David Sexton reviews

Thursday, December 01, 2011 - The mains take the heartiness and generosity thing a bit far. Duck confit and beans was listed as coming also with Montbeliard sausage, partridge not just with choucroute but trotters too. Pig cheeks, Eric Bordelet sidre, autumn vegetables was a big plateful, the cheeks tender enough but not yet in the melting stage, the liquid sauce having a surprisingly raw taste of the cider, while the winter vegetables included some dull Brussels sprouts...So one way and another, for locals Soif is obviously a great addition to the neighbourhood, bound to be packed, at these fair prices. That we failed to enjoy our evening as much as we had expected perhaps should be put down partly to the location and atmosphere, as well as the heavy cooking.

Thursday, November 24, 2011 - With a glass of crisp white Rioja, we had fantastic smoked anchovy fillets from a small family supplier, Conservas Nardin in the Basque port of Getaria: plump, luscious, with a real taste of fresh oily fish rather than of a preserve, the absolute essence of anchovy, unlike any I've had before...Then we went large with a board of Jamon Iberico de Bellota, 'hand-carved slices of 36-month cured ham from Lampnio pigs, reared by Juan Pedro Domecq, Huelva, southern Spain', but more than enough for two, however greedy) - again, stunning, the best ham you could hope to eat, both profoundly meaty and completely melting, even leaving an aftertaste as great wines do. At once, utterly simple and ultimately hoggish.

Thursday, October 06, 2011 - The cooking was a joke, though not a funny one. Thin, metallic miso soup clearly came from a packet whereas tom yum soup was disastrously home-made, both hot and sweet, none of the ingredients getting on. Vegetable tempura, served in a poppadom basket, was hopeless, the vegetables raw inside yet burned on the outside, almost no batter still stuck on...We didn't give up. Lamb chops in Korean spices were fatty and fiercely spiced, served with a jammy chilli sauce; pan-fried seabass with tomato salsa Vietnamese style was a decent fillet of fish, not badly cooked, then covered with more jammy gloop. Even plain jasmine rice had a grimly dry texture. That's when we gave up.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - The look is New York warehouse - but it all seems fake for this has never been an industrial space; it feels like the set for a reality TV show...Familiar dishes lurk under ambitious names, all precisely portion-controlled and identikit delivered, none of them cheap, with starters around 10-12 quid, mains 20 or more. 'King crab and apple cocktail, pink peppercorns' was just a poshed-up prawn cocktail, carefully, not generously, made, overpriced at 15 pounds. Cep toast was good old mushrooms on toast, buttery and bland.

Thursday, September 22, 2011 - From the raw bar, 'Chef's sashimi' was three thick slices each of bass, mackerel, scallop, salmon and sea-bream, served with home-made wasabi but no ginger - fresh, not bad but not exciting, a British let-down. Organic vegetable and prawn tempura was cauliflower, aubergine, broccoli and carrot with three big tiger prawns, nicely fried but served with horrid green chilli mayonnaise. Schichimi pepper squid was good quality, in a disconcertingly sweet batter...This was not one of those Japanese meals leaving that clean, fat-free feel in the mouth. Actually, we enjoyed most the well-made, mushroom-loaded miso soup.

Thursday, September 15, 2011 - From the mains, Poussin was plainly but judiciously roasted and served in halves; Whole Seabass was a smallish specimen, a poussin of a fish but again perfectly cooked and nicely laced with pesto. The bubble and squeak served on the side was, sadly, not leftovers refried but crushed new potatoes and sliced cabbage doused in butter. A Blueberry and Custard Tart was a tiny slice, very over-eggy, while cheese was startlingly overpriced...Homecooking, then, likeable enough, not much more than that.

Thursday, June 30, 2011 - Everything here is carefully considered. There are really good homemade, herb-flecked grissini, for example - and good breads, one spelt, one maize-based, served with a little splash of their excellent own brand olive oil. As a little extra, we are brought a tiny dish of cauliflower cream, topped with a few chickpeas and dice of squid - a combination of the lush and the simple that turns out to be very much the style here...Whether Casa Batavia will find enough well-heeled customers to support its quite rigorous aesthetic remains to be seen. But for the moment, step though the door here and you might as well be in a swell place in urban Northern Italy - and that's quite an offer.

