Matthew Norman has an abysmal meal at ludicrously-titled The Modern, Manchester, topping it with an NDE on the M6. ‘I couldn’t depart this chilly, self-important horror fast enough.’ Despite an ‘incongruously warm and expert’ waitress, Lancashire hotpot was ‘calumny’, and parkin was ‘McVitie’s Jamaica Ginger Cake swimming in treacle’.
AA Gill spends finds Aqua Nueva ‘poisoned by its decoration’, with ‘arctic’ air conditioning. An egg yolk in jelly is ‘a big wine gum in pus’, while roast foie gras with mango, melon and black tea sauce is ‘edible, but not pleasurable’. The combined dishes taste of ‘torture and fashion diets’.
Zoe Williams finds Polpo ‘kicking’, loving its ‘big, epicurious heart’. She likes the ‘brilliance’ of pork belly with radicchio and hazelnuts and ‘squidgy’ mozzarella, but echoes a lot of critics in finding the seasoning erratic.
Tracy MacLeod is dazzled by Galvin La Chapelle, ‘the kind of place that you usually only see in movies’. ‘I felt like the lady in the Cointreau ad,’ she gushes. A pigeon tagine with couscous is ‘exciting’, while sea bass with herb fritters and a twice-cooked chicken breast are ‘well-made, if unsensational’. It’s ‘a place that would make any occasion special’.
The décor at the GLC similarly impresses Marina O’Loughlin: ‘this is gorgeous’. The food is ‘handsome’ and ‘butch’ to match the setting, and even a salad of wood-fired autumn veg and goat’s cheese has ‘a touch of testosterone’. Her few complaints – that it’s ‘steeply priced’, and some ingredients aren’t particularly seasonal – are, she admits, ‘clutching at straws’.
Lisa Markwell visits Llys Meddyg, in a Georgian townhouse in Pembrokeshire. She’s a fan: game pie is ‘all killer, no filler’ (ie has plenty of meat), while a fishcake with poached egg and hollandaise is ‘packed full of flavour’. The chef can ‘execute simple dishes well, which is a refreshing change’.
Fay Maschler is the first major critic to review The Capital since Jérôme Ponchelle replaced Eric Chavot as chef de cuisine. The new menu has lots of ‘overlap’ with the old: seared scallop with sauce vierge carries ‘a sweet edge’, while tiger prawns with tarbais beans and confit pork are ‘much appreciated’. Service is ‘snooty’, though, and filter coffee is ‘horrible’.
Guy Dimond fancies Dean Street Townhouse ‘the most happening new restaurant in Soho’ – which is quite something when it’s up against Hix and Polpo. ‘Comfort food is in,’ he affirms: mince and potatoes ‘taste of childhood’, while salt beef is ‘an explosion of flavour’. Everything is ‘unusually well done’.
Jay Rayner feels the décor at Seven Park Place ‘sucks the very life out you’, although it is possible to eat ‘very well indeed’ here. A lobster raviolo is ‘the very essence of rich, indulgent neoclassical cooking’, while grouse is ‘the right shade of crimson’. But ‘the experience was essentially joyless’, and The Observer’s man found himself wishing he was elsewhere.
Instead of a blogger review this week, I’m going to recommend Dino Joannides’s ‘Best of 2009 in London’ list. It’s a comprehensive, idiosyncratic sweep across the best eating to be had in the city – the product, I know, of enviable research. There aren’t too many surprises, but it’s an excellent and useful précis.