Reviews
Inside Reviews
Designer diner: Thorpeness Brasserie And Emporium
Saturday, 30 August 2008
We all know what a seaside restaurant should look like. Scrubbed wooden tables, perhaps draped with a tasteful bit of Cath Kidston lighthouse-sprigged oilcloth; old photos of grizzled fishermen; some fishing nets, driftwood or other maritime detritus; a blackboard advertising the Catch of the Day (inevitably just sold out). So what the hell was the owner of the Thorpeness Brasserie on when he dreamed up his decorative scheme?
Big fish in a small pond: The Seahorse
Sunday, 24 August 2008
The Seahorse, 5 South Embankment, Dartmouth, Devon, tel: 01803 835147
His FishWorks chain hit the rocks, but Mitch Tonks is back with a small-fry operation that's making a big splash
The crunch bunch: Fine fish, for less
Sunday, 24 August 2008
River Cottage rendezvous: The River Cottage Canteen, Devon
Saturday, 23 August 2008
It's a whole 10 years since Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall moved into Park Farm in Dorset, to live a turn-of-the-century Good Life, growing his own vegetables, rearing his own meat and rendering his own curds and whey, or whatever it is one does with dairy products. From this modest beginning, a great empire rapidly grew. Park Farm was re-christened River Cottage, and the profusely surnamed Hugh became lodged in the public's imagination as a straggle-haired charmer who was always filmed with a hen or a lamb under his arm – though he was quite capable of dismembering either and eating them for lunch. He came across as a commonsensical realist, not a back-to-nature dreamer. Both he and his Cottage became bywords for self-sustaining, organic foodie purity.
Nice little runner: 500
Sunday, 17 August 2008
500, 782 Holloway Road, London N19, tel: 020 7272 3406
Korma blimey: Mezbaan, Tollcross, Edinburgh
Saturday, 16 August 2008
The requests start coming in at the beginning of August, from friends, and friends of friends. "We're going to Edinburgh – any ideas where to eat?" It's one of the hardy perennials of the restaurant reviewer's calendar, and it never seems to get easier to advise those festival-goers who want to include some decent meals in their cultural banquet.
The tables have turned: Quo Vadis
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Quo Vadis, 26-29 Dean Street, London W1, tel: 020 7437 9585
Making waves: Hix Oyster & Fish House
Saturday, 9 August 2008
You couldn't accuse Mark Hix of resting on his laurels. Running hell for leather on his laurels, more like. Since he parted company with Caprice Holdings, owners of Scott's and The Ivy, barely a year ago, he's now opened three restaurants. It's true that in one of them – The Albemarle in Brown's Hotel off Piccadilly – he was more overseeing grandee than chef-proprietor. But in the other two, Hix Oyster & Chop House, and this fish house under review, along with money he has clearly invested his heart and soul. This man is unstoppable.
Cheap as chips: The Dolphin Inn
Sunday, 3 August 2008
The Dolphin Inn, 12 Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, East Sussex, tel: 01424 431 197
Sea bass with fennel purée
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Fennel has a natural affinity with seafood – and this is a nice, gentle way of serving it – clean, light and just a little bit nutty. This purée is also lovely with roast chicken.
Hél's kitchen: Helene Darroze at The Connaught, London
Saturday, 2 August 2008
So here I am in The Connaught, sitting down to dinner with an Independent-reading couple I have never met before. We're saying our hellos, and ...
Service not included: Vapiano
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Vapiano, 19-21 Great Portland Street, London W1, tel: 020 7268 0080
Raising the steaks: Maze Grill, Grosvenor Square, London
Saturday, 26 July 2008
City lunchers have had to re-think their priorities lately. Gone is a three-course blow-out at the Mercer, with the throw-caution-to-the-wind bottle of Chateauneuf. A new realism is abroad. It's saying, You, my lad, will be lunching at Strada or Wagamama or Yo! Sushi for the immediate future. So why is everyone going to the Maze Grill?
We are most amused: Princess Victoria
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Princess Victoria, 217 Uxbridge Road, London W12, tel: 020 8749 5886
Tooley scrumptious: Magdalen, Tooley Street, London
Saturday, 19 July 2008
The enthusiasm of my vary-sized fellow judges for Magdalen, nominated in the Best British category, was the spur I needed to make an overdue visit to this not-particularly-new, but apparently very good, restaurant in Bermondsey
Prince of Denmark Street: The Giaconda Dining Room
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Why Australian chef Paul Merrony is making a big noise on the street known as London's Tin Pan Alley
Second helpings: More wizards of Oz
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Soul Food: L'Anima
Saturday, 12 July 2008
L'Anima is the Italian word for "the soul" or "the spirit", and it's unusual to find ethereal connotations attached to modern Italian cuisine. Restaurateurs like to emphasise the earthiness, the spicy peasantness, the down-home, hairy-armpitted, beans-and-pasta-soup-iness of vero Italian cooking. You may think it laughable that the River Café calls its fabulous dishes cucina rustica, when no actual rustic Italian could afford a tenth of their Hammersmith prices – but the image was seriously meant.
Brasseries not included: Brasserie St Jacques
Sunday, 6 July 2008
St Jacques brings an authentic French buzz to the heart of London. But you don't want to read about that, do you?
Food Of The Week: Cultural fine dining is quite an art
Sunday, 6 July 2008
There's no need to go hungry when sating your cultural appetite. Check out these top-notch restaurants in galleries, theatres, concert halls and museums around the world.
Lost in Soho: Quo Vadis
Saturday, 5 July 2008
If ever a restaurant embodied the Zeitgeist of the Nineties (and isn't Zeitgeist the Ninetiest of words?) it was Quo Vadis. How deliciously ironic that an old Soho haunt, once the home of Karl Marx, should be taken over by the PR maestro and corporate flack Matthew Freud. And what larks when Freud and his partners, the artist Damien Hirst and Marco Pierre White, eventually had a spectacular falling-out, leaving White sulking in sole charge with only his self-painted Hirst knock-offs for company. Truly, each generation gets the bohemians and boulevardiers it deserves.
This Is Summer: Eating out
Monday, 30 June 2008
Nobody wants to be inside on a lovely day – so make a note of these delightful eateries around Britain that have outside spaces, from garden benches to elegant terraces
Sloane manger: The Botanist, Sloane Square
Saturday, 28 June 2008
When you first visit The Botanist, you think to yourself: here is a place that needs absolutely no help from a restaurant critic
How pukka is his pasta?: Jamie's Italian
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Jamie Oliver has just opened the first in his new chain of trattorias. Can he revolutionise the high-street Italian?
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