Corrigan's
Jan Moir, Are you ready to order?
“This is”, says the critic’s (long-term) companion, “my perfect menu. It’s the best one I’ve ever seen. Anywhere. Ever. In the world”. And the critic (as you’d rather hope) “can see where the old boy is coming from”. “Here at Corrigan’s in Mayfair, the emphasis is on game, wild fish and seafood, shot through with the kind of rootsy Irish sensibility that is the hallmark of this chef’s brilliant cooking.”
And so the hymn of praise to this “exciting new venture” goes on. “Corrigan’s serious intent about this restaurant is everywhere; in the eponymous name above the door, to the quiet luxury and the warm welcome of the first class staff. Together with his talented chef, Chris McGowan, something very special has been created here. Money has been spent on all the right things: the bar is lovely and even the lamps have feathers. There is a raft of eating areas from the bar and bar tables (my choice), to the glam dining room and two large private rooms.” Even the wine list “is thorough and well-chosen at all price levels, with a good selection by the glass and carafe”.
Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (Rating: 4/5 stars)
“[A] rural sensibility and an appreciation of simplicity shines through in the dishes at Corrigan’s”, says the critic (and for an establishment that’s part of a luxury hotel just off Park Lane, that’s no mean achievement). The critic is pleased by almost all of the dishes she samples. The interior is “appropriate, comfortable and glamorous” too, with “nice little jokes at the expense of the macho tweediness of hunting, shooting and fishing”.
Le Bouchon Breton
Marina O'Loughlin, Metro (Rating: 3/5 stars)
As the critic so correctly notes, Smithfield newcomer Le Bouchon Breton is nothing of the sort, but she finds the staff exude a lot of ‘chaleur’ – for Metro’s non-francophone readers, that would be warmth – nonetheless. And “on a sunny day with the market in full swing, this will be a brilliant place to be”. “On a miserable evening, however, looking on to the skeletons of unused [market] stalls, it conveys little other than a sense of melancholy.”
What the place needs, she feels, is “the clamour and bustle of a crowd of customers” – “in these times on the fringes of the City, that's a tough ask and the large space is fairly sparsely occupied”. Sparse attendance, however, is not the fault of a menu, which is a sort of “brasserie Platonic ideal ranging from breakfast croissants and something that looks suspiciously like a full English to snacks such as croque monsieur to full fruits de mer blowouts”. And it’s “all good stuff”, with “meat, in particular… first class”.
But what about the 'elephant in the room'? The price issue. Apart from blandly noting at the end that a meal costs about £110 for two, the review doesn’t even hint that prices are notably on the high side for a City-fringe brasserie trying to drum up trade in the face of what may turn out to be the worst recession in living memory.
York & Albany
David Sexton, Evening Standard (Rating: 5/5 stars)
No messing about here: the lunch menu at Gordon Ramsay’s new Camden Town operation simply offers “the best value in town”, says the critic – “ridiculously cheap for the quality”. Already, however, it seems that the infamous Ramsay price-creep is in operation: “Until last week, the three-course set lunch was £15 [and it would have been] good value at twice the price”. “Now the menu has changed and the price has risen to £18.”
Fortunately, however, “[t]hat’s still an amazing bargain”. It’s not just the food and prices, which please, however. “The service is highly professional and the design by Russell Sage works well too, only gradually revealing its textures.” “If [this] doesn’t rate five stars, I don’t know what does.”
[Editors’ note: the inconsistency problems of two people running what purports to be the same rating system at the Standard are beginning to become apparent. Mr Sexton seems to ascribe much more importance to value than Ms Maschler does, and the latter has not awarded 5 stars to an establishment of any sort in living memory.]
Cah Chi
Guy Dimond, Time Out (Rating: 5/6 stars)
Time Out’s head man heads off to Earlsfield, where he finds a new offshoot of a Raynes Park Korean, which pleases him very much: “the taste of the ten dishes we’ve tried was every bit as good as [the original], and just as terrific value”. Service is “unfailingly smiling and enthusiastic” too, though “the standard of spoken English is variable”.
Min Jiang
Charmaine Mok, Time Out (Rating: 3/6 stars)
The “new Chinese restaurant on the tenth floor of Kensington's Royal Garden Hotel” is “perfectly nice, in the way that vanilla is”, says the critic. “And it has a spectacular view of Kensington Park, though only seen by day” (“by night, our view was rather more narcissistic as we peered at reflections of ourselves”). “The food, too, was nice”, even if a lot of dishes made the critic say “‘oh”, rather than “ooh”.
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