PRESS RELEASE

Pétrus at Knightsbridge’s Berkeley Hotel, whose head chef is Marcus Wareing, has finally overtaken Chelsea’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (RGR) to offer the best food of any top-end restaurant in London, according to the latest annual survey conducted for Harden’s London Restaurants, the 18th edition of which is published today. (See Appendix I.)

Analysis of responses to the survey – with some 85,000 reports from over 8000 ‘reporters’, and conducted in association with Rémy Martin Fine Champagne Cognac – reveals that Pétrus now has a lead, by an appreciable margin, over all other top-end restaurants in town.

Until 12 months ago – when RGR narrowly lost its overall superiority to Pétrus, but maintained a slight edge in overall Food and Service ratings – Ramsay’s flagship eatery had not been seriously challenged during the current millennium as the best top-end establishment in London.

Now, however, Pétrus has emerged for the first time as both best for Food and best for Service, as well as retaining the ‘Best Overall’ title it usurped last year. Pétrus is also rated second best for Ambience. (RGR never rose higher than third best for Ambience, which was in the 2003 guide. Pétrus has therefore now achieved even broader overall top-end dominance – for Food, for Service, and for Ambience – than RGR ever did.)

For the next few weeks, RGR and Pétrus will remain co-members of the Gordon Ramsay empire. However, following the very public split between Marcus Wareing and his former mentor, Wareing will, from 15 September, take over Pétrus in his own right. At that point the restaurant will be renamed – it has now been confirmed – “Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley”.

Co-editor Peter Harden comments:

“Marcus Wareing is emerging from Ramsay’s ‘shadow’ as the proprietor of what is now clearly the best restaurant in London, and he and his team should be congratulated. Marcus would now appear to be well on the way to his stated intention of equalling the three Michelin star rating Ramsay currently holds at RGR.

RGR has had a very good innings – eight years at the top – and still maintains very high standards. In the end, though, it is hardly surprising than an impassioned individual concentrating on one establishment – such as Marcus Wareing – has overtaken the flagship of an ever more celebrity-driven empire where the ‘name’ chef is rarely present.

Indeed, the Ramsay empire’s current performance – and in particular the poor standard of most of the more recent openings – raises questions as to its direction, and its ability to maintain its reputation as an operator of the highest quality.

It is the disappointing standards at Ramsay’s three most recent ‘mass-market’ openings which are most immediately concerning. Each of them – The Warrington, Devonshire House, and Foxtrot Oscar – is nominated in roughly one in every three of the survey reports they attract in the ‘most disappointing meal of the year’ category. These newcomers are so uninspired in concept and so erratic in performance that – if they were opened by independent operators – they would likely be closed within a year.

It is not yet too late for Gordon Ramsay to act to preserve his reputation as a serious restaurateur. What he urgently needs to do, however, is to stop chasing media attention across the globe, and to start putting some real effort into improving standards at the restaurants in his London heartland.”


OTHER KEY SURVEY RESULTS

• For the 4th consecutive year, Bruce Poole’s restaurant Chez Bruce was voted Londoners’ Favourite Restaurant

• For the 6th consecutive year, J Sheekey was the restaurant most often mentioned in the survey (ahead of Chez Bruce, Wolseley, Hakkasan and RGR)

• Scott's, now 7th most-mentioned (up from 24th last year), is the restaurant in which the interest of survey reporters is increasing most rapidly

• Among recently-opened restaurants, those that have caught survey reporters’ attention most are Wild Honey (23rd most-mentioned) and Le Café Anglais (29th)

• The Wolseley was again number one in votes as ‘Best for Business’ (and also Best for Breakfast). City duo The Don and Bleeding Heart took second and third places

• La Poule au Pot was voted London’s Most Romantic Restaurant for the 13th consecutive year

• Despite attracting diminished interest from reporters overall (14th most-mentioned restaurant, as opposed to 8th last year), the Oxo Tower tenaciously hung on to its top-of-the-nominations position for both Most Overpriced Restaurant and Most Disappointing Restaurant.


TRENDS

1) FRENCH INVASION MEETS GUARDED WELCOME
The guide notes that, not since the Entente Cordiale in 1904, has London seemed to hold so much interest for the French, with the past 12 months having seen a number of openings from French chefs with a whole galaxy of Michelin stars behind them. However, the guide reveals that the reception from Londoners has, almost without exception, been guarded. Alain Ducasse – the new Dorchester outpost of one of the world’s starriest chefs – is dismissed on the basis of the survey as having fallen “woefully short of expectations”.

2) CITY EMERGES AS A MAJOR RESTAURANT AREA
The City – twenty years ago a restaurant desert – is now emerging as a restaurant destination in its own right. It suddenly seems natural for fashionable central/westerly restaurants – such as the Cinnamon Club, Manicomio and Mint Leaf – to open City offshoots.

3) CITY’S FRINGES ARE ‘HOT’ TOO
The City’s eastern fringes, in particular Clerkenwell and Shoreditch, are further emerging as the trendiest area in town. The foodies’ darling restaurant of the moment is Hix Oyster & Chop House (Clerkenwell), and the Water House has made name for its eco-aims.

4) OTHER TRENDS

‘Plain Vanilla’
Although there is the occasional lavish oriental début (such as the respective Yau brothers’ Aaya and Sake no Hana), and now also the Buddha Bar, much of the interest at the higher end of the market is in ‘plain vanilla’ establishments in the traditional restaurant cuisines (French and Italian), with the classic Gallic bistro/brasserie style being especially popular.

Proud-to-be-British
Traditional British cooking continues to emerge as a recognised – and even quite fashionable – restaurant and gastropub cuisine (rather than just being something for the tourists). Hix Oyster & Chop House and the re-launch of Quo Vadis are among leading examples.

