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Review of the Reviews - London

The Modern Pantry

Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (Rating: 4/5 stars)

“You know that fusion works”, says the doyenne of critics, “when you eat something like chorizo, date and feta fritters served with a yoghurt dip, its innate piquancy championed by tamarind, and you think why has this not been done before?” In her traditional rôle as first-with-the news, Ms M brings us a ringing endorsement of this Clerkenwell newcomer.

Rather a shame about the conclusion, though: “Anna Hansen [chef here] opening last week, Angela Hartnett this week; sisters are doing it for themselves, which can only be extremely good news”. Well, not really. On Ms M’s own account, Ms Hansen had to rely on support from that rather male outfit D[es] & D[ave] London (fka Conran) to realise her dream here, and Ms Hartnett is of course backed by Gordon Ramsay. Women doing well, perhaps. But not quite doing it for themselves.

Jan Moir, Are You Ready To Order?

No female solidarity on display on the Telegraph’s former critic’s website, and she seems to have visited a restaurant different from the one Ms Mascher rhapsodised about. “The Modern Pantry started life as a book concept not a restaurant”, she notes. “Once you understand that, you understand everything. For there is something rather transient and fry-by-night about the Pantry. Something a little cursory about its execution and lack of purpose that might well unsettle the sensitive diner… [I]n the ephemeral world of fashionable restaurants, this one seems more mortal than most”. This Pantry, she concludes “needs to be better stocked in every way to succeed”.

Andaman

Andy Hayler, Andy Hayler's Restaurant guide (Rating: 7/10)

Andy Hayler – who’s eaten in more Michelin-starred restaurants than most people have had hot dinners – visits the new venture by Dieter Muller – a “3 star German chef” – in the revamped St James Hotel. The menu, he finds “has a refreshing lack of ‘modernity’, in other words there are things you might actually want to eat”. Just as well, as the prices he cites are enormous (including “JJ Prum Spatlese… disturbingly priced at £144 for a wine with a retail price of around £20 a bottle… This level of mark-up is ridiculous, even for St James”.) The food is pretty good though. “Bear in mind that this is still the soft opening, the kitchen getting its bearings, yet already there are dishes here to match any in London.”

L’Ambassade de l’Ile

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

Given the division of critical opinion so far, we awaited Ms O’L’s view of this mega-swanky South Kensington newcomer with particular interest. She starts off by getting the (enormous) price issue out of the way. “Those spluttering in Spartan outrage can go straight to the TV pages”, she says, while “those interested in extraordinary culinary endeavour, [can] say hello to one of the most jaw-dropping joints in town”. Not much doubt where she stands then.

She admits that the place “does look utterly bananas”, but then “dodgy taste is endemic in French high-end restaurants outside Paris”. (“I ate in two Michelin-starred Richard Coutanceau in La Rochelle last week and am still having dyspeptic nightmares about the light fittings.”) “Anyway… the food is fabulous. Properly, intricately, luxuriously gorgeous. It's rich food for rich people, and given that the place is fully booked, it seems there are plenty of them still out there.”

Giaconda Dining Room

Guy Dimond, Time Out (Rating: 5/6 stars)

TO’s head man has been doing his research – or perhaps he just got a press release. The name of this newcomer by Centre Point, we learn, refers to “Caffè La Giaconda (‘Mona Lisa Café’) that used to be on the site in the 1960s”. Forty years on, its successor “is a very satisfying place to eat, on many levels. The cooking can be excellent, yet there’s no showiness or pretension [and] the atmosphere relaxed and surprisingly neighbourly for W1”.

Missouri Angel

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

Entering this former City boozer, the critic tells us, is “like walking into a latter-day Hogarth cartoon: men (and the customers are almost exclusively male), large of jowl, bulbous of nose and with features as red as the insides of their steaks, slurp big glasses of red wine until their chins vibrate”. Starters are “ho-hum”, but “the steaks are the thing”, and these turn out to be “rosy, well-hung and accurately cooked”.

Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte

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

The Standard’s number two review this week is quite a long one, and – with its two-star rating – it’s easy to assume that it’s quite a negative one too. It’s only if you get to the last few words that you realise it’s actually intended to be quite positive. This Marylebone outpost of a Parisian steakhouse – we ultimately discover – offers “[i]n its way, a definitive bistro meal. All you could want, some evenings. The critics [in the opening reviews] might not have liked it, but plenty of customers do. And this time, I'm with them.”

Aaya

Richard Vines, Bloomberg (Rating: 3/4 stars)

The critic visits Gary Yau’s Japanese newcomer, in Soho, which turns out to be “a very serious restaurant that happens to be cool and fashionable, too”.

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