JAMIE'S italian

WHEN Jamie Oliver first starting talking up his high street Italian restaurant brand, ahead of the opening of the first branch in Oxford last year, the patter was of taking it to poorly served university towns with branches in Oxford, Bath, Brighton and Kingston currently open with Guildford and Cardiff scheduled to follow this autumn.

But somewhere along the line the plan changed - possibly because commercial rents in the Capital dropped - and Oliver decided to take Jamie's Italian to London and beyond. This Canary Wharf branch is the beginning of his assault on London with another flagship branch planned for Covent Garden next year. Of course Oliver already has a presence in London through his Fifteen, the training restaurant in Hoxton that's the centrepiece of the charity.
But Jamie's Italian is very a different beast. Oliver is aiming to do a much better version of the affordable Italian chains that proliferate the British high street but by-and- large disappoint.
So far he has succeeded, the antipasti and pasta sections of the menu are particularly competitively priced at a quality that's not found elsewhere on the high street.

Whether or not he can keep the quality up as he continues to expand the brand  - with news of a proposed roll-out of 30 branches across Asia over the next five years starting in Hong Kong next year has just been confirmed- only time will tell.  

Jamie's Italian, Canary Wharf

www.jamieoliver.com

FIERY RETURN

Soho Sichuanese Bar Shu which has been out of action since January 2009 after a fire - caused incidentally by a chef frying eggs for staff breakfast and not in the preparation of a spicy speciality involving frightening quantities of mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper and a vat of boiling oil - has reopened. Bar Shu’s menu will remain focused on the fiery flavours of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, having kick-started the trend for cooking from the region when it originally launched back in 2006.

Bar Shu, Soho

www.bar-shu.co.uk

Green's grasp the city

There original branch of Green's in St James's opened in 1982 and is the sort establishment, with its green leather upholstery, mahogany panelling and old school clientele, that feels proudly Establishment. And not just because it's owned the Duchess of Cornwall's former brother-in-law, Simon Parker Bowles. The money for this new City branch has come from his chums Lord Daresbury and Lord Vestey - with plans for further expansion if all goes well. Although lacking its louche charm fans of the original Green's - that like this newcomer bills itself as a 'Restaurant & Oyster Bar - will find much that's familiar in the classic fish-focused menu that would be very fashionable, were it not for the fact it's stayed very much the same since the early 80s.        

Green's, Cornhill

www.greens.org.uk