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Press Reviews (10)

• Marina O'Loughlin (16th June 2010)
  2/5 stars
  
  The food at Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant is “entirely fine”, says the critc. That’s as excited as she can get though. “Ramsay’s restaurants look like they’ve been created by a man who understands the criteria for Michelin upper-level billing but is trying to tick them off without real feel or flair. It’s like he’s working to a 1990s template that says Fayn Dayning: How To Appeal To Mr Michelin In Ten Easy Lessons.”
• Richard Vines (20th May 2010)
  3/4 stars
  
  A review of Gordon Ramsay's Belgravia restaurant where the cuisine is “well executed and there are good dishes, particularly among the starters and the desserts.” As for the decor, “if you were being kind… you might say it offers understated glamour. If you were being unkind, as some people have been, you might find it too understated in a beige sort of way.” The critic concludes that “[i]t’s difficult to imagine London diners getting excited by any of this”, but if Ramsay “sticks with his current prices...and keeps up the level of service, Petrus is an acceptable option if you’re in the area.” Does this really sound like a restaurant worth three out of the maximum possible four stars? We're not quite sure it does.
• Matthew Norman (10th May 2010)
  
  “[D]espite all the Michelin ponceries – the fancy freebies, the absurdly lavish floral displays, the phalanx of nattily dressed tray-wielders approaching tables in battle formation”, the Ramsay group’s latest restaurant “needs sharp improvement to merit even a single star”, says the critic. “The room squeaks inaudibly beneath the weight of ambient cliché, with lush carpets, armagnac trolley, riot of creams and beiges”, and the food is “as bland as the room”. The experience is somewhat redeemed by “unforgettably magnificent” puddings, yet “[o]ases of brilliance simply aren't enough, and this lazy reinvention places him even more firmly in Wareing's shadow than before.”
• Tracey MacLeod (4th May 2010)
  Food 3/5 stars, Ambience 3/5 stars, Service 4/5 stars
  
  “All three of us were happy with most of what we tried from the three-course menu but the food didn’t set our pulses racing” – another critic echoes the gist of most reviews of Gordon Ramsay’s new Belgravia restaurant. She left, however, “feeling that we had experienced the special evening we'd hoped for”. How come? Something to do with “the smoothness of the operation”, apparently, and – get this – “Ramsay's determination to make a success of it”!
• Giles Coren (26th April 2010)
  4.33/10
  
  “Every greige surface, padded leather menu, piddling free hors d’oeuvre and newly trained flunky makes me think of the corporatisation of the past 11 years. The decline of the human. Of how Gordon got bigger and bigger, moved out of the kitchen, became a television demigod of other men’s construction, and left us to seek his destiny in America, Japan, the Middle East…”
• Lisa Markwell (26th April 2010)
  15/20
  
  “I can't find fault with Petrus, but I can't find it in my heart to recommend it either… for mere mortals, I'd advise you to keep your wallet tucked away and keep walking.” “[H]ead chef Sean Burbidge is clearly talented, but it feels as if he is following a generic posh-food template.” Extras bump up the bill too, contributing to “the distinct feeling of an operation that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
• Jay Rayner (26th April 2010)
  
  “Gordon Ramsay's newest venture, is a terrific restaurant in search of a menu. It has many virtues; sadly, the food isn't one of them.” While the design of the dining room is “very clever” and “buzzes with the sounds of people having a good time”,the cuisine is just “ho-hum” and “safe”. “[W]hen the bill, courtesy of a shameful wine list, refuses to stick below £100 a head, you also want memories. Save for the few high points – a remarkable watercress soup, a clever scallop dish – mostly it's the culinary equivalent of beige: dull at worst, inoffensive at best.”
• AA Gill (19th April 2010)
  1/5 stars
  
  Farewell sweet prospect of a groundswell of support for Gordon Ramsay. The UK’s most-read critic – once, let it not be forgotten, thrown out of Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant by the man himself – lets the Sweary One’s latest venture have it with both barrels.
• Jasper Gerard (12th April 2010)
  8/10
  
  “Ramsay is in the process of reinventing himself with faultless, unfussy interpretations of classic combinations. Compared to that of his rival, the cooking is even vaguely affordable, if you don't let the charming female sommelier lure you into a too-thorough exploration of the wine cellar”. Praise for the chef's new Belgravia restaurant, where both the “bargain” set lunch and à la carte menu impress - special mention is reserved for dessserts: “[i]f main courses are impressive, puddings excel”. “Will I return? Probably not. But if you seek opulent atmosphere for a (relatively) ordinary outlay, Gordon has proved he's no moron.”
• Fay Maschler (8th April 2010)
  4/5 stars
  
  A visit to Gordon Ramsay's “innovative and informal” new restaurant in Belgravia impresses the critic on every level. On the reasonably priced menu, “[t]he seven first and eight main courses are the sort of dishes anticipated in this genre of cooking with nothing to frighten the novice — except perhaps the raw liver look of pigeon breast cooked sous-vide — but plenty of thoughtful detail in the garnishes”. “[I]mpressive” starters, “terrific” fish and “eerily lovely” desserts – “the chocolate sphere with milk ice cream and honeycomb was probably what people mean when they talk of food to die for” – combine with an “agreeable sense of intimacy” of the dining room to make an enjoyable experience all round. Top marks too for the “unasked-for scrupulousness” in regards to vegetarian diners.