Tim Chester
Hotels, restaurants and bars in London and Los Angeles, written from the table and the bar.
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Lists · LATen bars that make a case for staying Downtown
Ten bars across the Historic Core, the Financial District and South Park, in the order a long day tends to go: pool decks first, high rooms at dusk, a nightcap on Main Street.
Lists · LAEight West Hollywood hotels with a story to tell
From an Art Deco landmark on Sunset Boulevard to a rock 'n' roll hideaway, these eight hotels capture different sides of West Hollywood.
See · LondonThree evenings of music worth dressing for
A free-jazz orchestra in a Dalston room, English baroque in Marylebone and Handel under Wren's dome.
See · LondonA cellar and a spring: two ways to leave the usual route
Rothschild wines in the Chilterns and hot-spring bathing in Bath.
Lists · LondonEight London wine bars with a point of view
Lists sorted by creative role, by eastern European country and by women winemakers, in eight rooms where the second glass is the plan.
Lists · LondonTen London places for a day that changes pace
Six houses and galleries, a Sunday flower market, a canal walk, live jazz and a bookshop, across London.
Spacca Tutto · Pacific Palisades · October 15, 2026Nancy Silverton opens a steakhouse in the Palisades, and the focaccia comes stuffed with cheese
Spacca Tutto, her first Westside restaurant, opened in Palisades Village on October 15 with Dal Rae-style picanha, a central bar and a patio on the green.
Endo · Chelsea · 1 October 2026Endo: a 200-year-old Kyoto counter, a vinyl-and-tea bar upstairs, and a waitlist
Endo Kazutoshi's omakase counter has settled into a Chelsea townhouse, with a listening bar called Moga on the floor above.
House of Gods · Canary Wharf · 21 September 2026House of Gods brings Orient Express cabins and a Versailles bedchamber to Canary Wharf
The Edinburgh and Glasgow brand that treats every guest as famous opens its biggest hotel yet on Eden Dock, with a rooftop garden bar and canopy-bed suites.
Friendship Bar · Santa Monica Canyon · August 2026Friendship Bar is back in the ship-shaped building where Isherwood drank, with soul on Thursdays
Golden Bull bartender Daniel Baker revives Santa Monica Canyon's S.S. Friendship with lantern-lit booths, martinis and a new stage.
Bar Blondie · Queen's Park · Summer 2026Bar Blondie turns a Queen's Park café into a Spaghetti Western wine bar
Elliot Milne and sommelier Alexandra Price take over the old Milk Beach site on Lonsdale Road, with vinyl, Leone posters and a wine list split into four creative roles.
Brick Lane · Arts District · May 22, 2026Brick Lane serves a biryani under a naan lid in an Arts District warehouse that used to be Italian
Sanjay Rawat, formerly of Kahani, cooks in a wood-fired tandoor on Sixth Street, with a bar built around jaggery, chyawanprash and cardamom.
Sushi Nakazawa · Beverly Hills · May 13, 2026The sushi counter that began with a Facebook message and Google Translate lands on Robertson
Daisuke Nakazawa, Jiro's apprentice, brings Edomae nigiri, bouncy tamago and a charcoal grill to a sea-cave of a room on the Beverly Hills border.
Jacaranda · Hancock Park · May 6, 2026Jacaranda is a ten-course dinner party in a lilac glass box, hosted by a chef and a former music editor
Daniel Patterson, of Coi, and Sarah Lewitinn, move their Hancock Park supper club to Melrose with soft tofu, stuffed morels and a plate called Fruit Anarchy.
Picala · West Adams · April 2026Picala is a Spanish hearth built by an archaeologist, with a free tapa for every early drink
Luis Sierra studied ancient fires before he cooked over one. Under the E Line on La Cienega he serves sardine escabeche, suckling pig and gin tonicas that reward lingering.
Hôtel Lili · Beverly Hills · April 2026Hôtel Lili is a 1939 Beverly Hills house with a velvet-curtained bar and no restaurant
Palisociety's Avi Brosh dresses a three-storey private residence behind The Peninsula in crimson drapery, stripes and wallpapered ceilings.
Pepperbird · Olympia · 2 April 2026Pepperbird Is a Speakeasy Built Where Hendrix Once Played Olympia
Des Gunewardena's basement bar under Pillar Hall trades in velvet, amber light and cocktails named after records.
Hotel Indigo London K West · Shepherd's Bush · March 2026Hotel Indigo swaps the K West's fringed chandeliers for terrazzo in a former BBC building
Relaunched in March 2026, Kensington House in Shepherd's Bush gets a 1970s palette, Roberts radios and a wood-fired pizza kitchen called Flock.
Burro · Covent Garden · 11 March 2026Burro means butter, and Trullo's Conor Gadd cooks the veal, the sole and the potatoes in it
Gadd's first solo restaurant, in Covent Garden's Floral Court, pairs Trullo-trained pasta with Irish hospitality and a tiramisu that arrives as a doughnut.
First Look · LAAt Lynx, Josh Skenes brings fine-dining precision to the pizza bar
The Saison chef and his bar director Brandyn Tepper won a Bib Gourmand two months into this Arts District bar, where the Sudachi daiquiri uses no lime.
One Dish · LondonThe carving trolley was invented for chess players, and Simpson's has it back
Shut since 2020, the Grand Divan carves Devonshire rib at the table again under Jeremy King, with railway mutton curry and Wolseley veterans in the kitchen.
Cato · Covent Garden · 5 February 2026Cato swaps Crazy Bear's red leather for a julep room and a basement sorted by colour
Angelos Bafas and Bart & Taylor honour New York's first celebrity bartender on Mercer Street, with mint upstairs and British synaesthesia below.
The Martini Bar · King's Cross · November 2025The Martini Bar: Hawksmoor's very cold answer to a Gothic cathedral at St Pancras
In the old Gothic Bar of the Midland Grand, Hawksmoor pours martinis under Gilbert Scott's vaults and serves caviar with hash browns.
Khao Bird · Soho · 12 November 2025Chiang Mai Barbecue Moves Into Soho's Old Adult Cinema
Khao Bird makes Brewer Street its first permanent London home, with Burmese mutton chips, a pink neon sign and a vodka-soda called I Am Broke.