Standard Drops Restaurant Column. London Isn't Commuting. Critics & More.
Jay walks down memory lane at Giovanni's. Jimi and Grace join the Clubhouse. Tom eats Waygu. Sitwell tries Ibai.
Welcome new subscribers. Thanks for joining. Professional Lunch is a site dedicated to helping us spend more time together over lunch (or whatever) with colleagues and friends. I believe that if we’re going to take the trouble to travel to an office, we ought to make a special effort to gather face to face rather than just starring into another screen. To help, I created a Quick Reference Guide for eating in London across a range of occasions. It’s updated regularly. There’s also an interactive map with all of my recommendations. Each week, I do a Monday round-up of London restaurant news, tidbits relating to working life, and a summary of all of the professional critics’ reviews from the previous week. On Wednesday (usually), I publish a review of a restaurant that I’m happy to recommend. And occasionally, I throw in a feature, like my profile of Sunday Times critic Charlotte Ivers.
I would be very grateful if you would share the Guide or the whole site with friends or colleagues who are interested in joining the effort to make time for lunch, enjoy discovering a good restaurant, or agree that meetings are better when there’s food and drink involved.
One last thing: I’m eager to know where you’ve had a great meal recently. Can you drop a comment or hit reply and let me know? I’m working on my list of places to visit in the coming weeks.
Thanks! Now, on with the update…
Standard Kills Critic’s Beat. Famurewa Out.
I missed it last week, but on 29 August, Jimi Famurewa announced that the Standard was ending his restaurant column, and that he would return to freelancing. Not yet clear if David Ellis will continue to do occasional reviews.
spotted the news, and offered this spot-on observation:The ES is stopping its daily publication and going weekly. Who cares, it’s only been in print since 1859 so we’re only talking about 165 years of history. How long the weekly edition will last no one knows and it also remains to be seen whether it will have restaurant reviews at all. In any case, I hope Jimi gets another reviewing gig.
Jimi has attracted well-deserved accolades from everywhere. With respect to Charlotte and all of the others, Jimi is the best writer currently working a major restaurant beat. I hope to see him working elsewhere soon, but in the meantime, I think Londoners in particular will really miss his perspective.
Return to Work Isn’t Working for London
A study from the Centre for Cities examines working habits in London and other comparable global cities post-pandemic, in particular, digging deep into office workers’ commuting habits.
And London is the bottom.
Prior to COVID, London office workers averaged 4 days per week in the office. Today, that’s down to 2.7. In comparison, New York averages 3.1, Singapore is at 3.2, and Paris is 3.5.
And London will continue to lag no matter what steps employers might take, staying well behind other global cities:
The study also contradicts the widespread conventional wisdom that younger workers are the hardest to attract to the office. They aren’t. It’s older workers who are least likely to come in. And in this respect, London is unusual.
The whole report is worth downloading and reading. There is also some really interesting data about how employers and employees each see value of coming to the office. And there’s more coverage from the Times and the FT.
My own view that employers are getting it wrong. If managers want people to spend more time in the office, better efforts are needed to maximise the quality of time spent together. This isn’t (only) about lowering the costs of commuting. It’s about creating better experiences. And on this, employers and employees agree: Both groups name “Stronger relationships with colleagues” as the top benefit of coming to the office.
I have argued several times that planned group lunches are the best incentive. They provide a specific reason to come in. And the conversations over lunch are much more fruitful than a comparable hour spent on Teams.
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: Jerome’s Wine Bar
Disclosure: I’ve been hiding Jerome’s. I don’t really want everyone to know about it.
Why? Because it’s perfect.
It’s in in Crofton Park, and offers a fantastic selection of wines at every price point. There’s a great selection in the shop at the front, a lovely mix of by-the-glass choices, and a secret menu of higher end stuff that would please any collector.
There are plates of charcuterie and cheese as well as other snacks. All delicious. And there are pinsas — Jerome’s French-accented take on pizza, which are simply superb.
