Brawn. Charles Campion is its newest fan

Brawn is still pulling in the critics: this time it’s Charles Campion. ‘The food is hearty and full-flavoured’, ‘the Mongetes is wonderful’ and ‘the black pudding and oxtail Parmentier vies for the crown in the “best ever frying pan hash” category’. ‘Brawn is very good indeed.’

Zoe Williams says Hakkasan is ‘date central’. Soft shell crab ‘tasted a bit like posh Pringles’ (in a good way) and black truffle roast duck was ‘truly unusual and memorably good’.

Fay Maschler welcomes another French bistro/bistrot to London, in the shape of Chabrot. The menu sounds lovely: baby squid with espelette pepper, roast bone marrow, snails, charcuterie and roast chicken.

Right then, on to Dinner. Heston’s newbie is a ‘theatrical tour de force’ according to Matthew Norman. Meat fruit was ‘unbelievable’, beef royal ‘miraculous’. ‘Blumenthal’s Dinner will be the hottest ticket in town for a very long time to come.’

For Tracey MacLeod, ‘[Dinner] offers the perfect big-occasion option for people who want to enjoy dazzling food and wine without all the five-star fuss.’

For Guy Dimond, ‘some dishes exceed expectations, others can raise false hopes.’ The place is ‘oversubscribed’ and ‘expensive’.

And for AA Gill, ‘the smartness and the obsession never get in the way of the sheer edible enjoyment of the plate in front of you.’

Jay Rayner visits both The Dragon Bar in Hastings and The George in Rye. The former ‘deserves support’ although its cassoulet is ‘a crime against French peasants,’ while the ‘venerable’ George serves ‘smart and thoughtful’ food such as halibut with puy lentils and salsa verde.

Non Solo Vino in Chesterfield is ‘a really good Italian restaurant’ according to John Lanchester. A seafood fritto misto was ‘ethereally light’ and grilled lamb rump ‘very good meat’. The Enomatic makes this a good place for wine buffs/bores.

Giles Coren is at the new Hawksmoor. ‘The food was terrific. Flawless of its kind.’ Of a porterhouse, ‘the fillet was uncommonly flavourful, the sirloin unusually tender’.

And a nice wee post from The Skinny Bib on the roast ducks of Bayswater. Gold Mine, it is said, is a ‘worthy rival’ to the more famous poultry at the Four Seasons. ]]> http://www.istarvin.com/blog/2011/02/14/weekly-roundup-of-national-restaurant-critics-by-oliverthring-1402/feed/ 0 http://www.istarvin.com/blog/2011/02/07/weekly-roundup-of-national-critics-restaurant-reviews-by-oliverthring-0702/ http://www.istarvin.com/blog/2011/02/07/weekly-roundup-of-national-critics-restaurant-reviews-by-oliverthring-0702/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 09:00:45 +0000 OliverThring http://www.istarvin.com/blog/?p=710 Continue reading →]]>

He's got a new restaurant, in case you hadn't heard

Welcome to the weekly roundup

Van Zeller, Harrogate

W​elcome to the weekly roundup

​‘Smart but not overly formal’ says Tracey MacLeod of Van Zeller in Harrogate. Ham hock terrine was ‘more labour intensive than you’d expect at this price point’ and queen scallops were ‘excellent’. ‘Puddings confirmed van Zeller’s sure touch … this cracking little restaurant deserves to be packed with customers’.

A​mol Rajan is at Brasserie Toulouse-Lautrec in the ‘armpit of London’, aka Elephant & Castle. ‘The food is unexceptional and inconsistent’: rocket salad with chorizo, sun-blushed tomatoes and balsamic dressing (welcome to 1996) was ‘unremarkable’ and slow-cooked lamb shank came with ‘absurdly unadventurous’ vegetables. ‘There’s better French food around for this price’.

