What we’re reading
Published 24 January 2026
30 Under £30: our pick of the dinner deals for Restaurant Month 2026
A useful guide from our sister title The Good Food Guide with some brilliant sub-£30 offers at great restaurants like Canal in London and Lapin in Bristol.
Gordon Ramsay: Labour’s policies are pushing restaurants over the edge – I’ve never seen it so bad
Read Ramsay in his own words on the parlous state the restaurant industry finds itself in. There’s no effing, no blinding, from the big man, though he’s clearly raging: ‘We’re all going to miss out on a generation of independent chefs and independent restaurants.”
The best chef you’ve never heard of
Any guesses? If you’re reading these pages, you may well know of the chef to whom the Observer is referring: Seb Myers, chef and co-owner of Planque, the East London restaurant recently adjudged London’s best by Jonathan Nunn in Vittles. Says Myers: “I’m tired of being underrated.”
Checking in, selling out: from the Cotswolds to Lake Como, even the most under-the-radar boutique hotels are being swept up in the Marriott-Hyatt-Hilton industrial complex
Just how viable is it for a “hidden gem” to stay hidden? An eye-opening read on the tension between independent hotels and big hospitality.
