Smiths’ bar + café (ground floor), cocktail bar (1st), grill (2nd) and restaurant and terrace (3rd and 4th) have a busy but spacious home in a recently refurbished Grade II listed warehouse sprawling from 67 to 77 Charterhouse Street opposite the main Smithfield meat market on the north side. The long established restaurant complex was acquired by Youngs a year ago and has since undergone some extensive refurbishment and menu changes. This is a massive venue with huge open plan rooms (which makes it feel spacious) and each floor has a different flavour, whether you are meeting a friend for … [Read more...]
Bloomberg Arcade restaurants
November 5, 2018 by
The latest major restaurant destination in the City is the new Bloomberg Arcade, which joins the two sections of the brand new Bloomberg development near Bank. It puzzles the editor where the clientele will come from given the huge number of new restaurant openings in the City area over the past two to three years. Obviously prosperity and disposable incomes, or perhaps just the spending habits of millenials, are running higher than is generally credited. The following is a listing of Bloomberg arcade restaurants with brief descriptions of their cuisine offerings taken from the … [Read more...]
Gaucho update and relaunch
November 2, 2018 by
The UK’s 24-year-old Gaucho restaurant group has unveiled its bright new future, under the direction of Martin Williams, CEO of M Restaurants and former Gaucho MD. Diners are set to experience the evolution of Gaucho’s menus and a series of high-quality food and drink events. Key to Gaucho’s new era is a broadening of its culinary vision. The group will remain a destination for top-quality Argentinian steaks, while also drawing on the contemporary flavours and energetic culture of the wider Latin American region. Gaucho’s new menu offers two choices: ‘Classics’ and ‘Nuevo’. The Nuevo … [Read more...]
Helix/Iris – Searcy’s Gherkin flagship with great views
November 1, 2018 by
Our principal Barbican Centre restaurant (now Osteria) used to be, arguably, the original signature venue in Searcy’s portfolio of restaurants. Their new Helix on level 39 of the Gherkin, coupled with the Iris bar on level 40) elevates both the cuisine and the view. It’s a shame that we couldn’t get a view of the Barbican’s Towers from the restaurant but you do get a magnificent skyline spectacle around the remaining 270 degrees. And we had to make do with a spectacular view down to Tower Bridge! Helix is yet another great dining venue with spectacular views in the City’s plethora of high … [Read more...]
South Place Hotel 3Bar Terrace teams up with Cointreau
October 30, 2018 by
Cointreau and the South Place Hotel have announced their new autumn haven in the heart of East London, bringing the golden colours of the season to life with Autumn on the Terrace in partnership with Cointreau at South Place Hotel’s ground floor 3Bar, until late November. As the air gets chillier, warm up your senses with a selection of seasonal cocktails created using everyone’s favourite autumnal flavours - from classic, to sweet and spicy, there is sure to be a cocktail to see you through to the colder season. You are invited to drink special Cointreau cocktails in the heated, cosy … [Read more...]
Vegan Restaurant Stem + Glory launching in Barts Square in January
October 27, 2018 by
Building on its huge popularity in Cambridge, the award-winning Stem + Glory team is starting work on their third restaurant and first London site this week. The site refurbishment is starting this week and the restaurant will be ready for a January launch. Stem + Glory will be offering its gourmet plant-based food in an exclusive new development in Bart’s Square (60 Bartholomew’s Close, EC1A 7BN). close to the Barbican Louise Palmer-Masterton, Founder of Stem + Glory said: “We have been searching for the perfect venue for the launch of our first London restaurant and we know we have … [Read more...]
Raasay While We Wait 2018
October 25, 2018 by
Alasdair Day, co-founder of Raasay Distillery, invited us to try Raasay While We Wait 2018 at Bottles, the new Italian Wine Bar In Spitalfields we reviewed in July. There is a fascinating back story to this. Raasay Island lies to the east of the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides. and the Raasay distillery is the first ever (legal) distillery there. The distillery started business in 2017 but has to wait 3 years until it can call its own produce "whisky" so, in the meantime, it has worked with a partner distillery to produce the closest blend to what it expects from its first cull in … [Read more...]
Barbican on Fire
October 25, 2018 by
Barbican ON FIRE Casual dining in the Barbican Centre On the mid level in the Barbican Centre (below the Library level but above the Lakeside level) you will find Bonfire. You’ve probably noticed it. You may even have visited it. We used to take our kids there for burgers when they were in their teens, but it never seemed anything out of the ordinary and so it never became a regular haunt for us as a family. Indeed, when it first opened there was much criticism of the fare and its presentation. But a couple of recent visits were very positive – not obviously for gourmet fare, but for … [Read more...]
Burger & Beyond opening in Shoreditch
October 22, 2018 by
This winter, burger favourites Burger & Beyond are opening doors to their first static restaurant (licensed) on Shoreditch High Street that will bring their signature buns to a permanent site for the very first time, as well as a new expanded menu. The actual opening date is, as yet, still uncertain but should be during November. In keeping with their current residencies at KERB, Street Feast and Camden Assembly, the brand’s burgers and sides, honed after three and a half years in the business, will take centre stage. ‘Drinking snacks’ and ‘Small Plates’ will show the team’s … [Read more...]
RAASAY DISTILLERY LAUNCHES RAASAY WHILE WE WAIT 2018
October 19, 2018 by
In October 2018, Raasay Distillery will release Raasay While We Wait 2018 – the fourth expression to date of the brand’s independently bottled single malt – which was created as a representation of the flavours that drinkers can expect from future Raasay scotch whisky. The release of Raasay While We Wait 2018 begins the countdown to 2020 when the first ever Raasay single malt in Scotch whisky history will be released. Unlike some new whisky distilleries, the adventurous team at Raasay Distillery decided to concentrate their attention on whisky. The result is an independently bottled single … [Read more...]
