Andy Hayler - Blog

From Mansion House to Suffolk

Brigadiers is a wildly popular Indian restaurant near Mansion House, part of the JKS group. We had a very enjoyable meal here, with good butter chicken and particularly excellent guinea fowl puffs. It is a huge place seating 200 people at one time, and they reportedly did 700 covers on the Thursday a few days before our visit.

The Unruly Pig is an award-winning gastropub in Woodbridge in Suffolk. Dishes such as cured halibut and lobster with bucatini pasta are a cut above normal pub fare, and the prices are reasonable. The setting is quite pretty and the staff were friendly, so unsurprisingly, the place is very popular.

From St James to Surbiton

House of Ming is a smart Chinese restaurant in St James. This was my second meal here and the food was a little more up and down than at my first visit, though still enjoyable. It is smartly decorated and the price reflects that. It is aiming at the same level as places like Imperial Treasure, but does not quite reach those heights.

Koyal is probably serving the best Indian food in London right now. along with the new up-market Tresind. The level of cooking here is very high indeed, with even little details like the salad garnishes with the meat dishes being unusually interesting and well made. The humble bhajia is elevated to a remarkable level here, and the tandoori cooking is superb. This is terrific cooking at a modest price point.

From Mayfair to Chiswck

Chez Rose is the relatively casual sister of two-star Michelin Row on 5. As one might expect from Spencer Metzger, the standard of cooking here was very high, even in this more casual brasserie format. This for me was strong one star Michelin cooking at a fair price for Mayfair. I am sure it will be very successful.

Dusra is the replacement for the long-established Annapurna on the Chiswick High Road. The latter had barely changed since the 1970s, so I was hoping for something a bit more interesting. The new owners also run the Thames Tandoori, which I used to go to when I was working nearby. Dusra is adequate as a local restaurant, but the standard of Indian cooking has moved on these days, so Dusra feels a bit stuck in the past. I’ll stick to west London stalwarts like Delhi Social and Black Salt.

From Belgravia to St James

Quilon is a long-established restaurant in St James. It has a Michelin star, serving mostly south Indian food, with dishes from Kerala and elsewhere in the region. This was an excellent meal, and slightly better than I recall from my last visit many years ago. It is not a cheap place, but the décor is smart and the service was good.

Amaya is another Michelin-starred Indian restaurant, this one in Belgravia. The smart décor reflects the location, and there is a semi open kitchen. The cooking here has always been reliable, and we enjoyed some good dishes, including black pepper chicken tikka and raan, which I have rarely seen in the UK.

From Savoie to Petersham

Les Morainieres is the latest 3-star Michelin restaurant in France. It is on a hillside looking out over vineyards in Savoie, so has a fine view (pictured). The staff were charming and the wine list was very fairly priced. The food itself was good, though a long way off 3-star level as far as I am concerned. However the pricing was not excessive and the overall experience was very enjoybale.

The Dysart near Richmond is one of the best restaurants in London, much better than its one-star Michelin rating. The quality of ingredients here is high and the sauces are superb, reflecting the considerable skills of Roux Scholar chef Ken Culhane. Turbot with sauce Jacqueline was a particular highlight at the latest meal, as was a glorious pigeon dish, but the standard of the food here is very high.

From Wandsworth to Twickenham

Chez Bruce is the best restaurant in south London, with its unusually appealing menu, consistent cooking and charming service. Roast chicken with wild rice was very enjoyable, as was a deeply flavoured pig head croquette.

Indian Zing is a reliable neighbourhood Indian restaurant, a cut above the many nearby places in Hammersmith. The cooking is good and the pricing fair, with a particularly good Malabar chicken curry being the best dish at this meal, though gobi mattur was also very good.

Delhi Social is one of the best Indian restaurants in London, with a head chef that formerly headed the kitchen of Black Salt. Methi chicken is a star dish here, but the standard is high throughout. They do a particularly good aloo gobi here.

Visiting Milan and Barolo

Rei Natura is near Alba, one of just two new three-star Michelin restaurants in Europe in 2026. Although it is in a pretty spot in the wine region of Barolo and has charming staff, the overall meal was quite unremarkable. The pricing is similar to a three-star restaurant in Paris, but the cooking is far from that. To me this is a long, long way from being a true three-star meal.

