Catherine Hanly

It's that time of the year when we look back at all the meals (and drinks) of the year and pick our favourites. With more to come on Thursday, here's our first rundown of things we really loved in 2024.

There was quite the kerfuffle on Instagram last week when Jackson Boxer took to social to announce that his much-loved Notting Hill restaurant Orasay was going to close at the end of the year. "There are a multitude of reasons for this," the chef and restaurateur said, "but the simplest one is that Orasay was never a very lucrative business. We specialised in working with a fragile and elusive product with a minuscule shelf life that needs a great deal of labour to prepare."

If you've ever watched Crazy Rich Asians and wondered what it was like dining at the top of that amazing hotel in Singapore, well you're soon going to get the next best thing. That's because CÉ LA VI which is the restaurant, bar and club at the top of the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel, is opening in the rooftop space of the new Renzo Piano building in Paddington Square.

Enjoy icy Arctic Espressos made with Grey Goose at Seabird's wintry retreat Snowbird.

Born in Yokohama, Endo is a a third-generation sushi master who came to London in 2006 as head chef of Zuma.

Arriving with impeccable timing to cater to the crush that is going to be Oxford Street over the coming weeks, Japanese baking folk Happy Sky Bakery unveiled their brand new bakery over the weekend. This, their second place, is on Hanway Street which is, as they handily explain "a quiet little street tucked just behind the big Primark near Tottenham Court Road station."

We get a lot of information about new openings here at Hot Dinners, so it takes a lot to impress us. So when we say that an announcement about a new central London hotel made us sit up and take notice, that's a big thing. The illustrations about the restaurant and bar opening at The Newman, just north of Oxford Street, really caught our eye. This Fitzrovian boutique hotel will have two places to eat and drink and they both look fabulous.

Promoted feature If the cold London winter is getting you down, then a trip to Brazil courtesy of new Mayfair restaurant Maroto could be just the antidote.

They're as sure a sign of an area's gentrification as the arrival of a Waitrose or M&S Food store and now the bakery behemoths that are Gail's are expanding to the city's train stations. Last week they opened their first branch in a travel hub, at St Pancras. And they're following that up by opening this week at London Bridge.

The river view from Oblix East In a nutshell We haven't been to anything in The Shard for a good long while, so the launch of a new