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Jay Rayner

Restaurant Critic and Feature Writer

Jay Rayner joined the Financial Times in 2025. He has covered everything from crime and politics to the arts and social affairs but for more than 25 years has been best known as a restaurant critic for the Observer, a role he continues for the FT. He has published over a dozen books and is the host of BBC Radio 4' Kitchen Cabinet. He regularly performs live, both as a jazz pianist and in one-man shows, details of which can be found on his website jayrayner.co.uk.

Follow Jay on Instagram and BlueSky​

Email Jay Rayner
  • Saturday, 5 July, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    The restaurant equivalent of a West End show — Jay Rayner reviews Town in Covent Garden 

    Stevie Parle’s kitchen is lit like a stage, and the good and great of London have gathered to applaud

    Surreal illustration of costumed characters including a bee-person on a cow, a chef, and a pig, all on a theatrical stage with angels overhead
  • Saturday, 28 June, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    ‘It’s almost the best pizza I’ve ever tried’ — Jay Rayner reviews Breadstall, Soho

    Will this be London’s next smash-hit pizza group? 

    Illustration of a close-up face wearing leopard-print sunglasses, with each lens reflecting an open mouth about to eat a slice of tomato-topped pizza
  • Saturday, 21 June, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    A Lebanese restaurant, but not as Londoners know it — Jay Rayner reviews Berut Bistro

    This lovely Marylebone bistro feels like it was pulled together by thoughtful friends

    Surreal sandwich-shaped cloud over a traditional English manor
  • Saturday, 14 June, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    Go to Liverpool, go to Manifest — Jay Rayner reviews a fun, clever restaurant

    Chef Paul Durand’s menu is full of charming narratives, and food to match

    Colorful artwork of robed figures with a goose, giant mushrooms, and ocean waves in a dreamlike maritime setting
  • Saturday, 7 June, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    Motorway icon turned buffet titan — Jay Rayner reviews the Royal Nawaab Pyramid

    How did this enormous, impressive new Indian restaurant outsmart a struggling industry?

  • Saturday, 31 May, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    The riddle of the ‘best local restaurant’ – Jay Rayner reviews Bavette in Leeds

    A brilliant neighbourhood restaurant like this one can’t stay that way for long

    Surreal illustration featuring flying haloed sheep, leaping fish, golden clouds, sunny-side-up eggs, and a giant fork
  • Saturday, 24 May, 2025
    FT SeriesLove letters to pasta
    Just how fancy should a plate of pasta be?

    Inside the long, fraught and very cheffy quest to elevate a domestic staple 

    Close-up of a chef delicately placing caviar onto pasta and oysters arranged elegantly on a white plate
  • Friday, 23 May, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    How London fell hard for Chinese noodles — Jay Rayner reviews two new restaurants

    Little Blue at The Peninsula and Song He Lou in Chinatown are united by the way of the noodle

  • Saturday, 17 May, 2025
    Life & Arts
    When foraging turns toxic

    Mother Nature isn’t always the sweet, nurturing soul we want her to be

  • Saturday, 17 May, 2025
    ReviewFT Magazine
    ‘What in god’s name is it trying to be?’ — Jay Rayner reviews the Prince Arthur in Belgravia 

    A Basque-ish, Belgravia-adjacent pub where you can enjoy both caviar and the footie

  • Saturday, 10 May, 2025
    ReviewFT Magazine
    A wonderfully (and infuriatingly) Parisian restaurant — Jay Rayner reviews Bistrot Paul Bert

    In Paris you have to fight for your reservation, but it’s worth it

  • Saturday, 3 May, 2025
    ReviewFT Magazine
    ‘A work in progress’ — Jay Rayner reviews La Môme

    For a menu that claims to celebrate ‘the golden age of the French Riviera’, it’s about as French as Dubai

  • Saturday, 26 April, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    ‘Fluent Korean cooking with a French twang’ — Jay Rayner reviews Calong

    The properly cool thing here is the food, which is cool in an understated way, and that’s the best kind of cool

    A watercolour illustration of a male chef holding a whole fish, with a female chef behind seen under some hanging copper pots
  • Friday, 18 April, 2025
    ReviewFT Magazine
    ‘A reliable, old-school Italian’ — Jay Rayner reviews Da Mario, Kensington

    Where on earth can you go to eat before attending a show at the Royal Albert Hall?

    A vibrant illustration of a top-down view of people gathered around tables filled with Italian dishes like pasta, pizza, ravioli, and desserts
  • Friday, 11 April, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    ‘The only fancy kosher restaurant in central London’ — Jay Rayner reviews Tony Page Marylebone

    Comfort in food and community

  • Friday, 4 April, 2025
    ReviewFT Magazine
    ‘Chinese cookery by way of Manchester’ — Jay Rayner reviews The Harcourt Pub

    Solid, comforting Hong Kong-style fare meets traditional British pub

  • Friday, 28 March, 2025
    FT MagazineRestaurants
    Hotori, London: Jay Rayner’s new favourite yakitori restaurant

    The beak-to-tail menu is as good if not better than many in Tokyo

  • Saturday, 22 March, 2025
    FT Edit
    The critic is here . . . 

    Jay Rayner is the FT’s new restaurant critic — and this weekend’s guest editor exclusively for FT Edit. Join him as he selects his favourite stories

  • Friday, 21 March, 2025
    FT SeriesSpring food & drink special: the experts are here
    Rules for restaurant dining: the FT experts’ annotated guide

    Jay Rayner, Marina O’Loughlin, Tim Hayward and Jancis Robinson have strong opinions. But can they handle feedback from 19 food-world stars?

    A stylized illustration of four people wearing suits and glasses, set against a green background
  • Friday, 21 March, 2025
    FT SeriesSpring food & drink special: the experts are here
    Where should we begin? At Rules, of course. Jay Rayner’s first FT restaurant review

    Our new critic is borne back ceaselessly to London’s oldest restaurant

    A stylized illustration of a person sitting on books in an opulent room while a large figure in yellow clothing holds a “Rules” folder
  • Sunday, 9 March, 2025
    FT MagazineFood & Drink
    How to read Jay Rayner’s FT restaurant reviews free for 30 days

    Sign up to FT Edit, and you can read Jay Rayner’s columns every Saturday

    A staff portrait of Jay Rayner
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