The Times
Giles Coren was thrilled to find a restaurant sufficiently grown-up to call courses “starters” and “mains” instead of “small plates” and “big plates”, and to have guests who leave their smartphones in their pockets or handbags. Unfortunately, he discovered, it serves only natural wines – which confirmed all his prejudices by tasting “almost as nice as a cheap scrumpy”.
“The food, on the other hand, was incredible,” progressing from a “dazzling” wild sea bass crudo with bottarga and crushed honeycomb to “deliriously good” grilled hake with borlotti beans, peppers and thick, yellow aioli, and rabbit saltimbocca with braised chard and Amalfi lemon that “looked stunning: a whole boned leg, shrink-wrapped in pancetta”. The final act, a “stonking chocolate cremosa” made with olive oil instead of eggs, was “almost savoury in its seriousness”.
The natural wine probably disqualifies Toklas from being classed as ‘fine dining’, but Giles certainly rated the cooking as fine.
Giles Coren - 2024-09-29The Times
Charlotte Ivers headed to Spanish chef José Pizarro’s latest and third venue in Bermondsey Street, dismissing his first two – José and Pizarro – as “delightful, just maybe a little staid”.
“Lolo, pleasingly, is a lot more daring than its siblings. Fashionable decor; cool crowd, for Bermondsey at least. It was already packed when I went, only a week or so after opening.”
The biggest excitement for Charlotte was the range of devilled eggs – “welcome to the 1970s” – with a “landslide” of strong flavours including anchovies, sobrasada (spicy sausage), smoked eel, and salt cod with saffron sauce: “Order any. Order them all. It’s £3 for the classic version, the price of a croissant in this godforsaken city.”
Her other big tip is breakfast: “the menu here is a banger”.
Charlotte Ivers - 2024-09-29
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