Hix Oyster & Chop House

Fay Maschler, Evening Standard
Rating: 4/5 stars
Can you judge whether a critic likes a chef by whether one of his books gets a plug in the early parts of a review? If so, Ms M clearly has a lot of time for Marx Hix, who has recently opened an eponymous outfit in Smithfield. And indeed, she finds some of the cooking “triumphant”. Even though she visited in the “early days”, “[c]hefs Claude Bosi, from Hibiscus, and Anthony Demetre, from Arbutus and Wild Honey, were at one table [and] a fellow restaurant critic at another” – almost all the reivews to date have commented on the culinary ‘in’ crowd this place is attracting, and it does look set to be the foodie-luvvie hit of the season.


Richard Vines, Bloomberg
Rating: 3/4 stars
Did we say luvvie? There’s also a lot of “Hix-this Hix-that” in the review by the financial news service’s man. Even he admits a fear he might have “swallowed the Hix-aid”, and he does try to introduce a bit of balance – service tended to “chaotic”, and execution could be “hit and miss”. But, hey, what does it matter? “[Hix] and his eatery are so likable, you might even find yourself smiling as things go awry.”


Feargus O’Sullivan, thelondonpaper (not yet online)
Food and vibe 3/5 stars, service 1/5 stars
Perhaps Mr O’Sullivan is one of the reviewers who (like us, mercifully) was not recognised, and sucked into the Hix love-bubble. He does find some promise on the food front, but the service was so “Keystone Cops” that he wonders if those who experienced its “first faltering steps” will ever return.


Osteria Emilia

David Sexton, Evening Standard
Rating: 3/5 stars
The critic visits the former premises of Zamosyki, and finds that, “to add to the hill-dwellers’ sense of contented superiority”, “Hampstead now has a really good, unpretentious and fairly priced Italian regional restaurant”.


Franco Manca

Marina O'Loughlin, Metro
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Enter Giuseppe Mascoli, expat Neapolitan and pizza lover (also club owner and indie publication proprietor), determined to bring the real deal to London. The effort he has undertaken to achieve this, while keeping a gimlet eye on organic provenance and artisan production, is little short of dizzying. Given that his chosen outlet is a no-frills, rickety joint seating only a handful of pizza lovers in the funky confines of trotter-and-yam-tastic Brixton Market, it's clear that this genuinely is that most overused of descriptions – a labour of love.” Quite a rave, then, for the place which may well offer “the best pizza outside of Naples”.


Apsleys


Guy Dimond, Time Out
(Not yet published online)
Rating: 4/6 stars
Rather counter-intuitively, TO’s head man is pretty much swept away by the “opulent” new dining room at the Lanesborough, where the service is “attentive”, and where the “simple rustic Italian” fare seems almost invariably to satisfy.


Maze Grill


Guy Dimond, Time Out
(Not yet published online)
Rating: 2/6 stars
In the first ‘down’ review of Ramsay’s new Mayfair steakhouse, the critic concedes that service is “charming” and the room “pleasant enough”, but he finds the cooking “surprisingly hit and miss”. “In New York City, a steak house this expensive and disappointing would have any Brooklyn cab driver choking on his New York strip…”


Vanilla Black (first major review)

Jan Moir, Are You Ready to Order?
The critic – again first with the news – really doesn’t take to this vegetarian restaurant, off Chancery Lane, recently transposed from York, which she finds pretentious, passé and pricey.


Momofuku Ko, New York

Frank Bruni, NY Times
Rating: 3/4 stars
The critic finally gets a table – but did he manage to pull it off the statutory three times, one wonders? – at a tiny and unpretentious East Village joint that’s become “the most talked-about new restaurant this year”.