Hot Dinners

About Hot Dinners

Hot Dinners is London's biggest independent dining-out publication, run by husband-and-wife team Catherine and Gavin Hanly. The site covers the capital's restaurant scene with news of openings, closings and chef moves, test-drive reviews of new restaurants, and an extensive searchable directory of where to eat across the city — written by people who eat out constantly and know the industry from the inside. Visit the official website at hot-dinners.com.

History and founding

Hot Dinners was founded by Catherine Hanly and Gavin Hanly, who built it into London's leading independent restaurant guide through sheer consistency: years of daily coverage of the capital's dining scene. The site grew alongside London's restaurant boom of the 2010s, when the city's food culture exploded with new openings, street-food markets, chef residencies and international cuisines. While national newspapers covered food as lifestyle, Hot Dinners covered it as news — tracking openings, closures, menu launches and industry moves with the diligence of a trade paper. That news-first approach, combined with the founders' evident love of eating out, built a loyal readership among London's restaurant-going public and the industry itself.

Ownership and funding model

Hot Dinners is an independent publication owned and run by its founders, Catherine and Gavin Hanly. Its independence from restaurant groups, PR companies and booking platforms is central to its credibility — readers trust its recommendations because it has no commercial reason to favour one restaurant over another. The site is free to read and funded by advertising and commercial partnerships, including promoted features that are clearly distinguished from editorial.

Editorial focus and coverage areas

Hot Dinners covers London restaurants across every category and price point: breaking news of openings and closures, chef appointments and restaurant group expansions, and the industry stories — awards, guides, trends — that shape the scene. Its signature format is the "test drive" review, in which Gavin Hanly visits a new restaurant and reports back with characteristic directness — as when he described a Soho Italian bistro as "a proper slice of old-school Soho" with "great food, well-priced and lovely, friendly service." The site's directory organises London restaurants by area — from the City to Soho, Shoreditch to South London — with detailed entries covering the essential information diners need. Coverage spans fine dining (Michelin-starred rooms, AA Rosette winners like Row on 5 and Josephine), casual neighbourhood restaurants, street food, food halls and the ever-evolving trends, from Basque cheesecake to hotpot.

Notable journalists and contributors

Hot Dinners is written principally by its founders: Gavin Hanly, whose test-drive reviews are the site's signature, and Catherine Hanly, whose journalism appears across the site's news and features. Catherine Hanly's bylines on the media database Muck Rack show the breadth of the site's output — from restaurant news to chef interviews to coverage of industry awards like the AA Restaurant Guide. The husband-and-wife operation gives the site a consistent, personal voice rare in food media.

Audience and reach

Hot Dinners serves London's restaurant-going public — from dedicated foodies who plan their weeks around openings to casual diners looking for a reliable recommendation. Its readership includes the hospitality industry itself: chefs, restaurateurs and PRs read it to track competitors and trends. The site's news stories are picked up across food media, and its reviews are cited in the wider conversation about London restaurants — including in newsletters like Professional Lunch's round-ups of the week's criticism.

Business model

Hot Dinners is free to readers and funded by advertising and partnerships with the hospitality industry. Its commercial products include display advertising and promoted features — such as its "promoted feature" format for restaurant launches — clearly labelled to preserve editorial trust. The site's value to advertisers is its highly targeted audience of active London diners, the exact demographic restaurants want to reach.

Digital platforms, podcasts and newsletters

Hot Dinners publishes through hot-dinners.com, with its news, reviews and area-by-area directories forming the core product. The site maintains social media channels for breaking restaurant news, and its content is heavily indexed by search — making it the default answer for queries about where to eat in London. The directory's organisation by neighbourhood reflects how Londoners actually choose restaurants: by area, occasion and cuisine.

Awards and recognition

Hot Dinners' standing is reflected in its description as London's biggest independent dining-out publication and in its influence on the city's food conversation. Its reviews and news are cited across food media, and its founders are established figures in London's restaurant world — known to chefs, restaurateurs and PRs as the independent voice that covers the scene without fear or favour.

Community and industry role

Hot Dinners functions as London's restaurant trade paper and consumer guide in one: the industry reads it for news, diners read it for recommendations, and the two audiences meet in its comment sections and social channels. Its independence — no booking-platform ownership, no PR-company ties — makes its verdicts trusted in a media environment where much food coverage is commercially entangled. For new restaurant openings, a Hot Dinners test drive is a milestone; for readers, it's the reliable friend who eats out more than anyone and tells you honestly what it's like.

Outlook

Hot Dinners continues to cover London's restaurant scene daily under its founders' stewardship, tracking an industry adapting to cost pressures, changing dining habits and new formats. As the capital's food culture keeps evolving, the site's combination of news diligence and personal voice keeps it essential — for the industry that feeds London and the Londoners who love to eat out.

The test-drive review and independent food criticism

The test-drive format distils Hot Dinners' philosophy: visit anonymously (or at least independently), eat the food, and tell readers plainly what it's like — no PR spin, no advertiser deference. In a food-media landscape increasingly dominated by influencer content and commercially entangled coverage, the independent critical voice is rarer than it should be. Hot Dinners' insistence on that independence — funded by advertising but editorially separate from it, with promoted content clearly labelled — is what gives its recommendations weight. The site's area-by-area directories, meanwhile, represent an enormous accumulated labour: thousands of restaurants catalogued by neighbourhood, updated as the scene changes. Together, the news operation, the reviews and the directory make Hot Dinners something like a public utility for London dining — the infrastructure of the city's restaurant culture, maintained by two people who simply love eating out.

Hot Dinners' significance in London's food media lies in its independence and its diligence — two qualities in short supply where food coverage is concerned. The site's news operation, tracking the capital's relentless churn of openings, closures, chef moves and industry developments, functions as a trade paper for the restaurant business: chefs, restaurateurs and PRs read it to know what's happening. Its test-drive reviews, with Gavin Hanly's direct, personality-driven verdicts, serve diners deciding where to spend their money. And its area-by-area directories — the product of years of accumulated visits — organise the chaos of London dining into something navigable. The husband-and-wife operation gives the whole enterprise a consistency of voice rare in food media: readers know what a Hot Dinners recommendation means. Catherine Hanly's journalism, spanning news, features and industry analysis, complements the reviews with reporting depth. Together, the founders have built what the site claims to be — London's biggest independent dining-out publication — without compromising the independence that makes it trustworthy. In a city where restaurants open and close at a dizzying rate, and where much food coverage is entangled with the industry it covers, Hot Dinners' straightforward proposition — we eat out constantly, we tell you honestly what it's like — remains refreshingly, and increasingly, rare.