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Review of the Reviews - London

Lutyens

Andy Lynes, Metro (Rating: 4/5 stars)

Conran’s latest city restaurant “is effectively Le Pont de la Tour II”, says the critic; it is similarly “sleek” and has a menu that’s a “list of overfamiliar brasserie classics”. Happily, “what turns up on the plate is an entirely different matter” and the food generally epitomises “good old-fashioned fancy French cookery”. “[T]he real triumph here”, he notes, “is the polished and friendly service.”

Lower East

David Sexton, Evening Standard (Rating: 1/5 stars)

The view at this newly-opened restaurant, on the edge of Canary Wharf, is “great”. That’s the best the critic has to say about this Manhattan-inspired bar/bistro. The service is “painfully false”, the bistro “has an odd dancefloor feel” and the music is so loud “that it was difficult to talk”. The “short and simple” menu produces food that ranges from “not inedible” to “enjoyable”, but his lasting memory is of the wine list, “organised on the principle of gross financial insult”, with categories labelled “Cheap”, “Decent” and “Very Good”.

Guy Dimond, Time Out (Rating: 3/5 stars)

This Westferry Circus bar/bistro doesn't quite seem to succeed in emulating the Manhattan neighbourhood restaurants which inspired it. The critic finds the “can-do, smiling service” evocative of New York but considers “the brief menu is a very loose interpretation.” It is, however, “redeemed by being in a lovely riverside spot, which is perfect when the weather’s good.”

Valentina

Feargus O’Sullivan, The London Paper

In a “humdrum south London office block” the critic finds a “cheerful” Italian restaurant, sat above a delicatessen and spuntino (Italian tapas) bar. The food is described as “not bad”, and it’s “not [a] mould-breaking sort of place”, but it is “distinguished by eager, friendly service.”

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