Aquatic-themed pieces will make up what is believed to be one of the most expensive collections of new artworks created for a London restaurant
pectacular aquatic-themed artworks by Damien Hirst and Los Angeles “starchitect” Frank Gehry are being installed at the opulent seafood brasserie opening in the heart of Mayfair later this month.
Restaurant and clubs tycoon Richard Caring — owner of The Ivy, Le Caprice and 34 — has commissioned the installations for the launch of his Sexy Fish venue on Berkeley Square.
It is believed to be one the most expensive collections of new artworks created for a London restaurant, where early diners are expected to include Kate Moss, Jourdan Dunn and Harry Styles.
Mr Gehry’s works include a 13ft crocodile made from metal wire, glossy black Formica ColourCore and silicone that will dominate the 190-seat dining room in an old NatWest banking hall.
The designer, who was behind the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, has also created 20 of his trademark fish lamps, the most in the world for a single venue. They will hang above the bar in front of a huge internal waterwall. Damien Hirst, said to be the world’s first dollar billionaire artist, has contributed a pair of bronze mermaids that will book-end the bar and a bronze relief of a mermaid alongside a shark.
Grace Dent has some serious fungi at Sackville’s
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Fay Maschler finds much to enjoy at Robin Gill’s third restaurant
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Fay Maschler find Indian home cooking without the air travel
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Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures
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Read Fay Maschler’s review of Le Chabanais
Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd
Grace Dent struggles to see the appeal — or very much else — of Aqua Nueva
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Fay Maschler is mostly charmed by Sir Terence Conran’s update of Les Deux Salons
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Adrian Lourie
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David Sexton thinks Social Wine & Tapas is Jason Atherton’s best restaurant yet
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David Sexton adores the Ivy following its update.
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Picture: Paul Winch-Furness
Paul Winch-Furness
Grace Dent gives late-night dim sum bar and “social experience” Fu Manchu the chop
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Daniel Hambury
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Grace Dent takes the temperature in post-election Dalston at Chick ’n’ Sours
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Fay Maschler finds Wolfe a blessed relief
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Fay Maschler finds Stevie Parle’s Craft London mind-altering
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Adrian Lourie
Fay Maschler finds Queenswood too healthy by half
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Fay Maschler isn’t sure this long anticipated restaurant was worth the wait
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Fay Maschler isn’t convinced by a menu which feels compiled by a trend-aware committee
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Grace Dent relieves her FOMO and returns to Kitty Fisher’s
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(Picture: Alex Maguire)
Alex Maguire
Fay Maschler says the lunchtime dim sum was in a way the most impressive dish at this rather stylish restaurant attached to the Dorsett Hotel
The Culpeper in Spitalfields is just what the doctor ordered, says Fay Maschler
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Fay Maschler enjoys the oven-roasted meats and “brindis” at this new Spanish restaurant, but finds the serving sizes a little mean
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Picture: Matt Writtle
It may not be the healthiest food, but David Sexton thoroughly enjoyed the “faultlessly done” Pedler
Picture: Matt Writtle
David Sexton savours the decadent taste of Kobe beef at this highly authentic Japanese restaurant
Picture: Matt Writtle
It hits the visitor attraction market with slightly disheartening accuracy, says David Sexton
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Expect food with attitude and attack at Jan Lee’s new Korean and Mexican mash-up in Soho, says Fay Maschler
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Grace Dent strikes it unlucky at The O2
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Blixen aims to satisfy all, says Fay Maschler, from the morning coffee drinker to the late-night bar settlers
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Will Clos Maggiore, London’s most romantic restaurant, live up to Grace Dent’s expectations?
