November 2011

This week has been a busy week for celebrity-owned restaurant openings; usually surrounded by hype and publicity – but some of this week’s were decidedly mute with no opening date announced in advance.

The Westbury Hotel’s restaurant, formerly Artisan, reopened on Saturday as Alyn Williams at the Westbury. The 45 cover restaurant serves a menu inspired by contemporary French cuisine, cooked using British ingredients. It is the chef’s first restaurant with his own name above the door, having previously been head chef at the two Michelin starred Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley.

Across town, the first of Jamie Oliver’s Union Jacks restaurants opened quietly in the new Central St Giles development on Wednesday. The new chain is a collaboration with American chef Chris Bianco, and serves the pairs’ own take on pizza – flatbreads topped with British sourced ingredients baked in a wood-fired oven. Puddings are inspired by British classics, with arctic roll and sticky treacle tart alongside some out of the ordinary ice cream flavours such as “bramble ripple eton mess” and “snickers bar”.

In Kent, Chef Omar Allibhoy had continued his mission to bring “proper Spanish food to the UK” with a second branch of Tapas Revolution opening in the Bluewater Shopping Centre just a year after their first at the Westfield shopping centre. The restaurant features an open plan kitchen surrounded by a 30 meter long pewter bar which allows diners to watch as the chefs preparing the food. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

On Monday, Australian chef Bill Granger, who moved to London in 2009 opened his first UK restaurant. Granger & Co. on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill is the sixth restaurant for the self taught chef (with three each in Australia and Japan) and comes following a long search for as suitable UK site. In keeping with his cafés abroad, Granger and Co. will provide an informal setting for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Despite the opening not being announced, locals were quick to discover the café and Granger was left seeking additional waiters by the end of the week to keep up with demand.

Further south, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall opened River Cottage Canteen and Deli in Plymouth on Tuesday. The restaurant is situated in a Grade I listed former brewhouse, itself converted from naval use. Head chef Joe Draper will stay true to the River Cottage way by creating a menu from seasonal, locally sourced produce, taking advantage restaurant’s coastal location to incorporate plenty of seafood in the menus. As well as the restaurant, a deli area will offer a selection of locally grown and produced food for customers to take home.

Opening soon

Caprice Holdings latest opening,  34 on Grosvenor Square will open on the 24th. The menu will centre around steaks, cooked on the kitchen’s custom-made parrilla grill and will also feature fish and game.

Details are also starting to emerge for The Delaunay, the latest London opening from Rex Restaurant’s team Chris Corbin and Jeremy King. The Delaunay will follow a similar format to the pair’s Picadilly restaurant The Wolseley with a menu “inspired by the great cafés of Europe”.

Outside London, Sheffield pub The Millhouses has also been developed after closing earlier this year. It will reopen serving a locally sourced menu alongside cask ales and fine wines on November 24th.

Mishkin’s in Covent Garden opens for previews from Friday 25th November.

Johnnie Mountain, competitor in the North West heat of Great British Menu 2011 and owner of The English Pig in Farringdon, presented his second solo venture to the public on 7th November 2011. The Atrium, once owned by Antony Worrall Thompson, has undergone major renovation this year though the establishment’s name has been retained. The restaurant is split into two separate dining areas with a central kitchen area where Johnnie and his team can see and be seen. The main atrium is occupied by a fine dining restaurant offering a set two course lunchtime menu priced at £25, and a four course dinner menu at £40. Meanwhile a bar and brasserie serving lighter dishes including soups, burgers, pastas and salads is also open to diners in a separate area.

Also in London, MEATLiquor opened its doors on 7th November, four days ahead of schedule. The West End site is the first permanent (and stationary) venue for The Meatwagon team and follows the resounding successes of #meateasy, a pop up restaurant in New Cross, and a mobile burger van visiting popular haunts in south east London. The American-themed menu is largely based on the burgers which made chef, Yianni Papoutsis, so popular in previous ventures. There is also a selection of other dishes including dirty fried chicken, kurrywurst and devilled eggs. Of course, cocktail experts and previous collaborators Soul Shakers also remain to provide customers with a post-dinner cocktail from their unique drinks menu.

