Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers have been writing about in the week up to 10 November 2024
London Standard
Angus Steakhouse, various London addresses
Early in his reign as the Standard’s chief restaurant critic, it was clearly time for David Ellis to show he could bare his teeth, and the chosen target for his invective was a 60s steakhouse chain currently being hyped by online influencers at the behest of its owners Noble (who have recently enjoyed influencer-led success with Alley Cats pizzas). He duly let rip, labelling Angus as “a restaurant of faded fortunes, not ugly but unloved… of velour banquettes worn thin by a thousand ample American backsides. The room smelt of pubs in the nineties… of heavy red wine and despair.”
There were some bright spots. A well-seasoned and tender ‘Jack’s Creek sirloin’, imported from Australia, impressed with its “strong, iron-y flavour”, the chips were “decently crisp” and the creamed spinach “a respectable effort”. But a homegrown British steak was an “overcooked monstrosity – a hellish, tough, teeth-testing beast”, while the “soggy lumps” of calamari were “little bullies”. Prices were high, with most steaks costing around £40, much of what David chose from the menu was unavailable, service was clearly overstretched, the wine was “terrible” and even the Diet Coke was “flat”.
The terrible thought occurred to David that a tourist visiting London might eat here and leave thinking “this is how we Brits eat. Christ, the place almost feels unpatriotic in its crapness.”
*****
The Guardian
The Troublesome Lodger, Marlow
Intrigued by its possibly prophetic name, Grace Dent made her way to a former box room above the Oarsman pub in “Tom Kerridge’s fiefdom” of Marlow, where Simon Bonwick, who earned a big rep as a solo chef at The Crown at Burchett’s Green near Maidenhead, is knocking out meals from a kitchen “smaller than the pantry in my late grandmother’s two-up-two-down”.
Diners eat together around “one vast, leather-topped, antique conference table” – so “bring your dinner party chat A-game” – in a room that reflects the chef’s “inner mind”, with his own semi-surreal dreamscape paintings on the wall and family photos of his nine children on display.
The food – “British flavours with French techniques and Japanese influences” – is introduced in equally personal style on an ornately handwritten menu featuring dishes such as ‘sea scallop like Mitsuhiro Araki showed me’ and beef with ‘rather nice beef sauce’. The latter was “a world-class gravy that was rather more than ‘rather nice’”, served with an excellent main course of Highland rump à la ficelle (tied with string).
“Yes, the Troublesome Lodger is a bizarre way to spend three hours, but do try to give it a go before the eviction.”
*****
The Observer
Joseph’s Brasserie, Kensington
Jay Rayner was mightily impressed by a new Lebanese brasserie that has taken over from another Middle Eastern restaurant on Kensington High Street, the short-lived Pascor. Much on the menu was familiar, if well done: falafel, lamb kofte, chicken shawarma, labneh, stuffed vine leaves, tabbouleh and three versions of hummus.
But it was the unusual dishes cooked by Joseph’s father, Yazbek, that really struck Jay, starting with ‘fweregh – tender lamb intestines stuffed with a savoury mixture of rice’, according to the specials menu, and described by Jay as “a pleasingly gnarly sausage… sibling to the haggis and a cousin to bangers the world over” that weighs in at half a kilo, costs £80.
Best of all was ‘Sultan Ibrahim’: floured and seasoned red mullet, deep-fried until golden, served on a mound of shredded deep-fried flatbread with a bowl of sticky tahini sauce. “It’s the kind of dish you fantasise about eating at some restaurant on a corniche at the eastern end of the Med, with the smell of salt and seaweed in your nostrils, as a blisteringly hot day gives way to the close, sagging warmth of an evening by the sea.”
*****
The Times & Sunday Times
The Blue Stoops, Notting Hill
The Mason’s Arms, Clanfield, Oxfordshire
“Can you tell an urban pub in the country from a country pub in the city?” was the question posed rhetorically by Giles Coren following visits to two smart new boozers for well-heeled customers in two fashionable corners of urban and non-urban England. “At the end of the day, it’s just a gorgeous old building with open fires, nooks and crannies, young staff, well-dressed punters with small, glossy dogs and cooking right out of the top drawer.”
First was the Blue Stoops near Notting Hill Gate from former hedge-funder Jamie Allsopp, who has revived his ancestral family brewery and put Lorcan Spiteri of Caravel in charge of the menu. “The vibe was retro, the food was good, the beer and wine were terrific, the bill was modest,” Giles reckoned. “It is a brilliant little pub trying out great new things and an excellent spot from which to relaunch an empire.”
The Mason’s Arms in the Cotswolds, sister pub to the Double Red Duke on the other side of the road, was a “bang-on-the-money modern country pub which is folksier than the Duke, more muscular in the menu, and thus even more my sort of thing” – “weary satirists might call the style “Notting-Hill-on-the-Wold”, but Giles is not convinced that’s the right way round.
To give added weight to his essential thesis, he gave the two pubs exactly the same rating (7.67 out of 10, to be precise) and insisted that both charge £30 for a pie and a pint.
