Test Drives

I have to make something clear at the outset. I live VERY close to Trullo - about 3 minutes walk away. Some weeks ago I found myself regularly passing the creation of a new restaurant on the way to the office and, naturally, was intrigued. The spot where Trullo now resides was once the home of Islington's Gill Wing Cafe. This was one of those...

Barely 90 minutes from London's Waterloo station, the Hotel Terravina is a pretty much perfect overnight stay for anyone who is interested in food - and more particularly wine. It's owned and run by Gerard and Nina Bassett whose provenance as far as hotels go is impeccable - Gerard spent six years at Chewton Glen, Nina was a hotel inspector and...

There’s been a lot of chat on Twitter about the launch of Cantina Laredo in London – mainly speculation about this upmarket Mexican restaurant chain’s pricey guacamole. Hot Dinners accepted an invitation to try the Covent Garden branch out to see if it could live up to the price tag. The first (of many?) UK outpost for this American chain,...

Michel Roux Jnr’s new place just opposite the House of Commons has polarised the critics.  The first wave decried it for being too old-fashioned, too staid while the latter reviews mainly heralded it for its unabashed traditionalist approach to fine French food. Having been invited to try dinner there, Hot Dinners can see a little of both sides –...

Earlier this year, in the announcement of the Michelin awards for 2010, there was a surprise new entry in the form of newcomers for London which had slipped under most people's radar. The Bingham, a boutique hotel in Richmond, had been awarded a Michelin star when many more famous central London restaurants has been left off the list. Invited to...

There's been a lot of talk (too much, dare we say it) from food bloggers mainly, and critics, about the quest for the best burger in London. On blogs across the capital, great swatches of digital column inches have been taken up with dissecting patty density, the right consistency and provenance of melted cheese and the quality of the bun itself...

We have to admit to having been really excited in a geeky, far-too-interested-in-eating-than-can-be-healthy sort of way about our lunch at Viajante. We'd been following the exploits of chef Nuno Mendes via the foodie blogosphere for over a year while he wowed visitors to his Loft project - an endeavour Mendes had set up following his departure...

Judging from the sheer weight of positive tweets and blogs flooding the internet since it opened its doors just over a week ago, Bar Boulud will be a huge success. And why wouldn’t it, when you discover how carefully it was put together. As the first UK outpost for New York’s most famous chef, Daniel Boulud, this restaurant was thought out,...

One of the most interesting developments we’re seeing in the London restaurant scene right now, is the increase in restaurants coming up with innovative ways to get the punters in, particularly on quieter days of the week. This rise in food and wine-pairing evenings, tutored wine tastings, special menus with lectures serve a number of functions...

It's been twenty years since Brindisa first began importing the best of Spanish food and drink to London. Now, in addition to their Borough Market stall they have three Tapas restaurants, one of which - Casa Brindisa in South Ken - plays host to a series of Supper Club and Masterclass tasting evenings.  Each event focuses on a different area of...

When we set out to the Arch London hotel to review the election éclairs – a very topical take on the hotel’s bar snacks which had been creating something of a stir in London’s bar circles – we didn’t expect to find a hidden gem of a bar and restaurant that we’re slightly loath to tell anyone about. Opened at the tail-end of last year, this hotel...

The restaurant at the Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell has long been a good-looking venue in need of a better chef. With Bruno Loubet at the helm, finally this restaurant has the brilliant cooking to go with the space. Loubet, together with his partners at the Zetter, Mark Sainsbury and Michael Benyan, has created a restaurant with a real sense of...

To King’s Cross recently, where the owner of Camino has extended across the courtyard at the Regent Quarter to open up an Andalusian bodega/sherry bar called Bar Pepito. Every conceivable kind of sherry is on offer, and at the launch Gonzalez Byass’ brand manager, the fabulously-named José Argudo López de Carrizosa, had flown in from Jerez to...

It's already touted as the kind of place other chefs love to eat, with Mark Hix being a particular fan, so when Hot Dinners was invited down to try out the recently revamped Viet Grill earlier this month, we jumped at the chance. Situated on the Dalston/Hoxton boundary on the Kingsland Road, Viet Grill is the sister restaurant of the nearby Cay...

Hot Dinners was recently invited to try out Dinner with Jordi – one of a new series of private dinners with wine-pairing at Vivat Bacchus in Farringdon. The Jordi in question is the Barcelona-born head-chef, Jordi Vila, whose training includes stints at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and El Bulli. Held once or twice a month, these dinners are...

After attending the recent re-launch of Atul Kochhar's Benares, Hot Dinners were recently invited back to try out the restaurant itself. Situated in the heart of Mayfair on Berkeley Square, the warmth of Benares was a welcome respite from the bitterly cold February Wednesday evening.  After a couple of drinks in the main bar area - an convivial...

One day, two London underground restaurants and a lot of calories.... The fact that we really need to get a grip of Google Calendars was brought home to Hot Dinners this weekend when we managed to book ourselves into two underground restaurants in one day. We’d made the first booking what seemed like aeons ago, when Lady Gray’s Hidden Tea Room...

When someone invites you to a Vintage Vodka Tasting you should always say yes – but what you should also do the minute you accept such an invitation, is to block book two days off for the post-tasting recovery period. That’s one of the key lessons we learned from our trip to BobBobRicard in Beak Street last week for the tasting in question. Our...

Arriving in Canary Wharf on a Thursday night – if you haven’t been for a while – is like landing on a different planet. Here everything is clean, new, made of glass and steel – and of course the dress code is strictly business. More importantly, for anyone contemplating opening a bar or restaurant – this is clearly where the recession is a word...

Hot Dinners reports back from lunch at Pierre Koffmann's pop-up reincarnation of Tante Claire, high on the rooftop of London's Selfridges store.