Thursday, June 23, 2011 - Overall, the meal felt rather fussy, with all those sauces and dips, yet still a little repetitious in its flavours and spicing, distinctively sour. This is food that really goes better with cold beer and sunshine than with wine and an international hotel dining room - though the Mondavi Pinot Noir we had is a wine that can answer back assertively to almost any dish, to say the least. The final bill was 167.91. Ouch. You can have a very good time in an ocakbasi joint in Dalston or Finsbury for several nights running and pay less than that. Still, Quince is a bold venture and its Levantine style, in this grand hotel context, quite unusual.

Thursday, June 16, 2011 - Native lobster and avocado cocktail, Thousand Island sauce was grim, with small amounts of tasteless lobster lost in a sharp and metallic tasting goop, served in a shallow champagne coupe, making it awkward to eat. Crispy pork belly on toast Rockerfella butter was an extraordinarily bad idea, some dry, reheated chunks of fatty pork belly, in a garlicky and vinegary but still creamy gunge, dished up with one surprise fried oyster...On this showing, it can't last. The bravest plan might be to close quickly and start again?

Thursday, June 09, 2011 - Given how hopelessly squished it was, the delivery from the tiny kitchen, in which six cooks were hard at work, and from the likeable bar staff, was impressively fluent and unflustered...Red mullet, black olives, capers, orange was fantastically fresh and tasty, without any of the gaminess that fish soon acquires when tired, the fillets served with a tangily dressed, sweet-tasting little salad. Clams, fino sherry, ham was equally good. Pizarro isn't trying to make each small plate a big hit, as many places do - this food is simple, clean, not over-emphatic.

Thursday, June 02, 2011 - The food proves to be highly rewarding, more 'River Cafe for the masses' than aspirational Pizza Express...A few toppings not to be found in Shoreditch have been introduced here, including one starring Portobello Mushrooms, arf arf. Courgette flower, ricotta, marjoram was light and excessively bland - 'a girl's pizza', my companion reckoned. Veal meatballs, prosciutto, cream, sage is a heck of a plateful for the money, a ridiculously luxurious combination: the meatballs meltingly tender and strongly herbed, the prosciutto thoroughly crisped for another texture, the creamy sauce sharpened just enough to save it all from surfeit.

Friday, March 04, 2011 - Prawn toasts were disappointing despite the sesame crust, tasting unremarkable and very doughy. A salad of mangetout, peas and asparagus flavoured with pink peppercorns, tarragon leaves and diced preserved lemon was ultra-fresh and zingy, though. Twice-cooked baby chicken, lemon myrtle salt, red pepper overcame the usual tastelessness of poussin by reducing the two smallish pieces to a soft, almost confit texture, and then salting and herbing them into flavour...We scored a total bill of 178.03 and, gawping at it, ended the meal altogether less impressed than when we began.

Thursday, February 24, 2011 - Roasted salt cod with romesco crust, arroz negro and piquillio emulsion was a firm little chunk of the reconstituted fish, the salt still dominating the crunchy salsa, sitting on some glutinous squid-ink risotto with faintly flavoured peppery juice around. It seemed over-elaborate for tapas, yet too small to constitute a course. Crispy squid and sea purslane with aioli was excellently fresh and nicely battered and fried, which made the modest serving a bit frustrating...The likelihood is that you will end up with a bill much higher than you had anticipated. Without being greedy, we clocked up 105.02 for lunch for two.

Thursday, December 02, 2010 - The omelette was as perfect as you'd hope, given the Savoy is where the dish originated: rich, creamy, delicately cheesey, with individual tender flakes of haddock, only very lightly smoked, amid just the right amount of egg. Delicious but overwhelming as a starter. Straightforward roe deer venison chops were presented on the bone, a little rarer than expected but excellently lean and tender...What we have here foodwise is just another catering operation from the Ramsay empire, assiduous and professional but somehow lacking in spirit and heart.