I had a much simpler meal the night before at a trattoria in Milan called Trattoria a Nuovo Macello. I had an exceptionally good risotto Milanese there, and ironically that dish (costing just €19) was better than anything that I ate at Rei Natura.

From Trafalgar Square to Victoria

Tozi is an Italian restaurant that is attached to a hotel in Victoria. Despite this unpromising setting the food was pretty good, and the large restaurant was very busy on the night of our visit. There is a shortage of good Italian food in London at present, and this was better than I expected it to be.

Gouqi is a high-end Chinese restaurant just off Trafalgar Square. Its chef has a classy pedigree and the food here is always excellent. At this meal we had a particularly good Peking duck, as well as a series of other excellent dishes. Even the hot and sour soup, a very common dish, was unusually good here, with subtle flavour and good balance.

From St James to Mayfair

Imperial Treasure is a high-end Chinese restaurant in St James. This time I went for lunch with some American friends, and we tried quite a few of the dim sum collection. Venison puff was a particular highlight, but the general standard was high here.

Row On 5 (pictured) earned a second Michelin star in 2026, and is the showcase for gifted chef Spencer Metzger. This meal was even more assured than my previous one here, and featured superb technical cooking of high-quality ingredients. The service here is terrific, and the wine list expertly looked after by sommelier Roxy. Row on 5 is the real deal.

From Soho to Mayfair

Tresind is a much-anticipated new Indian restaurant, sister of a 3 star restaurant in Dubai. Even a few days after opening, the service was slick, with a tasting menu format having dishes arriving at a steady pace. The modern Indian food was superb, with pretty presentation and bold flavours. It was great to see such a high standard of cooking so soon after opening.

Osteria Vibrato is an independent Italian restaurant in Soho, run by someone who was once a sommelier. This background shows in the unusually interesting wine list, but more importantly the food was very good too. The place was bustling and the only real issue was that the prices seem a touch high, though this did not seem to be deterring the customers at all.

From Marlow to Surbiton

The Hand and Flowers has a new head chef in the form of Sarah Hawyard. The menu now seems to be a mix of classic dishes from the former kitchen regime, plus some newer dishes that Sarah has introduced. I enjoyed an excellent duck liver parfait, and indeed the whole meal felt a notch up compared to my previous visits. That said, the bill was £224 a head for the four-course menu with just water to drink, and that is an awful lot of money when you consider the level of ingredients in the meal.

Koyal remains my favourite Indian restaurant in London. The standard of food is incredibly high, and at my latest meal we enjoyed classic dishes such as wild boar vindaloo, and newer ones such as beetroot tiikki. I was pleased to see that Koyal won an award this week at the Indian Restaurant Awards (held at the Lancaster Hotel in London). This was a new awards ceremony in which I was one of the five judges.

From Mayfair to, er, Mayfair

Yoshino is a long-established Japanese restaurant that moved location fairly recently due to a landlord dispute. The food here is very good, extending beyond its core sushi into other styles of Japanese cooking. It had a particularly charming manageress and the price seemed quite fair, especially these days.

I had one last visit to The Ritz in its original dining room. The restaurant will shortly move within the hotel, as part of a massive hotel refurbishment project that will unfold over several years. In due course it will return to the original site after a light spruce up. The meal this time was as lovely as ever, with a few new dishes sprinkled in with trusted favourites. This is the most complete high end dining experience in London, with smooth service, appealing dishes and exemplary technique.

From Ladbroke Grove to Mayfair

Sino is a Ukrainian restaurant run by a former soldier in the Ukrainian army who has fought in the war defending his country against Russian invasion. He takes dishes from his country and modernises them with a high degree of skill. This restaurant is welcoming, fairly priced and genuinely interesting. It is well worth your time, and the cooking at the meal I ate was of Michelin star standard. It is very popular already, so book ahead.

I had another lovely meal at The Cocochine, who have the good fortune to have first pick of the produce from a farm and a fishing port owned by one of their investors. This means that the produce quality, such as huge scallops and langoustines, and excellent lamb and venison, is of a very high level. The chef, who previously headed the kitchen of a starred restaurant (Petrus), now supplements the French style cooking with touches from his Sri Lankan homeland, making the cuisine distinctive.

