Reviews

Inside Reviews

Osteria Dell'Angolo, 47 Marsham Street, London, SW1

Sunday, 18 April 2010

Is a Conservative victory all that's needed to reverse the fortunes of Westminster's Osteria Dell'Angolo?

The Royal Oak, Paley Street, Maidenhead, Berkshire

Saturday, 17 April 2010

For Radio 2 listeners of a certain vintage, Sunday lunchtimes will always belong to Michael Parkinson. Twinkly anecdotage and a trot through the papers, plus user-friendly jazz and swing: what better soundtrack when you're cooking the Sunday roast? But since Parkinson packed up his Diana Krall records a few years back, we've had Michael Cheese-Ball and his showtunes foisted on us, which just isn't the same.

Manson, 676 Fulham Road, London

Saturday, 10 April 2010

It seems only yesterday that I was standing in a nondescript side-street in Fulham, looking without enthusiasm at the tatterdemalion exterior of the Harwood Arms gastropub, before walking inside and enjoying one of the best meals of the year. Now here's another overcast day, another lunchtime taxi ride through the anonymous streets of SW6 (where the shops seem to hang their awnings with shame that they're not as classy as their Chelsea neighbours), and what shall we find this time? Will history repeat itself?

The Fountain Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly, London

Sunday, 4 April 2010

Fortnum & Mason sells fare fit for a Queen. But there can be no such gushing praise for its Fountain restaurant

Colony Bar and Grill, 7-9 Paddington Street, London

Saturday, 3 April 2010

It's a truism in marketing that you sell the sizzle, not the steak. The sizzle-sellers have been hard at work building a story for Colony, the latest venture from star chef Atul Kochhar, of Benares fame.

Yoshi Sushi 210 King Street, London W6

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Once he'd 'got' Japanese food, our critic couldn't get enough. But can London match New York in the sushi stakes?

36 on the Quay, 47 South Street, Emsworth, Hampshire

Saturday, 27 March 2010

There is a charming photograph of 36 on the Quay when it was the Anchor Inn a century ago. It shows a thick-set ruffian with the moustache of a villain in a Chaplin movie. Hands tucked into his waistband, legs apart, he's looking at the camera as though accusing it of spilling his pint. Around him are half a dozen cronies, glaring at the intruding lens. They wouldn't have made the Anchor feel a very welcome place to pop into for a refreshing sherbet.

Bistro Bruno Loubet, St John’s Square, 86-88 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1

Sunday, 21 March 2010

The woman at the next table is looking mournful. “This used to be the best Italian restaurant in London?” she says, plaintively.

Bistrot Bruno Loubet, Zetter Hotel, St John’s Square, 86-88 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1

Saturday, 20 March 2010

When I tell people what I do for a living, the question they most often ask is, do the restaurants know beforehand that you're coming? To which I answer, "No, but I always book in as Fay Maschler, just to keep them on their toes." The business of anonymity among reviewers is something of a red herring. After all, if the kitchen can't cook and the front of house is inept, just knowing there's a professional diner in the house won't make them significantly raise their game.

The Gay Hussar, 2 Greek Street, London W1

Sunday, 14 March 2010

The left-wing intelligentsia used to plot leadership challenges at The Gay Hussar. Now it's neither liberal nor elite

Caravan, 11-13 Exmouth Market, London EC1

Saturday, 13 March 2010

To call a new restaurant "Caravan" is to risk ambiguity.

Leon, 35 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1

Sunday, 7 March 2010

Leon for a healthy lunch in a box? Been there, done that. Leon for a hearty dinner on a plate? Let's go, kids...

Crabshakk, 1114 Argyle Street, Glasgow
Dining Room, 104 Bath Street, Glasgow

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Twenty-four hours in Glasgow. My mission: to find the best venues in town for lunch, dinner and – God willing – breakfast. My guide: Muriel Gray, who has been forcing her opinions down my throat for the best part of 25 years, just occasionally pausing in her ranting long enough to force a small amount of food down her own.

Pearl Liang, 8 Sheldon Square, London W2

Sunday, 28 February 2010

One restaurant group dominates the dim sum scene in London. Is Pearl Liang set to steal its crown?

Kitchen W8, 11-13 Abingdon Road, London W8

Saturday, 27 February 2010

I've been accused, once or twice, of being an unadventurous traveller. "Is there any danger of your reviewing a restaurant outside the immediate environs of south London," asked a recent, sarcastic email, "where, I understand, you were born, grew up and have always lived? Would you like to try somewhere further afield? Not outside London, obviously, since that might fatally disorientate you. But perhaps some other bit of the metropolis?"

Le Relais de Venise 120 Marylebone Lane, London W1

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Once you’re in, it won’t take long to order at Le Relais – it’s steak or nothing. But is it worth queueing up for?

HUNter 486 at The Arch Hotel, 54-60 Great Cumberland Place, London W1

Saturday, 20 February 2010

Praising a hotel restaurant is like complimenting a fat person on their footwear; you focus on the positive, and try to ignore what's going on upstairs. No one actually wants to eat in a hotel, apart from residents who can't be bothered to put their coats on. Hence the proliferation of big-name chefs recruited to turn London's grand hotel dining rooms into destinations in their own right.

More, 104 Tooley Street, London SE1

Sunday, 14 February 2010

Livebait and The Real Greek are now chains –but is it third time unlucky for the team's latest venture, More?

The Seafood Restaurant, Riverside, Padstow, Cornwall

Saturday, 13 February 2010

There's something about Rick Stein that doesn't irritate people as much as other TV cooks and celebrity chefs do. Perhaps it's his looks: that exiguous grey hair, the honest brow and the guileless smile conspire to make him resemble a trustworthy fishmonger. To dwellers of Padstow, he may have become too ubiquitous a presence – four restaurants, a delicatessen, a patisserie, a gift shop, a seafood cookery school and 40 hotel bedrooms make up his phenomenal gastronomic/catering empire – but he's managed to retain the image of a basically decent cove with a charming obsession about all things fishy and crustacean.

The Artichoke 9 Market Square, Old Amersham, Bucks

Sunday, 7 February 2010

It may be tucked away in an olde-worlde small town, but The Artichoke has the Michelin inspectors in its sights

21212, 3 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

Saturday, 6 February 2010

The mystery object, a crisp, greyish wafer dusted in sweet white powder, was passed back and forward between us. To our growing frustration, neither of us could identify it, though the taste was intense and maddeningly familiar. Could it be parsnip? Dried fish skin, possibly? Defeated, we asked the waiter for a formal ID. Of course! It was a Savoy cabbage leaf, dried and coated in vanilla sugar. If, as Shirley Conran claimed, life is too short to stuff a mushroom, what kind of maniac would want to subject a cabbage leaf to such treatment? And why?