Sushinho
John Walsh, The Independent (Rating: Food 2/5 stars, Ambience 4/5 stars, Service 4/5 stars)
“Combining the food of Rio and Tokyo on the same menu seems bizarre”, says the critic, but he is informed that “Sao Paolo houses the largest Japanese population after Japan itself”. The cocktail he samples at this Chelsea newcomer is “delicious”, but the food is “weirdly hit-and-miss”. The setting is “lovely”, though, and the staff are “unfailingly helpful”.
Boundary
AA Gill, The Sunday Times (Rating: 4/5 stars)
“The first thing I noticed about it was how familiar it looked, how easy on the eye, how stylish and effortlessly Conran.” The critic is swept away by Sir Tel’s new operation, in a Shoreditch basement. “There’s plenty of space, and the menu is all the things that Conran brought to English palates 30 years ago and I’d almost forgotten about. French, rural, bourgeois food — as enjoyed by Englishmen with paunches and floozies touring Provence in open-topped Alvises”.
St Alban
Jasper Gerrard, The Telegraph (Rating: 8/10)
Mr Gerrard tells us that, at this celebrated Theatreland restaurant, “the chef, Francesco Mazzei, is Italian”, Er, no. As everyone in the restaurant world knows – surely? – Mr Mazzei left this Theatreland restaurant in September 2007, subsequently founding L’Anima, which has enjoyed enormous acclaim (both from Harden’s and elsewhere) as perhaps the leading London opening of 2008. If Mr Gerrard doesn’t actually have any grasp of such key facts, should he not at least check them before launching into print?
[Note: the online version of the article was subsequently corrected.]
HoSt, Liverpool
Terry Durack, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 13/20)
The brothers Gary and Colin Manning – proprietors of 60 Hope Street – are, says the critic, “the likeliest lads in Liverpool to nail the Zeitgeist”. They have recently added to their portfolio this “modern, pan-Asian noodle bar”. “HoSt needs a bit more art, heart and character”, he concludes, but “there is still enough light, bright, tasty, recession-friendly food to draw a crowd”.
Bell's Diner, Bristol
Matthew Norman, The Guardian (Rating: 5/10)
The critic visits a restaurant which has long had quite a ‘name’ locally, and finds far too much “fussiness and contrivance” on the food front. “In fact, the joint best feature (with outstanding service) is the ambience.” “Buried beneath the facetious crockery, baby-food purées and other affectations that were passé long ago is, I suspect, a cracking neighbourhood restaurant, and Bristol could use one of those. But this hyper-ambitious style of cooking needs the genius of a Blumenthal to avoid appearing daft. If this irksome yet likable place can thrive without a cheapish set menu, and keep charging £8.50 for poached egg, good luck to it. But I've a feeling there's more chance of my becoming solicitor general in a Gordon Brown government.”
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