From Mayfair to Southwark

Oudh 1722 is the high-profile London sister of two Michelin star Opheem in Birmingham. I think that I went too early, because at this early service there were quite a few teething issues, mostly around the temperature that dishes were delivered at. This was distracting, though to be honest if there are this many problems then why not charge half price for a few weeks while you iron out the issues? I like Opheem a lot and I am sure this will settle down in due course. I’ll try it again in a few months.

Lilibets is a popular British restaurant in Mayfair, offering an appealing menu of nicely cooked, crowd-pleasing dishes. The service was great and even the wine list wasn’t excessively priced by the standards of the area, so there is a lot to like about it. The restaurant was heaving on a weekday evening.

I actually had a short business trip to the US but had a chance to have just one lunch before my return flight. This was at Anjapar Chettinad Elite in Irving Texas, an area near Dallas that is rather like Southall in London in that has a large Indian community. The food here was pleasant and extremely reasonably priced.

From Putney to Kings Cross

The Yellow Bittern is a quirky Irish restaurant near Kings Cross. It served only a fixed menu, only takes cash, and the wine list is only partly written up, on a blackboard. The food is simple and no attempt is made at cheffy presentation, but the food was wholesome and enjoyable enough.

Raaz is an Indian restaurant in Putney. It has only been open four months and was already on its third head chef, so unsurprisingly this meal was not particularly inspiring. The cooking was erratic, with some entirely pleasant dishes but also some real errors, like some wildly overcooked prawns.

From Marylebone to Hatch End

Social Dhaba is a pleasant local Indian restaurant in Hatch End. It seems popular with the locals, and served some decent dishes at the meal that we tried. There was a very good black dhal and a nicely made garlic naan, as examples of some of the better dishes. Gajar halwa was also an enjoyable rendition of this classic dessert. Social Dhaba isn’t really a destination restaurant, but is a decent choice if you happened to be in that area.

Orrery has had a major refurbishment and has been relaunched with a high-profile chef. With just half the number of seats it has culinary ambitions, and a price tag to match. The meal that I tried had one exceptional dish and some other capable ones, but also rather too many issues and minor errors for the sky-high price tag. There were also some questionable choices of supplier that (for the coffee and caviar, for example) didn’t feel in line with the aspirations of the restaurant. This was early days and hopefully the kinks will be ironed out.

From Kensal Rise to Piccadilly

The Ritz is my favourite London fine dining restaurant, and it produced another superb sequence of dishes at my latest visit. Beef Wellington (pictured) was dazzling, and a rhubarb dessert was particularly good, but really the whole meal was just terrific. Add in the charming service and the lovely surroundings and you have a winning formula.

Parlour is a pub in Kensal Rise that I have not been to for quite some time. It has a lot of things in its favour, such as a classically trained chef/owner, and a penchant for reviving retro British dishes. It even smokes its own salmon on a smoker on the roof. However at this visit the head chef was absent and things had slipped. A chicken Kyiv was cooked too long and was rather dried out, and some vegetables were overcooked. This is a shame, as this used to be a regular haunt of mine. Hopefully it was just an off night.

From Wandsworth to Queensway

The old Whiteleys shopping centre in Queensway has been transformed into flats and a luxury hotel, the Six Senses. In this is a restaurant called Whiteleys Kitchen, which offers notionally a British menu. This was not very evident from the menu, but the problem was that the food was just not terribly good, and yet the prices were breathtakingly high (a small Dover sole dish was £100, for example). This was a smart place with good service, but the value for money factor here seemed way off.

By contrast, Chez Bruce is one of the more reliable restaurants in London. It has a very appealing menu, charming service and a pleasant location overlooking Wandsworth Common. At this latest meal we had a particularly good pigeon Wellington dish, which was a delight. As ever, the restaurant was very busy, and it is easy to see why.

From Hammersmith to Knightsbridge

Em Sherif is a Lebanese restaurant in Harrods, tucked away between various menswear designer sections on the second floor of the department store. It is an odd place for a restaurant, and the food felt like an afterthought. We tried quite a range of dishes, which ranged from acceptable to downright bad, and yet this is far from a cheap place. Part of a small chain of restaurants set up in the Middle East, I fail to see the appeal of Em Sherif.

