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Review of the Reviews - National

The Criterion

Jay Rayner, The Observer

The Criterion restaurant at Piccadilly Circus “has been open so long Arthur Conan Doyle was able to site the first meeting between Holmes and Watson there”, notes the critic, which he finds appropriate given the “crimes against food now being committed” on the premises. He goes on nicely to summarise the recent past, including a good reference to the “special brand of mediocrity” which MPW “sprinkled over the stardust”.

Under its new régime, the place boasts a menu “which polite people would call eclectic and I would call a mess”, and some of the food turns out to be, literally, “crap”. “[T]his is bound to be one of the worst meals of 2010, an achievement given it’s still January.”

Pearl Liang

Giles Coren, The Times (Rating: 8)

The critic’s fiancée and his mate Tom Parker-Bowles gang up on him to establish that the dim sum at this Paddington Chinese are – shock, horror! – possibly even better than those of the celebrated Royal China.

Babbo

Zoe Williams, The Telegraph (Rating: 7/10)

At this upmarket Mayfair Italian, the meal was only “wonderful” in parts, but the critic “never shook the feeling that I had chanced upon somewhere that people who know about such things know about”.

Tamada

Tracey MacLeod, The Independent (Rating: Food 3/5 stars, Ambience 2/5 stars, Service 4/5 stars)

The critic visits a “blandly modern”-looking Georgian restaurant just off Abbey Road, where St John's Wood meets Kilburn”. “As someone who eats out professionally”, she “found it refreshing to choose between dishes that were almost completely unfamiliar”. Starters “tasted hugely better than they looked”, and the main courses might have a “homesick Georgian exile falling on them with sobs of gratitude”. She would guess, however, that they are unlikely “to convert too many London foodies from their regular dim sum”.

Faanoos

Matthew Norman, The Guardian

“It doesn't look much from the outside, but step inside and you find yourself in a surreal Persian wonderland [in East Sheen]. The food's not bad, either. Early in the decade though it may be for long-term predictions, I can’t imagine the next 10 years producing a more pleasingly curious or curiously pleasing meal than the one at Faanoos”.

The Pheasant, Keyston

Jasper Gerard, The Sunday Telegraph

The critic visits the runner-up in Gordon Ramsay’s recent trawl of the UK for best local restaurants. He finds, however, an establishment that “feels unloved” – “I've been welcomed more warmly in Bulgaria.” – and the food doesn’t persuade him he was wrong. Ramsay, he maintains is “a brilliant restaurateur” (which he clearly is, if you ignore the recent failures at home and abroad) … “so why The Pheasant?”.

In the critic’s view the place turns out to be, in fact, much closer to its description in Harden’s (which tips it as handy in a thin area) than to the Ramsay rave. The critic does not mention this, but he does find space to have a no-names pop at Harden’s for having “just declared Mr Underhill's in Ludlow the best restaurant in Britain”.

Mr Gerrard presumably didn’t mention Harden’s by name because last time he did (or was it the time before?), Harden’s had to resort to the Press Complaints Commission to get him to correct facts he’d got wrong. Nice to know he still remembers.

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