Home » Restaurant News

Restaurant News & Views

Review of the Reviews - National

Dean Street Townhouse

Zoe Williams, The Telegraph (Rating: 9/10)

The “sheer pedigree” of this Soho restaurant (“Nick Jones of Soho House combined with Richard Caring of the Ivy”) raises the critic’s expectations, and she is not disappointed – everything is “exceptionally well done”.

Terroirs

Giles Coren, The Times (Rating: 7.67)

Having initially stayed away from what he thought was a “glorified grog shop”, the critic joins the foodie bandwagon and takes to this Gallic wine bar/restaurant near Charing Cross, enjoying the “first-rate” food and “excellent” wine.

More

Toby Young, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 10/20)

The latest brainchild of the Real Greek and Livebait creators may look “like a greasy spoon”, but it turns out to be an “ambitiously priced” restaurant. The critic considers it “a little too cutting-edge” for the Bermondsey crowd, and “with an unremarkable kitchen offering mediocre fare”, deems it “uninspired”.

Wallace & Co

Matthew Norman, The Guardian

Gregg Wallace’s Putney café is a “perfectly pleasant room” aimed at the “nearby Nappy Valley” parade. But, as the critic discovers, it is a painfully “amateur” venture; service is “patchy but willing” while the food is “some of the laziest, sloppiest cooking [he’s] encountered in years.”

The Goring Hotel

Jay Rayner, The Observer

The critic concedes that this Belgravia hotel has its virtues; it’s a “solid and reliable” 100 year old institution with a dining room that’s a “fantasy of cream and beige”. His meal, however, is “such a disappointment”, and he resents the “patronising” feel of the place as well as the “curious” pricing regime.

The Seafood Restaurant, Padstow, Cornwall

John Walsh, The Independent (Rating: Food 4/5 stars, Service 4/5 stars, Ambience 4/5 stars)

The critic returns to Rick Stein’s “shrine to piscine perfection” in Padstow and finds it a “very handsome” space (recently refurbished) with a “happy buzz”. The “enormous” menu offers “both sturdily traditional Victorian dishes and subtly tweaked, spiced and gussied-up Asian treats as a contrast”, most of which please the critic, if not the “idiotic prices”.

The French Horn, Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire

AA Gill, The Sunday Times (Rating: Food 3/5 stars, Ambience 4/5 stars)

This Berkshire restaurant “is the early 1950s, a living anachronism”; in an “old-gold velvet with burgundy” dining room “proper old French blokes” serve up nostalgic “francophilic” cuisine. “It isn’t necessarily the best you’ll eat” says the critic, but “will give you a stronger sense of your grandparents’ England than any seven-part history show or movie.”

Comments (0)