Monday, November 29, 2010 - Our sirloin, medium rare, was huge, crusted black on the outside, perfectly red on the inside - meat to show you that what you normally accept as meat isn't the real thing at all. The problem with steaks, though, is that after the first blast, there's just more of the same, until you're sated...The Bearnaise sauce was bland and creamy; the triple-cooked chips, though big and flavoursome, were flabby - perhaps a chance mishap, since the chips have a good reputation here. Never mind. The wine list has been thoughtfully devised to complement the food and isn't aggressively priced.

Thursday, November 11, 2010 - Pan-fried mackerel, kale, mash, and spiced brown shrimp butter was entirely gratifying - big fillets of the fish carefully de-boned, lavishly sauced with the shrimp. Salt-cured duck, pear sauce and savoy cabbage was well-cooked too, the duck lightly brined, combining well with the pear puree. A side-dish of truffle chips, big golden chunks cooked in duck fat, dusted with aromatic black truffle and served with a truffle-infused mayonnaise, was just fab - that seems about the right critical word.

Thursday, October 21, 2010 - Morito offers the chance to try lots of different dishes, all well sourced and prepared, and zingily spiced, as in the main restaurant, for a bargain price. Salt cod croquetas take ages to make properly but only a moment to relish, fantastically delicious mouthfuls of crisply coated savoury fish and potato. Slices of rich butifarra sausage came with wonderfully soft, sloppy white beans and almost superfluous garlic mayonnaise. Chiccarones de Cadiz was five squares of tender pork belly, brilliantly seasoned with cumin and lemon. Aubergine with spiced labneh was just as satisfying, tangy and smokey.

Thursday, September 16, 2010 - Diver scallops, truffled potato, raisin puree, tomato and basil was ornate in appearance but it came together in the mouth. Roast cod had been fiercely browned; the kale, usually a stringy waste of space, had been de-stalked, tenderised and crisped; the little gnocchi were cheesey yums, while the micro-pieces of black pudding made a surprisingly delicate turfish retort to the surf. Poached brill, white onion and tomato risotto, cockles and girolle mushrooms didn't work so well. The risotto was flavourful and rich, extra butter dashed in at the last minute, with just one intact cockle detectable.

Thursday, September 09, 2010 - The cured meats, the cheeses and the olive oil are sourced from the owners' organic farm at Hacienda San Nicolas - and they're all excellent. The olive oil alone, so vibrantly fruity, peppery and intense, is a mood-lifter, while the jamon - once we'd got past the dry bits we'd been offered - is irresistible...The restricted opening hours mean that, great place to drink though this may be, it's not a rendezvous for the evening. A shame. Otherwise, the Durius River Cafe provides a great alternative to the tourist traps lining the river on the other bank.

Friday, July 02, 2010 - Lamb shoulder had been taken off the bone and reformed into a disc, and, although pleasant enough, it hadn't been subjected to the long, slow cooking that can turn this fatty cut into melting deliciousness. It was accompanied by a glossily rich potato puree and well-softened, mild tasting cloves of new season's garlic and braised spring onions. A fillet of farmed salmon was served in a disconcertingly orangey vinaigrette sauce, the colour derived not from saffron but more tomatoes, again studded with olive pieces, and again it seemed to have been lightly seasoned with the sugar-shaker.

Thursday, June 24, 2010 - The menus change daily, using ingredients in season, presented simply. Everything we tried, in two visits, was good. Ravioli verde with homemade ricotta and sage butter were fantastically fresh. Tagliarini with brown shrimps, zucchini, butter and chilli was fairly hot but suffused with the taste of the shrimps...All these prices are less than half what the River Cafe itself charges for equivalent dishes. What more could you ask from a neighbourhood local?

Thursday, June 17, 2010 - The mains include fish and chips, fishcakes, whole roast chicken for two, rib eye steak, Dover sole, Barnsley chop - all that. Chargrilled calves liver came sliced very thin, crisped on the outside but still pink inside, as requested. The emphasis here is entirely on giving you what you want, not necessarily the aim in every restaurant...For what you get here - fine food, distinguished service, lavish surroundings - it's not just highly recommendable but actually very good value.