Gastropubs
Gastropubs continue to emerge and develop. Belgravia’s new Pantechnicon Rooms have attained an unprecedented level of grandeur with a dining room almost as grand as many a gentleman’s club.


TEN TOP OPENINGS

Every year, editors Richard and Peter Harden identify the top ten most notable openings of the past 12 months. This year, their selection is as follows:

Aaya
L'Anima
Le Café Anglais
Cha Cha Moon
Dehesa
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught
Hix Oyster & Chop House
The Landau at The Langham
maze Grill
Texture

The guide’s reviews of these establishments are set out in Appendix II.


DINNER IN LONDON BREAKS £40 A HEAD BARRIER
Prices have on average risen by 4.7% in the past 12 months – for all practical purposes at the same rate as retail prices. The average price of dinner for one at establishments listed in the guide, including house wine, coffee and service – is £40.11, exceeding £40 for the first time.


SUBDUED YEAR FOR OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
The year saw 111 openings of new restaurants, a little below ‘normal’ (openings having fallen within the range of 120-142 in all but one of the prior years of this millennium). Closings, at 71, were very much within the normal range. For the moment at least, there seem to be no ‘dark’ (closed-up) restaurant sites, as the guide observed in the recession of 1993.

-ENDS-

For further information, contact Richard or Peter Harden on 020 7839 4763.

Notes for Editors

1. Harden’s has conducted a survey of regular restaurant-goers annually since 1991.

2. Harden’s London Restaurants 2009 (£11.99) is available from all good bookshops (including branches of Waterstone’s nationwide) or from www.hardens.com

3. The out-of-town results for the Harden’s survey will be published on the launch of the new edition of Harden’s UK Restaurant Guide 2009, in association with Rémy Martin Fine Champagne Cognac, in October.

APPENDIX I

The emergence of Pétrus as London’s best restaurant

Highest survey rankings of top-price restaurants in
Harden’s London Restaurants 2009, 2008 and 2007

Year/rank - Food – Service – Ambience – Overall

2009
1st – Pétrus – Pétrus – The Ritz – Pétrus
2nd – RGR – RGR – Pétrus – RGR
3rd – Le Gavroche – Le Gavroche – Le Gavroche – Le Gavroche

2008
1st – RGR – RGR – The Ritz – Pétrus
2nd – Aubergine – Pétrus – Lanesborough – RGR
3rd – Pétrus – Le Gavroche – Blake’s – Le Gavroche

2007
1st – RGR – RGR – Blakes – RGR
2nd – Pétrus – Pétrus – Lanesborough – Pétrus
3rd – Vineet Bhattia – Le Gavroche – The Ritz – Le Gavroche


Note: Rankings are determined from mean ratings awarded by survey respondents to the respective establishments.


APPENDIX II

Guide’s reviews of editors’ selection of top ten entries of year

Aaya – From Alan Yau’s brother Gary, a path-breaking restaurant, bringing high-quality Japanese fare (including top-quality sushi) and striking design values to Soho; it’s no bargain, but standards on our early-days visit were uniformly very high.

L'Anima – For our money, one of the best openings of recent times – this Italian newcomer, behind Broadgate, offers deft cooking (from Francesco Mazzei, ex-St Alban) in a minimalist setting of a design-quality rarely seen in London; in the early days, service was charming too.
Le Café Anglais – It’s been “much-hyped”, but Rowley Leigh’s large new Art Deco-style brasserie is undoubtedly an “elegant” and “airy” space that’s given “a very necessary culinary boost to Bayswater”; service is often “inept”, though, and realisation of the long and enticing menu is somewhat up-and-down.

Cha Cha Moon – From Wagamama-creator Alan Yau, a hotly-awaited new oriental ‘format’, of which this elegantly-styled Soho canteen is the first example; at launch prices – £3.50 for every dish, mainly noodles and dim sum – it was a bargain, but it’s not clear how long this pricing will last.

Dehesa – It’s not just the “lovely” interior which makes this “cool” spin-off from Salt Yard a “fantastic addition” to Soho – its “affordable” and “very enjoyable” Italian/Spanish tapas, and “delicious” wines too, have transplanted very well.

Hélène Darroze (The Connaught Hotel) – This grand Mayfair dining room, formerly occupied by the Ramsay group’s Angela Hartnett, re-opened as this guide was going to press, with a star Parisian chef at the helm; we did try to bring you a first-week review, but arrived for lunch to find that the hotel had managed to lose our booking…

Hix Oyster & Chop House – Ex-Caprice supremo Mark Hix’s much-hyped, no-frills Farringdon newcomer – on the former site of Rudland & Stubbs (RIP) – offers sometimes “excellent”, plainly-British cooking; “you’d have thought he’d have got some better staff, though” (and not “stand there all evening gassing to his mates”).

The Landau (The Langham) – “Liveried, super-attentive staff” are but one part of the formula that makes this “sumptuous” (“glitzy”) new hotel dining room a fine-dining “beacon” in the purlieus of Oxford Circus; Andrew Turner’s menus are certainly on the “fiddly” side, but fans say results are “divine”.

maze Grill – “Perfectly-cooked steaks” – with the help of an American broiler that’s unique in this country – have helped this bright, new extension to maze make a “very strong start”, sometimes “patchy” service notwithstanding.

Texture – An “innovative” Marylebone newcomer, offering “spectacular” contemporary cooking (albeit in a style ridiculed by critics for its “smears and foams”); the dining room makes the most elegant possible use of the difficult space that was formerly Deya (RIP).