News & reviews

Several months ago, the initial reports of a norovirus being the root cause of mass illness at the Fat Duck some months ago were just a taste of the full thing, with a full report to follow.  And, as...

Hot Dinners talks to the Eastside Inn's Bjorn van der Horst.

Although Mayor Boris had to send his apologies, the press launch for the London Restaurant Festival had an impressive turn-out this morning with no less than 25 of the city’s best chefs turning up...

It's been a week of notable awards with the Harden's 2010 restaurant awards and Olive Magazine's Alternative Restaurant Awards both being announced. Now you can get in on the action. The nomination...

We're tired of the same old, same old restaurant awards - so three cheers for foodie title Olive magazine which has come up with an Alternative Restaurant Awards 2009 with categories that go beyond...

Where does one of the UK's top pizza chefs choose to eat Italian in London? hot-dinners.com headed for Holborn last week where we did a test-run of Pizza Express's low-call Leggera pizzas (yes, we...

2009 looks to be an annus mirabilis for Angela Hartnett, as her Mayfair restaurant Murano gets voted Best Newcomer by restaurant-goers in the 2010 edition of Harden's London Restaurants which is...

A couple of interesting upcoming restaurant openings hit the hot-dinners.com radar in the past few days – most notable of which is the news that thrice-Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck is heading to...

The biggest news this week is that, according to a report released by Harden's, London restaurants are currently defying the  recession as restaurant closures are at their lowest rate since 2000...

The credit crunch's effect has widened to include this year's Time Out magazine Restaurant Awards, resulting in the creation of two new categories to please its sponsors - the Spanish Tourist Board...

Heston gets a perfect 10Heston Blumenthal has made up for all the bad news earlier this year with a slew of positive stories, the latest of which is that, for the second year running, The Fat Duck...

Hot Dinners was invited to test the wares, as it were, at the May Fair Bar on Berkeley Street. Hailing from the northern parts of the city, and not having a trust fund to interest the merchants of...

There could be such a thing as a free dinner...Fay Maschler reveals more information about the upcoming London Restaurant Festival in today’s Evening Standard, including the particularly cheering...

A couple of departures from the London restaurant scene were revealed this week. First off - Eric Chavot is to leave the The Capital restaurant.  After ten years and two Michelin stars, he's looking to...

It's fair to say that Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay weren't on each other's Christmas card list last year.  About a year ago, with an acrimonious split at Petrus in the offing, Wareing hit out at...

Lucky, lucky bankers. Not only are they already back earning squillions with their big bonuses, but they’re also the intended guests at a seriously high-end charity banquet where top chefs will cook...

Hot Dinners bumped into TV chef Phil Vickery this week doing, of all things, a promotion for Aldi’s range of Christmas food. We couldn’t help asking him whether he’d ever think of opening his own...

We first reported the plans back in May, and now the London Restaurant Festival has been officially launched today by Boris, and will be chaired by Evening Standard food critic Fay Maschler and...

Hot Dinners talks Michelin stars and business savvy with Gidleigh Park's chef Michael Caines and finds out where a two-Michelin-starred chef eats out when he's in London

Now we were going to lead this week’s news with the entirely proper and grown-up news item about Angela Hartnett’s big award. But then we read this story about Britain’s Got Talent star Stavros...