Thursday, June 10, 2010 - The views are exhilarating. You can see the horizon, the way London lies in a bowl. You can look straight down Oxford Street, beginning to glitter and crawl with headlights, as the evening darkens...Wild sea bass with potato gnocchi, asparagus, samphire and caviar cream was an enjoyable, luxy concoction, crisp roasted on the skin, in a creamy, buttery sauce, with a delicate scattering of samphire off the stalk and scraped asparagus spears. Saddle of rabbit, roast leg and confit shoulder worked too.

Thursday, June 03, 2010 - Scallops were served with cheesey 'gnocchi parisienne' and some crunchy, perhaps slightly underdone, fresh peas and pea-shoots: simply enjoyable. Suckling Pork Belly was a blast - a square of melting meat, topped with delicate crackling, served with a lacing of jus, just the one braised carrot, and one big banana shallot, well softened and beautifully caramelised. But the highlight of the meal was the accompanying 'pork feet cannelloni', a gratinated parcel of hoggish deliciousness, so gelatinous, rich and earthy, a match for any treatment of pig's trotters I've yet met.

Thursday, May 27, 2010 - The Keralan beef mooli has soft, dry, long-cooked, crumbled, spiced beef, again with plenty of salad, including tomato, raita and a coconut salsa, fairly hot - although none of the tastes here have been over-fired, the Goan pork being the hottest...A sixth option as a special, Punjabi-spiced goat, was fantastic, the soft stewed meat mixed with lettuce, cucumber and tomato, plus pomegranate salsa - a really different taste, making a single roll into a memorable meal.

Thursday, April 08, 2010 - The new chef, 25-year-old Maxime Le Van, used to be head chef at Club Gascon...Sea bream was a big, well-cooked fillet, salty and buttery, accompanied by excellent gratinated clams and some broccoli florets and confit cherry tomatoes, oozing into a coulis. Organic salmon with a pistachio crust was an oddity, the dish tasting peculiarly sweet cloying. The constant quest for high impact evident in the cooking here seems sometimes to go too far - although a Pear Belle Helene was simple and classic.

Thursday, April 01, 2010 - Not having just returned from a day-long wintry hike, we passed on the fondues. From the choice of five Tartes Flambees, an Alsacien version of a pizza, we had La Forestiere at 8.40 - a good, thin and crisp bready base, covered with softened onions and cream, plus tasty bacon lardons and wild mushrooms, albeit oddly salty. As a meal in itself, this would be satisfying and a bargain.

Friday, March 05, 2010 - A Lemon Sole special was a well-baked fish in an enjoyably winey and buttery sauce with tiny capers and snippings of chive, with three plain spuds. Braised rabbit and green olive ragout was tender and well-flavoured if a bit garlicky for nanny, served with ribsticking cheesey gnocchi. A 'wood-fired pizza' of chicken, pancetta, sage and pecorino was bland, even twee, with a slightly pastryish base, chilli oil being offered to perk it up for any riproarers in the party. A pint of Adnams was just as good as in Southwold.

Friday, January 29, 2010 - All our courses were fine. There's an 'all-day grazing menu' here, none too challenging in concept, with Caesar salad, fish pie, steak and chips, and pizzas. But the delivery, under head chef Shane Pearson, formerly at the Electric Brasserie, is polished and professional...The Arch aims to deliver 'London Townhouse living', the mantra of all new, would-be fashionable hotels. But at the moment, the place feels a little too fussy and effortful for that atmosphere to come off, for actual Londoners at any rate. Dean Street Townhouse remains the benchmark, showing how much cooler this style can be.

Thursday, January 21, 2010 - It's a big, handsome room, with exposed brickwork on either side, around an oval central bar adorned with blue and white tiles. There are church pews along the walls and the lighting is dim...Calamari romana style tasted very fresh and were served with a pleasant, citrussy aioli, but weren't cooked quite crisp. A spatchcocked quail came with an unexpectedly refined splash of brandy-flavoured cream sauce, while roast suckling pig was a whole chunk on the bone, tender, with good crackling and a refreshing sharp apple salad...If I lived near Camberwell, I'd be thrilled by such a surprising arrival.

