London, London restaurants

Lovely Dinner at Launceston Place, Kensington, the Locals’ Favourite

No Comments

Ms B and I enjoyed our recent visit to Launceston Place, one of Kensington’s most loved fine dining venues. Young and heavily tattooed head chef Ben Murphy has trained and worked at Koffmann’s at The Berkeley, the triple Michelin-starred Les Prés d’Eugénie (which is part of the ultra-prestigious Relais & Chateaux group, just like restaurant Lafleur in Frankfurt, which we reviewed here) in the south of France, as well as the equally three-starred Épicure Restaurant at Le Bristol in Paris, and London’s two-star Greenhouse Restaurant. As soon as we arrived, the friendly staff led us to our table. The atmosphere is elegant with plenty of light.     After short deliberation we decided to opt for the 3-course set menu deal for £30 per person. For starters, we chose seared tuna and pig’s head pate, for mains the grilled octopus on burnt leek with chive and chicken tarragon, and as desserts […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

London, London restaurants

Kensington Place – Tasty Seafood in a Relaxed Atmosphere

1 Comment

UPDATE 31.03.2019 – Kensington Place closed on 24.03.2019 after 32 years. Many food critics found very kind words for this restaurant that pioneered the new London restaurant scene when it was opened in 1987 by Nick Smallwood and Simon Slater in the same year as Bibendum and the River Café. We enjoyed our recent visit to Kensington Place. The friendly staff led us to our table next to the tall window front. We immediately liked the bright, unpretentious, modern, relaxed atmosphere.   After short deliberation, we decided to go for the 2-course set menu for £15 with oysters and whitebait for starters and the fish of the day (cod fillet) for the two of us. As optional sides we chose French fries (£2) and creamed spinach (£3.50). The oysters, which came highly recommended to us, did not disappoint. The whitebait were phenomenally delicious, just the right texture and not too […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

London, London restaurants, Michelin restaurants

Finally Made it to London’s Most Famous Chinese – A. Wong

3 Comments

We had heard good things about Michelin-starred A. Wong for years, but somehow never managed to visit, even though it’s just half an hour’s walk from where we live. Earlier this month, we finally made it, and what a feast it was! The restaurant was founded in 2013 by Andrew Wong, then a young graduate with an anthropology degree from LSE, when he took over a non-descript Chinese local next to Victoria station from his father. For several months before that point in time, he had travelled mainland China and explored the many different cuisines and cooking styles. In late 2018 he’ll open another, much bigger and more casual restaurant at the Bloomberg Arcade in the City. It will not be serving dim sum, because Wong feels, as he said in an interview earlier this year, that serving three dumplings for £2.80 would devalue the art of the dumpling (each […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

London restaurants

Applebee’s Fish Restaurant – One of the Best in Town

1 Comment

We’ve just returned from our first ‘proper’ visit to Applebee’s restaurant at Borough Market (previously we had only purchased fresh fish to prepare at home). We’ve always liked the friendly, pleasant vibe of the place and the truly amazing quality of the produce. We got seated outside on the pedestrianised street. After short deliberation Ms B opted for fillet of sea bass with crushed new potatoes, bacon, and an olive oil velouté (£23.50) and I went for the mixed grill (£22.45), a selection of the catch of the day served with three dips and a rocket and tomato salad), plus an extra side of chips (£4). Our waiter was super-friendly and chatty (in a good, polite way, of course) and it turned out that he’s a member of the family of the owners, who have run this gem ever since they established it as a mere fish shop twenty years […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

London restaurants

Brunch at Foxlow – our Restaurant Review

No Comments

UPDATE 17.01.2020 – ALL REMAINING FOXLOW RESTAURANTS, INCLUDING THE ONE IN SOHO, HAVE NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED. We have just returned from our brunch at Foxlow in Soho. There are two sister outlets at equally trendy Balham and Clerkenwell. Foxlow has been founded by the same good folks that brought us Hawksmoor (with 6 outlets in London and 1 in Manchester). We had recently been blown away by a visit to their branch in Air Street, no more than 5 minutes walk away. Some of the best steak we’ve had at a very reasonable price in a great environment with quick, friendly, professional service (highly recommend!).    We had also looked at a recent article in the Evening Standard (I’m saying ‘recent’, but they are of course known to repost old articles without any new research; some ‘recent’ articles recommend restaurants that have closed down months ago) by accident, which listed […]

Continue Reading

You may also like