Category Archives: Restaurants

Row over restaurant ‘wealth screening’ boils over in French resort of St-Tropez

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Mayor threatens sanctions over reported practices of large minimum spends and selecting diners by size of previous bills

The mayor of St-Tropez has threatened “racketeering” restaurateurs in the Med’s most famous – and overpriced – former fishing village with sanctions after reports that some are selecting diners by the size of previous bills and are setting minimum spends.

“These accusations are extremely shocking to me because they are unfortunately true,” Sylvie Siri told local media, adding that she “and the entire council are totally opposed to such despicable practices”, which were “ruining the town’s image”.

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Michel Roux Jr to close Le Gavroche restaurant for ‘better work-life balance’

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Chef announces closure of two-Michelin starred Mayfair institution, which originally opened in Chelsea in 1967

Michel Roux Jr has announced he is closing his renowned two-Michelin star London restaurant Le Gavroche.

The Mayfair institution will close its doors in January so the chef can step back from the daily stress of running one of the capital’s best-known restaurants.

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Three-Michelin-star Danish restaurant to relocate to London for one day

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Collaborative ‘series of bites’ to be served up as Noma looks to a future without its celebrated Copenhagen restaurant

Noma, the three-Michelin-star Danish restaurant that shocked foodies by announcing it would close at the end of 2024, is coming to London – for one day only – as it rolls out a series of spin-off ventures including its own seaweed farm on a remote fjord.

The Copenhagen restaurant, which charges 3,950 Danish kroner (£453) a person for a tasting menu of mostly foraged vegetables, will next month collaborate with a Mexican restaurant in Marylebone and a cocktail bar in Sea Containers House on the South Bank.

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Lima’s Central restaurant named world’s best in boost for Peruvian cuisine

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Peruvian eateries have been a fixture in top 50 list for close to a decade and now one has claimed the crown

While Peru’s archeology heritage began in the 20th century to attract millions of tourists to locations such as Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, the country’s cuisine remained one of South America’s best-kept secrets.

But in the last two decades, Peru’s food – a product of its rich range of crops, ecosystems and a particular history – has become a global brand, with restaurants opening in cities from San Francisco to Sydney.

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Panera to adopt palm-reading payment systems, sparking privacy fears

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Bakery is first restaurant chain to use Amazon One biometric technology, which faces scrutiny from lawmakers and activists

The US bakery and cafe chain Panera will soon allow customers to pay with the swipe of a palm, marking the first restaurant chain to implement the new technology and raising alarm among privacy advocates.

The company announced last week it would roll out biometric readers in coming months that will allow customers to access credit card and loyalty account information by scanning their palms. Called Amazon One, the system was developed by Amazon and is in use at some airports, stadiums and Whole Foods grocery stores.

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Chick-fil-A to test plant-based sandwich next week at three locations

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Fast food chain reportedly experimented with mushrooms and chickpeas before settling on breaded cauliflower

Chick-fil-A is jumping on the plant-based bandwagon.

The Atlanta-based chain said on Thursday that it’s testing its first plant-based entree – a breaded cauliflower sandwich – at restaurants in Denver; Charleston, South Carolina; and the Greensboro, North Carolina, area. The test begins 13 February.

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Wave of ‘sushi terrorism’ grips Japan’s restaurant world

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Signature cuisine is at the centre of a police investigation after customers at revolving sushi restaurants posted video clips of themselves meddling with dishes

There are breaches of etiquette – drenching your rice in soy sauce, for one – and then there are heinous acts of “sushi terrorism”.

Japan’s signature cuisine is at the centre of a police investigation after customers at revolving sushi restaurants posted video clips of themselves interfering with food and playing pranks on other customers.

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Revered Danish restaurant Noma to close for reinvention at end of 2024

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Copenhagen eatery, regularly ranked as one of world’s best, will become a test kitchen, billed as a food laboratory

The Copenhagen restaurant Noma, one of the world’s top eateries, with three Michelin stars, will close at the end of 2024 to reinvent itself as a food laboratory.

“To continue being Noma, we must change … Winter 2024 will be the last season of Noma as we know it,” the restaurant’s representatives wrote in a post on Instagram.

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Restaurant faces $1m fine for allegedly shortchanging young staff in Australia-first wage theft case

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Under Victoria’s wage theft laws the Macedon Lounge owner could be jailed if found guilty

A Victorian restaurant faces a potential fine of more than $1m and jail time for its owner, in an Australian-first wage theft case brought over allegations it underpaid workers by thousands of dollars.

The Wage Inspectorate Victoria has deployed the first criminal wage theft charges in Australia, filing a combined 94 against the Macedon Lounge, north-west of Melbourne, and its “officer”.

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‘Hummus is banned in my kitchen’: meet the chef bringing ‘the essence of Palestine’ to London

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Gourmet Fadi Kattan wants to give the UK capital an authentic taste of his homeland’s cuisine with a new restaurant venture

Akub, also known as gundelia, is an unruly plant that blossoms across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East after the winter rains. Some believe that the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’s head during the crucifixion was made from this long-lasting, sweet-smelling thistle.

It is foraged everywhere, from the Kurdish highlands and Cyprus to the Sinai peninsula, for its earthy, tender stems and delicate-tasting flower buds, but is most highly prized in Palestinian cuisine. Each spring, people defy the Israeli authorities – who say the plant is in danger of overcollection – to bring as many bags of prickly akub as they can carry back to their kitchens to throw into meat stews or fry with eggs and lemon.

