The Observer
Jay Rayner found a “terrace, wine-led restaurant overlooking the River Kennet” in a former banking hall-turned-Japanese restaurant in the middle of town – “it feels like being in a cross between fin de siècle Paris and Renaissance Venice…. a romping wave of bubbling chatter, clinking glasses, laughter and impressive food.”
The wine side of the business, run by founder Patrick Vaughan-Fowler, a former sommelier in London, “manages the neat trick of being serious without taking itself too seriously” – the latter suggested by the restaurant’s odd name.
Chef Sam May’s cooking, meanwhile, is “not just smart and thoughtful. It’s also well priced, like they really want your business. Everything is in the low teens or below, apart from a steak which gets to a lofty £18.”
Jay Rayner - 2024-08-04The Daily Telegraph
William Sitwell was mostly pleased with the ‘British tapas’ he found in an “elegant townhouse” near the 18th-century bridge over the River Kennet, although at times it was “trying a tad too hard” – as with the ‘no-waste’ butter: “I did hark back after those days when it wasn’t compulsory be clever with butter”.
There was a “glorious dish” of cheese custard and dish of the day was a “large rustic layer of pork belly”, but a plate of flageolets had too much bite and too thick a dusting of herbs, while the chocolate mousse, bathed unnecessarily in olive oil, was “more pale and interesting than deeply rich and sexy”.
William Sitwell - 2025-03-30
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