There was quite the kerfuffle on Instagram when Jackson Boxer took to social to announce that his much-loved Notting Hill restaurant Orasay was going to close at the end of 2024. "There are a multitude of reasons for this," the chef and restaurateur said, "but the simplest one is that Orasay was never a very lucrative business. We specialised in working with a fragile and elusive product
...There are plenty of restaurant operators who like to keep all their businesses close to each other - think Tom Kerridge in Marlow or Rick Stein in Cornwall. Now, up in North London, popular pub landlord Heath Ball is hoping to follow in their footsteps. Heath owns the super-popular (and our own personal favourite drinking hole) the Red Lion & Sun in Highgate, but has just taken on a new pub less than 200 yards
...It's one of the most highly-rated sushi restaurants in London. But when Endo at the Rotunda reopens next month following a five-month closure for refurbishment there are going to be some key changes you need to know about.
The first is that it's going to be even harder to get a reservation. Before there were seats for 11 guests up at the omakase counter. Now that it's been reduced in size to increase intimacy between the
...Updated 28/2/24 with the opening date
Jeremy King is about to have a very busy 2024. The well-known restaurateur who opened The Wolseley, The Delaunay, Brasserie Zedel is opening three restaurants this year and the first of them is something of a remake - as he's taken over the old Le Caprice site in St James. He can't actually call it by its previous name (after all, Caring may be bringing Le Caprice back),
...15/11/23 - updated with more details about the opening
Well, this is a blast from the past. Five years after closing its overly ornate doors in Camden, the pan-Asian restaurant Gilgamesh is being reincarnated in a new site in Covent Garden.
When the original opened, it was the biggest restaurant in London (with one of the world's longest bars) that cost millions to build. It
...Back in March, along with the closure of sibling businesses Bright and Noble Fine Liquor, the super popular Clapton wine bar P Franco closed its doors for what, we all thought, was for good.
But the team behind the bar weren't going down without a fight and the bar's manager William Gee started a
...Update 8/5/23
We couldn't be more pleased to be able to update this story with the best news - L'Escargot's closure has indeed been temporary. Bookings are reopening for late May, a fact that's going to please so many people.
We have to say there were a lot of naysayers who believed that this - and we use the term advisedly - iconic London restaurant had closed its doors for good. Three months
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It's been closed for nine months after a fire last July but now Jun Tanaka's The Ninth is getting ready to make a comeback (cue Rocky music).
While the look of the restaurant will apparently be "reassuringly familiar", we're told that they've taken the opportunity to freshen things up a bit with new leather banquettes, new tableware and new bathrooms (always
...Last year popular Smithfield haunt Lino made the announcement that they were closing their doors permanently. The pandemic, successive lockdowns and an unsupportive landlord did for them, despite positive reviews in both the Guardian and ...
In the same month we lost one of London's oldest restaurants (fingers crossed that's only temporary) it's good to hear that another of London's eighteenth century hostelries is being resurrected.
The Bleeding Heart Wine Bar's doors have been closed since the pandemic. And faint hearts
...The Connaught Grill may have originally opened two years ago, but few Londoners will have had a chance to dine there given that lockdown began just weeks after the newest restaurant at The Connaught had unveiled its luxe interior. Now, the restaurant has reopened giving you all the chance to check it out.
If you're looking for it, you need to find the hidden away hall at the back of the lobby which leads to
...Updated 7/2/22 with reopening date and booking info
The Ledbury was one of the first casualties of the first lockdown back in 2020, with Brett Graham making a somewhat abrupt decision not to reopen. Ever since, however, there have been rumours of its reopening and now it's actually
...22/10/21 - Updated with interior pics
As sure a sign that the City is coming back to life as any is the news that Bob Bob Ricard City is reopening. The restaurant formerly known as Bob Bob Cité has been closed since the first lockdown, but it's throwing open its doors once more this autumn. There'll be plenty to entice old and new customers through the door with the interiors and menu both getting an
...17/9/21 - updated with the reopening date
It's been closed since the very first lockdown, but the time is nearly upon us for the return of Black Axe Mangal - in a new form.
Lee Tiernan's Islington restaurant has been a big hit since day one and has been lauded by many (including us) as one of London's very best places to eat. Their squid-ink flatbread is among one of our favourite dishes in London and we also think that
...The slow but steady reopening of London restaurants that have been closed since the early days of the first lockdown continues apace, with the return of BAO Fitzrovia this week. For the first time in over eighteen months, BAO's Fitzrovia branch reopens its doors with loads of new dishes and drinks to entice you in.
You can pretty much rely on BAO to serve up some interesting food and the menu they're relaunching with has some
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