Here’s our regular summary of what the national and local restaurant critics have been writing about in the week ending 5 June 2022.
*****
The Observer
“Restaurants of such class turning up in locations such as this” are a positive effect of the pandemic, according to Jay Rayner who was in Sheen, west London, at Black Salt, “which opened almost a year ago” and offers up an “elevated, intense take on the Indian repertoire” to the well-heeled locals.
It’s “a side project by the people behind the highly regarded Dastaan in Epsom” – chefs Nand Kishor and Sanjay Gour “have now come together with chef Manish Sharma, who has worked with Atul Kochhar… about as serious and experienced a team as the Indian restaurant sector in Britain could pull together right now”.
This is no “high street curry house”, rather a “wood-floored urban brasserie with bare brick walls… and stridently spiced, assertive food”. The “relatively short menu” produces a “gentle satisfied hum” in customers on even the quietest of nights.
A “serious and at times rather thrilling take on otherwise familiar dishes”.
(In his news bites, Jay also mentioned that Dastaan is opening a branch in Leeds later this year. Lucky Leeds.)
*****
The Times
“It’s expensive for a place that doesn’t feel “posh” and one or two of the dishes may not work for you, but in among it will be some of the best mouthfuls of your year and the cocktails are spectacular.”
Giles Coren was at Fiend, wondering where the five years since he last reviewed Chris Denney’s cooking (at 108 Garage, RIP) had gone.
Denney’s new place is “cosy and unshowy, with much better furniture… and really properly brilliant staff”.
A parade of sharing dishes was brought to Giles, who raved about almost every one; the wagyu short rib reuben sandwich (or that’s how he described it) was “the absolute highlight of my evening, week, month, who knows, possibly year”, and was followed by “the best crème caramel I’ve had since 1983”.
“When cheffing skills at the level Chris Denney has them are directed exclusively towards the eternal human quest for deliciousness… the results are as good as eating can be.” (27/30)
*****
The Evening Standard
Despite being asked to sign a “doggy bag disclaimer” (a “new one on me”), Jimi Famurewa enjoyed his meal at Parrillan’s “blockbusting, white-hot and undeniably alluring” Borough Yards sibling.
“For all its poised live fire cooking and rugged Iberian good looks” this new branch “can feel a little like it walks a fine line between the slick and the brusquely transactional” – “an impression not helped by hurriedly trained servers”.
There are a few major differences here, including a shift of “emphasis from punter experimentation to chef skill” – the “eponymous mini parrilla grills” are more of a novelty here.
There’s also a “broader tussle between Parrillan’s two selves” – the “austere, tapas-adjacent dishes” and “the showy, high-impact creations”.
Jimi’s opinion on the “shared pudding already colonising swathes of Instagram” (“a whole pineapple, hollowed-out, refilled with a pineapple-flecked crema catalana”)? “Abominably good.”
*****
Also in The Standard, news of an all-vegan branch of pizza restaurant Homeslice, opening soon in the Old Street premises that the chain has occupied since 2015.
*****
The Guardian
The beautiful pictures in Grace Dent‘s review of Bamboo Mat in Leyton are more than enough to make you want to go.
The Japanese-Peruvian cuisine (“delicate, surprising and full of huge, bolshie flavours”) just makes it more tempting; known as nikkei, it’s “raw fish meets heat and spice, with simple, clean Japanese plates sent slightly haywire by Peruvian influences”. The “rather alarming Chotto Matte in Soho” is the best-known of the type (and most expensive, too).
Chef Denis Gobjila used to work at Chotto Matte; together with his business partner, Victor Rosca, (“formerly of Sushisamba and Lucky Cat, both also vast, noisy, pricey restaurants”) he has “opened something small, quiet and about eight miles from anywhere even resembling high glamour”.
“Gobjila is an incredible chef serving excellent plates of Peruvian joy.” Grace has “tried to nail the essence of the anticucho sauce” but can’t identify the ingredients. “I can’t replicate it at home, so I’ll have to go back.”
“It’s a smaller, cheaper and better Chotto Matte, without all the shouty people and art installations. What’s not to love about that?”
*****
The Sunday Times
“Comfort meets poshness.”
Marina O’Loughlin visited the “seafood-focused” Goddard & Gibbs at the new One Hundred Shoreditch hotel. The most gushing she got was that the vibe was “sedate and welcoming… with lovely service” and that the kitchen produced “outbreaks of fanciness”.
“I’d like to pronounce it the greatest fish restaurant in the world. Or even denounce it with equal heat. But I can’t.”
She did reserve unstinting praise for the seasonal tempura vegetables, which are “one of the capital’s greatest ways to get some of your five a day, as compelling as Wotsits”.
Looking back, she liked the place a lot more than she’d thought: “there’s effort, creativity and some terrific produce”, and overall it’s “pleasurable rather than jaw-dropping, jolly rather than transcendent”. But sometimes, that’s good enough.
*****
The Independent
“Each dish is more a manifestation of the season, than a reflection of it, and driven by current trends and Banks’ own creativity.”
Hannah Twiggs visited Roots in York, which she says should be ” top of your list… if you want to experience the best of what this part of the country has to offer”.
Tommy Banks’ “signature ingredient-led playfulness is apparent from the get-go” in the “dynamic and inventive” tasting-menu-only format, although the “ambiguous descriptions on menus” annoyed her (“this one is definitely a big offender”).
Dishes “seem too pretty to eat, yet [are] too delicious to not demolish in seconds”. A “subtle citrus flavour in each dish, from ingredients like sorrel and lemon verbena, is the thread that ties the menu together, perfect for the season and indicative of how thoughtful this recipe creation is”.
“I’m enormously jealous of the residents of York.”
*****
And also…
Tom Parker Bowles for YOU Magazine in The Mail on Sunday was in New York eating burgers at JG Melon.
*****
In The Scotsman, Rosalind Erskine visited the “much-anticipated second outlet” of Crabshakk, near the Botanic Gardens; “Glasgow’s west end is having something of a moment”.
The new branch has “the feel of a sleek New York bar/restaurant with lots of steel, exposed brick… high stools and booth seating”.
“What made the first Crabshakk stand the test of time can be found here too – quality food, cooked well and served with a smile – making it easy to imagine it soon being a as big a Glasgow institution as the original.”
*****
In The FT Globetrotter, a review of The Loch & The Tyne in Old Windsor, Berkshire. It’s a “country inn offering five-star food and gorgeous guest rooms” where “super-chef Adam Handling perfectly marries sustainability and luxury at his first venture outside London”.
*****
Bristol Live reported on the opening of Afrikana, an African-themed restaurant chain that has eight branches across the Midlands.
