Andy Lynes reviews

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - Williams's version of French onion soup is like no other I've ever tried. In a martini glass, brown crab meat puree flavoured with paprika is topped with white crab meat, mixed with slow-cooked onion, which in turn is capped by a disc of jellied beef and onion consomme and a small lump of braised beef cheek. The waiter completes the dish at the table by pouring over a tiny jug of the soup. On the side are baked potato and Gruyere squares sandwiched with cream cheese...You could entertain a business client, your aged aunt or maybe even impress a first date. However, whether there is anything to tempt you back a second time is questionable.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - Unless you've got a business deal to shout about to your three besuited chums or are a group of ladies of a certain age who lunch, you'll need a very good reason to blow big bucks in this grand hotel dining room...The menu du jour goes some way to ameliorate these shortcomings. A top-drawer starter features slow-cooked pig's head and trotters formed into a crisply coated brick and served with a salad of finely sliced celery, sweet prune puree and marinated Agen prunes. A large rabbit leg has been both confited and grilled, rendering the meat a little dry, but a gloriously smooth, bright orange butternut squash puree and delicious Moscatel wine sauce adds the required lubrication.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - It was always going to take something spectacular to live up to those surroundings but our meal doesn't even come close...A main course fillet of red mullet is served sans sauce, completely unseasoned and is so criminally overcooked that I have to restrain myself from marching into the kitchen to effect a citizen's arrest. Three accompanying langoustine are meagre in size and woolly in texture and it's impossible to cut the single grilled spring onion and rather delicious (if wildly over-salted) treviso with the blunt fish knife I've been given. A fresh, meaty crab salad starter appears to have been served on a tasteless disc of Hovis soaked in water.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - The chicken lollipops at this good value, zeitgeisty diner will make a certain fast-food colonel green with envy. Half a dozen wings - the meat pushed up from the bone to create the 'stick' - deep fried in a cumin, fennel and chilli crumb and served with a punchy mint and coriander dip, this is the snack food of the gods...Pea and potato samosas have a pleasing kick and come with a deliciously spicy chickpea curry. The spiced lamb chapli kebab served in a bun is in with a shout for the title of London's best burger.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - With a menu that includes a burger and brown ale-battered hake and chips, it's clear that Bosi understands pub food. But a vibrant and silky smooth wild garlic and potato soup served with buttery chopped snails on toast is Michelin-style cooking of the highest order, while some of the first English asparagus of the season gets a classy accompaniment of smoked hollandaise and pink grapefruit. But there is a slew of under-performing mains...There's not enough shrimp and caper butter to raise a perfectly pleasant roasted Cornish lemon sole above the ordinary; cauliflower and broad bean risotto is overcooked; a bavette steak with buttered green beans and Bearnaise sauce is declared 'the worst I've ever had' by my son.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - Although apparently specialising in food from the north, it's a Goan-style prawn balchao from the south-west of the subcontinent that's the stand-out starter. The only disappointing thing about the plump shellfish in a well-balanced sweet, sour and spicy masala is the stingy portion size...A karbahari fish curry is judged too creamy by its recipient, although the chef's wise decision to use dense, meaty halibut means the flesh hasn't overcooked in the coconut milk-rich, aromatic sauce. However, a venison bhuna is bang on the money; tender chunks of meat in a gloriously earthy, deeply flavoured marinade/sauce.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - There are two bite-sized jamon and chicken croquetas, deep fried to crisp perfection; a scattering of crunchy cubes of chicharrones Cadiz (slow-roasted pork belly with cumin and lemon) and four halves of patatas mojo (salt-crusted potatoes with green chilli and coriander sauce). There's not a duff dish...This may be the casual, buzzy restaurant of the moment but the efficient service, keen prices and cracking cuisine should ensure it'll be around for some time to come.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - The menu reads well and there's plenty of seasonal and delicious-sounding dishes. However, the reality is less pleasing. The shortcrust pastry of a woefully under-seasoned crab and saffron tart, which tastes mostly of egg and cream, is so short it turns to dust in my mouth. The pommes Anna potato cake accompanying a nicely cooked partridge is flabby and greasy, instead of crisp and buttery. And a tiny raspberry creme brulee with an undercooked, spongy topping and a rectangle of blueberry crumble contains enough sugar to send someone into a diabetic coma.