AA Gill, The Sunday Times (Rating: Food 0/5, Atmosphere 3/5)
“There's a rather good atmosphere” in the basement of this Soho newcomer and service is “excellent, efficient and very easy on the eye” but that's the only praise AA Gill can offer; dishes of tacos and octopus el negro are “fantastically terrible” and “all in all, this was as bad as a bad Mexican could be”.
Bar & Grill At James Street South BT2
“Just a bunch of stuff you want to eat, in a handsome room”, one certainly “can eat well in Belfast” at this city-centre brasserie; “prices overall are reasonable and service cheery and unintrusive” and the kitchen “gets so many simple things right, while so many other places complicate them”.
Amol Rajan, The Independent on Sunday (Rating: 5/10)
“Cotidie aims to be something in between” an affordable and high-end Italian, but “it misses” and “in keeping with the rest of the meal”, the wine list lacks in “any affordable triumphs”; “at “£200 for a basic meal for two”, “you can get to Florence and back for half that”.
Zoe Williams, The Sunday Telegraph (Rating: 3.5/5 stars)
“The menu is a bit random”, edges of décor are “harsh and new” and the clientele couldn't be more “Sloane-packed” but “the food is good, which is what the whole thing's meant to be about” and at worst, dishes “only ever had the smallest, least consequential things wrong”.
Tracey MacLeod, The Independent (Rating: Food 4/5, Ambience 4/5, Service 4/5)
The “Hix effect has now spread to the wilds of north Norfolk” to art dealer Ivor Braka's revamped “groovy country pub” on the Gunton Park estate; Braka's “often quite startling pieces” of art cover every wall but, when “service is smart” and “food is this good, you can turn a blind eye to anything”.
Morgan Meunier's “second joint” in Smithfield (first was in Islington) “is a welcome reminder of how good French cooking can be”; with “an actual Frenchman at the stove” dishes are “technically impeccable” but the “hideous beige decor” of the upstairs dining room, as well as John's 95 minute wait for the mains to arrive, means there's a bit more to be improved.
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