Lisa Markwell, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 6/10)
With a “menu big in both dimension and range” this new Manchester steakhouse (in the former brasserie space in Malmaison), leaves Lisa “defeated by the portion sizes”; the steak is “superb”, but most other dishes are disappointing – “decent” at best – and “the atmosphere is going to take some serious fanning to get going”.
AA Gill, The Sunday Times (Rating: Food 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5)
“More pubby than gastro”, this Oxford restaurant (sister to London's Anchor and Hope and Great Queen Street) “has a lot to smile about” - it's “what inn food should be, selective and generous”
“Here the context is all wrong” – “it's very nice, but” you'll end up paying big for “gutsy, rustic” dishes which feature better in a “tablecloth-free bistro” than this Mayfair location (Antunes moved here from his first location at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge); Jay “desperately” wants to like it but, it's hard to ignore the “sour taste” left behind when the bill arrives.
Matthew Norman, The Telegraph (Rating: 9/10)
Not the place to linger, this “tiny, cramped basement room” in Soho serves “droolsomely delicious” “generous” portions of American barbecue; dining here may be a bit ”stripped to the bone”, but they “feed you well at very decent prices”.
From “celebrity farmer” Jimmy Doherty (chum of Jamie Oliver) this new restaurant, in a converted barn on his Suffolk farm, is “comfortable, but not too gussied up” and the food is “good“ but “not amazing”.
John Walsh, The Independent (Rating: Food 4/5, Ambience 3/5, Service 4/5)
“The food mostly matches the monochrome décor” of this Marlow hotel and restaurant, with chef Adam Simmonds at the helm, “but from start to finish is full of vivid flavours”; the dining experience may be “a vestal shrine to minimalism and frictionless efficiency” with service that “never strayed into friendliness” but, overall, “the food's delicious”.
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