Celebrated Irish pub, Gibney’s of Malahide, will launch its first international site in London after opening in Dublin over 80 years ago in 1937. The pub, run by Tony Gibney and his sons will open on Thursday 12 March in the basement of fellow Irishman, Richard Corrigan’s, critically acclaimed restaurant, Daffodil Mulligan in City Road, and will be called Gibney’s London. Gibney’s London will open daily offering guests an authentic Irish pub experience with Cormac Gibney (son of Tony Gibney) heading up the bar. There will be live music in the evenings from Thursday to Saturday and the … [Read more...]
Padella opens in Shoreditch
18 February 2020 by
The resurgence of Shoreditch as an area for trendy popular eating continues with the opening of pasta specialist Padella’s second establishment on Phipp Street, between City Road and Great Eastern Street. The initial Padella in Borough has become one of the most popular restaurants in the Borough Market area with lomg queues forming outside virtually every lunchtime. It was voted one of the top 100 restaurants in London in TimeOut in 2016 and in the Sunday Times in 2017 and has appeared in several other ‘best of’ lists. It also has accolades as providing both exceptional quality pasta dishes … [Read more...]
Casa do Frango: Memories of the Algarve
15 February 2020 by
Around 30 years ago (how time flies) I have fond memories of a very pleasant summer holiday based at Carvoeiro on Portugal’s Algarve, but I only have retained two food memories thereof – magnificent, and enormous, freshly caught sardines cooked and eaten on the dockside at Portimão and piri piri chicken from close by where we were staying. The sardines were easily the best I have ever tasted and the piri piri chicken I had been unable to match – until now at the Shoreditch branch of Casa do Frango, which opened in December. The light and airy restaurant on the first floor The … [Read more...]
Berkmann does wine tasting
5 February 2020 by
While this is not exactly restaurant news, Berkmann Wine Cellars reckons to be the largest family-owned and family-run wine importer in the UK. The company has been selling wine to restaurants since 1964 and its expertise has grown along with its portfolio. Today, the company is headed up by second-generation family member Rupert Berkmann. The wineries it represents are said to also be progressive and fiercely independent. Thus an invitation to attend its hugely impressive annual wine tasting experience – particularly given it was held at The Brewery on Chiswell Street, only a stone’s throw … [Read more...]
The Ivy City Garden
3 February 2020 by
With this review, we had the opportunity to enjoy one of those experiences we all cherish as new City dwellers: the discovery of a backwater route and haven tucked away off Old Broad Street which we never knew existed. Of course, I’d passed the church before, but I never realised that the St Botolph without Bishopsgate gardens also host tennis and netball courts (if you are interested, you can book with the church). The Ivy extended its branches this way into East London a few years ago and is part of The Ivy Collection of 36 (and counting) restaurants and cafes which are firmly planted in … [Read more...]
A great new casual Barbican restaurant
10 January 2020 by
Well it’s not technically within the Barbican Estate itself but lies almost directly beneath the new Barbican highwalk just behind Salters Hall, but the new Barbie Green bar/restaurant/coffee shop is perhaps even closer to some Barbican flats than the restaurants within the Barbican Centre itself. It is located in London Wall Place just to the south of the re-sited Minotaur sculpture and its big picture windows on its east side look out directly at the old ruins of St. Alphage Church. Barbie Green is located opposite the ruins of the old St. Alphage Church and almost underneath the new … [Read more...]
A Rooftop Bar to Savour
13 November 2019 by
Savage Garden rooftop bar is a good choice for a weekday lunch. We visited on a Monday following a river walk. Savage Garden rooftop bar It’s just off Trinity Square, near the Thames, on the 12th floor of Hilton’s Doubletree hotel. The bar itself has great views through floor to ceiling windows on three sides - Tower Bridge and the Tower of London directly in front, spanning out to Canary Wharf to the east and the Shard to the west. Seating in this part of the venue is high bar tables and chairs. There is a cosier more colourful bistro-style space to the back/side of the bar area, … [Read more...]
France wins oyster tasting competition
7 November 2019 by
We do receive the occasional hugely self-indulgent treat from running this website and Barbican Life magazine and this week we were invited to participate in a GB/French oyster tasting competition hosted at Boisdale of Bishopsgate and sponsored by Boisdale, Wright Brothers and the City of London distillery. Oysters are not to everyone’s taste, but they are to the writer’s, who participated with gusto. After an hour or so of judging and almost 1,000 oysters shucked, the results from this, the fourth Boisdale & Wright Brothers Oyster Championship 2019, a blind tasting was held to … [Read more...]
Fentimans Pink Gingerbread House
1 November 2019 by
This Christmas, botanically brewed drinks makers, Fentimans, will be bringing sugar, spice and all things iced to the rooftops of London. The life-size Pink Gingerbread House celebrates the brands recently launched Pink Ginger soft drink, a contemporary twist on the much-loved traditional Ginger Beer. The Fentimans Pink Gingerbread House will be the season’s most instagrammable installation, where Londoners can visit for festive ginger cocktails and sweet treats in a magical fairy-tale environment unlike no other in London. Situated on the 9th floor of Skylight, one of London’s most popular … [Read more...]
Bottomless Beef and Bottle at Gaucho Smithfield
29 October 2019 by
Good news from our neighbours at Gaucho Smithfield. Earlier this year the Gaucho restaurants (first of which opened in 1976) successfully completed a significant organisational restructure and are now owned and run by the same group which operates the M restaurants chain. There are two Gauchos close at hand - Gaucho Smithfield and Gaucho Broadgate and this review covers the Smithfield restaurant on Charterhouse Street, only a stone’s throw from the western end of the Barbican complex. Traditional dishes and emphasis on quality continue – big juicy, tender Argentine steaks from … [Read more...]
