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Review of the Reviews - National

Lutyens

Matthew Norman, The Guardian

Sir Terence Conran’s “second grand bistro” (after Boundary), in Fleet Street, is an affair “on the bustling Parisian model”, and it concentrates on “gutsy, classic dishes”. “It is superb. In fact, apart from replacing the Goldman Sachs bankers with hacks more concerned with nicking blank receipts than the menu, I can't see much room for improvement.”

(The critic kicks off his piece, incidentally, by noting how “cynical and mediocre” Sir Terence Conran’s ventures became at one point. The first people to popularise this opinion, about a decade ago, were Harden’s – this view was initially dismissed as a stunt by some commentators… but almost everyone ultimately agreed with it. Remember that, next time supporters of a disappointed big-name chef/restaurateur tell you how Harden’s ‘just wants to cut down tall poppies’.)

Polpo

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

“This is simply the best value in the West End”. “[I]f you are young and want a cheap, good, fun date restaurant, there really isn’t a better one in London”, says the critic, than this “Greenwich Village”-style Soho Venetian. On the downside, though, you may have to queue.

Pigalle

Jay Rayner, The Observer

The critic visits the Piccadilly Circus cabaret venue, and is not impressed.

La Rueda

Zoe Williams, The Telegraph (Rating: 5/10)

The critic revisits a tapas bar of which she has fond memories, and finds that the tapas are “mainly awful”. “Don’t think of the food [, though,] [t]hink of the experience.”

Waldo’s at Cliveden

Lisa Markwell, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 17/20)

Chris Horridge, new chef at this famous country house hotel, “is a pioneering force of ‘three-dimensional’ cuisine – where flavour, presentation and nutrition are equally important”, we read. And to make things difficult for himself he offers his cuisine both in a standard haute-luxe format, and also in a healthier style. Both are pretty thrilling, and dinner ends up “intensely enriching but not overpowering: it “matters not a jot that the room has no view”.

The Field Kitchen, Riverford Farm

Giles Coren, The Times (Rating: 9/10)

Visiting a farm restaurant, the critic has “the lunch of my life with five veggie dishes, second helpings of pudding, and barely a scrap of meat”, and it’s “stunning value” too. “The future”, he proclaims – by implication, one with rather less meat than before – “starts today”.

Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond

Jasper Gerard, The Sunday Telegraph (Rating: 3.5/5)

As a guest of Visit Scotland – not something we usually see on the restaurant pages? – the critic visits the new ‘name’ restaurant of the famous Leith-based chef. It turns out to to be at a “castellated Scottish mansion turned hotel, where the Highlands meet the Lowlands”, which he finds has been turned, rather oddly, into “the set of Footballers’ Wives”. The dining room, however, is “less bling than swing”, “with windows shaped as portholes suggestive of a well-padded cruise liner”.

How often does Wishart attend? “‘Once every week, or two, or three,’ replies a waiter, wistfully.” Standards are generally high, but the absenteeism all seems part of a feeling of general disenchantment on the part of critic. “Wishart is the most prominent chef cooking in Scotland today and I wonder why he doesn’t use those native ingredients to create a genuinely Scottish cuisine. He is an intelligent, exacting chef who fashions classy food in a sumptuous cruise liner of a restaurant”. So, he concludes, “[l]et’s hope flashier passengers come to appreciate its subtleties”.

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