Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics from the week ending 2 June 2019. The Sea, The Sea, London SW3 Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times has “stumbled across the living definition of the word “precious”: a seafood restaurant, a fishmonger and a champagne bar in — where else? — Chelsea”. From the people behind […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics from the week ending 26 May 2019. Amrutha, London SW18 Kathryn Flett for The Telegraph went vegan this week, at a restaurant “sited, eminently missably, in a small, plain room behind plate glass on a main road in Earlsfield”. The locals evidently haven’t missed it, as there was […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 19 May 2019. The Coconut Tree, Cheltenham “Eating well is an expression of normality.” Jay Rayner for The Observer was in the Cotswolds, seeking out normality in the form of Sri Lankan street food, as a way of re-establishing what’s good after the […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 12 May 2019.  Scully, London SW1 Jay Rayner for The Observer was back in London this week after reviewing several remarkably low-priced restaurants across the UK. Scully is in direct contrast to those places – “the only way you can get out of […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 5 May 2019.  Bross Bagels, Edinburgh Grace Dent for The Guardian has nothing but love for the “Canadian-Jewish bagel bakery owner Larah Bross” and the Montreal-style bagels served at the three Edinburgh branches of Bross Bagels: “a whirlwind of perfectly judged brashness and thoughtful, […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 28 April 2019.  Pasta Ripiena, Bristol Jay Rayner for The Observer isn’t afraid to say it: “the best things to eat are rarely the prettiest”. He was in Bristol, eating plates of pasta that look like “paintings by one-year-olds that proud parents stick […]

Continue reading


Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 21 April 2019. Happy Easter! Xier, London W1 Grace Dent for The Guardian is always “questioning the entire point of modern haute cuisine” – especially lengthy tasting menus “often done badly: too pompous, too many petals, too few carbs, not a lot of […]

Continue reading


Fishmarket, Edinburgh When in Edinburgh Jay Rayner for The Observer always heads to Ondine, and its “pitch-perfect seafood”; you can imagine how delighted he was to discover a sibling restaurant, “a collaboration between Ondine chef Roy Brett and his long-time suppliers Welch Fishmongers,” on the docks at Newhaven. At Fishmarket there’s a “classic metal takeaway counter” […]

Continue reading


Peg, London E9 Jimi Famurewa from The Evening Standard is the latest critic to pay a visit to Peg; it reminded him of LA restaurants he’d visited (mostly because of the feeling of “smugness and nagging inadequacy” it engendered), but he soon admitted that his first impressions were quite wrong. The “no-reservations arrowhead of a […]

Continue reading


EartH Kitchen, London N16 Jay Rayner leaped straight in to describing the food when reviewing EartH (not a typo) Kitchen for The Observer; stopping just long enough to explain that it’s “the restaurant of a major new arts venue in London’s Hackney”. Crispy pig’s cheek salad was “an adult bowl of food designed to make […]

Continue reading