Our round-up of what the nation’s restaurant reviewers were writing about in the week up to 29th September 2024
London Standard
The Ritz, Piccadilly
In a week when ‘fine dining’ emerged as a coincidental theme for reviewers, David Ellis was clearly in the mood to celebrate his elevation to the role of the Standard’s chief restaurant critic with a visit to the best restaurant in town (he had a further reason to celebrate, his partner, Twiggy, having accepted his proposal of marriage).
“The Ritz is the restaurant I routinely name as London’s best, because it is,” David declared. “Only no one ever believes me, on the grounds it’s too preposterously obvious to possibly be true. But it is. Accept no substitute, not even the afternoon tea.”
The restaurant scores on every front, he says, from its “cartoonishly grand” pink and gilt Louis XIV interior, via the well-drilled but resolutely un-stuck-up staff, to “food that leaves me fog-headed with pleasure”, gasping “did human hands really do all this?”
Executive chef John Williams has revolutionised The Ritz over two decades, so what is apparently old-school is now “anything but dated. He has bear-hugged tradition but created a sense of timelessness. Can there be cutting-edge classicism?”.
*****
Financial Times
Le Grand Véfour, Paris
Tim Hayward kicked off a new series on “fain daining” with a trip to one of its originators – an establishment that opened in 1820 with the aim of restoring the aristocratic dining traditions swept aside by the French Revolution.
Perhaps he should have stayed in Blighty and joined David at the Ritz, for all the joy he got from LGV. The food – largely “simple provincial dishes” – was fine. “In fact, really remarkably competent. But I don’t think there was anyone in there who noticed or cared.”
His most damning critique was that this type of traditional fine dining was simply no longer relevant, to him or anybody else. Next stop for Tim is Copenhagen, where he hopes to experience “the contemporary edge of fine-dining”.
*****
The Guardian
Mary’s, Mayfair
Grace Dent headed to Pollen Street in Mayfair, where the prolific Jason Atherton has cast off the trappings of “Michelin” (aka fine) dining at his former Social flagship, replacing it under a new name and casual “come-one come-all, pre-theatre, boozy-treat, long-lunch vibe” – thereby “pricking the bubble of those who adore pomp and small portions” and “annoying people who like telling you that they’ve experienced this pomp everywhere from Dundee to Dubai”.
“The paper tablecloths, the soft-serve ice-cream sundaes, the offer of curry mayo on the two-course £29 prix fixe are all daggers to the heart of fancy diners.” Mind you, Grace added, “chef Alex Parker’s menu is still secretly fancy”, with its Lyonnaise onion agnolotti, Orkney scallops with ajo blanco, rabbit leg with lovage persillade butter and Cornish brill with surf clam pil pil.
Finishing off with a Calvados doughnut from a puddings list that’s “a menace to public health”, Grace was all in favour of the transformation.
*****
The Times & Sunday Times
Elements, Glasgow
Chitra Ramaswamy headed to Bearsden, an “Oooooh! Aren’t you fancy?” suburb of Glasgow, to visit “the first solo fine-dining venture” from Gary Townsend, formerly head chef at One Devonshire Gardens in the city, who has worked for both Sat Bains and Simon Rogan of L’Enclume.
Sitting at the granite counter watching Gary and his team in action, she sensed “the long-held vision of a long-grafting chef finally coming to fruition.” Significantly, there’s nothing stuffy about this iteration of fine dining: “I have the time of my life.”
The “cleverly judged, crowd-pleasing” eight-course tasting menu begins with a “sublime” wild halibut dish (cured, rolled in nori and poached) that is “one of the best fish dishes I’ve eaten.” The high standard holds through plates of Tweed Valley short rib, North Sea cod loin, Highland roe deer and caramel delice.
Chitra declared: “Elements is one of the most important openings of the year: a destination restaurant to which I can’t wait to return” – so we can take it that fine dining is alive and well north of border.
***
Toklas, Strand
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.
***
Lolo, Bermondsey
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”.
*****
The Observer
18 at Rusacks, St Andrews
Jay Rayner suffered for his art at a restaurant in a “fancy hotel” overlooking the 18th hole of the Old Course, a place of pilgrimage for golfers. This meant the place was heaving with “a certain kind of middle-aged man, most of them American… not just seated at the tables but thronging between them and leaning over the shoulders of friends at other tables to bark with laughter at each other’s jokes and war stories”.
The restaurant has hired Billy Boyter, previously chef-patron at the Cellar in nearby Anstruther, presumably to do “ornate and detailed things with the best ingredients”. All to little avail: “The core clientele didn’t get the memo. What this lot want – and what they get – is cow. An awful lot of grilled cow.”
While Jay didn’t mention him, it was difficult not to think of a certain large, orange US presidential candidate when reading his review. “Rarely have I punched the lift button down to ground with such a profound eagerness and glee”, he noted, as he fled the “smells of newly pumped testosterone”.
*****
The Telegraph
Millbrook Inn, South Pool, Devon
William Sitwell visited a “very fine old English inn” in a beautiful seaside village in the South Hams, whose owner’s nearby farm and charcuterie business (Fowlescombe and Rare & Pasture) provide much of the meat on the menu.
The beef was “as light as anything and prettily pink”, although the “fine produce” was left “shouting for attention” under an avalanche of horseradish cream, truffle, Parmesan and baby salad leaves. There were other slight misses – identical salad leaves on different courses; no cream with the “fabulous bitter chocolate tart” – but most of the cooking was up to scratch.
William also suggested an unusual tip: time your visit to coincide with low tide. For the six hours of high tide, the inn is crowded out by sailors from Salcombe who “come en masse, a dozen deep at the bar and spilling on to the street… consuming their weight in magnums of rosé and equal amounts of grilled lobster and steak”.
