Tag: 3***
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Coopers, London: The Restaurant Equivalent of pH 7
So here’s the thing. If you’re a restaurant in London, you have to have a thing. You have to be different, or exceptionally good, or have a stunning venue, or a bit of history behind you. You need amazing produce, a kitchen that can do something extraordinary with it, or at the very least one…
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Oz & Isle, Cambridge: All the Looks, Not Quite the Cooking
Australia gets a lot of things right. Beaches and work-life balance are near the top of the list. Sure, they have their issues. An alarming abundance of deadly snakes, for one, and a rather questionable grasp of Olympic breakdancing. But we can overlook those things because anyone who has visited knows that when it comes…
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Kush, Clifton: A Curry With Delusions of Grandeur
I’m exhausted by reviewing fine-dining Indian restaurants. At one end of the scale you’ve got the really interesting ones, like Gymkhana and Quilon in London, doing something genuinely exciting with the food, backed up by great service. At the other, you’ve got your standard High Street Indian: a decent enough masala, a pint of Cobra,…
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L’Osteria, Bristol – A Masterclass in Mediocrity (With Extra Cheese)
Oh dear God, do these sorts of places still exist? Oh dear God, do these sorts of places still exist? Apparently so, tucked into Bristol like the last Blockbuster video store stubbornly pretending Netflix was just a fad. L’Osteria is that brand of chain Italian that feels less like dining out and more like being…
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The Lobster Bar at The Coppa Club – A Style-Over-Substance Masterclass
Let’s be clear: The Lobster Bar at The Coppa Club is absolutely, heartbreakingly gorgeous. It’s like someone dropped a Soho House brochure into a Chelsea Flower Show and said, “Go mad.” The Thames sparkles below, the gardens are coiffed to within an inch of their chlorophyll, and the interior looks like a Nancy Meyers fever…
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Fattso Burger – Don’t believe the hype
One of the more joyful quirks of the modern food scene is the democratisation of dining. These days, a tattooed bloke in a shipping container can slap a patty between two buns and win more awards than Raymond Blanc. Pizza slingers, burger flippers, taco hustlers – they’ve muscled their way into the culinary conversation, and…
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The Gate Hotel, London: Style Without Substance
The trouble with hotels is this: they face two challenges—the building and the service. Separately, neither means a thing. The finest architecture without warmth is just a shell; impeccable service in a soulless box feels like being hosted by a robot. The Gate Hotel, sadly, is a masterclass in missing the point. At first glance,…
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Martabaan by Hemant Oberoi: Bright Lights, Dim Experience
Martabaan by Hemant Oberoi is, on paper, everything you want in a high-end Indian restaurant. Hemant Oberoi, the man himself, is culinary royalty. You expect fireworks—layers of spices, textures that dance, aromas that seduce. What you don’t expect, though, is a restaurant that feels like a dentist’s waiting room lit by a thousand suns. Seriously,…
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