It’s spring 2025. Micro-greens are sprouting. Little lambs are bawling. And Britain’s food media landscape is teeming with movement. Some claim it’s an infestation; others, a mass exodus; and many, the sign of an inevitable, much-welcome evolution. In any case, the robots are coming. And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear frenzied chants of ‘hidden-gem’ vibrating through the air, just about quashing the wails of transphobic old-timers and their wannabes rattling on about the return of the long, boozy lunch.
In all seriousness, though, the world of food and restaurant criticism is changing faster than you can say ‘death to small plates’ – boasting more ups, downs, and sideways shuffles in the last six months than we’ve seen since the two decades following the appointment of the OG, Fay Maschler, who took over from Quentin Crewe at The Evening Standard in 1972.
Got fifteen? Here’s the context: The future of The Observer Food Monthly remains uncertain, following the wider newspaper’s sale to ‘slow news’ entity Tortoise Media. David Ellis has replaced Jimi Famurewa as The London Standard’s restaurant critic, following the newspaper’s rebrand. Dua Lipa’s Gen Z-focused written recommendations are multiplying by the month. This month, much-loved Substack publication Vittles has announced it's launching a print magazine.
Former restaurant critic at The Times, and contributing editor at Noble Rot, Marina O’Loughlin, is now a columnist for the FT Weekend. Author, Masterchef Judge and The Observer critic, Jay Rayner, lines up to join her, set to replace Tim Hayward as the title’s authority on restaurants, while Hayward will become the magazine’s food writer, “contributing deep-dives on home-cooking projects and other culinary fixations”. Meanwhile, The Guardian restaurant critic and podcast host, Grace Dent, has nabbed the longstanding job of disgraced, alleged sex pest, Gregg Wallace, as co-judge alongside John Torode on the BBC’s Masterchef.
Still with me? Good, because there’s more. Top Jaw recently broke 750,000 Instagram followers, surpassing the Daily Mail’s average monthly circulation of 673,578 [as of December 2024], while Eating With Tod now boasts a further one million followers on the same platform – twice as many as Rayner, Hayward, Dent, O’Loughlin, Famurewa, Maschler, Ellis, Tom Parker Bowles, Charlotte Ivers, Giles Coren and William Sitwell, combined, and then some. US big cheese, Bon Appetit, is in the process of setting up a London outpost, helmed by a team yet to be announced.
The multiperson features team at Great British Chefs has vanished – replaced instead by the website’s singular ‘Chef Editor’. Former foodism staffer Lucas Oakeley has departed MOB Kitchen, where there is now little to no trace of written content on the public-facing website. And, despite the best efforts of just about everyone, the Schooner Scorer continues to, unfortunately, score.
What remains is a media landscape that is “enormously” different from the one Frances Cottrell-Duffield, owner of hospitality PR agency, Tonic Communications, witnessed when starting out in the noughties. Her business is dedicated to getting restaurants featured in the media, and today, “There are far fewer opportunities and ‘slots’ [for showcasing restaurants] as there are fewer magazines, and the ones remaining have fewer pages.” she says. “Conversely, we have more restaurants, and more operating at a higher level, as well as more PRs vying for those aforementioned slots.” Though, it’s not all doom and gloom. “The addition of podcasts and social media brings fresh opportunities and offers new platforms for people and places to tell their stories.”
Needless to say, those “fresh opportunities” have long since disrupted what was once the status quo – with the democracy and agility of social and ‘new’ media (that’s podcasts and substacks, FYI) creeping further into the territory of the ‘traditional’ media and critics, challenging their assumed authority and influence.
Food writer, author and restaurant reviewer, Jonathan Nunn, founded Substack-based digital food magazine, Vittles, in response to his frustration with traditional media, and has long been fascinated by the power struggle. Taking to his platform at the end of 2024, he said, “This year has seen the biggest transformational shift in British food media within my lifetime.” Going on to claim that, “This radical transfer of power – from traditional to social media, from guys who went to public school to guys who went to slightly less impressive public schools – is now complete.”
All the changes we’ve seen over the last five-to-ten years have been prompted by huge technological shifts
The move, Nunn tells me later, represents a change in how the public prefers to consume media. “All the changes we’ve seen over the last five-to-ten years have been prompted by huge technological shifts – first the internet eating into print sales, and then the smartphone and social media moving us from a predominantly literate culture to a more oral and visual-based culture.”
In a recent article addressing the Top Jaw phenomenon titled ‘Video Killed The Restaurant Critic’ for Noble Rot magazine, O’Loughlin echoes his sentiment. “Given the published figures show that almost all the major news titles are in a monthly decline, their readership ageing, it’s pretty obvious where the traffic – and the conventional reviewers’ audience – is going.” Finishing with the definitive line, “Restaurant fans, welcome to your future”, her belief is as clear as Hugh Corcoran’s commitment to communism is not: criticism is out, influencers are in.