Kyashii is a place of ‘staff ineptitude and rudeness’, according to Marina O’Loughlin, and though the food isn’t ‘diabolical … neither is it good’. Sushi is ‘fresh enough’ but ‘I don’t really care’: the terrible service turned it all to ‘ashes in my gob’.

Jay Rayner is at Little Italy on Frith Street, still semi-presided-over by the 90-year-old Elena Salvoni. ‘It’s fancy, though the food is less so’. Main course pasta dishes are ‘huge bowls of carbs’ and veal escalope is served on the bone. It will all ‘feed you very well indeed.’ I’ve been to this place and, impressive though its lineage may be, I wouldn’t return. The café is better.

B​arbecoa’s ‘on dit’ is ‘sadly accurate’, says John Lanchester. ‘The food is disappointing, the service slow and the bill expensive’. S​callop ceviche with yuzu, avocado and pomegranate was ‘nice to eat’ but the signature barbecue stuff is ‘underwhelming’. ‘Not enough flavour, complexity or attention to detail’.

​’Cô​te ​is not good’, says Giles Coren. Cassoulet was ‘terrible’, sirloin ‘terrible’, the bill ‘stone-cold mental’. ‘This place is overpriced, hollow and depressing even for Highgate.’

Fay Maschler is unimpressed by Oliver Peyton’s latest, the restaurant at the Royal Academy. Andalusian fish soup was ‘tepid’ and ‘miserly’, and such dishes as tempura oyster and frog’s legs don’t ‘press the buttons’ of the ‘grey-haired crowd’. Prices are ‘reprehensible’.

‘The cooking is very good at Cassis’, says Charles Campion. The new bistro on the Brompton Road is getting good reviews; scallop ragout with coco beans and lemon thyme is ‘a near faultless dish’ and veal kidney with violet mustard and raisins ‘magnificent’. ‘It’s a very agreeable restaurant’.

Q​uick off the mark, AA Gill reviews Les Deux Salons. Cod brandade was ‘light and nicely made’, a cheeseburger was ‘about a third right’ and a crème brûlée lacked a ‘hot hit’ of vanilla. It’s a ‘good restaurant’ whose food seems ‘rushed and successful’ – Gill’s second visit suggests the kitchen is ‘slipping away’.

Robin Majumdar is at The Perseverance, a nice, ‘casually elegant’ gastropub in Lisson Grove. A starter of monkfish liver – a terrific ingredient – was ‘interesting and delicious’, steamed clams were ‘fresh and meaty’ and stuffed rabbit saddle was ‘moist and tender’. ‘Places like The Perseverance make me think there’s still hope’ – sounds good.

Roux at the Landau. A handsome dining room

‘Bloated’ is Marina O’Loughlin’s verdict on Hakkasan Mayfair, a place of ‘pervasive gloom’. But the food is ‘excellent’: lamb salad with mango, apple and pickled vegetables was ‘revelatory’ and soft-shell crab ‘jaw-droppingly good’. But the experience ‘leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth’.

AA Gill is unimpressed by ‘shrill and clamorous [and] dark’ Kopapa. Parmesan and bone marrow toast with horseradish and beetroot was like ‘fat infused with Marmite’, coconut sticky pork ribs were ‘dreadful’ and a laksa ‘tasted like boiled Lego’. ‘A fussed mess from start to finish.’

Zoe Williams likes The Savoy Grill. ‘The menu is hefty and enticing.’ Pork belly was ‘pretty good’ but ‘smothered’ by Cumberland sauce, and mutton chops were ‘incredible’. A rum baba (cropping up everywhere all of a sudden) ‘didn’t quite do it for me’, but this is a good place to go ‘for a special birthday’.

Amol Rajan manages to avoid his loathed poshos but, alas, ends up in The Scolt Head, a ‘remorselessly yuppie’ Dalston gastropub ‘full of Hoxtonites and Hackneyists who work in advertising, sport moustaches, support Arsenal and have a mate with a creative “space” in Dalston’. Sea bass with potatoes, beans and caper butter was ‘excellent’.

