Evening Standard
David Ellis gave a remarkably thorough kicking to Stevie Parle’s follow-up to the acclaimed Town in Covent Garden, with a very similar interior fit-out and a kitchen run by Luke Ahearn, a chef David hugely admired at his previous restaurant, Lita.
The Italian-inspired menu “reads dreamily”, David noted. “But something is going wrong somewhere…. Everything that promised so much delivered so little.” Chopped Dexter (aka steak tartare) with fermented green chilli and porcini ketchup was over-salted (as was the slow-cooked beef a couple of dishes later) and tasted “as though I’d swallowed plastic set alight with gasoline”. Some “delicious” grilled sardines were ruined by too much vinegar. An “expertly cooked” seabass was let down by poor shellfish sauce. The best dish, agnolotti in a carbonara sauce, was “a masterpiece of refinement” but was “marred by its price: £21 for seven bites of flour and water and egg”.
A couple of days later, the Standard published a lengthy and admirably good-tempered rebuttal from Parle: “We’ve had over a thousand guests through Motorino in the first two weeks, lots of useful feedback but nothing like this. We’ve sold loads of those delicious sardines but not a single comment about excess vinegar so far. Oily fish need acidity. Maybe some kind of childhood vinegar trauma?”
As for the agnolotti, “a chef I rate called it the best pasta he’s ever eaten. Sadly these days £21 for seven handmade pieces barely covers our costs. Each piece is made from flour, egg, water, cheese and guanciale, and a huge amount of work and time.”
David Ellis - 2025-11-09The Times
Charlotte Ivers visited chef Stevie Parle’s follow-up to Town in Covent Garden, finding it similar but “darker, more futuristic”, but also “a little too slick, a little knowing” for comfort. The insulting wine list did not help matters, making guests the butt of the joke as ignorant cheapskates by designating one bottle as the “second cheapest”.
That said, Charlotte rated Motorino as a “solid restaurant” whose food has “moments of excellence”, such as a bluefin tuna carpaccio with spicy-sweet Italian peppers and a dash of Asian citrus; gigli al gin — “a clever riff on vodka rigatoni, a dish that was the future once”; and a super-light tiramisu with the “joyous little innovation” of Irish whiskey.
On the downside, strozzapreti noodles were “a little floppy”, and their sauce of cavolo nero, walnuts and Spenwood cheese was “cloying, slightly bitter. Three nutty, earthy ingredients in one sauce is too many…”
Charlotte Ivers - 2025-12-14
