Into the Lockdown...

Saturday, November 07th , 2020

 

Benares is one of the capital’s major Indian restaurants and one of the first to gain a Michelin star. I have never been a big fan, but it has recently improved significantly with the advent of new head chef Sameer Taneja. We had a lovely meal this week, including a spectacular wild sea bass biryani en croute (pictured).

Zafferano used to be a regular haunt of mine back in its glory days, when it had a Michelin star and when Giorgio Locatelli and then Andy Needham were cooking there. It went into a slight decline when Andy left, but recently has been back on form with the advent of Daniel Camera, who used to be Andy’s sous chef, as its head chef. Our latest meal was very good, including lovely tagliolini with white truffles. 

Silver Birch is a new opening in Chiswick, with a head chef with a track record working in serious restaurants. Desserts were particularly good, showing the head chef's background as a pastry chef, and service was unusually slick for a local restaurant. 

The UK is now back in national lockdown, with all restaurants closed until at least early December. I’ll restart the blog when there are some restaurants open to review. In the meantime, stay safe.