She spent ten years in London with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, but only one UK restaurant cuts the mustard for actress turned wellness queen Gwyneth Patrow: Ruth’s Rogers’ The River Cafe.
The 52-year-old Goop supremo’s newly issued annual global list of 59 exceptional restaurants shows an unquestionable loyalty to her American heritage, with 34 recommendations coming from the US.
Goop’s website describes The River Cafe, which opened in 1987, as ‘a London landmark’.
It says of the Michelin-starred restaurant ‘the River Café is at once fancy and low-key: You’ll get white tablecloths here, sure, but paper placemats, too.’
And Goop’s recommendations?
It says: ‘Go for roasted-peach bellinis, a pan-Italian wine list, and chef Ruth Rogers’s rustic Tuscan food—think hand-cut malfatti and Barolo-marinated veal shin.
‘The dining room bumps right up against the kitchen; if you’re lucky, you’ll sit close enough to the iconic H๏τ-pink oven to ogle at dinner as it comes out.’
Ms Paltrow says in her newsletter: ‘At the start of this year, we began publishing The goop List: highly curated annual roundups of the world’s most extraordinary travel experiences. We started with H๏τels, followed by spas, museums and galleries, and today: restaurants.
Despite having lived in London for a decade, only one British restaurant makes the grade as Gwyneth Paltrow reveals her annual list of the globe’s top restaurants
The 52-year-old Goop entrepreneur included 34 recommendations from the US on her 59-strong list, with London’s River Cafe the only UK entry
‘This list was the most difficult to narrow down. But as we debated—and cut, and added, and cut — it also invigorated us the most. Two truths came into focus. You can’t plan a great trip without planning it around great food.
‘And sometimes, if you’re lucky, a meal close to where you live has the same transportive power as a transatlantic voyage.’
It adds: ‘This list honors plenty of the food world’s big dogs: molecular gastronomists, iconic sushi masters, the kinds of chefs that seem to win James Beard Awards and Michelin stars in their sleep.
‘And there are plenty of tasting menus and prix fixe situations here. But it also highlights extraordinary neighborhood trattorias, window-service legends, local insтιтutions, and the industry’s most promising young guns.’
Ms Paltrow has sometimes taken a more trenchant view of London restaurants.
During one newspaper interview in 2019, Ms Paltrow was reported to have perused the menu in Marcus, a Michelin starred restaurant in the Berkeley H๏τel, and said: ‘I can’t eat this sh*t.’
She returned to her suite and ordered a club sandwich instead.
