The Guardian
Grace Dent – with no thanks to her subeditors at the Guardian, who failed dismally to come to her rescue – got herself into a geographical pickle in her review of a new restaurant from former Elystan Street chef Aaron Potter and interiors stylist Laura Hart.
Normally, such an issue would hardly matter in a restaurant review – but Grace’s intro and the posh-teasing thread that ran through the piece all depended on us being with her in “Belgravia” – a locale characterised in her final pay-off line as “full of snobs, it’s like another planet”.
Unfortunately, she (and/or the subs) managed to transpose the action to Pimlico – Belgravia’s significantly less posh cousin on the wrong side of the railway tracks that lead into Victoria station – beginning with her opening quip that “Pimlico is an area I tend to avoid”. Having made a couple more comments in this vein, she suddenly announced half way through the review that “this is Belgravia, where even breathing is expensive” – and we’re finally where we should be.
As for the restaurant, Grace very much appreciated its “hearty menu” of food that was “thoughtful and fancy – but not painfully fancy”, and with “a heavenly absence of tweezers”. The generosity of the portions clearly surprised her in such elevated environs: “I suddenly remembered how many Lilliputian dinners I had eaten recently… This was the sort of lunch when even my tights felt tighter afterwards.”
Her meal ended on a high note, and at the right address, with a slice of lemon tart: “Just like Belgravia, it was sweet, refined and so beautiful that it made me feel shabby and unkempt in its presence.”
Grace Dent - 2024-11-03The Times
Giles Coren accompanied his “very good friend” Jamie Oliver to this new restaurant from Aaron Potter, a protégé of both Phil Howard (Elystan Street) and Adam Byatt (Trinity), who is cooking seasonal ingredients over fire with a Mediterranean influences – “which is nothing new in itself, of course,” said Giles, “but is done exceptionally well here from start to finish”.
At which point he stepped back and let the Naked Chef bubble with enthusiasm at the cooking: a glazed focaccia which had him racing over to the kitchen to see where it had been baked; “amazing” pickled baby peaches; bruschetta with grilled mackerel and sardines that had him purring “beautiful, beautiful… ooh, that’s lovely…” like David Bailey as he snapped away with his phone camera; grilled Cornish seabass that was “perfect – the boy can really grill”;
“This is the generation of chefs we have to be hopeful for, right?” said Jamie. “Spending their own money on their own restaurants and believing in the industry at a time when it’s never been harder… Thank God they are still willing to take risks because without them, we’re f***ed.”
Giles Coren - 2024-12-22The Daily Telegraph
William Sitwell was drawn to try out a new restaurant on the basis of a menu that boasted possibly the best-named dish in Britain: holiday potatoes, combining “two of the greatest things in life”. He simply had to find out what they were.
Luckily for William, “the journey to them was paved with riches”, which he munched his way happily through: “fabulous” gnocco fritto; a scallop crudo with “that dream-like silky texture that makes me genuinely cross whenever anyone suggests actually cooking a scallop”; lamb tartare; a “terrific” cuttlefish and octopus fideua – all loosely Mediterranean in inspiration.
“Then, at last, the potatoes, the holiday potatoes which, guess what, were just very decent and small crunchy roasted potatoes. Holiday? More like a nice drink after work on a Tuesday night.” He might have over-egged the potatoes in anticipation, but William thoroughly approved of the cooking, nice lighting and good service he found at Wildflowers.
William Sitwell - 2025-01-26