Thursday, January 14, 2010 - The menu is British, short, understated and eye-wateringly expensive...The soup could have been from a jar, delivering no intense flavour either of saffron or fish, served with croutons, cheese and an aioli that had no garlic tang. Wheeler's classic fish pie was huge, its smoothly corrugated surface of mash looking a bit much even before it had been broached. Inside, there was a white creamy sauce containing baby leeks, as well as eggs, prawns and fish. Again, not bad but too much to finish, and nothing like as good as the pie at J Sheekey. Fish and chips was decent enough...

Friday, December 04, 2009 - There's a separate front door for the restaurant and it opens into a full-length room newly made to look long-established. There are dark old floorboards, panelled walls, and a long bar...The food is similarly swell and restrained. A starter of red-legged partridge, black pudding and quince was just right, letting all the ingredients speak for themselves. Pan-fried ray came with a classic, tangy sauce of brown shrimps, capers and parsley, all combining into a great plateful.

Friday, November 27, 2009 - Everything that's delivered is pretty good, without being emphatically great...A softshell crab roll was again highly ornamental, with some crab on top of the roll and spikes of chive projecting but, while tasty enough, the crab didn't really have any particular wow factor, with the seaweed wrap being a bit chewy too. On the other hand, baby squid, crisp-fried in a light tempura batter and highly spiced, were very enjoyable, as were grilled chicken wings from the robata menu. Maybe simple and cheaper is the way to go?

Thursday, November 19, 2009 - The menu is sensibly short, offering half-a-dozen starters and mains, changing frequently. Rabbit and tarragon terrine was two brightly marbled slices with lots of carrot among the shreds of meat, strongly flavoured with the herb - good texture, nice enough taste, nothing special...Monkfish was better: two good slices served with crushed potatoes, surrounded by truffled creamy leeks as a sauce although, in a pub, it was offputting to see the fish and spuds arrive constructed into one of those tall towers...

Thursday, November 19, 2009 - The room is pleasant and relaxed, albeit with odd stripes on the banquettes and tiresomely retro wallpaper, the seating comfortable, the linen lavish, the service friendly if not yet entirely expert...Roast Icelandic cod, caramelised trotter, Savoy cabbage and lentils was a funky surf n turf variant. The fish was a huge chunk, well cooked, surrounded by lentils flavoured with gelatinous little pieces of the trotter, and finely shredded cabbage, perked up with a mustardy dressing. A satisfying autumnal plateful - as was the special of roast partridge with pearl barley and ceps.

Monday, November 02, 2009 - Two big pieces each of decent salmon and tuna sashimi; some excellent tempura, crispy and dry, with a couple of big prawns and some vegetables accompanied by a dipping sauce; some good teriyaki chicken on a little bed of salad; a welcome big bowl of plain boiled rice; a mild miso soup with silky chunks of tofu...the whole Aqua operation isn't really about eating, so much as going out, seeing and being seen, consuming to the limit. If that's what does it for you, Aqua's the big new place.

Thursday, October 22, 2009 - Both starters were winners. Baked fillet of red mullet with seared squid, mullet liver sauce and sage beignet was a biggish piece of fish, cooked just right. The few drops of buttery sauce were pleasant if not strongly flavoured by the fish's liver. Tortellini of lobster with roasted cauliflower and truffle butter sauce was a really luscious plateful...Seven Park Place by William Drabble is certainly a great improvement on Andaman by Dieter Muller but we again left feeling uncomfortable in more ways than one.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - The top-floor room of the Luxe is quite splendid, boasting the original parquet floor, lots of exposed brickwork and a high beamed roof. In the centre, there's a giant open kitchen behind a mightily impressive monolithic white marble bar...Perhaps our meal was an early-days aberration. But as one dish succeeded another, it all began to seem too consistently ill-conceived and heavy-handedly executed to be just a chapter of accidents.

Thursday, October 01, 2009 - The little bites would all go well just with a drink, if you could confine yourself to that. Arancini, little fried riceballs, are great - though on a first visit, they seemed a little more moist with mozzarella than the second time around...Three meatballs were dense and full of flavour, made mainly of pork, with a bit of beef or perhaps even veal mixed in...The vegetables kept up the standard. A plate of fennel, green beans, cobnuts was a revelation.