It’s comfortable and cozy. A place to hang out with friends or grab a quick dinner and a glass of wine after work. The kind of place you bump into friends and neighbours, but you’d be happy visiting even if you had to travel a little.
In short, it’s incredible. But it’s my secret. Please don’t go.
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.
✍🏻 🍽️ Jay Rayner (Observer) unlocks childhood memories at Covent Garden stalwart Giovanni’s, a long-time favourite of mine. “The food is exactly what you want it to be.” … “There are places in London playfully reimagining the Italian culinary experience. Giovanni’s is most certainly not one of them.”
🍽️ William Sitwell (Telegraph) is seemingly the last major critic to review Ibai. Spoiler: He liked it, just like everyone else. “It’s a triumphant chest bump of a restaurant shrouded in concrete, steel and glass.”
✍🏻 🍽️ Jimi Famurewa (Standard) reviews Ambassadors Clubhouse, the newest place from JKS restaurants. It “is a typically fine-drawn love letter to the princely flavours and riotous drinking traditions of the undivided Punjab.”
🍽️ Grace Dent (Guardian) also tries Ambassadors Clubhouse. “This is a menu that aims to serve authentic food from undivided Punjab – both India and Pakistan – without Anglifying, Frenchifying or anything else-ifying it. Expect heat, traditional names and matka sauces in darker hues.”
Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) heads to Xi Home, hard core Szechuan in Edgeware Road. “An utter joy.”
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) visits Kanpai Classic, the new Japanese Waygu spot in Soho. “The food, mainly wagyu (the collective name for four specific breeds of native Japanese cattle), exquisitely marbled and exquisitely expensive, chopped into tartares, stuffed into gyozas and draped over soft lozenges of exceptional vinegared rice.”
Andy Hayler (independent critic) revisits Hakasan in Mayfair. “Hakkasan offers a very consistent experience and while it may not be at the cutting edge of Chinese cuisine, that is not what it is aiming for. What it does well is a very appealing menu of carefully cooked dishes using good ingredients, combined with slick service in a smart setting.”
🍽️ Gavin Hanly (Hot Dinners) tries the new City outlet of Sri Lankan-focused Kolamba. “You'll find much to enjoy here.”
Christina (LOTI) checks out Ria’s in Notting Hill. “Ria’s is doing some of the best Detroit-style pizza in London; you can actually eat a fair amount without feeling weighed down and wiped out, which hasn’t always been our experience with Detroit pies.” Note: I’ve never heard of Detroit style pizza. Let alone that there is more than one place in London to eat it. And I checked with someone who is from Detroit. There is absolutely no such thing as Detroit pizza. So, this one gets a big ‘WTF?’ from me.
🍽️ Amanda David (Chatting Food) heads to Köd, a new Danish steakhouse in Soho. “KöD means 'meat' in Danish, and they definitely deliver.”
Chris Pope (Cheese & Biscuits) visits Mampen in the Sun pub in Soho for Cambodian. “But if you can be accessible and interesting, using Cambodian cuisine as inspiration while still serving a menu full of dishes people want to eat in a country 6,000 miles away (and believe me, you'll want to eat all of it), then you end up with something quite special.”
✍🏻 Tim Hayward (FT) pens an interesting piece on the amateurish quality of British hospitality. “Service levels have gone down as prices have gone up and what is slowly dawning on us all is that this situation is unlikely to reverse in our lifetimes.”
✍🏻 Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) has a lovely postcard on eating in Bhutan. “What was truly memorable about our few days eating in Bhutan was the juxtaposition of quintessentially Bhutanese dishes with truly unforgettable locations.”
Lily Subbotin (Independent) was in Yorkshire. Tanya Gold (Spectator) was in Cornwall. Marina O’Loughlin (independent critic) was in Broadstairs. Giles Coren (Times) seems to have been off this week.
Thanks so much for reading. I’d love to know what you think about the end of the Standard’s restaurant beat and your views on working from an office in central London. How often are you and your colleagues going to the office? Any interesting policies? Drop a comment or hit reply and let me know.
I’m off to lunch…