Test Drives

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.