A Lunch Invitation. Revisiting Café François. Critics, Trends & More.
Bowles next up with Angus click-bait. Hayward parties for Trullo. Ellis time travels to Wiltons. Rayner disappointed by the Don.
Merry Christmas! The big day is upon us — for food, and wine, and everything. A proper feast. I hope yours is delicious and fills your heart as well as your stomach. If you’re cooking (as I am), I wish you smooth prep and low drama. And if Christmas is difficult for whatever reason (as it sometimes is for me), I wish you peace.
I’ll do some year-end stuff in next Monday’s update. Unsurprisingly, it’s a bit of a slow week for non-Christmas food news, but it has been a busy week for critics, so let’s dive in:
You’re Invited: Conversation Over Lunch
In my continuing partnership with One Question, we are planning our next Conversation Over Lunch. Reminder: We gather a select group of up to 8 interesting people for a discussion about a single question relating to business, society, or leadership.
This time, we’re trying Clipstone, a fantastic spot in Fitzrovia from the same people who are behind Quality Wines and Portland. Tickets are £75, which includes their epic-sounding three-course set-lunch plus wine and / or other drinks.
For the January session, we’ll be discussing “How do we listen better?”
It’s Thursday, 23 January at 12:15p.
If you’d like to join us, please register here.
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.
Hit: Café François (again)
I first visited Café François with Tim Hayward shortly after it opened, and I loved it. “Dirty French with a Montreal accent. Decadent but not fancy,” I said at the time.
I’ve been back three times since, and I’m even more convinced that Café François is one of the real gems of 2024.
I was particularly pleased that on a recent visit my companions were eager to try the “Foie gras, bacon and egg muffin à la Joe Beef.”
I’m not sure any dish better captures the ethos of the place. Joe Beef is the pioneer of Montreal’s dirty take on French, and Francois told Tim and I how it had inspired the development of Café François. This sandwich was sinfully good. The kind of thing that drips down your chin. And the flavours are just utterly delicious. Though I’m glad I had friends to share it with. I’m not sure I could have finished it on my own.
The flatbreads, and particularly the Moules marinière one, are also incredible.
And on a later visit, I finally had the chance to try the prime rib, which was so good that I forgot to photograph it.
Suffice to say that if you haven’t been to Café François as yet, you should go immediately. Well, actually, maybe better to get through your start of year effort to eat healthy first.
December Michelin Additions
Michelin announced its December additions to the UK Guide. Newly added London spots include the Arlington, Ibai, and Mary’s, plus Mignonette in Richmond and a number of other places. The 2025 Guide is scheduled to be launched on 10 February, and it will be interesting to see who grabs stars.
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.
✍🏻 Giles Coren (Times) has lunch with Jamie Oliver at Wildflowers in Pimlico. “His head nearly fell off when Jonny’s grilled Cornish sea bass arrived, striped with copper on its sparkling platinum side, shimmering on a saffron-yellow stew of potatoes, shellfish and citrus sauce vierge.” This is one of the best reviews Giles has written in a while, like he actually made an effort.
🍽️ David Ellis (Standard) loves Wiltons, the classic spot in St. James. “It offers elegance from a disappeared world; the price of admission covers transportation.” Wiltons is a favourite of mine, and it’s always at the top of its game.
🍽️ Tim Hayward (FT) revisits Trullo in Highbury. “With deep and contented love, I don’t review Trullo. I just wanted to celebrate what a thoroughly brilliant meal I had there. At a mere 15 years old, they deserve a properly raucous party.”
Grace Dent (Guardian) reviews Long Chin, the new place from Chef David Thompson, who, I gather, more or less single handedly brought Thai food to London at about the time that Marco Pierre White was discovering the whole country of France on the other side of the channel. “Thompson did not by any means invent the concept of Thai people eating – they’ve been managing perfectly well by themselves since the country was created in the 13th century – but he certainly dismantled the UK’s love of gelatinous yet sating pad Thais and of boiled chicken pieces swimming in tinned coconut milk and masquerading as green curry.” Grace appreciates Thompson but finds the new restaurant just okay.
