The Man Behind The Curtain (British, Modern Restaurant)

Amongst the most notable restaurants in the UK – Michael Hare’s “unforgettable and must-visit” city-centre venue is “truly unique and improving exponentially”. It’s “a barn of a room” – a rooftop space over a men’s clothes store, bizarrely entered through a shop – but service is “exemplary” and in any case you are here for the cooking: “a tour de force of whimsical and exciting food” (“some dishes reduced us to giggling schoolchildren at their brilliant audacity”) from an “utterly beguiling” menu that “superficially looks gimmicky, but what it delivers is just remarkably delicious”.

“Unique, esoteric, a bit mad, but ultimately one of the UK’s most interesting restaurants!” – Michael Hare’s “thrilling” city-centre venue – a rooftop space over a men’s clothes store – leaves most reporters “blown away”. “It’s a bit weird entering through a shop”, and the “airy, light and barn-like space”, while a tad “strange”, is “not unpleasant”. A meal comprises “a never-ending set of startlingly presented dishes”, and though “some of them sound outrageous” the food that arrives is “exquisitely composed and brilliant”, and “with remarkably little gimmickry or striving for effect”. It is robbed of our highest marks by one or two refuseniks who found the performance too “bizarre, and very expensive for what you get”.

“New, and very ‘different’”, this “refreshing” city-centre venue, the creation of an ex-Noma chef, specialises in tasting menus tipped for “great combination of unusual ingredients that really excite the taste buds”; we suspect we’re going to hear more of this one!