Category Archives: Restaurants

Is gen Z’s love of fried chicken pushing Britain to ‘peak pizza’?

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Competition intensifies as former chief of Domino’s says days of ‘massive growth’ are over

Pizza has become ubiquitous on British dinner plates, with chains such as Pizza Express, Franco Manca, Domino’s and Goodfella’s dominating the market – but is its popularity starting to cool?

Domino’s Pizza Group announced this week that its chief executive of two years had stepped down with immediate effect, less than two weeks after he appeared to suggest the UK may be approaching “peak pizza”.

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Cracker Barrel suspends remodeling plans after backlash over logo change

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US southern-style restaurant chain was met with outrage for changing branding to more minimalist style

Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it’s suspending plans to remodel its restaurants just weeks after reversing a logo change that ignited a political firestorm.

The 56-year-old restaurant chain, known for southern-style cooking and country-store aesthetic, faced intense backlash last month after unveiling a rebranding effort aimed at modernizing its image. The company rolled out a new minimalist logo and plans for more contemporary interiors, and it updated menu items.

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What the Cracker Barrel backlash shows about Maga’s influence on US culture

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What likely started as a routine refresh spiraled into a political storm that went all the way to the US president

It was supposed to be a simple rebrand – or so Cracker Barrel thought.

Earlier this month, the 56-year-old southern restaurant chain known for its country-store charm and nostalgic Americana aesthetic unveiled a new look: a minimalist logo, more modern interiors and a handful of new menu items.

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Cracker Barrel reverses course and will scrap new logo after intense backlash

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US restaurant chain previously said it would keep new logo despite some, including Trump and his son, criticizing it

Cracker Barrel, the 56-year-old US restaurant chain known for southern style cooking, has reversed course and will scrap the new minimalist logo it launched just days ago after intense backlash.

“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain,” the company posted on social media, referring to the picture of the overall-clad man – known as “Uncle Herschel” – leaning against a barrel that had been its calling card for decades.

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Washington DC restaurants suffer sharp drop in diners since Trump crackdown

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Eating out drops by up to 31% amid federal takeover of policing that Democrats call ‘stunt’ to distract from Epstein

The number of people eating at restaurants in Washington DC has plummeted since Donald Trump deployed federal troops to the city, according to data, as the president’s purported crackdown on crime continues.

Research by Open Table found that restaurant attendance was down every day last week compared with 2024, with the number of diners dipping by 31% on Wednesday, two days after Trump ordered the national guard to patrol Washington.

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Restaurant in China criticised for putting baby lion cuddles on menu

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Diners jump at chance to snuggle with cubs but wildlife experts accuse firm of ‘exploiting wild animals for selfies’

A restaurant in northern China has been criticised by animal welfare groups for offering an unusual item on the menu: lion cub cuddles.

According to a screenshot of a menu circulating on social media, Wanhui – a restaurant in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province – has a four-course set afternoon menu costing 1,192 yuan ($166/£124) that includes playtime with the in-house animals.

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Sweet dreams: dessert parlours help to revive UK’s high streets

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Market thought to be worth more than £500m as diners seek cheaper alternatives to the pub or a meal out

Dessert cafes and ice-cream parlours are hoping to play a role in a revival of UK high streets and the night-time economy, as people seek an alternative to going to the pub or an expensive meal out.

Their number has soared by almost 700 in the UK in the past decade, according to analysts at Green Street, formerly the Local Data Company, with outlets in places from Aberdeen to Plymouth.

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Mackerel stocks near breaking point because of overfishing, say experts

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North-east Atlantic mackerel in decline and Good Fish Guide says shoppers should look for other options

Mackerel stocks are nearing a “breaking point”, experts have said as the fish is downgraded as a sustainable option.

People should be eating herring instead, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) said, because mackerel continues to be overfished by countries including Norway and the UK.

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Hooters restaurant chain files for bankruptcy protection

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Founded in 1983, the restaurant known for waitresses in skimpy outfits has run into financial difficulties lately

Hooters, the US-based restaurant chain known for chicken wings and skimpy waitstaff outfits, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

HOA Restaurant Group filed the motion for chapter 11 protection Monday in the north Texas bankruptcy court in Dallas.

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Hospitality firms ‘to incur £1bn costs from employer NICs on 774,000 more workers’

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Industry body says businesses and jobs at risk unless Rachel Reeves’s tax changes delayed or altered

The hospitality industry will incur an extra £1bn of costs for 774,000 of its workers who will be newly eligible for employer national insurance contributions from April, endangering jobs and businesses, a leading industry body has claimed.

UKHospitality, which represents thousands of restaurants, hotels, pubs, cafes and nightclubs, is calling on the government to delay or alter changes to the tax announced in Rachel Reeves’s October’s budget in order to protect jobs.

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More than meatballs: Ikea opens its first UK standalone restaurant in London

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Diners hail ‘great price’ of dishes at Swedish furniture chain’s food outlet next door to its Hammersmith store

Its meatballs are as famous as its flatpack furniture, with a meal in one of its restaurants often the highlight of an Ikea trip.

