Imperial Treasure, London SW1 Did the chefs at Imperial Treasure recognise Jay Rayner when he visited for The Observer? They chased him to the toilet, so one presumes so. Why then, did they take away his Peking duck (for which he paid a “nose-bleeding… shameless” £100) half-eaten? Astonishing. It tainted the rest of his meal, […]
Five stars for Andrew Wong’s new City restaurant in The Evening Standard from Fay Maschler. She admits to feeling “proprietorial” about the chef, having been the first to review his reincarnation of his parents Pimlico restaurant in 2012, delighting in the ” skill, wit, inventiveness, subversion and astonishment” of the dim sum (and, yes, she squeezes […]
50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo, London, WC2 (****) in The Evening Standard visited the latest Neapolitan pizzeria to import itself into London (following on from L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, which recently opened in Baker Street – the first branch in Stoke Newington is no more). Despite almost everything about the place – the location (Northumberland […]
A week full of hits – Jay Rayner is predicting The Next Big Thing, Grace Dent awards her highest mark yet, Kathryn Flett has a 5-star time in Margate and the Evenings Standard’s week of reviews are all raves. Only TPB hits a slighty low note with Core, which gets 4 stars but no real […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer forgets culinary purity at Gaijin Sushi Birmingham where a Polish chefs cooks solid Japanese food… “Depending on who is using the word, Gaijin is either an aggressively offensive word for non-Japanese people, or a self-mocking term used by non-Japanese people to signify their otherness. “… this is a sushi joint run by […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer is the latest critic to fall in love with Tomos Parry’s food at Brat. The place itself is perhaps to achingly Shoreditch, but the cooking is utterly lovely… “Show cooking may be tough, but trickier still is the seemingly effortless; the edible equivalent of, say, Anthony Hopkins’s performance in The Remains […]
Both Grace Dent and the Standard’s guest reviewer Labour MP Jess Phillips ate at Bryn Williams – both mention the appalling signage: GD “there are no signs for Bryn Williams during the half-mile walk from The Strand to your dinner table in the south wing”. JP “Somerset House is massive, has four or five eateries and […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer was unable to visit his original Chester target Brewery Tap because they don’t take late bookings, but finds a gem in Kokonut Grove… “The restaurateurs, chefs and waiters running restaurants in Britain offering the food of the Indian sub continent… if you want to eat in a British restaurant after about 9.15pm outside […]
This week sees three near-identical reviews of Brat from Tom Parker Bowles, Keith Miller and Fay Maschler (despite Fay saying last week she’d wait until a restaurant settled in to visit!), not including Grace Dent, who appeared to go with TPB… Jay Rayner in The Observer apologises in advance for loving The Dining Room at Beaverbrook […]
Jay Rayner in The Observer reviewed Farm Girl Cafe, the third branch is now open in Chelsea for dinner [and it’s safe to say he DID NOT like it…] “The menu at the Farm Girl Café features lots of initials. There’s V for Vegan, GF for Gluten Free, DF for Dairy Free…. There should be TF for Taste […]