Within Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, Le Train Bleu epitomises a golden era of glamorous railway travel. Befitted with cavernous ceilings, grand frescoes, chandeliers and immaculately dressed waiters, the restaurant has been a fine dining institution since first opening in 1901. It’s also one of the most storied restaurants in Paris – arguably … Continue reading
A classic example of a restaurant designed for people who don’t like food, Pufferfish’s Pan Asian menu leaves me feeling entirely deflated, quite ironically. Continue reading
Regrettably, I remember my first Chinatown dinner experience quite well. One summer evening during the late nineties (I could only have been six or seven years old), following a matinee theatre performance, somebody suggested we might visit one of those all-you-can-eat restaurants on the south side of Gerrard Street. Exciting at the time. The name … Continue reading
While being herded like cattle through Gatwick airport recently, one member of a particularly raucous stag weekend roared: “England – the only country with queues longer than the entire flight home.” Like the birth right to complain about literally everything, and to make terrible decisions at the Polling Station; queuing is so ingrained into our … Continue reading
Trump is a tangerine-tinted mosquito, a bloated blobfish with a comb-over, or parasitical leech viciously sucking the life out of the free world. But a pig, he most definitely is not. Continue reading
In this political climate, it’s sometimes easy to forget that politicians are human, too. In the lead up to June’s general election, a selection of the UK’s most prominent MPs and party leaders were quizzed on their favourite restaurants. Let’s be fair – it’s far easier to talk to journalists about food than matters of … Continue reading
Islington pie and mash shop M Manze is set to close later this year, after 106 years of trading. On announcing the closure last week, owner Tim Nicholls blamed increasing business rates as the reason for the iconic Chapel Market pie shop’s closure – something that has bereft the city of so many beloved pie … Continue reading
On the way out, I notice a stack-a-box filled with innocent duck legs, awaiting the wrath of the kitchen, and want to cry. Duck & Waffle Local has its moments, but the view from the sky-high original is clearly the real unique selling point. On the ground, alas, the entire concept is simply absurd. Continue reading
Like most things in life, the simplest restaurant dishes are generally the endearingly memorable. So it’s hardly surprising that the ingenuous bone marrow salad at St John in Clerkenwell has been on the menu, unchanged, for the past 23 years. In turn, when presenting paying customers with something so simple, it’s crucial that each element … Continue reading
Have you ever been to a high-rise restaurant so bad, so incomprehensibly grim, that you’ve genuinely considered jumping from the top floor, if only to spite them? Continue reading
Jonathan Hatchman 