Calorie Count Conundrum. Hilarious Year-End from Vittles. 'Meh' for Lolo. Critics & More.
Hayward gaga for Fonda. AngloThai lacks heat for Lander. Preston finds gold in the Tamil Crown.
Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2025. I hope you had a fabulous celebration — in whatever format is most fabulous to you — to ring in the new year. For what it’s worth, I’m optimistic and excited about 2025, in spite of political uncertainties and other downers. Today is my first day back to work, and I’ve already got some great lunches in the diary in the coming weeks. I’m looking forward to a lot more. Lots to talk cover this week. Ready? Let’s go.
Calorie Counts on Menus: Working?
Like a lot of people, I’m using January as an excuse to try to get back to some healthier eating habits. Nevertheless, I still want to be able to go out and enjoy a meal with friends or colleagues in a restaurant. Knowing where to turn for the healthy option can be tricky.
In 2022, the UK government mandated that businesses with more than 250 employees display calorie counts. Smaller businesses were asked to comply. According to the announcement, “information will need to be displayed on menus, online menus, third party apps, food delivery platforms and food labels at the point a customer is making their food and drink choices.”
This sort of nudge, in theory, sounds like it leapt straight from a Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler brainstorm — an idea that could genuinely help combat obesity by getting people to think a little more before they eat.
And at this particular moment, I am eager for this sort of helpful information.
But there are problems.
First, hardly anyone is complying with the mandate. In practice, if you look for calorie information on a menu, website, or delivery app, you’ll struggle to find it. (More on that in this week’s and next week’s reviews.)
Second, food that’s on the menu for less than thirty days is exempt, and there are lots of other exemptions which make the mandate easy to evade.
Third, experts warn that the counts “exacerbate eating disorders of all kinds.”
Finally, it may not actually help with obesity or anything else.
The Department of Health commissioned a study to assess the impact of the legislation, which was released in November. According to Megan Polden, a researcher at the University of Liverpool who led the study, “People did appear to be more knowledgeable about the number of calories in their meal. But that didn’t unfortunately lead to any change in the number of calories that people were actually consuming.”
A similar measure rolled out in the U.S. over the last few years, and the results are likewise mixed. According to one study, counts reduced the average order by around 50 calories, or about three Cadbury mini eggs.
Help! Healthy Dishes at Good Places?
Seriously. I need your help with this one. I’m looking for good restaurants that have an interesting, even unexpected, healthy or low-calorie option. For example, at The Delauney, there’s a menu of healthy options you can request from the maître d' that includes a delicious chopped salad. At the famous Capital Grill, in Washington, DC, there was a fantastic steak salad that wasn’t on the menu. Know of anything like this? Please tell me!
Year End: Searing + ROFLMAO
It’s fair to say that Jonathan Nunn may have reached a breaking point. In a wonderful end of year wrap, he manages some expert, incisive commentary on the state of food-focused media in London:
“This is a moment of steep decline, equivalent to the critical gutting that has happened across other cultural media. Food writers used to shape culture as much as they documented it; over the last five decades, the Standard and the Observer alone have given us Jane Grigson, Nigel Slater, Fay Maschler, Delia Smith and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It’s hard to see where their replacements are going to come from – not because there isn’t talent on social media, but because there is little ambition left in print media to take the subject of food seriously in the way it once did. Maybe this is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with a gurn and an undisclosed paid-partnership.”
And then he pivots to hilarious, high-level snark, including:
David Ellis’s appearance is here. Jay Rayner’s is here. The book promo is painful. And Grace Dent’s are here (from a year ago) and here, here, here, and here (from a couple of weeks ago). In her defense, the new ones are hilarious.
Then, Nunn closes with this…
I actually snorted at items 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. I didn’t understand the Singburi’s joke. But the suggestion that there will be a “new, as yet unheard of, regional American pizza style” had me doubled over. For context, I point you to this review from “Christina” at LOTI, praising Ria’s in Notting Hill for offering “the best Detroit-style pizza in London,” which does not exist and has never existed anywhere but Ria’s.
Lastly, I want to strongly second Jonathan’s praise for
and add my own appreciation for superb Substack writers like , and . In a London restaurant scene increasingly dominating by Tik Tok idiocy, it’s a pleasure to find a few people still doing the written word so well.And a huge thank you to the
team. Everything they do is brilliant.NYT Curates 9 Big Food Predictions
The New York Times food writer Kim Severson waded through dozens of trend reports from various food industry folk, then had chats with chefs, data analysts, and others to curate a list of the biggest forces in food for 2025.
Her list necessarily has an American accent, but some sound destined for these shores, too. They are fascinating and you should read them.
Inevitably, some are a bit…brave. Top WTF moments include:
“Coffee is starting to get the omakase treatment, in which customers are offered several courses of the drink in various preparations.”
“Hotels and restaurants are using A.I. and data analytics to make service more personal. Look for cozy counter service, soulful food served in comfortable dining rooms and shorter menus that mix value and deliciousness.” Better service is great, but please hold the creepy.
“New designer fruits and vegetables will begin to pop up with more regularity.” Will they feature at Wimbledon this June?
“Drinks spiked with cannabis and other mood-altering components like kava, guarana and a brain-calming amino acid known as GABA will explode as interest in alcohol declines, especially among Gen Zers.”
“Sourdough will migrate into pasta.” Heh?
As part of the trend towards greater focus on protein, “organ meats could catch on.” Fergus Henderson has only been waiting 30 years.
And finally, Kim wonders, “Is Oakland, Calif., the new ‘it’ food city?” I can answer that one: It isn’t. It really, really isn’t.
Hits & Misses
Mini-reviews of places that were either (a) good, but not quite good enough to do a full review and add to the Guide, (b) had a flaw or two, or (c) that I revisited following a prior review.
