Marcus Wareing’s Knightsbridge Restaurant Lost a Michelin Star

Today, the 2019 Michelin Guide to the U.K. and Ireland included a record number of new stars for restaurants across the two countries. The headlines were Core by Clare Smyth being awarded two stars at the first time of asking; Nieves Barragan Mohacho winning a single star for Sabor, and James Knappet’s Kitchen Table jumping from one to two. In the east of the city, Brat and Leroy doubled the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Shoreditch.

But, the live event does not make a big deal of the deletions and demotions. That emerges from the printed guide itself, which has now been circulated among the cognoscenti present at the event.

The big story is the demotion from two stars to one star for Gordon Ramsay alumnus (and nemesis) Marcus Wareing. His eponymous restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge has held two Michelin stars for nine years, first getting the honour in 2009.

Elsewhere, Virgilio Martinez’s Lima, which is run by chef Robert Ortiz, is among the five high-profile deletions from the guide. The Peruvian restaurant on Rathbone Place in Fitzrovia had held a star since 2013.

Jamavar, the Indian fine-dining restaurant in Mayfair, entered the guide only last year, but lost its head chef Rohit Ghai at the end of 2017; it, too, has lost its star.

Chefs moving on clearly have an impact on the inspectors’ reading, as Outlaw’s at the Capital — whose head chef Tom Brown left to open Cornerstone in Hackney Wick in the spring — is also now without a star.

Ametsa with Arzak Instruction, the Spanish fine-dining restaurant at the Halkin hotel has also lost its star, taking the number of hotel restaurants in Knightsbridge to have been demoted or deleted to three in this year’s guide.

Tamarind is the fifth restaurant in London to have lost its star, since it is closed for refurbishment.

Stay tuned for more reaction soon.