eponymous Soho restaurant a couple of months ago after a few false starts that invariably ended in a cry of, ‘Bugger this for a game of soliders, let’s go to the pub!’ I’m...
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A bottomless bargain in Mayfair: brunch at Mercante
After nearly 100 years, the Sheraton Park Lane has just had a massive, massive refurbishment, doing over all 303 of its rooms and spawning two new restaurants. Carla and I were invited to try Mercante,...
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Sundays at Quaglino’s: bottomless fizz and one of London’s best roasts
“There are a lot of girls in here,” said Mike, suspiciously, as though I’d tricked him into becoming the next human sacrifice at an Ann Summers party, or militant lesbian rally. Clearly, he hadn’t yet...
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Goodnight, Islington! A last supper at The Booking Office
Our time in Islington ended last week, so before Christmas Mike and I went for dinner at The Booking Office at the recently renovated St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel at King’s Cross. (Yes, I know...
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Tacos and smoked meat at trendy Temper
“You know a trend is on its way out,” mused Laura, “When you start seeing them being sold in Pod.” We were talking about London’s now relatively long-standing craze for Taiwanese steamed buns, whose...
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Bin off Dry January with Vinoteca’s extraordinary wine deals
London is a city obsessed with food trends. If you’re a gentleman or lady about town and you eat out a bit, you’ll know all about that, even though we all secretly know that the concept of fashionable...
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A Basque brunch at Eneko
The problem with being a thrice-Michelin starred chef is that, naturally, everyone assumes that everything with your name attached to it will be the absolute best thing they’ve ever eaten. I imagine...
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Bottomless champagne at The Balcon’s luxury brunch
After the most excruciatingly tedious and prematurely middle-aged Saturday of our lives – cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs and installing a wine rack – Mike and I popped into town with the...
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Drinking in the dark with Pitch Black
It took us awhile to find the secret location of No Such Place, the venue for the evening’s entertainment. We’d just had a nice dinner at Polpo with some friends (order the meatballs), and now it was...
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Pie in the sky at Bokan, Canary Wharf
I’ve always thought that if Leicester Square is London’s bumhole and Victoria its armpit – albeit a recently groomed, freshly deodorised one, in light of its recent reno – then Canary Wharf is its...
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All style and no substance at Jikoni, Marylebone
I arrived early to meet Lou and Rosie for dinner at Jikoni, ravenously hungry and riddled with the saddle sores I’d acquired from my new cycling regime. After nearly three months of living in Stratford...
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Fast, good and cheap: L’Atelier de Joel Rubuchon’s new Michelin-starred...
The Squash. The Beef. The Tart. It read like a haiku from a Post-Modernist remake of Beauty and the Beast, but it was, in fact, my lunch. Or more accurately, my L’unch. (The apostrophe is silent, by...
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A new kind of ‘cue at Smokestak, Shoreditch
The other day I was listening to the radio and on came a track by Taking Back Sunday, which was one of my favourite bands as a teenager. As moody adolescents my little chums and I had re-appropriated...
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It’s all good and right at Goode & Wright, Notting Hill
Everyone should eat out on a Monday. Now that the nice weather is threatening to banish fleece-lined pyjamas to the back of the wardrobe for the foreseeable, Fridays don’t need any more glory. On a...
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Evasion: get quick or spy trying
I’m always raving on to my mates about City Dash, the urban wide game that involves running around London solving clues and running away from guards. It’s the sort of silly fun that takes you back to...
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Fine dining on a shoestring: Ormer with Bookatable
I’ll eat my socks if Ormer Mayfair doesn’t win a Michelin star this year. The sister restaurant to Shaun Rankin’s highly-decorated original in Jersey launched only nine months ago, but it’s enjoyed...
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Basement beats, bubbles and brunch at Hanger SW6
Once upon a time steak was the thing you ordered on your birthday and/or when someone else was paying, because a big hunk ‘o beef was – and still is, in many places – the most expensive thing on the...
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Flurries of flavour at Foley’s, Fitzrovia
A client once told me in a Paris bar that if you order an Old Fashioned, you’ll always have the respect of the barman. “Sod the barman,” I said, inwardly, because they were a client after all. “If I’m...
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