Jon Walsh is underwhelmed by Brawn – only the second critic I’ve read not to rhapsodise about the place. Finocchiona was ‘like eating a large helping of sausagemeat dotted with lardons’ and he didn’t like the fact that Tuscan-style beef was just raw meat with oil and salt. Pannacotta was ‘delicious’ but this was only a ‘perfectly OK evening’.

Christopher Howse has an effusive trip to Eddie Gilbert’s in Ramsgate: ‘My fillet of turbot sat like an uninvited guest on a mound of choucroute (with diced bacon) cuddled up with a clutch of French beans (surely not local), surrounded by marker buoys of chorizo’. And so on. He enjoyed it.

‘The cooking at Mistley Thorn is big and messy,’ says Jay Rayner. Treacle-cured salmon with celeriac remoulade and blini (sounds delicious) was ‘dainty’ and ‘pert’, while brill with saffron sauce was ‘crisp’. The ‘likeable’ place has a ‘clear generosity of spirit’.

Not a great meal for Giles Coren at Yashin Sushi. The kitchen is ‘competent and focused’ but the fish is ‘not of the very best’. Yellowtail and seabass were ‘good’ but surf clam was ‘gruesome’. ‘We had done £120 without alcohol and were still starving.’

This will be my first and last mention of the Meateasy, the burger pop up which you’ll have heard about already (every blogger and his dog have been and raved) but which deserves inclusion once in this list because no full-time critic is likely to review it. Ross Eats went: the burger was ‘the star of the night … I really really enjoyed the meal here.’

The new Vinoteca at Seymour Place

The new Marylebone branch of Vinoteca is ‘nicer than Brawn’ according to Marina O’Loughlin. ‘Everything we eat in this unfussy [room] is excellent’: steamed clams in tarragon broth, smoked haddock with cream and colcannon, duck breast with peas and bacon. ‘Get there fast before the scenesters find it.’

John Lanchester: Nando’s, with its ‘energetically spiced’ food, ‘is a casual restaurant rather than a fast food one’. ‘The plain chips are a bit of a weak point’ but ‘employees seem fairly jolly’. It ‘isn’t haute cuisine’ (no kidding) but the chain is an ‘example of how ordinary daily food has improved in the UK over the last decade and a bit’.

Sienna in Dorchester (not The Dorchester) is ‘an honest, unpretentious, labour of love joint’, says Matthew Norman. One of the smallest restaurants in Dorset (14 covers) also possesses that county’s only Michelin star. Butternut squash soup had ‘little depth of taste’ and slow-roast pork belly was ‘a bit bland’. But ‘unquestionably there is talent here’.

Ilia’s menu is ‘long and quite confusingly laid out’, says Fay Maschler, but she rather likes the place at Papillon’s old site on Draycott Avenue. Linguine with clams, chilli and basil was ‘just as it should be’ and lamb cutlets with aubergine ‘good’. ‘Prices of the dishes are reasonable … but wines will send a bill leaping up’.

AA Gill thinks The Lord Nelson in the depths of Oxfordshire is ‘your ideal nostalgic pub’. Fricassee of kidney and black pudding was ‘generous, renal and vascular’ and a rack of lamb ‘pink and soft’. Service was ‘mumsy and bustling … this really was good home lunch’.

Guy Dimond: ‘the cooking’s very good’ at the Fish Place near Wandsworth Bridge, even if the menu is ‘pricey and a little old-fashioned’. Grilled brill with clams was ‘attractively presented’ and cod with braised oxtail (yum) ‘fresh’. Best of all, if you visit between 25 and 30 January you can order what you like and ‘pay whatever you feel the meal is worth’.

Lisa Markwell finds in Kopapa’s menu ‘a panoply of fusion’. A mixed platter of chorizo, chillies, olives, cheese etc was ‘a delicious array of good things’, but pork ‘didn’t work’ with a ‘bitter sauce’ involving moromi miso and tarragon dressing. ‘If you’re the adventurous type, there’s much to tempt you here’.