The River Café is an institution in London, serving Italian food in a casual setting near the Thames in Hammersmith. It has always had a reputation for produce quality that is high but with prices to match. On previous visits I have never been convinced by the value for money factor, but at this latest meal the prices continued to spiral upwards but the food quality was down. An ordinary mini pizza and a disappointing risotto were very ordinary indeed, though a good lemon tart at least meant that the meal finished on a pleasing note. However, the prices are now steepling, especially for food at this level. The regulars seem entirely unperturbed, the dining room being busy, but this was a disappointing meal.

On another subject, I wrote a blog about the use of AI in restaurants.

From The Strand to Chiswick

Simpsons On The Strand has been a much anticipated opening, or rather a reopening, of the historic café and restaurant. Jeremey King has applied his usual eye for detail to the site, helped by a large dollop of investment. The large site now looks utterly gorgeous, including two lovely bars. The food was pleasant rather than inspiring, and objectively it was quite expensive for what it was. However, it is hard not to like the place.

The Kitchen in Chiswick is a place I was curious to try, partly because it was the site of the late lamented Hedone, a much beloved restaurant to me. Sadly The Kitchen was very ordinary, a smartly decorated pan Asian place where money and thought has been spent on the décor but not so much on the kitchen. The food is mostly Japanese, cooked by Brazilian kitchen staff who seem to have only a passing acquaintance with how Japanese food should look or taste. Ah well.

From Chelsea to Pimlico

Corenucopia is the casual sister of Core, and serves appealing dishes that are put together with skill. The Dover sole with lobster mousse, billed as “fish and chips”, was very good, and the service was charming. The expensive wine list is the main caveat, but the place is packed out, so the residents of Chelsea clearly are not fussed about that.

Cornus delivered another lovely meal this week, with a red mullet dish a particular highlight. The ingredient quality and technical skill here is high, and the room is attractive. The location, tucked away in Pimlico, means that it gets less attention than it deserves, but this is a top-class restaurant.

From Surbiton to Mayfair

Koyal continues to produce arguably the best Indian food in London right now. Its out-of-the-way location in Surbiton means that it does not get the attention it deserves, but the quality of the cooking there is second to none. Dishes at the latest meal, such as the wild boar vindaloo and superb tandoori prawns, confirmed just how very impressive it is, and all at a fraction of the price of fancier places in Mayfair.

The Cocochine in Mayfair is a French restaurant but with distinct Sri Lankan influences, reflecting the background of its head chef. I had another lovely meal there, with dishes such as charcoal grilled lobster kedgeree and scallop with pandan leaf amongst the highlights. A beef dish with a particularly good red wine-based sauce was also lovely.

Just a reminder that if you are interested in AI, I have recently published a book on this subject, available on Amazon. There is even a section about the use of AI in the wine industry.

From Hanover Square to Piccadilly

Mazarine in Hanover Square is a smart French restaurant whose kitchen has a chef with a serious pedigree. We had a very good meal here, with a lovely eel croquette canape being a particular highlight, as well as a beautifully cooked Dover sole dish. The expensive wine list is the main caveat.

The Ritz has been my favourite fine dining restaurant in London for quite some time. This latest meal showed the kitchen to be cruising along in top form. From familiar dishes such as the well-established canapes through to a superb veal dish and new desserts, this was high-class cooking.

From Euston to Hammersmith

Master Wei in Hammersmith (there is also a Holborn branch) served a wide range of noodle dishes and some other options too. Kung pao prawns were very good here, while the noodles themselves are authentic and well-made. This is casual, inexpensive place where the food is on the money.

Diwana Bhel Poori is a Euston institution, serving vegetarian Indian snacks and dosas for decades. The bhel poori and chaat here are very good indeed, and at an almost absurdly low price. The atmosphere is casual, with bare wooden tables and booths, and the service is efficient. This is surely one of the best value restaurants in London.

From Clapham to Westbourne Grove

Ploussard is a very enjoyable French restaurant in Clapham, serving well-made dishes from an appealing menu. A duck pithivier was a particular highlight, but so was a red mullet dish, and the standard of the dishes was fairly consistent throughout the tasting menu that we opted for. The wine list is also good, and the service was friendly.

Materia Prima in Westbourne Grove serves mainly Japanese dishes, with many ingredients imported directly from Japan. The technical skill in the kitchen is high, and there were some elaborate dishes that worked well despite their complexity. Across the tasting menu there were several really lovely dishes, and essentially no duds, with the ingredient quality shining through. The price is high, not helped by a heavily marked-up wine list, but servicew as excellent.