Restaurant chains still force waiting staff to give up some tips
Practices persist as restaurants struggle with weak consumer spending and higher minimum wageThe government has come under renewed pressure to crack down on restaurants that ask waiters to hand over...
View ArticleBeaverbrook, Surrey: ‘Not cheap, but shockingly good’ – restaurant review |...
Set in a historic country house, Beaverbrook is a bastion of privilege – and glorious foodThe Dining Room, Beaverbrook, Reigate Road, Surrey KT22 8QX (01372 571300). Meal for two, including drinks and...
View ArticleCan I eat the cakes other customers left behind in the tearoom?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsAt a tearoom in Cheddar recently, a couple left...
View ArticleIkoyi, London SW1: ‘Challenging, whether you're from from Nigeria or...
With West African-inspired flavours and British ingredients under a roof of minimalist fine dining, Ikoyi may not be authentic, but it’s puzzlingly innovativeRestaurant criticism, a little like black...
View ArticleRussell Norman: ‘It’s 20 years since I was a chef. I still wake up in a cold...
The restaurant founder, 52, on cooking baked potatoes, anxiety dreams and starting the day with six coffeesI notice the seasons more as I get older. I get a bit low in winter and cope by going to bed...
View ArticleKoconut Grove, Chester: ‘a little gem’ – restaurant review
Where would we be without the nation’s late-night curry houses? Hungry and fed up, says Jay RaynerKoconut Grove, City Road, Chester CH1 3AT (01244 325 888). Meal for two, including drinks and service:...
View ArticleFirst UK strike action over restaurant tips looms at TGI Friday's
Staff to be balloted over chain’s plan to give service charge cash to kitchen staff in lieu of pay riseTGI Friday’s is facing the first strike over tips in the UK in an escalation of a row between...
View ArticleBryn Williams at Somerset House: ‘from the pleasant to the peculiar’ –...
If your stately building needs extra revenue, why not just open a bloody tearoom?As I left Bryn Williams at Somerset House, past the stiff-faced security man on reception and over the deserted...
View ArticleForest Side, Grasmere: ‘We ask for the bread to be taken away, it’s too good’...
Escape the rigours of a Cumbrian winter by booking a table at the seriously good Forest SideForest Side, Grasmere, Cumbria, LA22 9RN (01539 435 250). Meal for two, including drinks and service: £120...
View ArticleAre you cheesed off by restaurants? Don’t be | David Mitchell
A customer took a Bristol restaurant to task last week for serving Asda camembert. But consider the bigger picture...The people who run Severnshed, a restaurant in Bristol, have had a tricky week and...
View ArticleSilly signs, daft names – why is going to a restaurant loo so tricky?
Save us from doors marked ‘gulls’ and ‘buoys’, ‘samurai’ and ‘geisha’ I am standing in the basement of a restaurant, feeling the fear. Before me are two doors, marked with logos. One is a circle with a...
View ArticleBelzan restaurant review | Grace Dent
A lively, unpretentious place that serves up European and Asian flavours with skill and Scouse swaggerArriving in Liverpool on a wet Thursday night with a migraine and an empty stomach, I was reminded...
View ArticleBrat, London: ‘The culinary equivalent of an Anthony Hopkins performance’ –...
Some of the dishes Tomos Parry cooks at Brat are simplicity itself, and some are simply perfectBrat, 4 Redchurch Street, London E1 6JL (bratrestaurant.com). Meal for two, including drinks and service,...
View ArticleMy life as an (almost) vegan restaurant critic
It’s time to talk about vegetables with the same reverence usually reserved for nose-to-tail eatingIn my game, as a restaurant critic, it would be more acceptable to come clean as a roaring alcoholic,...
View ArticleOops, I created a frankenfood monster: how we made Nutellasagna
A Brooklyn bakery’s dessert lasagna was meant to be a joke, but it went viral fast – and then the trend died just as quicklyThe viral frankenfood “Nutellasagna” was born at the intersection of sheer...
View ArticleClub Mexicana at the Spread Eagle, London: ‘Too much fun for Morrissey’ –...
A normal gastropub experience in a fun and friendly boozerThe term “vegan pub”, which describes the Spread Eagle in Hackney, east London, is instinctively a funny one. Merely sprinkle “vegan pub” into...
View ArticleGaijin Sushi, Birmingham: ‘An utter delight’ – restaurant review | Jay Rayner
Forget culinary purity, this Polish chef in Birmingham cooks solid Japanese food with graceGaijin Sushi, 78 Bristol Street, Birmingham B5 7AH (0121 448 4250). Meal for two, including drinks and...
View ArticleJust Eat delivers strong growth as Pizza Express profits cool
Online delivery service is thriving but restaurant chain is hit by casual dining crunchThe online delivery service Just Eat served up strong revenues in the first three months of the year, while Pizza...
View ArticleFewer men in London wearing evening dress – archive, 2 May 1927
2 May 1927 As in the US, men are wearing office suits to restaurants and dance clubs instead of dinner jackets Apart from the universal jazz band and jazz dancing, another Americanism seems to be...
View ArticleFellpack, Cumbria: ‘Skips between hearty northern fuel and London dippiness’...
This bright Keswick bistro is not afraid of heat, spice, bold combinations and allowing a quiet majority of its menu to be veg-centricReviewing Fellpack in Keswick felt risky. Following my recent...
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