Circus
Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (Rating: 2/5 stars)
“Over the past few months enough restaurants with cabaret — perhaps better more loosely described as entertainment — have opened for that to be declared a trend”, says the critic. Initial impressions of this Covent Garden newcomer, however, are not impressive. “Sitting at a wobbling table in Circus where a DJ and miserable acoustics preclude hearing any bons mots from dining companions, peering around structural columns that obscure the view, watching a woman in a tiger-skin leotard that looks rescued from the bottom of the laundry basket writhing on a suspended hoop in a manner that suggested she failed the entrance exam for Cirque du Soleil while nibbling on a glazed chicken wing, I wondered what it is all about.” At no point afterwards do her doubts evaporate.
Angels & Gypsies
David Sexton, Evening Standard (Rating: 3/5 stars)
The Standard’s man heads for “[t]he funky Church Street Hotel [which] opened here, in this grubby, hectic [Camberwell] highway, back in May 2007”, but has which only recently opened a dining room. His journey is rewarded with all-round success. The restaurant occupies a “big, handsome room”, and he finds it “has a lot of atmosphere” too. Service is “composed and friendly”, and even the food satisfies: “Angels & Gypsies delivers a tapas menu at table, an easy way to eat, and the prices are remarkably low for the quality and quantity”.
Chinese Cricket Club
“It’s taken me a while to get the energy together to write about the Chinese Cricket Club”, the critic admits, as “even the name fills me with joy-sapped ennui.” Turns out she was right: “[i]t’s a long, loooong time since I’ve been to a restaurant that has so effectively sucked the pleasure out of an evening as this one”. The “pseudo-Chinese” food isn’t awful, though, “[i]t’s the fun-vacuum, soullessness of the place itself that leaves me feeling mugged by the bill. Nearly a hundred quid for an evening that leaves me longing for a pork pie in front of Glee”.
Hunter 486
Guy Dimond, Time Out (Rating: 3/5 stars)
The critic visits the dining room of a new boutique hotel near Marble Arch. He finds it to be “great for a quiet drink and small bite, but it’s no destination restaurant”. “It is, however, near-perfect for a romantic assignation, and rooms currently start from around £210.”
Itadaki Zen
Guy Dimond, Time Out (Rating: 3/5 stars)
A review of a “nice, calm” King’s Cross newcomer, that’s “affordable, purely vegan, and has many commendable ideas behind it”.
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