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Clos Maggiore
As the Year of the Sheep approaches, Fay Maschler visits a new Chinese (ish) restaurant in Harrods with ludicrous pricing
Read Fay Maschler’s review of Chai Wu at Harrods
Head to Haggerston for a lively, chilli-infused night of London’s best street food with the return of the ever-popular Street Feast, says Pippa Bailey
Read Pippa Bailey’s review of Hawker House Street Feast
The Gaztronome
Grace Dent goes up the Walkie Talkie to sample the Fenchurch Seafood Bar & Grill
Read Grace Dent’s review of Fenchurch Seafood Bar and Grill
At Claude Compton’s renovated Fulham pub, Fay Maschler finds the most finesse in a pudding of Cox apple and quince crispy pie
Read Fay’s review of The Tommy Tucker
Matt Writtle
At this Peckham deli, you’ll find the sort of home cooking you would expect if you were lucky enough to live with a top chef, says Susannah Butter
Read Susannah Butter’s review of Persepolis
Grace Dent would go back for seconds at Babaji but only if it moves house
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Grace Dent balks at Pure Taste’s caveman diet
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Don’t faff around with side dishes at Ippudo — go for a bolstering bowl of ramen and be off again, says Victoria Stewart
Read Victoria Stewart’s review of Ippudo
© Ming Tang-Evans
Craft is lacking at this ‘craft meats’ restaurant, says Richard Godwin
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The Gaztronome
Blankets, heaters and fire-pits ensure brunchers stay warm as they lounge on Bedouin-inspired double beds
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Grace Dent blows her Christmas dinner budget at Roka Aldwych
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Already in mid-January, Fay Maschler finds one of her best dishes of the year at Portland — she just hopes the noise levels die down
Read Fay’s review of Portland
Fay Maschler can’t wait to go back to Kitty Fisher’s, the new wood-fired project from Young British Foodie Chef of the Year 2014 Tomos Parry and former Pitt Cue Co sous-chef Chris Leach
Read Fay’s review of Kitty Fisher’s
The latest venture from the guys who brought us Goodman, Beast, and Burger & Lobster is indeed another way in which people can think about a fish restaurant, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Rex & Mariano
This new Islington offering is perhaps best understood as a temple rather than a pub, and eating there as a rite of belonging and respect rather than hoggish gratification, says David Sexton
Read David’s review of Riverford
Grace Dent enjoys the ride at Carousel pop-up
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A significant addition to Clapham showing punters the sort of merrymaking that needn’t break the bank or all dietary resolve, says Fay Maschler
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This ‘residency’ offers high-class filthy fare that’s excellent value, but it’s lacking in a bit of good old Southern charm, says Richard Godwin
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Café Pistou has replaced what was a Strada on Exmouth Market, but is this actually progress, asks Fay Maschler?
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Grace Dent can’t quite find her sea legs at Sea Containers on the South Bank
Read Grace’s review of Sea Containers
This Danish daytime cafe does cosiness, as well as smørrebrød, meatballs and akvavit, very well, says Nick Curtis
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The Greek Larder, the new restaurant from Theodore Kyriakou, feels like a Greek version of Bill’s “breakfast to bedtime” restaurants, says Fay Maschler
Read Grace’s review of Sea Containers
And on the seventh day Grace Dent finds succour at The Morgan Arms
Read Grace’s review of The Morgan Arms
The food is well-executed and imaginative at this Aussie joint, although it’s still more of a cafe than a restaurant, says Andrew Neather
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Andy Oliver has devised dishes inspired by northern and north-eastern Thailand that shock and awe, says Fay Maschler
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This is saucy Thai food worth dirtying your nails and wrecking your shirt for, says Fay Maschler
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Grace Dent is left feeling limp after a trip to Herman Ze German
Read Grace’s review of Herman Ze German
Front-of-house is disorderly and prices are grabby, but late licensing, no membership and live entertainment will keep the revamped Quaglino’s busy, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Quaglino’s
This cafe downstairs in a Shoreditch design store serves potent coffee and open sandwiches that are tiny artworks, says Jasmine Gardner
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Grace Dent gears up for some competitive eating at Tredwell’s
Read Grace’s review of Tredwell’s
There is nothing contrived, tricksy or evasive about Skye Gyngell’s dishes, just an innate understanding of what goes with what, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Spring
Hawaiian-themed hideaway Pond Dalston makes Grace Dent eat her words
Read Grace’s review of Pond Dalston
Tweak the food at Bourne & Hollingsworth’s debut drinking, dining and dancing destination and Farringdon’s finest will flock here, says Susannah Butter
Read Susannah’s review of Bourne & Hollingsworth
Chelsea needs more sound restaurants, and this is one, says Fay Maschler
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Grace Dent finds delightful mouthfuls but a dingy ambience at Kirazu
Read Grace’s review of Kirazu
The menu with divisions of Small Plates, Larger Dishes, Dishes for the Table, Raw, Flatbreads, Market Salads and Accompaniments and the wearisome counsel that the “farm-to-table” food will be sent out from the kitchen when it is ready is a letdown. The list would not look out of place at a mildly ambitious gastropub.
