Evening Standard
David Ellis was the first critic to review the latest of Jason Atherton’s current wave of five London openings, finding it “a restaurant for anyone, at any time, on any occasion”.
He reported with approval that “price seems to be a priority for Atherton” (who has recently declared that ‘fine dining’ is just too expensive these days), so wine is sold by the pint (cheaper than a bottle), there are prix fixe meals at £28 for 2 courses and £32 for 3, a “heaving Sunday roast under £30”, and a service charge of just 9%.
The “enormous menu”, meanwhile, is generous and full of “treasures” – “big, heavy, comforting, blanket-by-the-fire stuff”, such as slices of Marmite custard tart “with blow-torched tops and endless umami”. “Hereford snail and ox cheek lasagne billed as ‘100-layer’ might numerically disappoint, but with its honking great flavour — and maths hardly a strong suit — I didn’t give a monkey’s.”
David Ellis - 2024-10-20The Daily Telegraph
William Sitwell diagnosed Jason Atherton as a man in the grip of “restaurateuritis” – an all-consuming malady that leaves him “opening restaurants with the fevered mania of a man who hasn’t eaten for a month, tearing flesh from the bone”. With four new openings to choose between, William “put on a blindfold, pinned a tail on the Atherton donkey and fetched up at Sael”.
He found it a grand place, all columns and glass and “great buzz” in a “forgotten corner of the West End”, but much of the British-themed cooking left William exhausted and wondering whether “less might possibly be more”.
The Marmite tart and brioche displayed “great pastry skills but left me feeling for my tummy and veins”, while he swerved the lamb kebab – “the thing to order apparently” – sensing it would be “like an anchor of doom dragging me to a deep abyss of night-time restlessness”. Finally, Atherton’s version of lasagne was “a mess”: “I just wanted a bleeding lasagne, not an explosion of snail, ox cheek, pasta sheets and creamy sauce.”
Perhaps William just was not hungry enough to do Sael justice. Next time he should work up a proper appetite with a lightening tour of the West End’s museums or a bracing walk along the South Bank before dinner – or bring a couple of ravenous teenagers along to help him out.
William Sitwell - 2024-12-15