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) revisits a youthful encounter with the Angus Steakhouse. I suspect this review was driven more by the Mail’s data boffins, who may have noticed that David Ellis’s lazy slating now ranks in the top 10 of Google search results for the miserable tourist trap. Bowles says that Angus “isn’t appallingly inedible. It’s just plain depressing.” Sort of like a national critic writing a click-bait review of a crap chain restaurant.
Jay Rayner (Observer) isn’t wild about The Don in the City. “The cooking is just terribly uneven, an issue which continues into dessert. A good rum baba is hard to make… It goes unfinished, a phrase I have never before written about a rum baba.”
- (Smashed) explores Umu, the Michelin-starred Kaiseki place in Mayfair. “Umu is very squarely aimed at the well-heeled, but if you can afford it, you are in for a serious and memorable treat.” I loved Umu when we ate there a few years ago. Glad to hear it’s still going strong.
Andy Hayler (independent critic) heads to the Rice Mill in Twickenham. “Rice Mill was a very enjoyable experience and I will be happy to return.”
“Christina” (LOTI) is the latest to try Fantômas, a “neighbourhood” spot in Chelsea. “There’s some exciting cookery here and the place definitely has a vibe, so dig out your credit card (did we mention it’s in Chelsea?) and just enjoy.” Every review I read of this place somehow makes me less interested in eating there.
✍🏻 A quill of writers from
have created a brilliant dining guide of eastern European restaurants of every national genre from across London. “After two decades of growth and a population that has exhausted its capacity to be surprised by spice, it feels like we’re at the start of a city-wide culture shift that moves this food from the permanently untrendy to sought-after. The long arc of history does, after all, bend towards dill.”Chris Pople (Cheese & Biscuits) tries Studio Voltaire in Clapham Common. “As long as they keep using that Hibachi machine in the way they are now, there'll be endless reasons to visit and revisit.”
Nick Harman (Foodepedia) checks out Slurp in Spitalfields. “The food is good at Slurp, authentic and no-nonsense and Dang’s bar is a surprisingly good space.”
✍🏻 Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) names her favourite meals of 2024, and her top spot is Restaurant Jericho in Nottinghamshire. In London, Ibai, Cloth, the Silver Birch, and Joséphine Bouchon also make her list.
Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) also recaps his meals of the year. His top in the UK was lunch at Camille, where my friends and I were a distraction. Glad we didn’t quite spoil it.
(Bald Flavours) was in Bristol to try Japanese spot, The Gallimaufry. Lilly Subbotin (Independent) reviews the Nest Farmhouse in Norfolk which “pays proper homage to local land and sea ingredients.”William Sitwell (Telegraph) travels to Bath to check out The Elder. The “first masterpiece was bread and consommé, or game tea... So tasty, warming, rich and nutritious, it was like Bovril on acid, good enough to wake a 5,000-year-old mummified iceman.”- (Braise) tries Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. It’s a classic, but although “the food isn’t bad per se (though it’s also not great…), it just feels like it’s been ripped from another time, preserved in aspic as a historical curio.” If I’d been in touch with Dominic before his trip, I would have suggested that he prioritise Galatoire’s over Commanders. Galatoire’s is the classic New Orleans spot that locals still visit because the food remains excellent. Key tip: For the real experience, you shouldn’t book. You must queue up to sit in the main dining room. The bookable dining room is for tourists, the result of Galatoire’s taking over the space next door a few years ago. And although a tie is no longer required for men (jackets still are), you should wear one anyway.
Holiday Reading: Corporate Affairs Trends
Usually, I keep this newsletter squarely focused on lunch, but if you’ll grant me a little holiday indulgence to drift more into the “Professional,” I wanted to share a report that I authored with an array of my FleishmanHillard UK colleagues.
It looks ahead at some key trends that Corporate Affairs leaders and others involved with communications will need to grapple with in 2025, covering issues from geopolitics to AI. I hope you’ll find it provocative and even useful. And if you’d like more information or perspective on any of the trends, please do get in touch. You can read the whole report here.
Thanks so much for reading Professional Lunch. I want to send my warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season to you and all of those closest to you.