Launceston Place

Fay Maschler, Evening Standard
Rating: 3/5 stars

The Conran interior of this relaunched Kensington backstreet restaurant – run by the restaurant group now called D&D London – is, Ms Maschler notes, “a uniform shade of a particularly unforgiving dark brown”: “what the locals in this Kensington backwater will make of the spotlit starkness of a place where they once enjoyed cosiness remains to be discovered”.

Chef Tristan Welch formerly cooked at Pétrus, she notes, and with him has come “the tra-la-la of Michelin-starred enterprises, extras such as amuses-bouches, pre-dessert desserts and chocolates with dopey flavours, here bay leaf, thyme and rosemary”. And thus the review continues in a general tone of underwhelmment.


Jimmy's

David Sexton, Evening Standard
Rating: 1/5 stars

“Liam Cooper's new British menu is intriguing. Jimmy's would be worth trying again. It may yet develop into a Sloaney favourite. But our night on the other end of Fawlty Towers-type ineptitude just wasn't funny”. As can be seen from the article’s conclusion, the critic has a very ‘bad trip’ at this Chelsea newcomer, largely – it would appear – as a result of staff teething troubles.


The Mercer

Richard Vines, Bloomberg
2/4 stars

The critic notes that City dining in general seems to be picking up, and finds this new brasserie a “welcome addition” to the Square Mile.


Water House

Marina O'Loughlin, Metro
Rating: 3/5 stars

The “lengthy” press release on this Shoreditch eco-venture “tells us far more about the principal characters than the food”, notes the critic disapprovingly, and she fears that, “given the unprecedented slew of media coverage generated by their initiatives”, “the pair risk getting mildly carried away with their own importance”. The food, however, she finds “quite nice”, with puddings “a real strength”.

At the end of her article, she nicely summarises her ambiguous feelings. “I visit [the restaurant] with the same sense of duty as I'd visit a museum in an off-centre part of town. I hope locals and tourists embrace it to their hearts because I worry that, after ticking it off the must-do list, few will rush back. But I hope I'm wrong, I really do.”


Mango & Silk

Roopa Gulati, Time Out (Not yet online)
Rating: 4/6 stars

“This affordable, authentic and amiable restaurant is doing East Sheen residents proud” – the critic hails the return to the culinary scene of Udit Sarkhel, whose well-reputed Earlsfield restaurant closed last year.


Tsuru

Charmaine Mok, Time Out (Not yet online)
Rating: 4/6 stars

A thoroughly positive review on a South Bank Japanese, which “packs a punch, despite its small space”.


La Sirène, New York

Frank Bruni, NY Times

A review of a modest Gallic bistro on the fringe of SoHo, where one overview comment may well be of wider relevance on both sides of the Pond – “this scrappy restaurant, where you can hear the bell every time a dish is ready and heat from the kitchen steams diners’ eyeglasses, will charm many people turned off by the vacuous polish and higher prices elsewhere”, notes the critic. Wouldn’t it be nice – in both NYC and London – if we could generally have a bit less emphasis on “vacuous polish”, and a bit more on the food, and at reasonable prices too?