Has this legend of the London restaurant scene lost its cool?

Once upon a time —not so long ago, less than a decade — being a D&D restaurant meant something. Back then, Le Pont de la Tour and Coq d’ Argent were governed by swathes of the most moneyed City regulars; Sartoria offered a hangout on Savile Row as stylish as any of its neighbouring tailors; and Quaglino’s, until recently, was the place mere mortals were most likely to bump into Prince Harry or Mick Jagger.

- JOSH BARRIE AND DAVID ELLIS

But in recent years there has been a litany of what might be perceived as challenging news stories regarding the group, one of the country’s biggest on the restaurant scene. Most recently, its parent company Breal Capital and Calverton, a private equity partnership that bought D&D for £60 million in October 2023, was reported to be in talks to take over TGI Fridays. The chain is synonymous with budget dining and one that fails to even inspire positive reviews in the provinces. The Yorkshire Post gave a local branch in Leeds just two stars out of five last week in a terrifically scathing write-up.

Every headline equated D&D with the chain, even if D&D itself is not directly involved. For a company that also operates the likes of Skylon, a grand site on the South Bank, and Michelin-starred Angler, the association might seem an indelicate fall from grace. Today restaurant insiders are speculating the latter is destined to lose its Michelin star, especially given former head chef Gary Foulkes left earlier this year to aim high at Cornus, in Belgravia, where one starter eclipses £50.

Coq d’ Argent, meanwhile, has fallen out of favour with equal sequestration. It was once one of the most popular champagne-fuelled rooftops in town and yet only last year was given a distinctly average three out of five stars by the Sunday Times. "It looks," the review read, "exactly as it always looked, if a little scuffed around the edges and half empty."