restaurant review

Why Chefs Send You to Firedoor

This is food cooked entirely over fire — no safety nets, no shortcuts. Chef Lennox Hastie isn’t trying to impress with foams and nitrogen; he’s communicating something primal. And in this world, every flame speaks a different language.

Top Dishes of the Year

I’ve never given anything ten out of ten. Not food, not sex, not a book, not a film, not an album, and certainly not a restaurant. Imagine the existential impasse, the cultural cul-de-sac of grading things immaculately.  What would be left, except to die the perfect death? To me, nine out of ten is the highest possible accolade. If you get a nine, that’s an idiot’s ten. But don’t be fooled – it’s still not perfect. Perfection can only be judged once you’ve tried everything else. When I’m on my deathbed, only then will I go back and revise all the eights and nines, because only then will I have…