Weekly round-up of the national restaurant critics by @OliverThring, 17/05

Welcome to the weekly round-up of the national restaurant critics by Oliver Thring. Burgers and bank holidays were this week’s themes.

Fay Maschler finds Bar Boulud at the Mandarin Oriental ‘A Big Step Forward’. The decor isn’t mind-blowing – the ‘excitement lies’ in the menu. ‘The charcuterie is fabulous’ and a ‘Frenchie’ burger ‘came close to ultimate satisfaction’. The £20 lunch menu is ‘terrific value’, too.

Guy Dimond agrees: ‘this is no ordinary brasserie.’ ‘I doubt if you’ll find better charcuterie in London’ he says, noting that the burger was of ‘sublime quality’. ‘For cooking this exceptional, with such attention to detail and at such reasonable prices, this is an instant hit.’

Despite its ‘design howlers’, Lisa Markwell likes the ‘élan’ of the Taverners pub on the Isle of White. Smoked salmon was ‘meltingly soft’ and came with ‘dense and moreish’ potato bread; while an ‘almost black’ slow-braised veal shin was ‘the real deal’. ‘It may not be troubling the Michelin inspectors anytime soon, but The Taverners makes me wish I lived in a thatched cottage on the Isle of Wight.’

Marina O’Loughlin has a grim meal at JW Steakhouse, on the ‘unhappy’ former site of the short-lived Bord’Eaux. A New York strip steak is ‘flawlessly cooked’, though sides are ‘so rich they verge on the inedible’. The burger is ‘vast … densely packed [and] lacking juice’, and very expensive at £17.

‘Rubbish’ is Sathnam Sanghera’s self-confessedly ‘unsophisticated’ verdict on The Beetle & Wedge Boathouse, Oxon. The Times’s stand-in and his guest ordered ‘dishes that put each other off’: so Sanghera, a brilliant writer, found it challenging to watch his companion eat duck while ducks waddled outside; and she didn’t like him eating snails because ‘they are snails, and she is a gastronomic philistine who didn’t try pasta until she went to university’. Come back Giles, all is forgiven.

Tracey Macleod is at Baumann’s Brasserie in Essex. ‘If this place had any more personality, it would be John McCririck.’ Antelope came with an ‘overwhelming’ goat’s cheese sauce, while crème brûlée was made with foie gras. ‘Service goes the extra mile’, and though the kitchen is ‘over-excitable’, Macleod likes the place.

Jay Rayner is at Inamo, the daft-sounding ‘concept’ restaurant where you order ‘garbled pan-Asian hotchpotch’ food from computers set in the tables. Cinnamon chicken was ‘the colour of an old scab’, while crispy duck was ‘floppy and sweaty’. ‘Things perked up with desserts’, though, and overall ‘Inamo is fun’.

Matthew Norman visits the Crab House Cafe in Wyke Regis, Dorset. The view ‘lacks picturesqueness’ but the place is great. Oysters are reared (is that the word?) 30 feet from the restaurant, a handmade pork pie was ‘delicious’ and a whole lemon sole was a ‘princely fish perfectly cooked’. ‘The Crab House gets a resounding hip, hip, hip hooray.’

Mathilde Delville has a ‘highly rated and recommended’ afternoon tea at the Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner. It sounds lovely: goat’s cheese and red onion quiches, cucumber sandwiches and natch scones. Mathilde also includes a fine recipe in remembrance of madeleines past.

Lastly, an interesting Observer feature on ‘How Nando’s conquered Britain’. ‘Only those who never let a non-organic French fry pass their lips or who live a long way from a town or are hardcore multinational refuseniks don’t go to Nando’s.’ I’ve still never been.