The Times
Giles Coren was stagily coy about naming a new Chinese restaurant in London that has a set menu at £388 a head and is named after “one of the great Chinese environmental and human catastrophes of the 20th century” – which clearly identified it as the 3 Gorges in Goodge Street.
Giles – who chose the cheaper duck and abalone set menu at £139 – and was less than impressed by a meal of “dull spring rolls and dim sum of the ‘Mum’s gone to Iceland’ party pack variety”, followed by a portion of duck that was “horribly overcooked to a sort of sponginess and the cavity stuffed with all sorts of wrongness”.
He also reviewed a lunch at Vetch in Liverpool, which boasts “droolworthy” multi-course tasting menus in the evening but just three tiny courses for lunch. “It was all very nice indeed but, even in London, £45 would be a lot for what was very close to no food at all.”
Giles Coren - 2025-03-23The Times
Jay Rayner had his faith in top-end tasting-menu establishments and their frequently self-important, grandstanding chefs restored – well, “(almost)” – by dinner at this “sweet, modest and clever restaurant”, where chef Daniel McGeorge made a nine-course tasting menu look “simple”.
One dish in particular summed up the approach: a garishly printed fried chicken box containing a large Buffalo wing for each diner, crisply battered and in a hot and sour sauce, but boned, stuffed with chicken mousseline and dolloped with sour cream and caviar – “it was obviously a technical marvel, but also a nod to our appetites, and the chicken shop next door”.
“Vetch is not for trophy hunters or Michelin star collectors,” Jay declared. “This restaurant really is about feeding people, and in a charming environment.” Sadly, he and his dining companion were the only customers that night. “It really shouldn’t be this way. Vetch should be full.”
Jay Rayner - 2025-12-14
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