Zoe Williams likes the ‘Scandi feel’ of Archangel in Frome, Somerset: ‘it is a place you’d linger’. Confit salmon was ‘very dainty, but not prissy’ and silverside with artichokes and bloody mary jelly ‘exceptional’. Puddings ‘weren’t perfect’ but ‘I think you’ll like it’.

Bill’s Produce Store at Covent Garden: ‘a glowing Aladdin’s Cave of foodie treasures’ in Tracey MacLeod’s words. But its food – salmon with hollandaise, burger, tomato soup – is ‘the stuff of every bog-standard brasserie’. ‘The staff are lovely’ but ‘I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there’.

Jay Rayner is at the newish Lahore Kebab House on Streatham High Road. ‘The cooking is bright and fresh [and] very cheap’. Fish curry was ‘the star of the main courses’ but dry lamb curry was ‘slippery and wet and deflating’. That said, ‘at less than £20 a head it really is difficult to feel hard done by’.

Brawn is ‘flawless’, says Giles Coren, who likes its ‘junior school classroomy feel’. ‘The oysters were very good’ and caillette (‘a kind of cabbagey faggot’) was ‘gorgeous’. Staff are ‘solicitious, clued-up and gorgeous … this place rocks’.

And here’s an engaging pasting of Roux’s BBC Two show Service by Peter Preston. Have to say I enjoyed the first two episodes even if the format wasn’t wildly imaginative. Thank God they sacked that pillock Jarel.

Albert's Table in Croydon, sans customers

Albert’s Table is a ‘solid, sturdy restaurant knocking out solid, sturdy dishes’, says Jay Rayner. ‘In the main it is French bistro food’: crab tart; endive, blue cheese and chive salad; braised venison hotpot with venison leg. ‘The only off note was some rather bready dumplings’. Lots of ‘care and attention to detail’ here.

Czechoslovak Restaurant in NW6 is a ‘morose … hell’ according to Matthew Norman; the lighting ‘hints at a Lubyanka interrogation cell’. Rollmops with pickled cucumber (two quid!) were ‘surprisingly good’ and a ‘colossal’ pork knuckle was ‘strong and smoky’. It’s a ‘cheap, filling meal’.

‘This is not a Chinese takeout,’ says AA Gill at Hakkasan: the basement rooms are decorated on an ‘oriental Fritzl’ theme. Salt and pepper squid was ‘bright and crisp’, hot and sour soup ‘the best I’ve eaten in this country’. ‘I do think it’s good’, but it’s ‘expensive’.

Oh dear. Once again Amol Rajan finds himself among the ‘Barboured’ poshos he so despises, this time at Mike Robinson’s Pot Kiln in Berkshire. The menu is ‘short, gamey and autumnal’. A ham hock terrine was ‘fabulously biteable’ and a venison T-bone with horseradish and savoy cabbage ‘a brilliant plateful’. If only the place were ’10% cheaper’.

‘[Morito's] cooking is excellent’, says John Lanchester. Sam² Clark’s new venture is very much ‘tapas bar, not restaurant’. ‘The two stars of the meal were chiccarones’ but ‘the portions were on the very small side of small’.

Giles Coren is at the Savoy Grill. A lobster thermidor had set ‘like an old custard’ but scallops baked with steamed leeks were ‘good’. ‘Most importantly of all, there is a lot of grilled food now available’.

Zoe Williams visits the Leon behind the Tate Modern: ‘like a hyper-classy German service station’. Alfalfa with peas, cucumber, avocado, quinoa, feta, mint, etc was ‘a riot’ and gobi was ‘unputdownable’. The place ‘effortlessly achieves a new standard of excellence in fast food’.

Tracey MacLeod likes Peter Gordon’s ‘eclectic’ Kopapa, but though the meal ‘supplied many vivid, original moments … [it didn't come] together as a dining experience’. Smoked eel with mirin and green tea noodles was ‘punchy’, and black sesame brulee with molasses ‘fantastic’.

