Roux at Parliament Square
The Times, Giles Coren (Rating: 8/10)
Michel Roux’s Westminster newcomer offers “perfect, precise, strangely effortless cooking”, says the critic.
The “dreariness of the room”, though, quieted the “thrill” in his soul.
Colony
The Times, A A Gill (Rating: Food 2/5, Atmosphere 1/5)
This new Marylebone Indian is a “stupid concept”, says the critic. But “what made a dull meal really unforgettable was the price [with] three people ended up forking out £151 for forking in a meagre dinner, with a single glass of £4.75 pinot grigio”. “That’s astonishing.”
Bar Boulud
Say it isn’t so! The critic, defying all who have come before him, leaves this new Knightbridge outpost of star NYC chef Daniel Boulud feeling that “the borderline rapturous reception for this newcomer, elsewhere and on the foodie blogs, must have more to do with imaginary imperial garments than anything else”.
The Independent on Sunday, Amol Rajan (Rating:14/20)
“Not since the fabled exhibition of Japanese culture that took place between 1885 and 1887”, the critic tells us, “has this segment of SW1 been redeemed from its reputation as a shining vestibule of affluent stupidity… a kind of refined urban hell… But what Solzhenitsyn called ‘the censorship of fashion’ is a barrier to sound judgement, and such is the fuss about Bar Boulud, opened a few weeks ago in a previously defunct part of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, that running this weekend gauntlet promised sufficient reward to motivate your correspondent”.
He finds a prix-fixe menu “among the best value in London” (“albeit with the disgraceful absence of a vegetarian main course”), a “level of pricing which attracts a likeable clientele; some (ahem) young couples, a few suits, haughty ladies-wot-lunch, and families with squealing tots: an ideal mix”. The dishes overall are a bit up-and-down, and he concludes that this is an establishment “[n]early… worth going to Knightsbridge for”.
Bistro Bruno Loubet
The Telegraph, Jasper Gerard (Rating:8/10)
“I found it delightful. For London it's exceptional.” Not much to dislike, it seems, at the new Clerkenwell bistro of Bruno Loubet, a star London chef of the ’90s, recently returned.
Time & Space
The Telegraph, Zoe Williams (Rating:5/10)
A report of a visit to the “confusing” restaurant at Mayfair’s Royal Institution. It feels “like a restaurant designed by a committee: lots of innovation, no personality”. “If the purpose of this institution is to give pointy-heads a good name, this isn't going to do it.”
Chapter One
The Observer, John Walsh (Rating: Food 5/5 stars, Service 4/5 stars, Ambience 3/5 stars)
The critic visits a restaurant with a “relaxed, nostalgic feel about it”. It turns out that the chef “trained with Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico and has inherited all the great man's virtues” – “his cooking combines vertiginous sophistication with fabulous flavours”. “Chapter One is my top gastronomic find of the year so far.” [“Find” is being used here in rather special sense: the restaurant enjoys the top rating for food in the current edition of Harden’s, for example.]
The Curlew
A review of country dining room where the food is “great” – “evolved without being fetishised, each dish designed around a single ingredient that gets a role commensurate with its billing”.
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