Now shoppers can enjoy an Ikea meal without lugging around their kitchen sink – literally – as the furniture company has opened its first standalone restaurant on the UK high street in King Street in Hammersmith. Located next door to its west London city store, the space seats 75 people and serves a range of Swedish dishes.

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‘It’s desperation’: Ireland’s restaurant industry facing crisis with daily closures

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Rise in VAT, inflation and people working from home has led small business owners to demand government support

Blazing Salads, Dillingers, Assassination Custard and Brasserie Sixty Six in Dublin, Church Lane and Sage in County Cork, and Barnacles in Galway.

These are just some of the most recent additions to the list of more than 600 restaurants that have been forced to close in Ireland in the last year in what is being seen as a growing crisis for the country’s high street and tourist offering.

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Premier Inn owner Whitbread ramps up cost-cutting plans as tax rise looms

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Firm’s profits fall 22% and demand slows, with hospitality sector bracing for employer tax increase in budget

The Premier Inn owner, Whitbread, is ramping up its cost-cutting programme amid slowing demand, as the hospitality sector braces for a widely expected employer tax rise in this month’s budget.

The company, which owns the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurant chains as well as the UK’s biggest hotel brand, said its total revenues had been flat at £1.57bn in the six months to 29 August, while profit before tax fell by 22% year on year to £309m.

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Waiter! Soho’s cafe society confused after law changes on tipping

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Staff should now receive every penny paid in tips – including service charges

Whoever said it’s better to give than to receive wasn’t talking about tipping. Waiters around the UK should be starting to receive a £200m-a-year bonanza thanks to a new law that means every penny paid in tips, including service charges, on a restaurant bill will have to go to staff.

Yet exactly how much of the money will end up in servers’ pockets is unclear. The law was changed because some restaurants took service charges as part of their profits or to pay for overheads such as lighting.

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Hawksmoor for sale in deal that could value restaurant chain at £100m

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Investment bank Stephens hired to find suitors for business, which wants to expand overseas operations

The high-end steakhouse chain Hawksmoor has been put up for sale in a deal that could value it at about £100m.

The restaurant chain has hired the investment bank Stephens to start looking for potential suitors for the business, which is hoping to expand its overseas operation.

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Restaurateur Jeremy King continues comeback with opening of the Park

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After losing his empire in 2022, the lauded host is opening a ‘new world grand cafe’ in London’s Bayswater

This month, Jeremy King will open the Park, an all-day restaurant in Bayswater. It is the second of three big 2024 openings for the lauded restaurateur, who was behind the heydays of some of London’s most celebrated restaurants such as Le Caprice, the Ivy and the Wolseley.

It follows the launch of Arlington in January, King’s modern reboot of Le Caprice, once a favourite with the stars from Diana, Princess of Wales to Mick Jagger. Later in the year he’ll be reviving another stalwart, Simpson’s on the Strand.

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Saint Peter: Sydney eatery that cooks ‘most fascinating parts’ of fish makes World’s 50 Best Restaurants long list

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Chef Josh Niland ‘quite emotional’ to learn his seafood spot named in extended list of restaurants ranked 51 to 100

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has released its extended list – and the Sydney seafood spot Saint Peter has become the only Australian restaurant to make the cut, receiving praise for spearheading a movement.

In a tweet this week, World’s 50 Best described Josh Niland’s Saint Peter as a “ground-breaking” restaurant that “takes the great Australian seafood tradition to previously unexplored heights”.

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Fans queue round the block as tiny Mexican taco stand wins Michelin star

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There was more business than usual and some bemused regulars after El Califa de León was rewarded for its ‘exceptional’ offering

El Califa de León, an unassuming taco joint in Mexico City, measures just 3 metres by 3 metres and has space for only about six people to stand at a squeeze. Locals usually wait for 5 minutes between ordering and picking up their food.

All that changed on Wednesday, however, when it became the first Mexican taco stand ever to win a Michelin star, putting it in the exalted company of fine dining restaurants around the world, and drawing crowds like it has never seen.

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More than a third of children’s restaurant meals still exceed salt target

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Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Prezzo and Wetherspoon’s among worst offenders, Action on Salt survey suggests

More than a third of children’s main meals sold in restaurants still exceed the government’s maximum salt target, with Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Wetherspoon’s and Prezzo among the worst offenders, a survey suggests.

Action on Salt found that 37% of children’s main meals sold in the “out of home” sector exceeded the government-set maximum target of 1.71g of salt, to be achieved by the end of the year.

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‘We are disappearing’: chef Fadi Kattan aims to keep Palestinian heritage alive through food

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Palestinian restauranteur speaks from Bethlehem, where food stalls are sparse as farmlands are under attack

Fadi Kattan looked forlornly at the stalls inside the Bethlehem vegetable market bearing small quantities of oranges, watermelons and cauliflowers. “This stall should be heaped with products, he said. “And over there should be piles of aubergines and courgettes.”

The watermelons from Jenin looked too small for the season, while he wasn’t sure where the boxes of oranges were from. They would normally be from Gaza. At Um Nabil’s stall in the West Bank market where Kattan is a regular customer, she told him she could no longer afford to bring in the best small local cucumbers or piles of green cherries from her village of Artas.

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