Jamie Oliver’s flashy new meat and smoke joint in Piccadilly is ambitious in everything, including its prices
194 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EX (020 3005 9666). Meal for two, including wine and service: £175 (if you trip up on the wine list)
Earlier this year Jamie Oliver announced he was closing six branches of his Jamie’s Italian chain because, y’know, BREXIT! This was odd. While the industry was reporting cost issues as a result of the referendum vote, no one else had cited it as a reason for closure. What’s more, while the weak pound has increased imported food costs by up to 20%, the bulk of the most expensive items on the Jamie’s Italian menus – the meat – is proudly declared as British. Still, if he says it was down to Brexit and not just that people didn’t want to eat in branches of an increasingly ersatz high-volume Britalian, with a menu full of annoying dish titles – “crunchy Italian nachos” anyone? As against, say, the soggy Mexican ones – then who we are to argue?
Continue reading...