Nor is Fay Maschler sure about the place. ‘Not enough worked at our dinner’. Tofu skin with dal and coconut was a ‘triumph’, but squid, lentils, chilli, aubergine and rocket simply ‘don’t go together’.

‘Perfectly nice’ is Marina O’Loughlin’s underwhelmed verdict on Columbia Road’s much-garlanded Brawn. The charcuterie is ‘excellent … but I’m not so keen on mongetes’, a Catalan interpretation of cassoulet. Though the place is ‘lovely, informal, friendly, sussed … I won’t make the great pilgrimage across town’.

Lennie Nash is drinking a terrifying-sounding concoction every morning that includes bananas, seeds, celery, apples and KALE. Amusing blog post here.

The Swan, Southrop. 'Less-than-whelming'

A happy new year to you. Reviews slowed to a trickle over Christmas, so some of these are from a wee while back.

A ‘less-than-whelming meal’ for Jay Rayner at The Swan at Southrop. They’d run out of the baked vacherin he wanted, and his lamb knuckle tagine was ‘a little well mannered’ while a fruit crumble was ‘dusty’.

‘Shiny, red and black and flouncy’ is Giles Coren’s characterisation of The Knaypa, a Polish restaurant on (naturally) King Street. Steak tartare was ‘great’ and pork fillet with belly, sauerkraut and mash ‘nice’. ‘This place is an absolute hoot’.

AA Gill visits Hart’s in Nottingham. The menu is ‘edible … moreish [and] absurdly cheap’. Sea bass with mushroom gnocchi, quince and port reduction was ‘brave and well made’ and though ‘pudding was not quite as assured as the savoury courses’, this is a ‘commendably accomplished dining room’.

‘With Ramsay’s newly reopened Savoy Grill’, says Matthew Norman, ‘there is nothing for it but to doff the hat’. Beetroot tart with pine nuts and goat’s curd (sounds a bit blah) was ‘delicious’, lobster bisque ‘intense and startlingly good’. This is ‘something like top form’.

John Lanchester is at LDS, as we can surely now call it. ‘The overall feel is of a very lively Parisian brasserie, with the decor of a 1910 Louisiana whorehouse.’ Mustard sauce with andouillette was ‘much too fiddled with’ but snail and bacon pie was ‘stand-out’. Like almost everyone else, Lanch reckons the place ‘will be a ginormous success’.

‘There isn’t an off note’ in Marina O’Loughlin’s meal at Le Cigalon. Lamb trotters and tripe was a dish that ‘rewards the brave’ and the flavours of jerusalem artichokes, bacon and chestnuts were ‘wintry and fabulous’. The place is ‘a blast of mistral warmth’.

Zoe Williams: Little Dudley House in Dorking ‘talks a fancier game than it delivers’. Though braised pork cheek was ‘wonderful’ and roast pork loin ‘just right’, pheasant with celeriac mash was a ‘gastro-horrorshow’. Puddings were ‘delightful’ but the ‘pretensions to faine daining are a bit silly’.

Almost every blogger did a roundup of their most memorable dishes or dinners of 2010, and one of the best of these was Helen Graves’s. From perfect steak tartare to Mien Tay’s salad and the Gav’s cheese soufflé, the girl has eaten (and cooked) stunningly.

The River Room. 'How far the Savoy has fallen from its grand panache'

AA Gill is at The Savoy River Room: newly decorated, the hotel is a ‘horror movie’. The menu is ‘bland and expensively undemanding’. Crab cakes were ‘gannet pucks’ and black leg chicken was ‘about as unappealing and uncosy as you could possibly make a roast chicken’. ‘I’m bereft.’

‘Whatever else may have gone wrong for Ramsay lately,’ says Tracey MacLeod, ‘something has definitely gone right at the Savoy [Grill].’ It’s a ‘great British menu’: baked Hereford snails were ‘as good as snails get’ and venison chop was a ‘knock-out’.

