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Review of the Reviews - National

Pétrus

AA Gill, The Sunday Times (Rating: 1/5 stars)

Farewell sweet prospect of a groundswell of support for Gordon Ramsay. The UK’s most-read critic – once, let it not be forgotten, thrown out of Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant by the man himself – lets the Sweary One’s latest venture have it with both barrels.

The decision to relaunch the new restaurant under the Pétrus name (originally associated with then chef Marcus Wareing) is dismissed as a “foodie vendetta” – “ childishly mean-spirited and pathetically confrontational”. But the establishment itself? Everything about it is “hopelessly passé [and] utterly has-been”.

Bistrot Bruno Loubet

Jay Rayner, The Observer

“Bruno Loubet is a defibrillator made cheffly flesh. For many years, despite the efforts of skilled restaurateurs, the dining room of the Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell looked like the kind of place where polite conversation went to die...The place finally has a beating heart”. Loubet's cooking reveals “that sweet marriage of exquisite technique and huge, robust flavours, which has brought the crowds back”. “It's what restaurants are meant to be like”.

Zoe Williams, The Telegraph (Rating: 8.5/10)

Yet more praise for the “brilliant” Clerkenwell bistro, where “[s]tarters especially read like a thriller”, accompaniments are “all spot-on”, meat is served “at exactly the right temperature” with “magnificent” gravy, and cherry ice-cream is “mind-expandingly good”.

Osteria Dell'Angolo

Toby Young, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 12/20)

A review of Westminster Italian where “the interior looks expensive, as befits a bolthole for Britain's political elite”. (We're really not sure that it does look particularly expensive: it just looks wholly uninspired.) The cuisine generally pleases, although the critic and his guests “are not quite as blown away as we'd been expecting” and the new chef is “not paying as much attention to dressings and sauces as he should”. Service, too, is “below par”.

My Dining Room

Matthew Norman, The Guardian

The critic is “pleasantly startled” by “the quality of the restaurant at the back and the warmth of the bar staff at the front” at this Fulham restaurant, which looks like “a bog-standard gastropub”. Cuisine is “totally authentic, gutsy/peasanty French cooking, twice as impressive for its unexpectedness and the fairness of the pricing”, with a charcuterie board “almost overladen with excellent hams and great, garlicky salamis” proving particularly noteworthy. “[D]elightful” service reveals “a generosity of spirit here that does the heart good”.

Barrica

Giles Coren, The Times (Rating: 7)

Part of a succession of “very-good-but-nothing-to-write-home-about little tapas bars popping up everywhere”, this Goodge Street establishment turns out to be “really very good indeed”. The interior has “a lovely, woody, intimate feel”, and an “all-Spanish and very thorough and inspiring” wine list is accompanied by a “fantastic list of sherries”. Staff are “very friendly and helpful”, and the tapas themselves are all good - special mention to “exceptionally good” veal cheeks braised in pedro ximénez. “[A]ctually, you know, I think Barrica is maybe something to write home about, after all”.

The Royal Oak, Maidenhead

Tracey MacLeod, The Independent (Rating: Food 4/5 stars, Ambience 3/5 stars, Service 5/5 stars)

A review of a Berkshire restaurant that’s co-owned and run by Michael Parkinson's son. The dining room is “unexpectedly posh”, but service is “warm” and the daily-changing menu is full of “so much great-sounding stuff”. Highlights include a “legendary” version of a Scotch egg, “meltingly soft” oxtail and kidney pie, and roast beef with “impeccable” roast potatoes -“perfect versions of two often disappointing dishes”. “The Royal Oak, like its owner, isn't trendy or groovy in any way. It's just very good at what it does, eager to please, and obviously destined to stick around”.

The Swan at Southrop

Jasper Gerard, The Telegraph (Rating: 7/10)

A review of a “faultlessly tasteful” Gloucestershire pub, where the owners “dream of self-sufficiency” and source vegetables from a “nearby manor garden”. On a “too long but good value” menu, starters of “terrific” whitebait and “excellent” fois gras with fried egg and toast impress, and main courses please: “[t]his is good cooking for a pub”.

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