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - You don't come to this handsomely made-over pub in a chi-chi Notting Hill back street for originality. But you can eat well, especially if you order 'Great British bar snacks' such as deeply flavoured, home-smoked salmon with a mini loaf of excellent soda bread, or a superior sausage roll...Chicken Kiev is a deep-fried ball of breadcrumbed chicken on a huge shallow-fried hash brown sitting on a bed of musty-tasting coleslaw; it's a clumsy dish that tastes mostly of garlic butter and grease.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - The deceptively simple-sounding 'rabbit salad, artichoke, basil' looks a treat in a 1990s stacked-up-tower sort of way and is a quiet riot of sophisticated flavour. Antunes bones a whole rabbit and stuffs it with a mixture of pancetta, Swiss chard, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and mascarpone. It's then rolled and gently poached in a rabbit consomme. The result is a tender, juicy meat that has lost none of its delicate flavour...Antunes's food might be better suited to a stylish, intimate Mayfair restaurant but I'd happily crawl over Westminster Bridge to eat it again.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - A huge pile of zucca fritti (pumpkin fritters) sport a light batter that remains miraculously crisp to the last bite; San Daniele ham with shavings of Pecorino Riserva successfully combines ingredients of quality and distinction. Grilled sardines are beautifully fresh and dressed with a garlicky gremolata, while a perky mozzarella with grilled fennel is about as good as the cheese gets. Main courses are equally impressive. Pigeon is roasted to tender pink perfection and served on smoky chargrilled bread...If Zucca has a few rough edges, it more than makes up for them with that all-too-rare commodity: genuine hospitality.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - A nicely presented rump of Elwy Valley lamb is so severely undercooked that any collie dog worth its salt could have herded it back into the kitchen. An accompanying potato rosti would also have benefited from more time in the pan. A veal chop has been nicely grilled but is presented artlessly on top of some sprouting broccoli and comes with a pat of anchovy butter that tasted far more of butter than anchovy...A delicious bottle of Pouilly Fuisse from a concise, fairly priced and interesting selection raises our spirits but we struggled to find anything else about the experience that would draw us back.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - In theory, The Red Fort has a lot going for it. But it has a fatal flaw: its prices are outrageously high...If you've got 18 quid (plus 13 per cent service charge) to spare, you might want to pop in for the superb Welsh lamb and basmati rice with spices, steamed in a sealed pot; that's biryani to you and me. The perfumed rice and tender, fragrant meat was as good as anything I'd eaten in Lucknow, from where the dish is thought to have originated. Apart from that, you and your wallet might be better off at the local tandoori.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - More feels like a proper discovery. This converted greasy spoon on an unremarkable stretch of Tooley Street is currently serving some of the most exciting grub to be had in the city. There's an effortlessly creative feel to the pan-European food that harks back to the eclecticism of modern British cooking at its height in the mid-1990s...The concise, daily-printed menu reads like it's been written by a real pro too, with delicious sounding combinations such as sauteed chicken livers with broad beans, pancetta, baby onions, sage masala and rocket just begging to be ordered.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - With the help of consultant and Chinese regional cuisine expert Fuchsia Dunlop, the grazing menu of xiao chi (or 'small eats') at this atmospheric, labyrinthine restaurant brings Chinese street food to Soho with intriguing effect…Dishes are inexpensive but small portions mean the cost can soon mount up. But with so much flavour and casual dining-style fun on offer, it's a price worth paying.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - The USDA prime rib-eye fills my plate with meat and heart with joy. The charcoal-scented aroma (they cook their meat here in a fancy-pants Josper barbecue oven from Spain) is intoxicating and my scary-looking Tramontina steak knife cuts through the tender flesh as though it were butter. A New York strip, or sirloin, is a closer-textured piece of meat but equally delectable… 'So what don't we like about Goodman?' I ask as we head back to the Tube. The silence speaks volumes.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - As the main courses arrived, it became obvious that The Botanist wanted to be taken seriously. From two mini copper pans, our waitress poured fig wine jus over a seared duck breast, then finished off a plate of roast suckling pig with a Calvados sauce. Ooh, get you!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - If you only eat one restaurant dish this year, make it the starter of grilled quail at Mien Tay. Spatchcocked and quartered, the delicate meat gets a delicious flavour boost from a mixture of honey, garlic and some subtle spicing.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - If an address can have a personality crisis, then 33 St James's Street should seek help. Not so long ago, it was a sophisticated upmarket Italian called Fiore. Before that, it referred to itself as Fleur, spoke in a laid-back French accent and hung around with Gordon Ramsay. In an earlier, highfalutin phase it answered to the name of Petrus – but only if you were stinking rich.