Anthony’s Restaurant Ltd already has three Leeds based establishments under their belt. However endless planning recently came to fruition and there is now a fourth restaurant in town in the shape of Rib Shakk. Located in Leeds Corn Exchange, Rib Shakk opened at 11:11am on 11th November (a combination of numbers considered extremely lucky by some). American head chef Billy Bob and his team are responsible for creating food suitable to be served in the pit style barbecue surroundings. Diners can choose from four mopping sauces to go alongside their beef or pork ribs. Burgers are served containing meat taken straight from the rib, and the combo platters allow the opportunity for diners to sample various offerings on the menu. To spice up your dinner experience (in more ways than one) Rib Shakk also offers the “Wall of Flames” challenge.

Opening soon

Mishkin’s, self-described as “a kind of jewish deli with cocktails” is due to open in London’s west end at the end of November. This will be the fifth London based restaurant venture for Russell Norman and Richard Beatty. You can follow the restaurant’s progress on Twitter @MishkinsWC2. Meanwhile, Australian chef Bill Granger will be making his UK debut in West London’s Notting Hill later this month. The restaurant, rumoured to be called “Granger & Co”, is expected to have a similar format to that of his existing Mediterranean and Asian restaurants in Australia and Japan.

The Michelin Guide 2012 has been released today, listing all the star-holding restaurants in the UK which have increased from 143 in 2011 to 153 for 2012. The Michelin Guide reserves its three stars for those restaurants deemed “exceptional and worth making a special journey for.” As in 2011, no restaurants were given this accolade in the 2012 guide. However there have been a number of movers and shakers elsewhere.

Two restaurants were promoted from one to two stars, highlighting them as “worth a detour”. Restaurant Sat Bains gained their second star after celebrating the twelfth anniversary of the restaurant’s opening the day before. The Nottingham restaurant offers a choice of tasting menus. These include a unique opportunity for diners to have a personalised ten course tasting menu prepared for them by restaurant chefs based on ingredients selected from a list provided by the restaurant. Tom Kerridge’s Marlow pub The Hand & Flowers has become the first pub to receive two Michelin stars, seven years after opening and six after the pub received its first star. The chef, who now boasts the world’s only two Michelin starred fish & chips, enjoyed a surge in interest at the start of the year when his dish of roast hog with salt baked potatoes and apple sauce received praise from the judges on BBC2 show The Great British Menu. The dish now features on the menu at The Hand and Flowers.

In London, new openings Dinner By Heston and Pollen Street Social were awarded their first star along with North Road and Hakkasan, Mayfair. This joins the company of the group’s Hakkasan, Hanway Place restaurant which already holds a single star.

However, it was outside London where Michelin awarded most of their new stars. Seven establishments in the rest of England received a star, including The Curlew Restaurant in Bodiam, East Sussex, meaning that the county now boasts two Michelin starred restaurants. Three Scotland-based restaurants received their first star, including Edinburgh’s Castle Terrace and Martin Wishart at Loch Lomand. One restaurant in Wales also joined the Michelin elite, bringing the number of single star holding restaurants in the country to four.

The number of pubs holding a single star now totals thirteen following a further three awards this year. These include the York-based Black Swan at Oldstead which has been run by its current Yorkshire born and bred team for five years. Critically acclaimed The Sir Charles Napier in Chinnor, Oxon is another winner, and the small, two room public house and restaurant The Butchers Arms in Eldersfield, Gloucester is the third victor.

The 2012 Michelin Guide also lists restaurants which have dropped stars. These include London based Pied a Terre and Tom Aikens which both reverted back to one star from their former two. The guide also dropped their “rising star” category, which has previously recognised restaurants with the potential of going onto win stars in future years.

The 100th Guide Michelin Great Britain and Ireland 2012 can be bought here