Harden’s (slightly delayed) weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 10 November 2019. Norma, London W1 Jay Rayner for The Observer called Norma “a place of joy”. Well, actually, he didn’t, but thanks to some lazy sub-editing, that’s what the headline says; Jay was actually referring to […]
Harden’s weekly update of where the critics are eating, recommending and avoiding, for the week ending 1 September 2019. Kala, Manchester Jay Rayner for The Observer headed to Manchester to try out the latest jewel in Gary Usher’s crown. He wasn’t welcome, of course – when Usher opened his very first restaurant, Sticky Walnut in […]
Harden’s weekly round-up of the restaurant critics’ reviews, from the week ending 4 August 2019. Little French, Bristol Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times was in Bristol checking out the brand-new (and first solo) venture from Freddy Bird (formerly of the city’s Lido restaurant) – with a challenge, no less: “there are four of us […]
Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 16 June 2019. Hjem, Northumberland Marina O’Loughlin for The Sunday Times relies on her “spidey sense” to truffle out fabulous new restaurants to tell us about, and this time that “tingling in the fingertip” was spot on. And so it was off to […]
Harden’s regular round-up of the restaurant critics’ musings, from the week ending 9 June 2019. AngloThai at Counter Culture, London SW4 “It’s testament to how much I want to eat Chantarasak’s food that I’ll schlep down here to this ghetto of Zara-clad Freddies and Livvys and sit on a petrol-fumed pavement table watching an unending […]
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 […]
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 […]
Angelina, London E8 Jay Rayner for The Observer visited Angelina despite the “acute flashbacks” he suffered when told it was a fusion of Italian and Japanese food; it took him right back to the “unmitigated disaster” that was Shumi in 2003. Luckily for him, and us, Angelina avoids any such disaster: it “feels like a […]
Jay Rayner for The Observer waited for 20 minutes at Restarant 92 before any food arrived on the table – and that was just bread. He’d been delayed on the train and was very cold – not the best start. Luckily, Micheal Carr’s cooking won him over, with its “fun ideas”, “enthusiasm” and “admirable risks”. […]
1251, London N1 Jimi Famurewa for The Evening Standard ventured to Islington and James Cochran’s new restaurant, who has “once again plundered his Scottish and Saint Vincent heritage (plus the influence of a childhood in Whitstable)”. A “Kentish-Scots-Caribbean” blend may sound like “the stuff of a disastrous ‘fusion cuisine’”, but in Cochran’s hand ” it […]
