Cruse9

Jay Rayner, The Observer
The critic reviews a “quirky neighbourhood place in the arse end of… Islington”. It’s “a simple place of hard surfaces: dark tiled floors, a wall of white, a wall of glass”. The fare it offers is “not cheap, but… it is accomplished”. “Cruse 9 may sound like a rackety gay sauna. It turns out to be a rather nice restaurant that gives fusion food a good name.”


L'Autre Pied

Kate Spicer, The Sunday Times
Rating: 4/5 stars
“[L]ovely food without any ball-busting service or twiddly napery” – that’s the deal that commends this Marylebone haute-bistro to Mr Gill’s stand-in. The only problem is the “slight lack of chillaxed atmosphere”.


D.Sum²

Terry Durack, The Independent on Sunday
Rating: 8/20
Dim sum are “poor” and main courses “bog-standard” – this new City oriental is, for the critic, an almost unanimous failure. “It's an odd place, with not much style, charm or reason-to-be, and its eagerness to be seen as contemporary has compromised the cooking and made it feel old-fashioned instead of modern.”


Bildeston Crown, Bildeston

Giles Coren, The Times
Rating: 9/10
By chance, it seems, the critic happens on a pub which has quite a reputation for its food, and deservedly so. Unfortunately he doesn’t work this out till rather late in the day: “I can’t believe it, I’ve happened on the best little progressive kitchen in Suffolk, and then I’ve skipped the starters and had a bit of roast beef and a single gnoccho”.


The Horn of Plenty, Gulworthy

Matthew Norman, The Guardian
Rating: 6.25/10
It’s the style, not the food, that disturbs the critic on his visit to this famous country restaurant of long standing. “[T]his was as technically outstanding and lavish a lunch as you could expect for the money in a Michelin-starred joint. All it needs is a wrecking ball and a designer who realises that the English country house hotel notion of good taste succeeds only in the undertaker's parlour”.


Whitstable Oyster Fishery, Whitstable

Jasper Gerard, Daily Telegraph
Rating: 3/10
No beating about the bush in this review. “It’s terrible. Do not go… If you've money to burn, burn it: it will be better spent”. After this intro, it’s perhaps a surprise that the critic finds nothing particularly wrong with this eminence of “Islington-sur-la-plage”. It’s just that “[f]abulous ingredients are treated not as a starting point, but an end”, and the prices are disproportionate.


Lucy’s, Ambleside

Zoe Williams, Sunday Telegraph
Rating: 4/10
After the starters, so poor did standards seem that the critic was prepared to walk out of this popular Lakes restaurant. Thereafter, matters improved, somewhat.


Antons, Bishops Stortford

Nicholas Lander, Financial Times
The critic visits the new, relatively relaxed venture from Anton Edelmann, former maître chef des cuisines at the Savoy. Of most interest, perhaps, is Edelmann’s commentary on the adverse effects on standards he perceives the American money-men Blackstone had, when they took over at the Savoy.