At the start of 2026 there were two print outlets at Brixton tube. The kiosk inside the station closed in January due to tfl rent rises. Now what was WH Smith’s is going. Yes ‘old man shakes fist at clouds’ vibe. But also it’s sad. Buys sub to @privateeyenews.bsky.social and @thefence.bsky.social

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at Oudh 1722, a new London restaurant from Aktar Islam of award-garlanded Opheem in Birmingham. And oh it’s good: chargrilled shrimp the length of a baby’s arm, a beef cheek nihari of endless depth, mango soft serve. www.ft.com/content/9b6a...

A little smoked fish curry (plus clams and mussels) for the last night in Devon.

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at Banquet 88 in st Katherine’s Dock celebrating the joys of the functionally designed Chinese restaurant, where the big light is on and the stars are the superb dim sum and roast Cantonese meats. www.ft.com/content/eca8...

Not much to add to the words in the image except some people are arseholes.

From now until Friday Waterstones are offering 25% off preorders of Nights Out In The Kitchen pink sep 3. And there’s loads in it: not just recipes incl home made baklava, bbq sauce chicken wings, and smoked fish curry but all the stories to go with them. www.waterstones.com/book/nights-...

Oh. Okay.

I have a second piece in @ftweekend.com in which, as I approach my 60th, I celebrate all the things I will not apologise for hating. It was very therapeutic to write. www.ft.com/content/6bdd...

Have some pics to go with this. The crab and avocado salad presented as a baffled girl in a bonnet, the £13 tarama with the £9 bread basket (bought in from elsewhere), the broccoli with dessert sweet praline and the Guinness madeleine looking like a gift from my cat. More info in alt text.

For today’s @ftweekend.com I went to Jul’s, a frankly weird, charmless, over priced calamity of a restaurant in st james’s. I did this so you wouldn’t have to. Have the first paragraph and a link. www.ft.com/content/b5eb...

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am in Cambridge at the lovely Margaret’s, which offers a mixture of à la carte and set menu and it all works: gazpacho, asparagus and canapés to start; pork loin or monkfish for mains; strawberry or chocolate for dessert. www.ft.com/content/dcba...

In 2015 while staying at the four seasons in New York (for some thing or other) the hotel sent this up to my room. But to be clear it wasn’t an expression of jazz through food; it was just a chocolate piano.

Just received a breathless press release from a Danish restaurant which says the kitchen decided to apply the principles of jazz to cooking. As someone with a size 12 foot firmly inserted deep in both camps, my conclusion, having read it all, is: they are not musicians.

For today’s @ftweekend.com, marking the US 250th, I’m at Appalachia, a new counter restaurant in London’s Shoreditch which is less mountain country restaurant than Brooklyn hipster outfit, in a good way. (The forth pic is a magnificent crab and ginger omelette) www.ft.com/content/a2de...

Ooh the new series of the kitchen cabinet starts in a couple of mins on bbc radio 4 and we have a new graphic to celebrate.

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at Teal by Sally Abe in Hackney: laser focussed cooking, putting French techniques to work in service of a certain Englishness. Devilled crab tart, brawn scotch egg, chicken with spring vegetables and so much more. www.ft.com/content/ea8c...

BOOKNEWS. When I’m on tour this autumn for my new book Nights Out In The Kitchen, I’ll be signing copies but if you can’t get to a show and still want a dedicated copy the Balham bookshop Backstory have you sorted. Find all the links in the linktree below. linktr.ee/jayrayner1?u...

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at the first permanent home for the brilliant Afghan/Texas BBQ mashup that is Cue Point London, now installed in Notting Hill. Long smoked lamb shanks on Kabuli Pilau, beef briskets, and grilled peach crumble. www.ft.com/content/a5c0...

For today’s @ftweekend.com I’m at Little Baobab, a delightful restaurant inside the Africa Centre serving a Senegalese set menu. It’s a room you want to be part of. www.ft.com/content/5cc9...

At the Nevill Holt festival in the grounds of the house owned by David Ross (co-founder of car phone warehouse), and look what I’ve found. Great plan, just a stupid way of advertising it.

I've always been a little suspicious of calling any artist 'the greatest' as though there were some league table. But as the years passed, and the work continued it's restless advance, and the way of seeing never faltered, it became clear to me that David Hockney really was ours. RIP.

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at Wild Izakaya which is an Izakaya - a casual place for a couple of beers and a few snacks - much as fortnums food hall is a grubby corner shop. Terrific cooking, serious ingredients and five pages of premium sake. www.ft.com/content/11b9...

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at Holy Carrot in Shoreditch sorrowfully eating plant based food which aims at the restorative and delicious, but misses. The issue isn’t that they serve a plant based menu; it’s the plant based menu they are serving. www.ft.com/content/313d...

For today’s @ftweekend.com I am at The Cocochine, snuffling out the best bargain in Mayfair: the lunch menu at £29 for two courses and £39 for three. Beautiful dishes which never lose sight of the imperative of deliciousness. www.ft.com/content/c787... ‘

Have received emails from enterprising students who tomorrow sit a mock English language GCSE in ME. They’re looking for tips and insight. I can only say a) how sorry I am and b) good luck. Here’s a version of the paper. And a pic of one question. pmt.physicsandmathstutor.com/download/Eng...

For this week’s @ftweekend.com restaurant review I am in Barcelona at Colmado Wilmot, a small place that does the simple things really well. Like fried eggs with sobrasada, tortilla with txistorra, fried prawns with garlic and a fab rib eye. www.ft.com/content/00e4...

Rejoice: the week I did on Osman’s house of games is being reshown from tomorrow. This is either a heads up or, if you hate me, a warning.

Some restaurant openings are like big west end shows which every critic will weigh in on. So for @ftweekend.com it’s my turn to write about the reopening of Simpsons-in-the-Strand. Via dinner in Romano’s and breakfast in the grand divan. TLDR: it’s so damn civilised www.ft.com/content/ce08...

Well this is quite something. Over on X @harryeccles.bsky.social, a Green candidate on the Isle of Wight, rewrites the famous poem by Martin Niemoller about Nazi erasure. But does so to leave out the Jews.

My review for today’s @ftweekend.com is all about the gravy splattering joys of Singapore chilli crab, and my ability to wear my lunch on my short. Anyway Sentosa on Bermondsey Street is a great place to chilli crab and much more besides www.ft.com/content/1876...