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Review of the Reviews - London

Goodman

Jan Moir, Are you ready to order?

The review may start off pretty unpromisingly – “[d]ark brown restaurants are unappetising in the same way that dark brown stews are unappetising” – but the critic comes to the conclusion that this new Russian-owned Mayfair steakhouse “will flourish”. “In some respects, it’s rather like a comfortably appointed, grown up burger bar, but there is nothing wrong with that [and m]ost importantly, there are scant few places in the West End where you can get a really decent steak, well sourced and cooked by a technically proficient kitchen”. The restaurant is “excellently situated for Christmas West End shopping” too (within a tantrum throw of Hamleys), and the family-friendly pricing is a lure”, and she concludes, “[y]ou won’t get browned off here”.

1901, Andaz Hotel

Richard Vines, Bloomberg (Rating: 2/4 stars)

The critic nicely-self summarises his review of this new grand hotel dining room, by Liverpool Street. “There's much to recommend 1901, particularly Teague’s cooking, his pretty plates, the friendly and professional service and a large selection of wines by the glass. But if I were trying to work out a formula for a successful restaurant for a time of recession, it wouldn’t involve big prices and small portions”.

Cinnamon Kitchen

Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (Rating: 3/5 stars)

At this City offshoot of the Cinnamon Club, “European waiting staff and a tendency to slightly neuter the food in the name of modernity minimises the potential of an Indian meal” but the chef is “gifted”, and the dishes here are “more striking and exciting” than at HQ.

Trishna

Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (Rating: 2/5 stars)

The original Trishna, says the critic, is “a scruffy restaurant in a rundown street in the old Bombay Fort district, where le tout Mumbai go for Maharashtrian coastal cooking… Hearing that a branch of Trishna was opening in Marylebone didn’t make me think for one second that the Mumbai experience would be replicated, but what I hadn’t anticipated was quite how literally the owner would take the name of Blandford Street… My advice is find a cheap flight to Mumbai (Jet Airways is good) and go to Trishna there”.

Ito

David Sexton, Evening Standard (Rating: 1/5 stars)

Is this self-inflicted, or has the critic been told by his editor to keep going back to the Westfield shopping mall? Let’s just say he’s not remotely impressed by the standards of the new counter-service operation from gastropub veteran Tom Etridge.

Murano

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

The critic finds she can’t love the latest Hartnett/Ramsay restaurant, in Mayfair. “Perhaps it's the look of the place: a typically high-gloss, low-personality Big Sweary special”, with staff who have “the jittery clenchedness endemic to most BS operations”. And the Michelin-seeking food wallows in “luxurious safety” – a meat dish may have been “unimpeachable”, but it was “also dull”. “[S]urely Hartnett can let herself go a little, let her ballsiness shine through?”.

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