Benares
Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard (Rating: 4/5 stars)
The critic visits the recently re-launched Mayfair spot that was “one of the earliest Indian restaurants to make a determined effort to rise above the torpor of chicken tikka masala, offering Indian fare with quality European touches”. It‘s “far from cheap”, but he and his guest dine “like princes”.
Boho Mexica
Liz Hoggard, Evening Standard (Rating: 4/5 stars)
Shoreditch and Mexico both perenially seem to be desinations whose times are about to come. Well, perhaps they have now really come, but this “friendly and authentic” spot seems to sweep the critic away. The music is “great” too – “[b]y tipping out time, you could be in Latin America”.
Japanika
Kei Kikuchi, Time Out (Rating: 4/5 stars)
A “little gem” in Shoreditch, this “tiny triangle of a café” offers food that’s “great whether you go for raw or cooked”.
The Red Fort
Andy Lynes, Metro (Rating: 2/5 stars)
As the critic notes, this venerable Soho spot (1983) – recently refurbished – was “one of London’s first destinations for posh Indian nosh”. Its menu is “relatively short”, but “full of top-notch British ingredients given a delicious-sounding Indian twist”. “In theory, then, The Red Fort has a lot going for it. But it has a fatal flaw: its prices are audaciously, heinously, outrageously high”. Extras, in particular, inflate the bill “at an alarming rate”.
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