Welcome to the weekly round-up of the national critics’ restaurant reviews by food writer and blogger Oliver Thring.
‘Frisson and frolics are not easily imposed’ on customers, says Fay Maschler at Circus, where dinner and burlesque entwine in a tacky pas de deux. The menu is American-ish ‘but goes further than that’: fried baby squid with coconut had ‘vivacious spicing,’ smoked chicken wings had apparently ‘flapped through a bath of all-purpose BBQ sauce’ and cornbread-crusted wiener schnitzel was ‘too greasy to be enjoyable’.
Giles Coren is at Pearl Liang by Paddington station. The dim sum are ‘better than Royal China’ according to both his fiancée and Tom Parker Bowles. Shanghai dumplings are ‘brilliant’, and lobster is ‘perfectly cooked,’ with ‘firm, straggly, munchable noodles’.
‘Who needs quality when you have telly exposure?’ asks Jasper Gerard at The Pheasant in Keyston, Cambridgeshire. The gastropub was the runner-up in the last season of The F Word, but Gerard is underwhelmed. Duck confit was ‘roadkill’, game terrine was ‘fine’ but came with a ‘charcoaled ember’ of toast, and the décor was ‘rubbish’.
Standing in for A. A. Gill, Martin Ivens spends a ‘wintry Sunday’ at The Pearson’s Arms in Whitstable. Jerusalem artichoke soup with truffle oil was ‘exquisitely balanced,’ but British cassoulet was ‘overly rich and heavy’. Overall the chef ‘has made a good start, but we know he can do even better’.
A ‘snowed-in’ Tracey Macleod braves the elements to visit Tamada, a ‘newish Georgian restaurant just off Abbey Road’. Walnut is ‘the star of the show’ and features in almost every dish. Aubergine with walnut and pomegranate had a ‘blowsy depth of flavour,’ while cubes of pork lung, liver and heart were ‘chewy, but not unpleasantly so’. The food may be ‘fresh, authentic and often really good,’ but the atmosphere is ‘chilly’ and ‘empty’.
Guy Dimond visits the ‘sushi-and-sandals’ vegan Japanese, Itadaki Zen, by King’s Cross. It’s a ‘small restaurant with lofty ideals,’ and with its meat-free, dairy-free, salt-free ethics, it doesn’t sound my cup of ‘Shredded Wheat’-smelling tea. Deep-fried tofu with dashi and mirin ‘lacked great depth,’ and although Dimond finds the place ‘affordable’, it needs to be taken (literally and figuratively) with ‘a pinch of salt’.
A £50 ‘City-boy rib’ is on offer at Butcher at Leadenhall, Euan Ferguson says. It’s quite a ‘humble’ place for the financial district, but the critic likes its ‘breezy and chirpy’ service. Chicken soup is ‘defiantly warming’ and steak sandwich is ‘unceremoniously’ ‘just that’.
Marina O’Loughlin finds Barrica ‘screechy and chilly’ during a London blizzard, but I think she’s bang-on when she says its ‘welcome is warm’ and its wine list a ‘scorcher’. Cured meats are ‘good’ but ‘portions are weeny’. Bone marrow on toast is ‘outrageously buttery’, and the critic promises she’ll return ‘when it’s sunny’.
Jay Rayner has ‘one of the worst meals of 2010′ at Criterion off Piccadilly Circus. The room may have a ‘peculiar night-time glamour,’ but an amuse is just ‘thick, tepid gloop,’ crab risotto is ‘tiny heap of bright orange and undercooked rice’ and rack of venison is ‘swamped in a sticky mahogany sauce’. The loo is ‘unheated’, and there’s a man wandering round in arm-length black rubber gloves.
Punters at Babbo have ‘more sense than money’, reckons Zoe Williams – and that’s a good thing. She ‘loved’ panzanella with tuna belly, lobster and tomato, and snapper ravioli with mascarpone was ‘absolutely fabulous’. A rib-eye was ‘succulent’, ‘well-presented’, ‘unfussy’ and ‘incredibly meaty’. Williams felt that she’d ‘chanced upon somewhere that people who know about such things know about’.
And Helen Graves of Food Stories finds dinner at the highly-regarded Tom Illic in Battersea ‘mediocre’. ‘Degustation of pork’ was ‘clunky’ and ‘disjointed’, its meat ‘dry’; while its accompanying spring roll was ‘sopping with grease’. Cheesecake was ‘forgettable’, and though poached baby pears with black pepper ice cream were ‘charming and confident’, they couldn’t rescue this ‘disappointing meal’.