The Times
Charlotte Ivers went to a new luxury hotel where three separate restaurants from New York-based megachef Jean-Georges Vongerichten have been combined. The place had the “beige citizen-of-nowhere glamour you find in Dubai”, with the threat that dinner will be ruined by “the bored children of the global elite”. “Sure enough, on the table next to us a ten-year-old boy sits furiously dipping his pizza in ketchup.”
Sticking to the dishes from the Mexican third of the menu, on the possibly debatable grounds that “good Mexican food is so rare in the UK that you’ve got to take your chances”, Charlotte was happy enough with the food although ABC did “overdo it on the salt. You can take a restaurant out of America, but …”
Finally, the arroz con pollo – a dish recommended to Charlotte by a pal in New York: “She is correct. There’s extraordinary depth: a jalapeño warmth, a shiitake mushroom earthiness. A nice kick to the chicken, but the real standout is its skin: wonderfully salty (in a good way this time), impeccably crispy. So crispy it stands up unaided. A dish to cheer even the sulkiest of oligarchic teens.”
Charlotte Ivers - 2024-07-21
