‘Everyone should go once’: Inside the London bistro fit for royalty
藏着玛格丽特公主的“恋爱秘密”？这家伦敦餐厅你必须打卡
Maggie Jones is named after Princess Margaret’s alias, used when she was dating the glamorous photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. Years after a fire, it’s reopened
以公主约会时的化名命名，曾毁于大火，如今这间充满王室浪漫情调的酒馆已低调重开。
Maggie Jones in Kensington位于伦敦肯辛顿（Kensington）的 Maggie Jones 餐厅，以其极具乡村气息和复古怀旧感的装饰风格著称。
John Sturgis
Monday April 06 2026, 5.00amBST, The Times
Walking into Maggie Jones’s for the first time in nearly two decades I notice immediately that it’s completely unchanged: the Kensington bistro remains an authentic homage to the Swinging Sixties, continuing to defy the passing of time.
时隔近二十年，当我再次踏入 Maggie Jones 时，瞬间发现这里竟分毫未改：这间位于肯辛顿的小酒馆，依然是对那个“摇摆六十年代”最纯正的致敬，仿佛岁月在此停滞，任凭时光流逝也无法撼动它分毫。
Except this impression doesn’t tell the whole story.
可惜，这惊鸿一瞥还远不足以道尽其中的曲折。
In reality this quaint and quirky corner of W8 onlyseems exactly the same because of enormous and expensive efforts to make it so: the place was very nearly burnt to the ground and has only recently reopened after a £1.7 million, two-year restoration project.
这种“分毫未改”的错觉背后，其实藏着一段惊心动魄的往事。这个充满奇思妙想的角落之所以能如初见般重现，背后是极其庞大且昂贵的复原工程：当年那场大火差点让这里化为灰烬，在砸下170万英镑、历经两年的漫长修复后，它才在最近得以涅槃重生。
But before we get to its new beginnings, some background on its past — and why it has a unique place on the London restaurant scene.
在揭开它的重生序幕前，必须先聊聊它的前世今生——这间餐厅之所以能成为伦敦餐饮界的“独一份”，背后的故事绝不简单。
It opened in 1964 as Nan’s Kitchen, fitted out with old country kitchen pine and semi-antique knick-knacks picked up at Portobello market, offering a then-fashionable melange of bistro classics of both British and continental origin. Think prawn cocktail, French onion soup, fish pie, liver and bacon.
1964年，它以“Nan’s Kitchen”之名问世。店里摆满了老式的乡村松木橱柜，到处是从波托贝洛集市淘来的旧物件，透着一种古灵精怪的怀旧美学。那时候，这里供应着最时髦的英法混合菜系：经典的大虾杯、浓郁的法式洋葱汤、扎实的鱼派和英式煎肝配培根，全是那个时代的小酒馆标配。
The Maggie’s brand name, adopted a decade later, famously comes from the alias that Princess Margaret used to make bookings for dates with the photographer and man-about-town Antony Armstrong-Jones. The somewhat transgressive relationship between princess and playboy had attracted a great deal of press interest so Armstrong-Jones found himself attempting to avoid the attention of other photographers.
餐厅在十年后更名为“Maggie Jones”，而这个名字背后藏着一个王室大瓜：它是玛格丽特公主约会时的“专属马甲”。当时，她正与风流倜傥的摄影师安东尼·阿姆斯特朗-琼斯热恋，这段带有越轨意味的王室恋情引发了媒体的疯狂围堵。为了能安稳吃上一顿饭，摄影师出身的阿姆斯特朗-琼斯也不得不展开“反侦察”，拼命躲避那些如影随形的狗仔队。
Hence the existence of the “Princess booth”, the corner of the restaurant most concealed from public view where she habitually demanded to be seated. Presumably, using Margaret Amstrong-Jones for bookings might have been both a giveaway and too overt a statement of intent. Though it plainly was that: he would soon become her husband, and later became Lord Snowdon.
