London Restaurants Waved Two Fingers at Veganism This Week

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is uncompromising.

News of the week

It looked like it might never happen, but the London offshoot of New York temple to neo-fusion-Chinese food, Red Farm, is finally open, bringing its signature — and highly Instagrammable — dim sum to the capital’s feeds. London is not a city short on eye-catchingly attractive dumplings – XU, A Wong and Royal China Club all seem to have stepped up their game of late – so it will be interesting to see how this import fares in a city that is no longer crying out for its offering. That said, who wouldn’t want to eat a soup dumpling with a straw?

Feed (and colon) clogging event of the week
Going off the foodie media, animal protein is going the way of the dodo – 2018 is the year of #plantbased, #vegan, #nutmilk. It’s a shame, then, that no one seems to have passed this news on to London’s chefs, who spent the weekend gleefully cremating great hunks of flesh over naked flames at Meatopia. Perhaps in future, dishes like Yotam Ottolenghi’s celeriac shawarma will be the norm, rather than the exception, but for now it seems that the rumours of meat’s demise have been very much exaggerated.

PR push of the week (and coming months)
Brace yourself: Autumn 2018 will officially be Tom Kerridge Season, with the PR gurus at Gemma Bell and Co pulling every lever imaginable to get their man in front of as many eyeballs as conceivably possible. They’ve already locked in a canny Sunday Times Magazine gig; now the countdown begins to next week’s opening of his swanky new place in the Corinthia Hotel. It feels like we’re already verging on Insta-saturation, and he hasn’t even cooked any food yet. Get used to this face, basically.

Week of the week
Somewhat more PR-shy is Core by Clare Smyth chef Clare Smyth, who received a visit from not one but two high-profile names in the restaurant industry this week. Could this mean big things are coming this October?

Insta-friendly surface of the week
First Pastaio, now Crispin. Have we found the new marble?

They got game of the week
And still they come (and, arguably, better than ever)

Envy-inducing holiday snap of the week
Is this what the Catalans mean by mar i muntanya?

Side dish of the week
There’s already a cookbook for side dishes. Is it time that this vital component of any meal received the ultimate form of validation, an Eater London map?

Dish of the week
Summer? Autumn? Who cares?

Shot of the week
Dive in it.