Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 5th January 2025
The Guardian
Juliet, Stroud
Grace Dent gave a big thumbs-up to this modern European bistro from sculptor Daniel Chadwick, owner of the Woolpack in nearby Slad and her “favourite type of hospitality character… vision-led, distinctly non-corporate and propelled by an urge to take old things and re-love them”.
Named after his wife, Juliet serves dishes like mousse de canard with a translucent layer of glorious fat, clams with chickpeas and girolles, and devilled eggs with trout roe, and is “one of those places where diners can lose track of time”.
The apple tarte tatin in particular was particularly good: “one of the best I have ever demolished”, Grace swooned, “caramelised to the point of deepest mahogany, while the fruit somehow still retains its structure… Served with chantilly, it was breathtaking.”
******
The Observer
Lucky Yu, Edinburgh
Jay Rayner did his best to enjoy the “bluntly pleasing Asian-inspired dishes” served amid an “amiable, relaxed kind of chaos” at this Edinburgh restaurant, where former Gardener’s Cottage chef Duncan Adamson runs the kitchen.
But for all his warm feelings towards the place, Jay could not hide his disappointment at the heavy-handed cooking. An early indication was the colour of the Japanese fried chicken, or karaage – “too long in the deep fat fryer” dark. And so, on tasting, it proved: “A hyper-crunchy exterior, of crusted skin which curls back on itself to provide a matrix of crevices, gives way to dense fibrous bird. This is not the best chicken karaage ever.
“Which can be expanded to describe the entire repertoire of salty-sweet, miso-slicked, soy-bathed, yuzu-dressed dishes which attract so many British-born chefs, eager to serve up flavour bomb after flavour bomb.”
******
The Times & Sunday Times
Canteen, Notting Hill
Giles Coren took Soho House honcho Nick Jones to this Italian-inspired spot from the “astonishing” Public House group of restaurants, following its trio of successful openings in the past couple of years, the Pelican in Notting Hill, the Hero in Maida Vale and the Bull in Charlbury.
Nick used to run Pizza East on this very site, and shared Giles’s enthusiasm for the replacement, declaring that “It’s basically a smaller, cheaper River Cafe. Most of this lot worked there, in fact” – including the head chef, Jessica Filbey.
Giles enjoyed “fresh, squishy, pillowy gnocchi”, “a very good, tight, precise cacio pepe on pasta”, and a spatchcocked chicken that was “always going to be great, but came out truly historic”.
***
Chapel Market Kitchen, Islington
Charlotte Ivers was enchanted by this “gorgeous” little restaurant from Tel Aviv-based chef Maoz Alonim, which she visited with a couple of “lads” she has known since university and merrily stereotyped with the quip: “if they count as lads, given you’ll much more likely find them at Glyndebourne than causing trouble at the footy.”
The gist of the menu was a “sweeping tour of the Med: calamari to taramasalata, labneh to Iberico ham”, and every dish hit the spot – even the salty and silky veal’s brains on toast. “This is perfect seasonal cooking, with warmth to cut through the English winter but all the vitality of the Mediterranean.”
*****
Daily Mail
The Spärrows, Manchester
Tom Parker Bowles found “comfort food of the highest calibre” to soothe his soul at this hard-to-find restaurant hidden away under a Victorian railway arch – “a high-altitude, Middle-European paean to stodge, fat and unabashed delight”.
The stars of the menu are spätzle, “those fine Swabian noodles, made fresh every day. And dear God they’re good, plump and pouting, but light too, with just the right amount of bite.”
******
Financial Times
Fonda, Mayfair
Tim Haywood was thrilled by his meal at Mexican chef Santiago Lastra’s new Heddon Street spot boasting “a tightly brilliant menu that’s actually within our reach” – unlike Kol, Lastra’s meteoric flagship, “where you or I couldn’t get a seat.”
House-made salsas and tortillas fresh from the comal – the “unifying root” of Mexican home cooking – set the tone for a meal here. “The trimmings are refined at Fonda, but God, the roots are deep in the home.”
As for the refinement, Tim wondered with approval whether Lastra was “putting all the immoderate, florid abundance of Mexican flavour through the Japanese filter of seemly restraint? Is that what’s going on here, because if it is, I’m there for it.”