Rayner doesn’t agree. “I mean, I don’t really see it. Obviously, publications have had budget problems. The Evening Standard, very regrettably, didn’t let Jimi carry on in that job, which is a shame because he was very, very good at it – but they still have a restaurant critic. The Sunday Times went through a period of having a lot of people jumping in, but they now have Charlotte [Ivers].” Nevertheless, “there is another question,” he says, which is: “Do we think it’s a golden age? Do we think the people who are doing it are good? That’s different. But generally, there’s still quite a lot of us about.”
Leonie Cooper, who has been Time Out London’s chief authority on bars and restaurants since 2022, believes the traditional genre she contributes to will stay put, chiefly because it serves a different purpose. “If you want to see what a place and its food looks like, then a quick look at a video of someone scoffing down a roast or hot chicken at the latest viral restaurant does the job. Longform reviews, though, are much like any other criticism – you might not ever end up eating at that place, or watching that film, or listening to that album, but you might take pleasure in reading the review for the review’s sake.”
Nevertheless, Rayner argues that what creators are doing on social media is perhaps not entirely different from what lifestyle magazines have been doing for decades. “We constantly big up these changes, whereas, in fact, what’s interesting are the things that stay the same: authority, content, knowledge and execution. If something is badly executed, it’s not going to get an audience. People get very upset about Eating with Tod, for example. A lot of people find him profoundly irritating, and I know what they mean. But the content – which is long, lingering shots of food – I wonder if it’s really any different in principle to what would have turned up in colour supplements in the 1970s, which were designed to make food look vivid and delicious.”
(illustration elements) Natalya Kosarevich
Ultimately, Rayner says, it’s all about aspiration. “The whole job of those visual mediums is to portray to you a lifestyle, one that you want to be a part of through vivid photography and vivid writing. You might find Eating with Tod annoying, but the principles underlying [his content] are really not so different.”
Now would be a good time to hear from the two aforementioned influencer platforms (Schooner Scorer doesn’t count), but I couldn’t get hold of Tod, and Jesse Burgess from Top Jaw ghosted me once he’d seen my interview questions. Thankfully, rapidly growing “food blogger… not critic” (his words) James Dimitri (134,000 devotees on Instagram, 19.5K on TikTok) has some thoughts. Known for his searingly honest reviews and rankings of restaurants, cafes and takeaways, he believes, “Newspaper reviews still have their place, especially with an older audience. Chefs are still excited to be mentioned in a newspaper as there’s something a little more prestigious about it than an Instagram post. That said, a lot of younger people don’t read newspapers, and a reel from Eating With Tod can reach hundreds of thousands more people than a newspaper review would.”
For restaurant PR and former food blogger, Hugh Richard Wright, it’s important to remember that this isn’t the first time traditional media has had competition. “I was one of the early wave of restaurant bloggers back when that was a thing, pre-Instagram, in the very early days of Twitter. It was heralded as something that was going to shake up the industry. Everyone was like, ‘Oh, it’ll replace restaurant critics!’ And, ‘Blogs are better than press because they’re not owned by a publisher and there are no vested interests.’ And, you know, 17 or so years later, there are still restaurant critics and there are still newspapers. There are still restaurant guides. So, I compare that to now, when people say the critics are going to be irrelevant, because they’re not.”
What has changed, according to Wright, is traditional criticism’s sway. “All that happens when a new, big thing comes along is it dilutes the influence of everything else.” So, can today’s old-school media have any impact? Speaking to Wright and Cottrell-Duffield, one thing is clear: the chefs and restaurateurs they work with still love restaurant reviews for increasing morale and pride. However, there is no denying that the impact in getting bums on seats has lessened.
“When I was starting out, a single brilliant review from a critic could fill a restaurant for weeks on end,” says Wright. “The critics held a lot more power, a lot more influence than they do now.” This is something that food historian and former co-owner of Cafe Britaly, Richard Crampton-Platt, learned the hard way. His Peckham spot closed after eight months of trading in January, despite receiving a glowing four-star review from restaurant critic Jimi Famurewa in what was then The Evening Standard. “It didn’t boost sales. It was probably negative in the sense that we were expecting it to create a buzz and for more people to come in, but that never happened.”
Meanwhile, the power of social media and its savviest users has proven to be an invaluable tool for restaurants and food concepts. A Mayfair restaurant owner recently told dining consultant Kimberly Coke, “Getting a shout-out from Notorious Foodie did far more for us than a five-star review in the press.” Plus, Humble Crumble founder, Kim Innes, says it was the making of her now multi-site dessert brand. “Before our viral moment, I was considering closing the business, but after the surge in interest, everything changed.”
Similarly, founder of Southern food concept Decatur, Tom Browne, recognises how social media sky-rocketed sales of his crawfish boil kits during the pandemic. “Suddenly, I was getting 1,000 new followers a week, and they were all asking how to get one. It was mad.” More recently, Mitshel Ibrahim’s Hackney bakery, Forno (his second venture following Italian restaurant Ombra), went bonkers on social media for its Roman maritozzi. “I never thought we’d be this busy or have a team this big, but two years in, we’ve already outgrown the current space and are taking on the arch next door just to keep up with demand.”
