The Christmas and New Year period disrupts the reviewing schedules of almost all the media. Here, more selectively than usual, are the major reviews which appeared over the festive season. The past weekend’s press will be reviewed on this site on Wednesday, and this week’s weekday reviews (from the London media) on Friday. From next week, we’ll be back on our normal twice-weekly schedule.
Mr Gill’s stand-in starts off her review by noting that “to emphasise here [meaning in New York, presumably] how famous Ramsay is would be obtuse. He has broken America in a way Robbie Williams and Oasis never did…”
She is generally impressed by all aspects of her dinner, but is not entirely swept away by the experience. This is “a safe bet for lovely food and, with the fine-dining prices, perhaps that’s what most people who choose to eat here want. Still, I am surprised [chef] Josh Emett received two [Michelin] stars for this; I would have thought one had to call on a wider colour palate than a Kelly Hoppen-style homage to neutrals, browns and beiges”.
She concludes by wondering whether, “in trying to keep perfection consistent across his impressive empire, [Ramsay is] denying us some of the fireworks he and his chefs are certainly capable of?”
Ms Spicer’s conclusion is all the more interesting in the light of a brief end-of-year re-review by Frank Bruni (who, famously, dissed the place on opening). He finds this “glossy” venture improved, but his overall conclusion is remarkably similar to the lady from the Sunday Times – “much of the expertly prepared food still lacked the glimmers of surprise and sense of real adventure that might have made them (sic) as exciting as they were coolly impressive”.
The critic starts off with musings inspired by leafing through “the first restaurant guide to London”, and finds certain immutable truths of restaurant reviewing. (He’s actually wrong about the first guide bit. His guide is dated 1851 – correctly, as it refers to the Great Exhibition – but the first guide was actually published in 1815.) He then sings the praises of the new Bayswater venture from Kensington Place founder, Rowley Leigh, whom he accounts “a gentleman among chefs”.
Ms O’Loughlin has a rather up-and-down experience at Le Café Anglais (the mains and the service being among the features which do not entirely please). No matter, she concludes, as chef Rowley Leigh is a “sussed and seasoned enough restaurateur to rapidly iron out kinks”. We’ll let the split infinitive pass, but what is the point of Ms O’Loughlin’s self-denying ordinance about not rushing in to review brand-new restaurants if she reviews places while they’re still clearly settling in, and still finds herself having to express hunches about how they will develop in the future?
Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester
Jay Rayner, The Observer Rating: 1/5 stars
The Observer’s man really hates Duccasse’s Mayfair opening, which, he says, is “enough to make even the happiest of souls run screaming for the Prozac”.
Landau
Guy Dimond, Time Out Rating: 5/6 stars
An almost allegorical review, based on the premise that David Thompson’s new restaurant at the Langham hotel “could pass as a set from ‘The Golden Compass’”. Let’s just say, in a good way.
Texture
Christopher Hart, Sunday Times AA Gill’s stand-in gives a very poor review – amusing, in a mortifying sort of way – to an establishment that’s notable for the disparate reports it has inspired.
L’Autre Pied
Giles Coren, The Times Rating: 7.25/10 points
The Times’s man is only somewhat impressed by the Marylebone spin off from Pied à Terre.
Hibiscus
Nicholas Lander, Financial Times There is a bit of reviewing (“For the moment I think Claude is trying too hard”), but it’s really the behind-the-scenes account of this Mayfair restaurant’s move from Ludlow that makes this longish piece well worth reading by anyone interested in the higher reaches of the UK restaurant trade.
Hereford Road
Matthew Norman, The Guardian Rating: 8/10 points
The critic dines with Michael Winner, who – ten years after first acquaintance – he finds “much diminished in size, but not at all in volume and hilarity”. Indeed, it is a discussion of the Mr Winner’s reviewing techniques (and so on) which takes up much of the review of this Bayswater newcomer: only from the mark awarded do we really gather that Mr Norman actually quite liked it.
Gravetye Manor
Japser Gerrard, Daily Telegraph The critic notes that the restaurant of this gloriously-located country house hotel claims to be “one of the finest in the British countryside” – a claim to which he finds it simply does not live up.
7th January 2008
