The Evening Standard’s chief restaurant critic, Fay Maschler, is to take on a new role in the paper after 48 years. She will be replaced by ES Magazine food reviewer Jimi Famurewa.  

As he says goodbye to Match of The Day after nearly 30 years, the Premier League legend is leaning into his next act: podcaster, model, actor, and, yes, national treasure

Famurewa said of the win: “It’s a vote of confidence for the Evening Standard and for London’s restaurants”

I’m a professional food critic, with a blind spot when it comes to the food I grew up with. Can I recreate Mum’s jollof rice and puff-puffs?

The prize-winning author’s life is now an episode of Steve McQueen’s hit series Small Axe. He talks about working on the project and his latest novel, based on a Jamaican slave uprising

Black and Asian landlords are reinventing the British pub – from a Desi bar in Smethwick to a Caribbean boozer in Sheffield. Jimi Famurewa reports

Two restaurant critics walk into a diner. Not, on this occasion, the set up for a joke with a self-mocking punchline but instead an accurate description of what was to be both my final dine-in meal...

Comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster invite special guests into their magical restaurant to each choose their favourite starter, main course, side dish, dessert and drink. Ever wanted to eat your...

I cannot be the only person whose vague plans for self-improvement did not survive the first week of 2021. But if this period of the year is, traditionally at least, a time for renewal, then I’d...

The BBC drama about sexual assault is fronted by a near all-black cast and written by Michaela Coel – and unlike anything we've ever seen

We ended back downstairs, not quite able to leave the warm, cocooning light of a main bar, says Jimi Famurewa

This summer, black communities across the world took up megaphones and refused to be ignored. For one British actor, it was a moment of strength, drawn from the crowd to channel its message in a raw,...

Every corner of Henry Harris’s rustic French spot hums with soul, character and intention, says Jimi Famurewa

You do not need me to tell you that big name, highly recognisable chef-patrons are not always spotted working in their actual restaurants. 

Steve McQueen's second Small Axe film takes Amarah-Jae St Aubyn and Micheal Ward to a West London reggae party in the 1980s. Read the Empire review.

Boyega done good: from Peckham to galaxies far, far away, John Boyega’s rise has been interstellar... 

Ambience: 3/5

This inordinately sexy restaurant has the palpable, crackling buzz of an instant hit, says Jimi Famurewa

The hype train for Chishuru had barely left the station when it was swiftly derailed last year. After opening in late August, Nigerian-born chef Adejoke Bakare’s Brixton Village restaurant only...

A writer and food critic celebrates the cuisine, faith and culture of a confident diaspora

Exploring the myths, mysteries and memories of west African barbecue

This irreverent, intensely considered wine bar does away with any lingering notions of provincial, Eighties naffness

One defining thing I’ll remember about the age of restaurant meal kits will be the sudden anarchic decadence of our fridge. Where once, I would peer in and see cheese, milk and the customary museum...

Jimi Famurewa swears by the fare at delightfully garish La Chingada taqueria in Surrey Quays

The Evening Standard’s chief restaurant critic names the places he ate best over the past 12 months

From briquette-scented summer nights to the bundled-up depths of a bleak winter, Jimi Famurewa’s mum has been there, bringing the family closer with her doorstop deliveries

Jimi steps through a magical portal in east London

Italian Ombra serves plates of dumbfounding, almost confrontationally vivid flavours, says Jimi Famurewa

This past year has felt, perhaps more than anything else, like the age of the perpetual queue; a time of distanced shuffling towards testing centre marquees, ragged huddles beside coffee shop serving...

Jimi Famurewa finds magic among the melee of joggers and cyclists at Hackney’s Towpath Café

From the 1950s, thousands of children of African parents were happily fostered by white British families. But for some, the well-intentioned plan was deeply damaging

Jimi discovers his dish of the year at the impressive new iteration of Imogen Davis and Ivan Tisdall-Downes’ restaurant

The former Dalston pop-up moves to Soho — and serves Jimi Famurewa one of his meals of the year

Ahead of his debut book Settlers, Jimi Famurewa explains why it took him until adulthood to fall for Nigerian cooking that wasn’t his mum’s

Aji Akokomi's more casual sister to Akoko has a kind of wordless eloquence, says Jimi Famurewa

After battling his way in, Jimi Famurewa discovers a scrubbed up boozer offering a recognisable, democratised sort of joy

Ave Mario may be the most anticipated launch of London’s post-pandemic era, says Jimi Famurewa, but it is also its first enormous disappointment

Hawker’s is distinguishing itself as more than an overflow car park for its famous antecedent Roti King, says Jimi Famurewa

Ambience 4/5

Ambience: 4/5