Evening Standard, 9 April
Fay Maschler finds Apsleys at the Lanesborough struggling with its identity

Hotels are fascinating microcosms. Only the other day I read that if a guest rings down to reception to ask for an extra pillow it means they would like a hooker sent up. I feel sure that at The Lanesborough they would despatch only the finest goosedown. When this hotel opened in 1991 in the building that had previously housed St George’s Hospital, it did so in the grand manner (as envisaged by America owners) and in the teeth of a recession.
Apsleys - Evening Standard review in full >>


Are You Ready To Order, 10 April
Jan Moir finds the service and the food don’t quite go together at Apsleys

You wait all year to dine in a gilded hotel dining room, then two come along at once. Last week it was all chandeliers and lobster at the Ritz. This week it’s wagons roll half a mile westwards for clam soup and cannoli at Apsleys, the new Italian restaurant in the Lanesborough hotel.
Aspleys – Areyouredaytoorder review in full >>

Metro, 9 April
Marina O’Loughlin is impressed with the relaunched Café Boheme

It's easy to mistake Nick Jones for the sort of gilded figure who transforms everything he touches into a roaring, glittering, glamorous success. There's the Soho House phenomenon, as ludicrously popular among the movers and shakers of New York – fictionally but famously, even SATC's Samantha couldn't get in – as it is here. Plans are afoot for a global chain, with a forecasted two new openings a year in happening places such as Berlin, Chicago, Istanbul and Madrid.
Café Boheme – Metro review in full >>

Bloomberg, 4 April
Richard Vines finds Tristan Welch to be working wonders at Launceston Place

Tristan Welch isn't a household name or even one that UK foodies might know to drop. Not yet. Good. It means we can enjoy his dishes without paying through the nose or resorting to the corporate credit card. (Well, I did the latter, but you know what I mean.) He's cooking at Launceston Place, where the six-course tasting menu is £45 ($89.45), which is almost giving it away, such are London prices.
Launceston Place – Bloomberg review in full >>

Time Out, 3 April
Guy Dimond likes the cooking at Bord’eaux but finds the place lacks buzz

Esteemed chefs and smart hotels are a good marriage; the chef gets a top kitchen, plenty of back-up and a guaranteed stream of customers, while the hotel gets prestige from the association with a 'name' chef. Ollie Couillaud might not be a household name, but he does have an enviable reputation (gained mainly at La Trompette in Chiswick), which is now being given free rein at Bord'eaux.
Bord’eaux – Time Out review in full >>

By Kerstin Kühn