They closed after a fire last year, but Red Dog Soho is making a return - and they've had something of a change in their absence. Upon their return, they'll be all about Austin Barbeque, American craft beers and whiskey.

The first restaurant to open up in the new Wood Lane railway arches development by White City, Prairie Fire are bringing their low and slow ethos of barbecued foods to West Londoners. 

You might have tried their food at Market Hall Victoria or Old Spitalfields Market, but Flank's next move is to take on a long term residency in East London at The Print House in Stratford.

Flank is all about nose-to-tail eating and cooking over fire and Flank OG, which will be in Stratford, expands their offering to more of a small plates game. From a quick look at what's on their launch menu, it definitely sounds worth checking out.

Things kick

Once again, London is getting ready for another great-sounding Meatopia festival over in Tobacco Dock. Every year (this will be its seventh), a great selection of top chefs get together to create some truly excellent dishes - all created specifically for the festival. You won't see any of these dishes elsewhere. Oh, and a lot of meat is involved. 

Everyone's favourite festival of meat and fire, Meatopia, is coming back to London for its sixth outing and this year's line-up looks pretty amazing.

Chefs cooking at Meatopia for the first time include Jeremy Chan of Ikoyi, Sam Bryant of Coal Rooms, Rok Shoreditch’s Matt Young and Aaron Webster & Remi Williams of Smoke & Salt. But the list of returning chefs is pretty bloody A-list ranging from Yotam Ottolenghi, David Carter of Smokestak through to Meatopia

We do love putting our April Fools together here at Hot Dinners, but even we don't expect for them to come true. However that's exactly what appears to have happened today. Alerted by a reader who spotted a similarity between a story in The Standard and our 2017 April Fool we discovered that what we thought was too crazy to become true actually appears to be

“We want to keep pushing boundaries,” said Mr Lyan about his new concept bar and restaurant. No problem there then - his new restaurant uses very (and we do mean *very*) creative ingredients in a special all-in-one kitchen and bar, reducing waste and keeping guests on their toes. Expect ambergris, Japanese knotweed and smoked compost carrot on the weekly changing menu.

One of Soho's most popular and successful restaurants, The Smoking Goat, is coming to Shoreditch. They're taking over a big place that - ahem - used to be a "strip-pub" (yes exactly what it sounds like) so expect

If you’re the sort of Londoner who thinks browsing vinyls and watching a film with your BBQ’d dinner sounds just great, then you’ll be wanting to head to Hackney Fields hipster hub the Institute of Light, which is just about to launch a residency with Billy Smokes.

Operating out of what IOL dubs “one of the coolest terraces in London Fields”, Billy Smokes will be dishing up all the usually summery BBQ

Fancy a drink with a view over Knightsbridge? The Jumeirah Carlton Tower has just opened a ninth floor bar

Sunshine and warmer weather means BBQ is increasingly back on the menu - particularly at Southbank’s new BBQ Club & Bar.

It’s a Thamesside pop-up and supper club, set up by Jimmy Garcia (Jimmy’s Underground Pop-Up, DVine Cellars, Cornercopia) and will be spread across two floors. The walk up BBQ bar will remain below, while those who’re joining for the rooftop supper club will head

We take a look at the latest restaurant from Jamie Oliver, which sees him opening a second Barbecoa, on Piccadilly. 

Another New York restaurant is making the trip to London as New York's Extra Fancy is popping up in the Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch for three nights only. They're a very popular Brooklyn seafood and crab shack and they'll be bringing their best dishes over for a surf vs turf mash-up menu against Blue's Kitchen's Texas offering. 

So from Extra Fancy, there