Marina O’Loughlin likes North Road. Its food ‘works very well as a beginner’s guide’ to ultra-trendy post-Noma Nordic cuisine. Lobster broth was ‘salty and wholesome’, brill with salsify ‘good’, but a pudding made entirely with jerusalem artichoke was unconvincing.

A ‘disappointing lunch’ for Fay Maschler at Cassis Bistro – yet another small plates place – on the Brompton Road. Whitebait were ‘woody’ and ‘stale’, magret of duck ‘mediocre’. The décor is ‘po-faced’, the music ‘hideous’ and ‘loud’.

Nick Lander is at Zeytoon in Kilburn, whose menu is ‘very extensive’. The place serves both Iranian and Afghan dishes: stewed lamb with dried limes and split peas, and skewers of lamb fillet respectively.

Jay Rayner finds the Soho outpost of Wright Brothers OK, but the place has ‘issues, not least over price’. £9 for crispy squid is ‘opportunistic’ even if £11.50 for fish stew is a ‘bargain’. The oysters are ‘good’, but service isn’t ‘all that’.

Robert Chalmers is at the justly celebrated Assaggi in Notting Hill, where ‘the seemingly humble decor whispers sophistication’. Yeesh. Prawns with lemon risotto were ‘a seductive melange I’ve never encountered before’. ‘Assaggi delivers what its regulars expect: fine food with prices to match.’

John Lanchester enjoys the new Hawksmoor, though his table’s steaks were ‘a notch more cooked than we’d asked for’. The cocktail list is a ‘masterpiece’, the atmosphere ‘friendly’.

Giles Coren loves Morito, Moro’s younger tapas sibling, and its ‘rich and ferrous’ raw venison, ‘incredibly fresh’ Cornish anchovies and ‘stand-out’ fideos with prawns, saffron and aioli.

And Robin Majumdar has a look at the new Café Anglais oyster bar. ‘It lacks the impact of, say, a Bentley’s or a J Sheekey’s.’ A dozen natives ‘hit the spot’ but rocks were ‘disappointing’. For all that, though, Majumdar enjoyed himself.

Truffle risotto with chicken jus at Gauthier Soho. Photo: Oliver Thring

Gauthier Soho: ★★★★☆

When Gauthier Soho opened in the early summer, several reviewers mentioned a reek of fat and fish lingering in the downstairs dining room. It’s still there, I’m afraid: the unmistakeable fug of Greenock chip shop. Like any curious or suspect whiff, you get used to it, but every so often during what was a very nice lunch my nostrils would tingle, there’d be a sniff, the face would crumple, the mind wander from the lovely food.

And it really is lovely. Alexis Gauthier was head chef for more than a decade at Roussillon, a vegecentric one-star near Sloane Square that used to do four courses and half a bottle of wine for a notch over 30 quid. It was one of the best lunch deals in London, a city that, despite its reputation, does lunch deals well. Vegetables are cheaper than meat, of course, so a green-fingered menu is always going to be cheaper to run than a bleating, mooing one. But such was the dexterity of the cooking, so profuse and frequent the amuses and unwanted blobs, so attentive and confident the service, you never felt you were being ripped off. Nor, I remember, did he skimp on truffles.

Gauthier Soho comprises two dining rooms on the site of what used to be Lindsay House on Romilly Street. It’s still a proper house: you ring a doorbell, enter through a vestibule and eat in old sitting and drawing rooms. It’s all staidly clubby in a way that must appeal to certain dreary old farts: the Pierre et Giles pictures in the loo offer a solitary flash of funny, high-camp naughtiness. You get free and unlimited fizzy or flat, and three courses with half a bottle of wine are only £33 – for the time being, Gauthier has transplanted Roussillon’s pricing almost wholesale.

