Marina O’Loughlin leaves The Sunday Times

O’Loughlin took over from the late AA Gill in 2017 having previously been the restaurant critic for the Guardian and - before that - the Metro. 

The critic has won numerous plaudits and awards for her writing style and no-punches-pulled reviews and is one of the last genuinely anonymous high profile restaurant reviewers in the country, with her identity kept a secret from the majority of people in the restaurant industry.

It is this anonymity that many believe gives O’Loughlin the edge on the more well-known newspaper critics and leads to a more representative restaurant review.

Announcing her departure on Twitter, O’Loughlin said: “said I’d do 5 years. And astonishingly that’s 5 years. Couple of months hiatus till next gig - so looking fwd to being even *more* of a backroom gal - which I plan to fill with restaurants for the sheer hell of ‘em.” 

The critic went out with a bang, penning an acerbic review of Gordon Ramsay’s Street Burger that branded the restaurant chain a 'high street horror show'. 

Fellow critic Tim Hayward wrote on Twitter that O’Loughlin was “quitting at the absolute top”.