While I was eating smoke-infused Indian small plates at Khai Khai on the Quayside in Newcastle, a curious thought occurred to me: 2023 seemed set to be the year that London’s restaurant scene lost its edge. Outside the M25, I was eating far better. I was midway through a plate of broccoli so charred I wrote that it looked as if it had been “chipped from Pompeii’s pavement”. The florets were festooned with pistachio, micro-greens and chilli. It was a Thursday night and the place was heaving, with queues out of the door. Gordon Ramsay had been in that month to sing Khai Khai’s praises. Oh, and Harrison Ford, too.
