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Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is bucolic.
Newsworthy new opening of the week
A new opening needs a few things to succeed in 2018: a hero dish or two, to ensnare the Insta-curious; some enthusiastic early press doesn’t hurt, either. An eye-catching design accent, maybe, to bring some much-needed variety to the usual birds-eye to-down shots of food. So all hail Kym’s, which has nailed every page in the playbook and now looks set to reap the rewards. Now the only open question is whether the early favourite pork and shrimp ‘bao bao’ will hold off a strong challenge from the three treasure selection of roasted meats to retain the Most-Grammed crown.
Two-star Michelin evisceration of the week
You were expecting Marina O’Loughlin at The Greenhouse again, weren’t you? Wrong! —Though she did make her feelings clear both in print and on Instagram. The real bodying this week came from legendary gourmand Bruce Palling, a man so in tune with fine dining that he allegedly carries his own Laguiole knife to meals. So take it from Bruce: once a bastion of high-end French gastronomy, these days, Le Gavroche is closer to appalling.
Ongoing guerrilla campaign of the week
For the second week in a row, snaps for Anna Tobias: seemingly on a one-woman crusade to strip London gastronomy of all pretension. This week, just take a minute to appreciate the chutzpah of serving poached pear and custard in an east London restaurant in 2018. Or, wait a minute — maybe this is the start of a new trend. Will all the cool places be knocking out jam sponge and spotted dick come early 2019? Spend 45 minutes per day idly scrolling through Instagram to find out!
Ominous rumblings of the week
Berenjak, the latest offering from serial success-story JKS Restaurants, draws ever closer, with just one week to go before this beast is fired up in anger. Does Black Axe finally have competition in the ‘most metal mangal’ category?
Prehensile appendage of the week
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An Insta star is born of the week
It’s been a slow burn compared to some of the instantly adored social media sensations of recent months, but the Quality Chop House’s younger sibling, Quality Wines, is slowly gaining some Insta-traction. Most-papped amongst its offerings are the oh-so-pretty cannoli, which now receive the seal of approval from the Sunday Times itself. As a famous scene in The Godfather absolutely did not advise: take the ‘gram, eat the cannoli.