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Review of the Reviews - London

High Timber

Andy Lynes, Metro (Rating: 2/5 stars)

“It's not that the food or service at this wine-led restaurant (jointly owned by the South African Jordan winery and Neleen Strauss, formerly of Vivat Bacchus fame) is bad”, says the critic, but its “dead-end location” (on the river in Blackfriars) and “sober, low-ceilinged dining room” don’t make for an enjoyable experience. Furthermore, “the shtick here” – to be led into the cellar (“a chilly and unremarkable stockroom”) to pick out a wine from “row upon row of unpriced bottles” – leaves him feeling “ever so gently mugged.”

Boundary

David Sexton, Evening Standard (Rating: 3/5 stars)

The critic visits the “open-air bar and grill” on the rooftop of Sir Terence Conran’s “big project in Shoreditch”. The view, while panoramic, is “not especially exciting”, but the “short menu” wins him over; it offers “generously proportioned” niblets, mains that are “basically top-notch barbecue fare”, plus a choice of “enticing” puddings. The “tasteful” winelist is “steeply priced”, but [p]laying a walk-on role in Sir Terence’s dream world” turns out to be a “treat” that’s “[w]orth paying up for”.

Palm

Rachel Cooke, Evening Standard (Rating: 1/5 stars)

Oddly perhaps, this Belgravia steakhouse, one of the major openings of recent months, is reviewed not by one of the two permanent reivewers – Fay Maschler or David Sexton - but by columnist Rachel Cooke. It’s absolutely no disprespect to this lady to say that just isn’t good enough – what’s the point of having regular reviewers if they don’t get to review the places people are going to be most interested in? Nor is it to contradict the ‘bottom line’ of her review – “[w]hy would anyone want to spend their money here?”

Guy Dimond, Time Out (Rating: 2/5 stars)

TO’s head man asks the key question about this first European branch, in Belgravia, of the American steakhouse chain: “is its grain-fed, imported, aged US beef worth the premium?” The answer is a resounding “no” – “we produce better quality” beef “for a fraction of the cost”, and the cooking does not “justify the high pricing”.

Planet Hollywood

Feargus O’Sullivan, The London Paper

The critic finds the new Haymarket location of this West End joint “a far less gaudily claustrophobic affair” than the original Trocadero site. “The new Planet Hollywood is no gastro palace nor especially cheap – but as tourist traps go, it goes down well enough.”

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