Read Fay’s review of Sea Containers at Mondrian London
Tredwell’s isn’t incompetent, it’s cynical, says David Sexton, with the food designed to make an impact on customers used to eating fast food, industrial snacks, barbecues and curries
Read David’s review of Tredwell’s
Grace Dent eats her words – and some juicy burgers – at Bobo Social
Read Grace’s review of Bobo Social
You could be in an airport or hotel, or, come to that, an airport hotel, anywhere in the world that brute modernism ever scarred, says David Sexton
Read David Sexton’s review of Tom’s Kitchen
Grace Dent gets a sinking feeling at the dockside branch of Tom’s Kitchen
Read Grace’s review of Tom’s Kitchen
This 24-hour café near Liverpool Street station is not really a sober destination restaurant, which is a shame says Rosamund Urwin
Read Rosamund’s review of Polo Bar
L’Amorosa’s commitment to the best possible ingredients served in a way that allows them to speak for themselves is impeccable: comparable to that at the River Café or anywhere else, says David Sexton
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I suspect Pond Dalston will work best in the bar area with snacks and small plates, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Pond Dalston
Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures
Grace Dent feels decidedly unhip at this east London restaurant
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This restaurant’s head chef Emerson Amelio has definite talent, but they are being garrotted by misdirected energy and ambition, says Fay Maschler
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Grace Dent gives Cafe Football a red card
Read Grace’s review of Cafe Football
This new restaurant from the owners of the Seven tapas bar is like a DIY Spuntino on speed, says Andrew Neather
Read Andrew’s review of Three Eight Four
This new restaurant shows burgers can be a three-course event rather than fast food, but I won’t be going back to fashion an alligator one, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Bobo Social
In a particularly unprepossessing stretch of Hammersmith, Toro Gordo transports you to a mythical place where Spain meets Asia
Read Fay’s review of Toro Gorde
Grace Dent is wooed back to Hoxton by Merchants Tavern
Read Grace’s review of Merchants Tavern
Every Tube and rail station needs a bar like this, says Andrew Neather
Read Andrew’s review of WC Wine & Charcuterie
Fay Maschler would recommend eating à la carte at this under-the-radar restaurant in Crouch End, which sources most of its daily-changing menu from a Buckinghamshire Farm
Pic: Adrian Lourie
Grace Dent abhors the self-service at DF Mexico but loves the tacos enough to go back
Read Grace’s review of DF Mexico
Parts of the meal — namely the ox liver — are disappointingly “meh” but the doughnuts are ambrosial, says Rosamund Urwin
Read Rosamund’s review of St John Bakery Room
Despite a corny first impression, Fay Maschler and her dining companions are captivated by this South Kensington brasserie
Read Fay’s review of Brasserie Gustave
Grace Dent does a Kim Kardashian and goes for a Levantine at Arabica Bar & Kitchen
Read Grace’s review of Arabica Bar & Kitchen
It’s a gallery but you wouldn’t come here for the art — coffee is the primary concern and it’s taken seriously, says Susannah Butter
Read Susannah’s review of Curators Coffee Gallery
Fay Maschler visits a Limehouse Chinese restaurant with a leaning towards Northeastern and Sichuan styles
Read Fay’s review of Shanshuijian
Fay Maschler visits a low-key neighbourhood restaurant recently opened by Guo Yue, an internationally renowned Chinese musician who has a passion for food and cooking
Read Fay’s review of The Bamboo Flute
Pic: Glenn Copus
Grace Dent finds the sauce of Italian food at L’Anima Café
Read Grace’s review of L’Anima Café
This ‘Mom & Pop’ restaurant is welcome in Battersea Rise, a street choked with catering chains — but the food doesn’t live up to the chef’s starry CV, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Sinabro
Grace Dent would like to Stay Another Day at Eat 17
Read Grace’s review of Eat 17
Younger members of the family of Luis Gordon, Rose and Sophie, have just opened their own restaurant and bar on Villiers Street and have given it a great look says David Sexton
Read David’s review of Villiers Street Coffee Company and Dining Room
Greek cooking must evolve, innovate and dare, says Fay Maschler, but Opso in Marylebone has missed this opportunity
Read Fay’s review of Opso
Grace Dent braves the Leicester Square savages and parties on at The Palomar
Read Grace’s review of The Palomar
A secret world just getting on with its own thing – Victoria Stewart is glad she made the trek to Wapping for Toby Allen’s magic new Sunday market
Read Victoria’s review of Wapping Market
(Pics: Toby Allen)
The new outpost of Sam and Eddie Hart’s tapas restaurant is an exercise in perfect simplicity and a fabulously good place to have a vivacious, ambrosial and, incidentally, healthy meal, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Barrafina Adelaide Street
If I had to select an emoji to denote my expression when editors suggest I review ‘posh’ chicken joints, it would be the flat-line mouth smiley that signifies: ‘Are you kidding?’ says Grace Dent