正因如此，餐厅里才有了那个著名的“公主雅座”——那是店内最隐蔽、最能避开公众视线的角落，也是她习惯性要求入座的地方。想必，如果当时直接用“玛格丽特·阿姆斯特朗-琼斯”来订位，不仅容易暴露身份，也显得意图过于直白。虽然那确实是她的心声：不久后，他便迎娶了她，也就是后来的斯诺登伯爵。
One of the restaurant’s discreet booths
这张图片展示了 Maggie Jones 餐厅内部那些极其隐秘的卡座
Apart from changing its name to the funkier royal homage, Maggie’s remained largely unchanged from 1964 until the late Nineties when the founders — who also owned bistro La Poule au Pot in Pimlico — sold up.
除了换了个更时髦、带着王室致敬意味的名字，Maggie’s 的风格从1964年到90年代末几乎一成不变。后来，创始人卖掉了这家店，而他们同时也是皮姆利科区那家法式酒馆 La Poule au Pot 的老板。
The new owner was Peter Frankel, a retiring dentist, and his plan was to leave well alone, which is how it survived into the new millennium little altered.
接手的新老板是彼得·弗兰克尔（Peter Frankel），一位即将退休的牙医。他的经营计划就是“别去动它”，保持现状。正因如此，这家店才能在跨入新千年后，依然保留着那份几乎没被岁月惊扰过的原始模样。
Its present manager is Peter’s son Tim Frankel, who had his own encounters with Princess Margaret as a young gardener at Kensington Palace — where she was given to sunbathing in a bikini on the lawns while he and his colleagues were under strict instruction never to look in her direction. One would hope not.
餐厅现任负责人是彼得的儿子蒂姆·弗兰克尔（Tim Frankel）。他年轻时曾是肯辛顿宫的一名园丁，在那里与玛格丽特公主有过一段奇妙的“交集”——当时，公主常在草坪上穿着比基尼晒太阳，而蒂姆和他的同事们则接到死命令：绝对不准往公主的方向看。想必，谁也不敢乱看。
I started going in the late Nineties when I worked on the Evening Standard, then based above the Barkers department store around the corner, a newspaper where Maggie’s was regarded as the house restaurant.
我从九十年代末开始光顾这家店，那时我在《晚旗报》（Evening Standard）工作。报社就在转角处的巴克斯（Barkers）百货公司楼上，对我们报社的人来说，Maggie’s 就像是我们的专属“食堂”一样。
We would often spend whole afternoons there, drinking the house wine, magnums of which the waiting staff would mark with a pencil to record how much from a bottle you had had. Very often it was several bottles. There were office rumours of romantic liaisons in the larger toilet cubicles and that kind of thing. It was the Nineties.
我们常在那里消磨掉整个下午，喝着餐厅的自酿酒。侍应生会在大容量装（Magnum）的酒瓶上用铅笔划线，以此记录你喝了多少——但通常情况下，我们能喝掉好几瓶。办公室里还流传着一些八卦，说有人在宽敞的厕所隔间里幽会之类的。没办法，那可是九十年代。
A range of bistro classics populate the menu
这张图片展示了 Maggie Jones 菜单上的一系列经典酒馆料理（Bistro Classics）。
Finding myself in Kensington again more recently I tried to go back but discovered it was “temporarily closed”. This status, particularly when applied to pubs, is lately often a euphemism for “never coming back”. But thankfully Maggie’s has come back.
前不久重回肯辛顿，本想故地重游，结果却吃了个闭门羹，只看到“临时停业”的告示。如今这四个字，多半是餐厅倒闭前最后的遮羞布。好在 Maggie’s 是个例外——它不仅没消失，还真的重新开了张。
I spoke to Tim about its near destruction — and his fight to save the place.
我曾与蒂姆交谈，听他讲述那场几近灭顶的灾难，以及他如何拼尽全力，才让这间餐厅免于消失的命运。
“I got a call in the middle of the night on the August bank holiday weekend [of 2023],” he said. “The restaurant was on fire. It had been caused by an electrical fault in the kitchen. The fire was enormous though mostly confined to the basement, but the smoke damage was so extensive that they initially told us we’d have to dump everything, all the furniture and fittings, the lot, and start again. But the stuff was irreplaceable.’