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Sharing menus on the rise at UK restaurants as customers cut back

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Chefs are hoping the concept will tempt diners to spend a little more and fight the cost-of-living crisis

Linden Stores, in the Cheshire village of Audlem, has started a whole sharing menu of modern British food, with two people sharing seven dishes including charred pepper and Cornish Quartz cheddar croquettes, hake wrapped in wild boar pancetta and chocolate and peanut butter tart.

Laura Christie and her partner, Chris Boustead, relocated the restaurant to the village from London in 2020. She has been surprised by the reaction.

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Lucian Freud’s etching of Wolseley restaurant creator to be sold

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Artist dined at Mayfair restaurant almost every night in later years, and would sometimes share a table with co-founder Jeremy King

A portrait by Lucian Freud of the restaurateur behind the Wolseley, the Mayfair establishment where the artist dined nearly every evening in the last few years of his life, is to be sold next month.

Freud was completing the etching of Jeremy King when he died in 2011. The two had become friends over a period of about 30 years after Freud began dining at Le Caprice, another King establishment (and a favourite of Diana, Princess of Wales’s), and at the Wolseley when it opened in 2003.

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Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide named Australia’s restaurant of the year by Gourmet Traveller

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Chef Justin James combines native flavours and exotic botanics to create a 20-something-course menu

Adelaide’s Restaurant Botanic has won restaurant of the year at Gourmet Traveller’s annual awards night, which were announced in-person at a gala event on Tuesday, after being cancelled in 2020 and held online last year.

The restaurant, headed by chef Justin James and located in the middle of the South Australian capital’s botanic gardens, opened just 14 months ago after the gardens’ previous restaurant underwent a transformation. James uses plants from the surrounds, combining native flavours and more exotic botanics to create a 20-something-course menu that unfolds over at least four hours.

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Game over – the Ritz takes grouse off the menu in victory for environment campaigners

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Some restaurants are listening, with Corrigan’s not sourcing from intensive shoots and the Ritz not serving a Glorious Twelfth dish

From 12 August to early December, it’s usually possible to walk into old-fashioned fine dining establishments across the country and order the rare British delicacy that is grouse, frequently served with bread sauce and game chips.

But those hoping to eat the tiny game bird in the gilded Ritz dining room in London will be out of luck this year, as the world-famous hotel has quietly removed it from the menu after an outcry from environmental campaigners.

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Salt Bae’s London restaurant reports £7m in sales in its first three months

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Nusret Gökçe’s ‘ludicrous’ Nusr-Et Steakhouse charges more than £600 for a tomahawk steak

The London restaurant of Salt Bae, a flamboyant, condiment-sprinkling chef, has reported £7m in sales in its first three months.

Nusr-Et Steakhouse, the outlet at the Park Tower hotel in Knightsbridge known for outrageously priced items such as tomahawk steaks wrapped in gold, also made pre-tax profits of £2.3m in the year to December having only opened its doors in late September, according to accounts filed at Companies House first reported by The National.

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Australian restaurants on a knife edge as inflation bites and food costs soar

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Hospitality businesses adapt menus and cut staff hours amid cost-of-living pressures

Restaurants and cafes are constantly adapting their menus to try to mitigate the rising cost of produce and cutting staff hours, as inflation hits profit margins in the hospitality sector.

Jackie Middleton, who co-owns Earl Canteen, a small sandwich chain in Melbourne, and Dame, a high-end cafe on Collins Street, says not a single day goes by when she doesn’t get an email saying the price of a product has increased.

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Go fish: Danish scientists work on fungi-based seafood substitute

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Team call in Michelin-starred restaurant to help crack challenge of mimicking texture of seafood

From plant-based meat that “bleeds” to milk grown in a lab, fake meats and dairy have come a long way in recent years. But there is another alternative that scientists are training their sights on, one with the most challenging texture to recreate of all: seafood.

Scientists in Copenhagen are fermenting seaweed on fungi to develop the closest substitute for seafood yet, working with Alchemist, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, to meet demand from diners for sustainable plant-based alternatives that are as good as – or better than – the real thing.

Imitating the fibrous texture of seafood is a difficult achieve, and the team are experimenting with growing filamentous fungi, the micro-organisms found in soil that form a mass of intertwining strands, on seaweed, to create a single product that tastes of the sea.

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Floating Hong Kong restaurant capsizes in South China Sea

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Jumbo Floating Restaurant encountered ‘adverse weather’ after being towed away from territory’s harbour

One of Hong Kong’s most distinctive restaurants – the Jumbo Floating Restaurant – has capsized in the South China Sea, days after it was towed away from its home of 46 years in the territory’s Aberdeen harbour.

Its owners said in a statement on Monday that the restaurant had encountered adverse weather conditions when passing the Paracel Islands – also known as the Xisha Islands – on its way to an undisclosed location.

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Cash’s reign fades as Covid accelerates high street switch to card-only

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The trend towards cashless is creeping into food outlets

Popular restaurant chains which stopped taking cash during the pandemic have turned their backs on it long-term in the latest sign of Britain’s shift towards going cash-free.

Prezzo, Itsu and Côte Brasserie are on a growing list of restaurants that have gone card-only for good, citing reduced costs, quicker customer service and claims of improved hygiene.

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A beloved New York restaurant becomes place of unity for Ukraine

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Veselka, a restaurant raved about by celebrities and food critics alike, has become a meeting place and fundraising operation

In New York’s East Village neighborhood, home to a wide array of popular restaurants and bars, is a decades-old staple in the city’s famous food scene. Veselka, located in a smaller pocket of the area once known as “Little Ukraine”, now sits at the corner of food and international politics.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions and forced ordinary citizens to take up arms, or flee across borders to safety. Those problems aren’t just affecting the people of Ukraine, but thousands of their loved ones abroad – including some at this beloved New York restaurant.

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