A glob of foie gras with raisins, verjuice and baked apple was like sweetened duck phlegm, in a good way. Two scallops coated with hazelnuts were perfectly cooked and wibbly, paired with a balanced mix of chanterelles and slim wafers of fresh apple, livid and harmonious sauces swooshing over the plate.

Much has been written of Gauthier’s risottos, much of it deserved. Mine came crowned with truffles and a fantastically intense chicken reduction. It was hot, too, pretty near steaming, far preferable to the tepid gloop trumpeted by some evangelists. Another main of roast lamb was far safer and a bit country house hotel: on the strength of this dish, freedom from the tyranny of veg doesn’t seem to have instilled in Gauthier any carnivorous zeal. The Louis XV pudding is the other signature: a layered disc of different chocolatey incarnations: praline, ganache and meringue, flavoured with hazelnuts, glossed and garnished with a flash of gold leaf. Though it wasn’t quite as memorable as the one I had at Roussillon last year, it remains one of the most deservedly famous puddings in London.

Service is unsure: they gave us another table’s plates and then snatched them back a minute later, they messed up an order, they brought the wrong kind of water, and the bill took ages to turn up. But staff are fit and friendly and do much to lift the dreary, reverential setting. The Michelin man’s annual book is only a few weeks away, and I’m willing to bet Gauthier gets some recognition. Best get in early, then, before the prices rise accordingly.

The Savoy Grill. 'Lacking in spirit'

Welcome to the weekly roundup

David Sexton is at the Savoy Grill. Omelette Arnold Bennett (invented there) was ‘delicious but overwhelming as a starter’, while braised hare was ‘accomplished, fussy’. This is ‘just another catering operation from the Ramsay empire, assiduous and professional but somehow lacking in spirit and heart.’

‘I thought Dishoom was beautiful’, says Zoe Williams. Lamb samosas were ‘insanely attractive’, lamb chops ‘perfectly balanced’. ‘This place is neat: lowish prices, high concept, brilliant food.’

Lisa Markwell visits Mya Lacarte, that tortuously named Reading place made demi-famous when its owner competed in The Apprentice. Venison loin with red cabbage was a ‘muddle’. ‘Not quite alluring enough for a repeat visit’.

AA Gill has an abysmal lunch at The Bath Priory: a ‘national culinary embarrassment’. ‘There was some venison, a lobstery crayfish thing with foam, a partridge that had been dismembered’. But ‘I can’t remember any of it’.

Jay Rayner is at San Carlo in Leeds. ‘Everything we ate was good in an “I’ll have that again” sort of way.’ A mixture of fried fish was ‘almost greaseless’ and cheap at less than 18 quid, and there was rare calf’s liver and tagliolini with lobster and tomato sauce. It’s ‘a restaurant that knows exactly what it’s doing and why’.

‘Sooooo blissful’ is John Walsh’s verdict on the Holbeck Ghyll Hotel in Windermere. Langoustine salad was ‘beautifully cooked’, and beef daube was a ‘stonking dish’. ‘A real find.’

Marina O’Loughlin is at Les Deux Salons: ‘the menu is a beauty’. Rabbit with pumpkin gnocchi was ‘beautifully prepared’ but the décor approaches ‘the dreaded theme restaurant’ and service is ‘charmless, stressed’. ‘Good’ but not ‘a new favourite’.

I reviewed the same place for this website. True, I’d placed a moratorium on future reviews of LDS, but I think that can start next week.

Giles Coren has been to three places: Market Coffee House in Spitalfields (‘lovely’), The English Pig at the Barbican (‘the best arancini I’ve had in years’) and Tempo (the prices are ‘brilliant for Mayfair’).

Charmaine Mok loves Yashin, a new, smart sushi place off High Street Ken. ‘Every flavour combination is thoughtfully produced’, including shrimp with foie gras, and tuna and gorgonzola maki. The place is ‘exciting’.

And The Times has put all of GC’s restaurant reviews from 2006 to 2010 in the same place. Paul Slater’s fantastic paintings accompany this year’s pieces – they too make a fine collection.