Bistrot Bruno Loubet
Giles Coren, The Times (Rating: 8/10)
Perhaps it’s the excitement – “Bruno Loubet’s return to Britain is the most exciting comeback since Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus just hours after the Crucifixion” – but, sadly, the critic seems to have forgotten his only-recently-announced pro-veggie campaign. Anyway, the largely carnivorous delights of the Clerkenwell newcomer lead him to believe that “[this]is what a bistro is supposed to be”. “We are very lucky to have [Loubet] back.”
Caravan
John Walsh, The Independent (Rating: Food 3/5 stars, Ambience 2/5 stars, Service 3/5 stars)
A review of a “something-for-everyone eaterie”, in Clerkenwell, “conceived on easy-going, Australian lines”. The critics enjoys a range of fusion dishes in which he is “impressed by the subtlety with which each dish boldly yoked heterogeneous flavours together”. Despite “an air of confusion about the menu and some of the dishes”, he concludes that “it's a good restaurant, the décor cool and minimalist, the waiters attentive...and the food mostly delicious” - even if it doesn't always quite hit the mark.
The Gay Hussar
Toby Young, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 11/20)
This Soho institution has certainly enjoyed an interesting history - not only was it London's first Hungarian restaurant, it also attracted an impressive literary patrongage before becoming the “unofficial headquarters of Labour's intellectual left.” Upon entering the restaurant, however, the critic can't help but feel “its best years are behind it”. After two disappointing courses - “[i]nstead of the delicately fried liver I'm expecting, I receive a pile of dark brown slop” - he finds the dessert descriptions too unappetising to face, and concludes that prices are “a little steep for Eastern European comfort food”. “No doubt The Gay Hussar will soldier on” - but it's glory days certainly seem to be behind it.
Zilli Green
Oh dear: “[i]n so many regards is Zilli Green a total shocker that it's hard to know where to begin”. The critic's scathing disappointment with this Soho veggie ranges from the “oppressively narrow” and “freezing cold” interior, to the “huge mark-ups on dead cheap ingredients.” After a main course that’s “lazy, pointless and dementedly oversalted”, the critic and his guest leave feeling “cross, peckish and reflecting that the most authentic thing about this excrescence is its name. The Zilli pun speaks for itself, ztoopid”.
The Canton Arms
The critic is impressed by his visit to a recently re-opened pub in Stockwell, where he finds “a hugely attractive type of food: rustic, solid, big flavours, no ingredient frottage”. On an “admirably short” menu, starters and bar snacks attract particular praise, with the special of the day gladly described as “proper dinner”: “the entire operation [is] without pretension; they are absolutely not trying to be all things to all people. They are only trying to be themselves.”
The West House, Bibbenden
Zoe Williams, The Telegraph (Rating: 7.5/10)
A visit to a “a charming, beamed, unassuming” restaurant in a Kentish village generally pleases the critic; despite a disastrous dessert, and a “lovely but weird” starter, she enjoys a main course in which “[t]here was not a thing out of place, not an ingredient missing or overdone. This is, in short, what you come to a restaurant for; tastiness is all very well, but you would never get this care and effort, this precision, at home.” The verdict? - “mainly wonderful, partly weird – not a perfect ratio, but not bad”.
Table, Brighton
Jasper Gerard, The Telegraph (Rating: 7/10)
A review of a “large, stylish affair” in Brighton, which promotes local suppliers “while wearing its ethical heart on its window”. The critic enjoys a menu somewhat reminiscent of the River Café. Despite concluding that it is an “impressive, thoughtful restaurant”, however, he is rather disappointed to “find fewer local offerings than I was led to expect”. “Loud champion that I am of local sourcing and seasonal produce, I sometimes fear this mantra hides a failure to tackle more intractable food problems....Nowhere is social exclusion greater than around the table. I know it is a pipe dream but I wish we could have affordable restaurants.”
The Beckford Arms, Tisbury
The critic visits a pub whose chef has cooked in London and New York, and muses on the differences between cooking in a major city, on the one hand, and deepest Wiltshire on the other. He doesn't find the setting especially engaging, but some dishes are truly “memorable”.
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