According to Coke, who has spent more than 15 years securing bookings for VIPs, social media hype has changed what constitutes a “hot table.” “When I first started back in 2009 for Ten Concierge and Coutts, everybody wanted bookings at the same, well-established restaurants like Scotts, Cipriani, The Wolseley and Zuma – or to show off to friends by bagging a table at three-Michelin-starred The Fat Duck in Bray, or Restaurant Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road. There definitely wasn’t the fascination with what’s new like there is today. I find my clients now want more unique experiences, something that’s had a buzz on social. My most requested restaurants these days are places like the Big Mamma restaurants, The Devonshire, Fallow, Gold, The Dover and Dorian.” Today, founder of Gemma Bell Communications, Gemma Bell, says “Most – if not all – of our clients want to be on Topjaw because they want the benefit of a longer queue or booked-out nights.”
Increased demand can have its downsides, however. One source within Borough Market told me that the queues caused by the viral chocolate-covered strawberries sold at Turnips are “a health and safety nightmare” and “severely impact the rest of the traders.” Plus, despite all the success stories, many worry about the potentially fickle culture social media can cultivate.
Bell acknowledges the benefits, though has some doubts. “My concern is that it’s so short-lived. It’s a quick fix or quick hit, not a long-term gradual build of loyal guests.” Wright calls this, “The mapification of eating out… people literally have their maps, have their lists, and they’re just ticking places off. They don’t really care about the restaurant, they don’t care about who’s cooking, and they don’t really care about the food.”
But what happens when a concept’s puff deflates, and it falls off peoples’ ‘to try’ lists? Browne, who still sold a healthy number of at-home meal kits until he pressed pause in December, says, “I think I was probably old enough and wise enough to realise that maybe [the frantic buzz] wasn’t forever at the time. But it could certainly have a detrimental effect on your mental health if you aren’t resilient.”
What’s more, in a time when opening and running a food business is more difficult than ever (see: rising energy and produce costs, NI changes, extortionate rents, tricky landlords and an uncertain economy), could there be a pressure on chefs to create food that content creators want to feature? Judging by the sheer number of caviar bumps, bulging sandwiches and items-designed-to-be-dipped flooding our feeds, one would assume so.
Though, according to my trusted PR trio, the chefs they work with – ones who would typically lure in traditional restaurant critics – have always cared about making food look interesting. Plus, at Forno, whatever Ibrahim places on the menu seems bound to be a hit. “At weekends, you’ll see customers queuing in the cold because they saw a special bake in a post we shared a few hours earlier. They get to the front, pull out their phones, and show the picture to the person at the till, asking if we still have any left.”
Still, for Oisin Rogers – the man behind viral pub and restaurant, The Devonshire – social media success is not that deep. “In my opinion, it’s just an extension of word of mouth. Restaurants and pubs can’t survive without positive word of mouth from advocates and customers, and social media just accelerates the impact of that. We’re not even on TikTok, for example, but we know the clips of us do very well over there. We’re convinced that the reason for this is because people have a nice time, and that is what we set out to do.”
As for my entirely neutral view on the future of restaurant criticism? I couldn’t possibly say – and it seems nobody else is particularly sure, either. Cottrell-Duffield sees a landscape “More dominated by social media. I think we’ll see fewer old-school print mags, but hopefully it’s also the dawn of a new generation of more niche, inventive, disruptive publications like SLOP, created by people with a passion for produce and producers, and the processes, traditions and stories within our food system.”
Educated and informed takes on food, drink, restaurants and bars will always carry currency
New critic, Ellis, is hopeful all formats can thrive. “Educated and informed takes on food, drink, restaurants and bars will always carry currency, I think. It is a way of championing new and interesting cuisine and helping readers find what they might like, in telling those stories. There will always be room for new ways to tell stories – and new platforms to do so on – but coexistence is possible.”
Over at Time Out, Cooper is “interested in what’s about to happen in the mysterious liminal space between classic criticism and influencer content… I can’t quite see Eating With Tod putting together a collection of essays on the history of the cooked egg, but stranger things have happened.”
While for Nunn, technology leaves things uncertain. “With advances in tech and AI happening so fast, I think the restaurant criticism of the future will look different to the stuff which is on the cutting edge today. I can imagine a world where the way people get their information about restaurants is fragmented by age, with older people clinging onto writing, and younger people exclusively using whatever the predominant medium is.”
And as for AI itself? Well, Chat GPT reckons we’ll soon rely on “AI-powered recommendation engines”, which “will help diners find the best spots based on preferences and past behaviour”, as well as “Aggregated AI-written summaries from thousands of reviews” that “may replace traditional critic-led narratives.” Sigh.
Whatever might happen, in the meantime, I say: let us eat cake.
