GUARDIAN | Mathew Norman
Scott's
Rating: 9.75/10
The critic can find practically nothing to fault at this “beguilingly good” Mayfair fish restaurant, which “now bears no relation to the dusty, crusty fossil Scott's had long since become”. The oysters were “dazzlingly fresh”, the setting has been “done brilliantly”, and service is “sensational”… And so he goes on: even the critic admits that this place risks reducing him to a “proselytising dullard”.
THE INDEPENDENT | Tracey MacLeod
Mocotó
Rating: food 3/5, service 2/5, ambience 2/5
A gauche customer bellowing for a bottle of Cristal sets the scene for an unsympathetic review of this swanky new Knightsbridge Brazilian: rarely had the critic encountered a restaurant “less likely to appeal to the readership of The Independent”. She found it “Glamorous! Expensive! and Fabulous!”, but, sadly, “also fairly Grim!”. The “bland’ setting comes if for particular flak: even the Burberry shop next door, she concludes, “has more of a carnival atmosphere”. On the food front, she could find the occasional dish to praise, but only intermittently.
THE TELEGRAPH | Malk Palmer
Barnes Grill SW13
Rating: 4/10
“A bit like Hugh Grant”, opines the Telegraph’s new critic, Antony Worrall Thompson's range of talents are in question and he’s “happy to play the same boring roles as long as the cheques keep dropping in”. The critic concludes that Wozza’s fifth establishment of recent times offers “indifferent food and silly prices”.
• Read Harden’s City AM review.
THE TIMES | Giles Coren
Blackstones, 2-3 Queen Street, Bath
Rating: Meat/fish 6/10; cooking 4/10; other 6/10; water (Hildon) 6/10
Culinarily speaking, the critic finds little to praise at the Bath restaurant that had been recommended to him locally. It didn’t help that his “forgettable” crispy Asian duck salad was served to him during “Bernard Matthews bird-flu-week”. A chicken cacciatore involved a “hunk of white bird like a flexed bicep”. One of his guests did praise a particular dish, but this view is discounted on the basis, inter alia, that its maker was “Welsh”. In short, the critic would have much preferred to re-visit the subject of a previous review: the King William (at 36 Thomas Street).
THE OBSERVER | Jay Rayner
Mr Thomas's
The critic – who makes something of a speciality of Manchester reviews – visits an institution to which there is no real obvious equivalent in the capital: a pub that’s been serving real British food for 140 years. The place may sell itself as a “Victorian fantasy”, but its saved by being for real. He really likes the cooking, too, though “naturally, to cook big-fisted, paunchy British food like this, you need training in a French kitchen”. Fortunately, it turns out that the executive chef trained with Pierre Kofmann (of Tante Claire fame).
THE SUNDAY TIMES | AA Gill
Nobu
Rating: no star award made
It may be “probably the most influential restaurant of this century”, but Adrian Gill’s review of Nobu’s “unprepossessing” Mayfair outpost leaves him gnashing his teeth (and that was before his soft-shell crab arrived with a hair running through it). Gill concludes that the food was “pretty disgusting” and most of the other customers were “embarrassing”. In short, the place is “so over”.
THE SUNDAY TIMES | Michael Winner
Scott’s
Mr Winner, on a day out from the London Clinic, stops by at Scott’s, and is as enthralled as Matthew Norman was. Having “hated all the previous versions” of this venerable restaurant in recent times, he finds the food “fantastic. He even praises service under “the expert control of suave Matthew Hobbs”. The only thing he found “slightly disconcerting” was a clientèle mainly consisting of “businessmen in suits”.
IN LAST WEDNESDAY’S PAPERS
EVENING STANDARD | Fay Maschler
Ristorante Semplice
Rating: 4/5
The “genial” staff at this Mayfair Italian present dishes “with enthusiasm and pride”, says the doyenne of the London critics. And well they might: prices may be “restrained”, but praise is heaped on everthing from the pepper (“Sarawak, ‘the king of spices’, from Borneo”) to the cheeses (of which it’s “rare to find such an interesting array”). The highlight dish was “roasted and pan-fried Italian free-range rabbit with baby carrots, fresh Italian broad beans and artichoke sauce”).
Also reviewed: Clos Maggiore WC2 (may be an “independent gem”, but still gets only 2 stars); Le Gavroche W1 (unrated).
• Read Harden’s main Clos Maggiore review.
• Read Harden’s main Le Gavroche review.
METRO | Marina O’Loughlin
Gazette
Rating: 3/5
Battersea’s Petit Max is no more, but its successor makes “a better stab” at this “curiously soulless” and “blocky” riverside location, says the critic. Everything is now “fine in a robust , pleasingly slapdash way”. The cooking may be a bit variable for comfort, but there’s much consolation to be had in a “lengthy list of ungreedily priced wines”.
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