Criterion

Press Reviews (5)

• Jay Rayner (25th January 2010)
  
  The Criterion restaurant at Piccadilly Circus “has been open so long Arthur Conan Doyle was able to site the first meeting between Holmes and Watson”, notes the critic, which he finds appropriate given the “crimes against food now being committed” there. He goes on nicely to summarise the recent past, including a good reference to the “special brand of mediocrity” which MPW “sprinkled over the stardust”. Under its new régime, the place boasts a menu “which polite people would call eclectic and I would call a mess, and some of the food turns out to be, literlly, “crap”. “[T]his is bound to be one of the worst meals of 2010, an achievement given it’s still January.”
• Richard Vines (11th September 2009)
  2/4 stars
  
  The new owners of the Piccadilly stalwart have introduced a “flamboyant” menu that the critic finds a confusing “culinary tour of the world.” It does however fit with the “over-the- top” room, and the chef is successful with the “bold combinations” in his dishes. Some dishes “lack finesse”, though, and the critic wonders if “the menu isn’t too broad for the kitchen”.
• Giles Coren (7th September 2009)
  6/10
  
  The critic tweets his way through his meal at the recently-relaunched Piccadilly restaurant, his final tweet summarising his experience: “criterion is totally bridge and tunnel but decent cooking, clumpy service, room v gay in a great way.” Although he believes this mode of “deliver[ing] instant verdicts” on restaurants “really is the future”, however, “for as long as The Times puts ink on paper, ... [he] will write properly, and not do it like this again”.
• Marina O'Loughlin (17th July 2009)
  3/5 stars
  
  In spite of the touches of “dodgy oligarch taste” that have been introduced to the interior of this Piccadilly Circus “icon” by the new Georgian owners, the critic still finds it “Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.” The “camp” service is so “super-shmoozing” that the food “fade[s] a little into the background”. It is mostly good, though, and “infinitely better than the food we endured during Marco Pierre White's reign”, so all in all, “it's now somewhere [she] would comfortably recommend to anyone looking for a showstopping room and a reasonable dinner.”
• Fay Maschler (8th July 2009)
  2/5 stars
  
  The critic visits the Piccadilly Circus stalwart, recently taken over by Georgian entrepeneurs, and finds it not much improved on the former régime. The menu tries “to be all things to all men”, and realisation is up-and-down. She opines that “it may take a while for Criterion to find its natural constituency.”