Guy Dimond reviews

Thursday, October 16, 2008 - The Royal Institution has been championing science for more than two hundred years…The building's new £12 million refurb is as aesthetically discordant as a physics teacher's tie collection. Bright lighting, blood red chandeliers and plate glass walls clash with walls lined with bound copies of old science journals; a dark carpet in the dining room swallows light like a black hole. The café serves the usual pre-fab snacks and drinks...The dining room was a quiet as an anechoic chamber on our evening visit, with only one other table occupied.

Thursday, October 09, 2008 - Past the chichi deli which sells Italian-accented stuff for rich folk – a window-dressing exercise, with only token amounts of fresh wild mushrooms – is the main dining room. Angela Hartnett oversees the whole operation, but it’s chef Colin Buchan handling the Modern European menu.

Thursday, September 25, 2008 - No Thai restaurant is complete without a portrait of the king, but Rosa's has a picture of The King. Elvis Presley met King Bhumipol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand while filming 'GI Blues', and a portrait in the window proudly commemorates the event. It is just one sign that Rosa's is a refreshing departure from the norm.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Andaman is a collaboration between the St James's Hotel and Club, which has just reopened after an 18-month refurbishment with rooms costing from £200 per night; and chef Dieter Müller, who holds three Michelin stars for his restaurant Schlosshotel Lerbach in Germany...

Thursday, September 04, 2008 - This restaurant was hugger-mugger with Hartnett groupies, restaurant critics, PRs and food bloggers on our visit – and such is its instant popularity, we were lucky to be slotted into the only spare table they could find in Murano’s opening week. The reason? Angela Hartnett is behind it, and behind her is Gordon Ramsay’s PR machine.

Thursday, August 21, 2008 - Next street over is the relative safety of traffic-choked Denmark Street. This is where you’ll find the Giaconda Dining Room, which, with its black frontage, at first appears fittingly goth. But through the French windows and slatted blinds you might spot the wine rack that covers the rear wall, which already makes a statement about the ambition of this tiny, but smartly dressed dining room.

Thursday, July 31, 2008 - Recession my arse, I thought, gazing around the dining room. Large, important-looking men in dark suits seemed as comfortable as if they were in their own living rooms, the sort who clearly think nothing of spending three figures on dinner. Each. For this is The Connaught hotel (est 1897) – still the grande dame of London hotels, one of the last bastions of the bourgeoisie and still a place where they like things done properly and hang the cost.

Thursday, July 24, 2008 - Multi-starred French chef tires of cooking for provincial bumpkins, moves to London in pursuit of new challenges, and finds the reception mixed rather than rapturous. Sounds familiar? L’Ambassade is not the first of its kind, and is probably not the last.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 - This corner pub was given a facelift by the new owners at the end of 2007. It's now light-filled, with cream-coloured walls, old oak floorboards, candles on the tables and blackboard menus.

Thursday, May 22, 2008 - ‘The sucker table’, columnist and restaurant critic Jan Moir calls it. It’s the table where they put the losers, the nobodies, the ugly people, or the people who aren’t brassy enough to insist on somewhere better to sit. Like Jan, I’ve experienced more than my share of sucker tables, as you do when you visit a couple of hundred new restaurants every year, and do so anonymously. And the sucker table is where we were seated, behind the pillar at the top of the stairs.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - I suspect Sake no hana is one of those places you either love with a passion, or utterly fail to comprehend. It is definitely a place for people who adore Japanese food, and like eating and drinking outside their comfort zone.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - There is much to enjoy about Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester: attentive, friendly service; perfectly-executed cooking; a room that allows you to talk quietly and still be heard. Most, if not all, of our fellow customers appeared to be business diners, blending into the beige background. But it's the greedy pricing that ultimately spoils what would otherwise be a good meal out.