Gordon Ramsay, Royal Hospital Road
Terry Durack, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 16/20)
The Independent’s man “can’t quite believe it”, but such “relentless” bad press for Ramsay means he’s “beginning to feel sorry for him”, hence this visit to his “sterile chic” flagship to “judge it on its merits” (As opposed to...?). The key question – does it deserve three Michelin stars – is never posed directly, but despite strenuosly balanced praise – for cooking that’s “crafty”, “harmonious”, “classic”, “sophisticated”, “well-edited and flavour-first” – the answer is fairly clearly written between the lines. Other restaurants out there are “more ground-breaking (Fat Duck), more personal (Hibiscus), and more exciting (Texture)”. “I bow to the execution, although it doesn't steal my heart.”
Serpentine Bar & Kitchen
Kate Spicer, The Sunday Times (Rating: 2/5 stars)
With its “achingly lovely” views, Benugo’s makeover of this Hyde Park cafeteria “has softened the joint and made it welcoming” with “wood-panelling [and a] tatty-chic muddle of country-kitchen type furniture”. Standing in for AA Gill, Kate Spicer – bemoaning the onset of middle age – goes for little touches such as Scrabble, “a well-stocked bar” and “a baby grand in a far corner [on which] anyone’s allowed a pop as long as they can actually play.” She only samples breakfast, which starts off well but falls “a bit flat”.
Boundary
Matthew Norman, The Guardian (Rating: 8/10)
The critic has made two visits to Sir Terence Conran’s latest venture – a “theatrical underground space”, in an “eccentric” going on “actively distasteful” Tower Hamlets location. “The good news is that the second meal was every bit as excellent as the first” – a “genuinely impressive” experience delivering “proper, old-fashioned, artery-clogging French cooking at (comparatively) moderate prices”. But whereas in March it was “heaving”, this time it had “twice as many staff as diners”. How ironic that “after decades of coining it” with “ersatz and mediocre clip joints” Sir Tel has created an “authentic labour of love” but “the punters aren’t buying it”.
Canteen, Brompton Bar & Grill, Gaucho
Giles Coren, The Times (Ratings: 8/10, 7/10, 6/10)
Canteen
As part of a triple review, Giles breakfasts at this branch of Canteen on Baker Street – a concept he liked from the start. His fry up is “exemplary” and “the space is brighter, more colourful, more fun” than its Spitalfields and Royal Festival Hall siblings, a sign, as he sees it, of confidence that “the message about the fundamental values of old-fashioned British eating has been understood”. (Only a critic as clever as Giles would ever come up with such twaddle – anyone else would infer that the chain’s owners feel they’ll make more money with a more cheerful colour-scheme.)
Brompton Bar & Grill
Lunching here, the Times’s man finds “a bright, elegant sort of a room with wooden floors, dark brown leather banquettes and chairs with (hallelujah!) arms, a zinc-topped bar and plenty of natural light.” He is “charmed beyond measure” to find “bona fide, old-school Knightsbridge locals” – “actual English people” with “Anglophone palefaces in mustard-coloured cords”. Service, though is “on the slow side”, and the cooking “a clash of highs and lows”.
Gaucho
At dinner he reviews the branch on the South Bank, where the décor “looks like a cow has exploded” and the seating is on “pretty damn scratchy” hide. Incidentals are “straightforward urban chain food” but the churrasco itself is “very decent” (if too big) and service is “efficient”.
Brompton Bar & Grill
Zoe Williams, The Telegraph (Rating: 6.5/10)
The design is – according to the critic – a reminder of “what restaurateurs thought places ought to look like in the 1980s – Paris-via-Manhattan”. It’s “definitely not tacky, but nor is it the kind of place you’d want to linger for hours and hours” – a “conundrum”… “given the speed of the service” Some of the food is “utterly lovely”, but some “a let down”. “Look, it’s fine”, she concludes, “and if it were in Cheadle it would probably already be in the top five”. But during “hard times” and “in a restaurant-heavy town” she wonders “if it has the oomph.”
Lucknam Park, Colerne
Jasper Gerard, The Sunday Telegraph (Rating: 3.5/5)
The critic’s dinner at the restaurant of this hotel in “Jane Austen country” doesn’t get off to the best start: “[s]treakers at Lord's can scarcely feel more underdressed than I do, entering tie-less.” He finds the décor “a little confused: flock wallpaper and funky crockery.” “There is no confusion in the kitchen, however. Michelin-starred head chef Hywel Jones is assisted by this year's Roux scholar, Richi Desai.” The result is a “top notch” meal, featuring the “utterly scrumptious” foie gras-enriched signature dish.
He also tries out the spa’s new brasserie, where it seems more effort has gone into the design – “all white minimalism and glinting glass” – than the food (one dish “could be M&S”) and service (you could play a Test match between courses).
Moonrakers, Alfriston
The “chocolate box” setting “couldn’t have been any more perfect” at this “ancient black-beamed cottage”, which enjoys “lovely” views and looks so good that “all [the food] has to do is not fail”. After years of “variable quality” a takeover by a TV producer (Sophie Ellis Bextor’s father) generally goes down well with Jay. Even if the dishes “feel at times like a bunch of things your mate, who can cook a bit, has refined over years of trial and error”, prices are “reasonable” and “most of them do the job well”.
The Carpenters Arms, Burford
John Walsh, The Independent (Rating: Food 3/5 stars, Ambience 3/5 stars, Service 3/5 stars)
“Too much pub and not enough gastro” – or vice versa – is a problem considered by John Walsh, but a place like this “low 17th-century inn, painted in a subtle, eau-de-nil shade” is a reminder of “how the joint concept is supposed to work”. The menu “promises familiar porky and fishy ingredients coaxed into sophistication” and he leaves “feeling sated with food and wine and carpet-bombed with conviviality.”
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