“[2023年]八月那个小长假的半夜，电话铃响了，”他说，“餐厅烧起来了。厨房电线短路引发了大火，火势惊人。尽管火场大多局限在地下室，但烟尘几乎毁了所有角落。最初的建议是让我们清空全场，家具、内饰，统统当垃圾处理掉。但对我来说，这里的一砖一木都是无价之宝，根本没法替换。”
So instead they painstakingly stripped, restored and repaired every single square inch, even creating a replica of the original 1960s Sanderson wallpaper to complete the impression that all was the same. It works — I was deceived.
他们选择了最难的那条路：对每一平方英寸都进行了精细的剥离与修复。为了完美还原当年的氛围，他们甚至找人重新打版，复刻了那款 60 年代的桑德森（Sanderson）老墙纸。这种近乎偏执的坚持成功了——当我踏入店门时，完全没察觉到这里曾经历过一场浩劫。
The Margaret-Snowdon dates are all that’s usually written in connection with Maggie’s lore before. But in a Times world exclusive, I can reveal that many other senior royals have dated here over the years, including both Harry and Meghan, and William and Kate, while Princess Diana was also known to pop in. It’s very handy from Kensington Palace, you see.
过去，关于 Maggie’s 的传奇故事，通常只聚焦在玛格丽特公主与斯诺登伯爵的约会上。但现在，作为《泰晤士报》的全球独家消息，我可以向大家揭秘：多年来，还有许多其他王室核心成员也曾在这里约会，其中就包括哈里与梅根，以及威廉与凯特；据说戴安娜王妃生前也常来这里。毕竟，从肯辛顿宫溜过来实在太方便了。
The restaurant would know if a booking was for a royal date as the caller would always ask for “two tables for two” — one for the amorous VIPs, the other for their personal protection officers.
餐厅员工对王室到访早已心领神会。每当订位电话里提到要“两张两人小桌”时，大家就明白了：一对正打得火热的王室情侣即将现身，而另一桌则是留给如影随形的贴身保镖们的。
In the same way that the births, deaths — or sacking in disgrace — of members of the royal family sees the line of succession regularly revised, so the list of London’s oldest restaurants is a fluid one. There are the established ancient ones like Rules, Wilton’s, Sweetings. Simpson’s in the Strand has been re-opened by Jeremy King. Then come the fruitier 20th-century outlets. The likely imminent closure this year of both Veeraswamy (1926) andDaquise (1947) will see Maggie Jones’s (1964, as discussed) move a couple of places higher up the top 20.
就像王室成员的婚丧嫁娶——或是因丑闻被扫地出门——会导致王位继承顺序频繁变动一样，伦敦最古老餐厅的名单也并非一成不变。这其中有像Rules、Wilton’s 和 Sweetings 这样地位稳固的“老牌贵族”；也有由杰里米·金（Jeremy King）重新掌舵开业的 Simpson’s in the Strand。接着便是那些更具个性的20世纪“后起之秀”。 鉴于 Veeraswamy（1926年开业） 和 Daquise （1947年开业）这两家老店今年大概率要拉下帷幕，1964年问世的 Maggie’s 离挺进“最老餐厅榜”的前列又近了一步。
On our recent visit we were pleasingly seated in Margaret’s old booth. It certainly is discreet. And rather comfy.
最近去的那次，我们“幸运”地入座了玛格丽特公主生前钟爱的那个雅座。不得不说，那里确实私密性极佳，坐着也格外惬意。
The menu is exactly as I remembered, even if the prices are steeper. But that’s the modern world for you. It’s in that “£15 starter/£30 main/£10 pud” range. You could certainly eat the same kind of thing more cheaply elsewhere but it wouldn’t have the same history or atmosphere.
菜单和我记忆中一模一样，即便价格已经涨了不少。但没办法，这就是当下的世道。现在的价位基本落在“前菜15镑、主菜30镑、甜点10镑”这个区间。你当然可以在别处花更少的钱吃到类似的菜式，但那里绝不会有这里厚重的历史底蕴和独一无二的氛围。
Everyone should go at least once. I shall certainly return again — and again. As indeed for almost 30 years, I have.
每个人一生中都应该去那里坐坐。至于我，肯定还会回去，一次又一次。毕竟，那是我已经坚持了近三十年的习惯。
