The Rib Room Bar & Restaurant

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - I went for the roast rib of Casterbridge beef with Yorkshire pudding, which was as intimidating as it should be - a gigantic pink hunk of dead cow. It was cooked well enough - rare as all hell - but that couldn't disguise the fact that it wasn't a great cut of meat. It was OK, but to devour a 42 pound chunk of animal, it has to be more than that...There is nothing really wrong with The Rib Room, there just aren't very many reasons to gush about it.

Sunday, December 18, 2011 - My foie gras was delicious. So stylish, square and perfect to look at, it was like something beyond food; it was Hollywood food. The flavour was subtle but complicated – a flank of sweetness, a flank of depth. The caper-crusted rack of lamb came with a neck curry, so naturally I had that because it seemed so subversive; there's 'fusion' and there's 'having two meals at once'. I loved both. The rack was pink, piquant with capers but with a gorgeous, soft flavour beneath...Nevertheless, my abiding feeling is that you'd expect nothing less from a restaurant at this price, and you could get just as much quality and far more excitement from an enthusiastic gastropub.