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Review of the Reviews - London

Le Bouchon Breton

Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (Rating: 3/5 stars)

The critic visits the Spitalfields offshoot of Le Bouchon Bordelais to sample the grouse from their “Fête de la Chasse” (game festival). The menu is “a faithful summary of brasserie classics”, the “wine menu is “splendid” (if “exuberantly priced”), and the grouse itself “had been cooked to the right point”. She concludes that the establishment “does what it sets out to do with an admirable thoroughness” but advises going with friends as, on an evening visit, there is “only a sprinkling of customers” and the surroundings – “a sea of empty market stalls” and “almost every chain restaurant known to man” – could “produce ennui.”

Garufa

David Sexton, Evening Standard (Rating: 2/5 stars)

This “buzzing” new Argentinean joint may be “the best resty in Highbury”, but, as the critic points out, that’s “[n]ot so hard”. The restaurant is “authentic in spirit” with a “pleasant” décor and staff who are “friendly without being phoney”. Steak is the main attraction, and although they’re “good”, he finds his meat-and-cheese-laden meal too “heavy” and the accompanying Argentine wines “overpowering”.

The Crabtree

Ben McFarland, Time Out (Rating: 4/5 stars)

It appears that the surroundings of this Hammersmith pub win over the critic, rather than the briefly-mentioned food. “Situated on a fine stretch of the riverbank” its “gorgeous, gigantic beer garden” offers “some of the nicest waterside drinking in the city”.

The Canonbury

Alexa Baracaia, The London Paper (Rating: 1/5 stars)

Under new owners, this “historic Georgian boozer” in Islington has been turned into “a temple to blandness” inside, and “the biggest, greenest beer garden in London” is now a paved-over “heavy monstrosity”: “what a traversty”.

Andy Campbell @ 23 Romilly Street

Marina O'Loughlin, Metro (Rating: 4/5 stars)

The dining room on the first floor of a “super-louche hang-out” in Soho, may or may not be called Andy Campbell @ 23 Romilly Street. Nothing about this place is particularly clear, but the critic “just lov[es] the whole eccentric shebang”, from the “boudoirish decor” and interesting clientèle, to the warm welcome from the man himself. The food seems a little beside the point, but is “perfectly fine” and appropriately “oddball”.

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