Read Grace’s review of Fire and Feathers
The attempt to recast this huge old Victorian boozer as a food pub is a failure, says Nick Curtis
Read Nick’s review of The Latchmere
Pic: Matt Writtle
Matt Writtle
Fay Maschler is thrilled to discover this new Notting Hill restaurant before its PR machine whirrs into action — and finds some ethereal and extraordinary dishes
Read Fay’s review of Wormwood
Grace Dent leaves Fischer’s in a Viennese whirl, doggy bag in hand
Read Grace’s review of Fischer’s
It would be lovely to think that a small business such as this could find a niche — but it’s hard to escape the sense that the place is simply out of time, says Richard Godwin
Read Richard’s review of Bottega Friulana
Pic: Matt Writtle
Treated just as a wine bar, this place is great — but it would feel much buzzier and younger were it in Soho or Fitzrovia, says David Sexton
Read David’s review of Bilbao Berria
Grace Dent visits Ham Yard to see if it cuts the mustard
Read Grace’s review of Ham Yard
Originally launched in Walthamstow, Eat 17 is giving Clapton its first taste of bistro dining, says Karen Dacre
Read Karen’s review of Eat 17
The meal resembled top-notch in-flight service in first class, while the room could have been an airport’s luxury lounge. But if you work in the City and need to entertain, City Social will do you proud, says David Sexton
Read David’s review of City Social
Grace Dent goes on an emotional trip down memory lane at Fera at Claridge’s
Read Grace’s review of Fera at Claridge’s
Chelsea mums have stolen their children’s drinking hole and put cheese slates and cauliflower tart on the menu, says Joshi Herrmann
Read Joshi’s review of The Imperial
Adam Simmonds’s cooking is skilful and delivers plenty of luxurious complexity for the price, says David Sexton
Read David’s review of Pavilion
Q-Grill has filleted the London restaurant scene and come up with something smoking says Grace Dent
Read Grace’s review of Q-Grill
The laid back, modish vibe at chef David Gingell’s first venture is well complemented by tasty and fulfilling food, says Nick Curtis
Read Nick’s review of Primeur
Adrian Lourie
There’s no faulting the professionalism of Corbin & King’s latest restaurant, but there’s a reason there are not Austrian restaurants like this in London, says David Sexton
Read David’s review of Fischer’s
Grace Dent roars about Beast’s exclusivity but raves about it, nonetheless
Read Grace’s review of Beast
A version of Israel’s hippest restaurant may be the most interesting restaurant experience in London right now, says David Sexton
Read David’s review of The Palomar
Adrian Lourie
Grace Dent goes for a Georgian and gets a history lesson at Marani
Read Grace’s review of Marani
This is the kind of place to drop in for a drink and a plate rather than a full-blown meal, says Katie Law
Read Katie’s review of Canela
Chef Lee Westcott, backed by the ubiquitous Jason Atherton, has triumphed with the menu and design at the Town Hall Hotel, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Typing Room
The dishes we try are for the most part excellent, but ultimately Alain Ducasse has created a soulless blueprint of branded gastronomy, says Fay Maschler
Read Fay’s review of Rivea at The Bulgari Hotel
The London Fields crowd will soon be flocking here, says Jasmine Gardner
Read Jasmine’s review of Raw Duck
A ravenous Grace Dent pigs out at Barnyard.
Read Grace’s review of Barnyard
Simon Rogan has confided that he is aiming for three Michelin stars at Claridge’s, but Fay Maschler wouldn’t pay her own money for this food
Read Fay’s review of Fera at Claridge’s
Grace Dent finds everything is not in order at The Cat & Mutton.
Read Grace’s review of Blanchette
Not a fan of set price tasting menus, Fay Maschler vows to next visit Lyle’s, the new Shoreditch restaurant from James Lowe, at lunchtime so she can pick and choose and gambol through the wine list
Read Fay’s review of Lyle’s
Other features at the Martin Brudnizki-designed restaurant include a huge ceiling mural created by Michael Roberts, style editor-at-large of Vanity Fair, and what is claimed to be the world’s largest coral reef tank in a basement private room. It holds 15,000 litres of water and will be stocked with 100 species of fish including unicorn tangs and cow fish.
Laura Montana, projects operations director at Mr Caring’s Caprice Holdings, said: “He wants to bring some fun, life and excitement to this corner of Berkeley Square, with the magic mix of a compelling physical environment, full of lively contemporary art.”
The restaurant, which is estimated to have cost about £15 million to create, has floors of rare Esmeralda onyx marble from Iran.
Sexy Fish will specialise in Asian inspired seafood such as seared yellowfin tuna with dried miso and wood sorrel, but will also have meat dishes such as gochujang and miso lamb cutlets and “old favourites” from other Caring-owned outlets such as crispy duck salad. There is £90 nine-course tasting menu and a £25 two-course lunch menu.
The restaurant is set to open on October 16.
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