Meh: Lolo
I’ve invented a new rating this week — one that I don’t intend to use very often. My weekly reviews are intended as recommendations. If I want to warn about a place, I’ll do it as a “Miss” in a Monday update.
If a place is just “Meh,” I’ve generally chosen not to write about it at all.
But Lolo seems like a special case. When it opened in August, it was well reviewed by various critics including Charlotte Ivers, Catherine Hanly, Jules Pearson, and Jimi Famurewa in his final review for the Standard, who experienced a “soft-lit daydream of playful, punchy drinking snacks and burstingly fresh, high-glamour sharing dishes.”
And it’s from Jose Pizarro, the king of Bermondsey and purveyor of a sack full of great Spanish and tapas places.
So I had high expectations.
But Lolo was just, well, fine. “Quite good,” in the British sense.
The devilled eggs were yummy. The Gildas were delicious, perfectly stackable. The beef tartare starter was like a hundred others. My braised ox cheek main course was tasty, but overcooked. The cuttlefish with black squid ink sauce was excellent, but not very distinctive. The flan we shared for dessert was good, but not as good as the one at L’Oculto in Brockley, where in the early days, flan was in such high demand that you had a to prebook it with your table.
In all of the dishes we tried, only the red prawn carpaccio really stood out. The technique was stupendous — prawns sliced impossibly thin. The flavours were fantastic — orange and chilli balancing the sweet prawns perfectly.
Looking back at the early reviews, it’s clear that the menu during our visit was far more restrained than the opening menu. I wonder if Pizarro developed the original menu, but has left the seasonal evolution to the Lolo team. If so, our visit may be a better indication of the restaurant’s actual quality. Or maybe we just picked a bad day.
Normally, I would go back and try it again. But here’s the problem: There are so many good places in Bermondsey, including some from Pizarro himself, that I simply can’t be bothered.
So, my bottom line: If you go to Lolo, you’ll likely have a pleasant meal. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it. But it’s not that interesting, either.
If you’ve been, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.
Critics Wrap-Up
✍🏻 indicates a review that you should read for the writing.
🍽️ indicates a place that sounds excellent and is probably worth a try.
🍽️ Tim Hayward (FT) celebrates getting a booking at Fonda, the new spot in Heddon Street from Kol’s Santiago Lastra. “A tightly brilliant menu that’s actually within our reach.”
Sticking with the Mexican theme, the FT’s Miles Ellingham profiles Guacamole, which he calls the top taco place in London. “Last summer, a lucky encounter with Jonathan Nunn, the founding editor of popular newsletter Vittles, prompted a glowing review, extending the appeal of Guacamole’s beyond local Latinos. De la Torre, a deeply religious man, insists that God was acting through Nunn that day.”
Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) tries Chapel Market Kitchen, the Mediterranean place from chef Maoz Alonim. “My only sadness was over the half of the menu we didn’t eat: crudo misto, cured kingfish, sardines, beef fillet, fresh black truffle pasta. Dammit. I think I’ll go back tomorrow.”
Giles Coren (Times) heads to Canteen in Portobello Road, and spends the first 400 words of his 1,200 or 1,500 word column complaining that he writes too much. Eventually, he eats. “We ordered half a spatchcocked chicken (£36) that was always going to be great, but came out truly historic: the skin so skilfully crisped that it encased the sweet, fruity meat almost like a crust, sitting but not soaking in its rich lemon and oregano-scented juices.”
Tanya Gold (Spectator) follows me into the American trend, visiting Wingmans in Soho, but doesn’t like what she finds. “Inside are yellowish walls, an open kitchen and tables decorated with kitchen roll. I have not seen this before. Nor have I seen a restaurant where they offer rubber gloves before you eat, as if you were a murderer: or the chicken is.”
Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) reviews AngloThai in Mayfair and David Thompson’s Long Chim in Soho, which “was all a little slushier than my memories of food in Thailand.” And on Anglo Thai: “While I admire the Chantarasak’s overall ambition to open a restaurant that is rooted in Thailand but uniquely British, exclusively featuring food produced in Britain, I feel that they have taken this too far. An integral part of a Thai meal, one of its great charms in fact, is a bowl of jasmine rice at the beginning, the middle and the end of any meal, scooping up all that is left of the delicious sauces. But because it is not grown in the UK, rice is not served here but is substituted by oats and spelt, both heavier and certainly without the aroma.”
- (Braise) visits the Tamil Crown in Islington. Like its sister, the Tamil Prince, it’s a tough booking. “I’m afraid that when you cook this well, and price it fairly, you’re liable to pack the house, no matter what you call it.”
Catherine Hanly (Hot Dinners) checks out The Brave, a new pub in Islington. “It had only been open for a week or so, but clearly word had got out because the place was packed.” … “James's menu — both in the bar and restaurant section is an absolute treat.”
The Picky Glutton reviews Uzbek Corner in Bayswater. “While I’d be surprised if its unambitious menu is the best version of Uzbek cooking to be found in London, its undemanding yet comfortingly competent homeliness is ultimately a virtue rather than a vice.”
William Sitwell (Telegraph) recaps his favourite restaurants of 2024, and names Skof in Manchester the year’s best.
Grace Dent (Guardian) heads to the West Country. “Juliet is seriously worth a schlep to Stroud.” Jay Rayner (Observer) ate over-cooked chicken at Lucky Yu in Edinburgh.
David Ellis (Standard) and Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) didn’t publish reviews this week.
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I’m off to lunch.
I generally treat the calorie thing as an indicator whether the restaurant has over 250 staff, in case it's not immediately obvious. It's an easy way to avoid chains in disguise, where profit margins often take precedence over the quality of food and experience
Seconded - so touched you feel this way about our work, Marshall. Thank you. Lots more to come this year!