***
Margo, Glasgow
Chitra Ramaswamy found sex at every turn at a new, much hyped city-centre venue from all-conquering Scoop, the people behind Ox and Finch in Finniestoun and Ka Pao in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Before setting foot inside she clocked the “big neon M sign winking at you sexily as you approach”, then came the “stunning, industrial Manhattan-vibed” interior that makes guests “feel hotter than they otherwise do”, and finally the “sexy as hell” menu (“if a touch heavy on rich meat and fish dishes. Which, admittedly, is a damn sexy problem to have”).
Oddly enough for a rave review, Chitra found quite a lot to fault in the cuisine. She didn’t like the “gloopy texture” of the kumquat kosho poured over a skate wing or the trout roe in its sauce, while the “hipster” Piedmontese agnolotti del plin was too thick and the delicate sweetness of the red prawns it accompanied was concealed by a “too-buttery, too one-note sauce”.
But a “sensational” beef tartare and a “divine” crab tart more than compensated, contributing to “the best and indeed naughtiest lunch I’ve had in a long time… Margo, I’m happy to confirm, is the hottest new restaurant in town.”
***
The Creamery, Castle Cary, Somerset
Charlotte Ivers revealed herself as one of Giles Coren’s “weary satirists”, describing this posh take on a railway café (from the billionaire team behind the nearby The Newt country estate hotel) as “like Daylesford, or Soho Farmhouse… the countryside designed by someone who has never left Notting Hill. Soft-toned Farrow & Ball, artfully distressed flooring, gleaming Agas, vast farmhouse-style tables that have never been near a farmhouse.”
Apparently the place has caused ructions among locals, who guess that it is aimed at “twits” down from London, rather than them. Charlotte did not challenge this view, and was polite but hardly enthusiastic about the food.
“Still, it’s better than most railway cafés’” she concluded. “That’s praise, of sorts. If you’re caught waiting for the train, you should pop in. Don’t tell the locals I sent you.”
***
Ikea, Hammersmith
Working hard this week, Charlotte Ivers also visited the first standalone restaurant in the UK from Ikea, next door to its store in Hammersmith, which generated considerable press coverage for the canny Swedish flat-pack furniture retailer when it opened on Halloween, although its canteens have sold meatballs to its customers for decades.
For Charlotte, as for others, eating Ikea’s “sweet and warm and comforting” meatballs summoned nostalgic childhood memories of family shopping trips to the Glasgow branch, where she remembers eating Daim cake.
“The food is remarkably cheap. The Swedish meatballs are £5.50, the hot dogs 85p. A children’s plate of pasta and tomato sauce is 95p. There’s something deeply Scandinavian about the whole thing.”
*****
Daily Telegraph
Kushi-Ya, Nottingham
William Sitwell painted an apocalyptically bleak picture of a city centre all-but deserted save for a smattering of vape shops and nail bars, redeemed dramatically by a Japanese izakaya run by Brits.
Every mouthful he ate was good, but the joint’s real greatness was shown in two dishes: prawn katsu sando was “a lavish mix of flavour-bomb and wit” – “a creation that would sweep the board, year after year, at the global Fish Finger Sandwich of the Year Awards”. Almost its equal for both flavour and wit was a pud, “tira-miso, which, honestly, knocks any Italian number out of the park. Rich and fluffy, it has everything a great tiramisu might but with the miso giving it the subtlest hint of saltiness”.
Forget Robin Hood: for William, “Kushi-Ya is nothing less than the saviour of Nottingham.”
*****
Daily Mail
Stretford Canteen, Manchester
Like William Sitwell, Tom Parker Bowles found himself in a terrific restaurant that defied its drab surroundings; in this case, a shabby” and “terrible” site overlooking a busy dual-carriageway and next door to the soon-to-be-redeveloped Arndale shopping centre.
“While it may be grim outside, in here, things are anything but”, he wrote. Redemption here came courtesy of some delightful European-style cooking from chef and co-owner Josephine Sandwith, the daughter of Maureen and David Sandwith, “Manchester culinary royalty and the couple behind the city’s much-loved Beaujolais”, still mourned two decades after closing.
“This is classic French bourgeois cooking, with a well-chosen wine list and the sweetest of service.”
*****
Financial Times
Lego Headquarters, Billund, Denmark
Lifelong Lego fan Tom Hayward was treated by his family to a ‘VIP fan experience’ at Lego’s Danish HQ, where he enjoyed the same “absolutely delightful” meal of salmon a la bonne femme, oven-roasted potatoes and mushrooms twice on consecutive days.
First time round, he suspended his disbelief like a child playing with Lego while watching a film of his meal being cooked by “little Lego people” before it was delivered by robots in a large Lego brick. The next day he ate it in an elegant Danish setting with an introduction from a young chef, who explained the provenance of the salmon, potatoes and mushrooms.
“My ability to enjoy both meals obviously depended on my ability to suspend disbelief… But then, I find myself thinking, doesn’t it always?” Tim observed. As we enjoy our foraged herbs, our ethically farmed beef aged in Himalayan salt-walled vaults, we are all restaurant fantasists.