Thursday, September 24, 2009 - A starter serving of risotto con calamari, cozze e bottarga was fabulously good. Bottarga, the cured roe of grey mullet, features a lot in the menu and it lends incredible fishy savour to the whole dish...Another Sardinian speciality was almost over-generous. Orata con purea di fave - gilthead bream with broad bean puree - was a whole massive fish, wonderfully fresh and meaty, served wrapped up in greaseproof paper, aromatic with tomatoes and herbs when opened up, well accompanied by spinach and the puree. How often do you get served too much really good fish in a restaurant?

Thursday, September 10, 2009 - Steamed Scottish salmon was a handsome darne, cooked through but still moist and well-textured, served on a bed of herb-flecked mashed potato, accompanied only by a leek, carrot and celery vinaigrette. This was so simple and so good, a real display of quality fish. Wild Cornish Seabass, Girolle Mushroom Risotto & Broad Bean Pesto was a more ambitious preparation. A large piece of heavily browned bass was served skin up on a garlicky risotto, full of little girolles. The mushroomy aromas from this were luscious but it had all been severely overcooked.

Thursday, September 03, 2009 - There is a big circular bar with stools to perch on and maybe pick up other perchees from, while the bistro around this bar has an odd dancefloor feel, despite its mix of banquettes and tables...I was advised to try the monkfish piccante. A generous serving, cooked with caper berries and a lemony butter sauce, it came piled up on some decent spinach. Free-range pot roast chicken was better - good quality breast and leg, tender and flavoursome, served with good sticky stock, fresh carrots and peas - simple and enjoyable, domestic cooking really.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 - The menu is thoroughly enticing. A pea salad was perfectly refreshing, well seasoned, with some leaves, lots of mint and some nice feta cheese, and the peas had been lightly blanched...Flank steak was surprisingly tender, two big slices seared on the outside and rare inside, served with a rich sauce of wild mushrooms: excellent. Seared fillet of hake with clams in a white wine sauce, with samphire and more peas, was golden-crusted but not at all overcooked for this dense fish: quite delicious.

Thursday, August 20, 2009 - For mains, we shared the parillada mixta, the smaller mixed grill, shying off the parillada Garufa, which includes all four cuts of steak as well as sausage and black pudding. The ensemble arrived on a hot plate above a candle and continued gently to cook as we ate. There were two cuts of steak, rib-eye and rump, both good, cooked rare as requested, served plain with some mild chimichurri - a light sauce of oil, garlic, pepper, parsley and vinegar - on the side. An Argentine pork sausage was excellent, densely meaty, like a good Italian sausage. They all had a fine barbecued flavour.

Thursday, July 23, 2009 - The whole place is dominated by giant plasma screens, all showing the same thing and all the diners gaze up at the screens, all the time. They don't talk, which is effectively prevented by the mighty sound-system in the roof anyway...The cooking itself has nothing to be said for it. Sugar has been put into places where you don't want to find it. 'Our World Famous Chicken Crunch' is a starter composed of strips of breast cooked in, dreadfully, 'a crunchy, sweet coating'. Even a serving of deep-fried crispy calamari in breadcrumbs came with a sickeningly sweet sauce of 'thousand island dressing'.

Thursday, July 16, 2009 - Cep-spiced roast pollock was two big pieces of moist, flaky white fish, with a brown crust that didn't taste of much, though that was no loss, the fish itself being so good, pleasingly accompanied by buttery samphire and cool spears of cucumber. Seared sea trout was a little overcooked, although far from spoiled, served with an adventurous salad of yellow bean and fennel...So, we've lunched at St Paul's, or at least in the crypt, and enjoyed it greatly. It can be done. Historic buildings need not serve historically bad food.

Friday, July 10, 2009 - Grilled calves' liver was a big portion, nicely cooked, with bacon and then bits of pancetta again in the bubble-and-squeaky mash of potato and Savoy cabbage. This was genuinely good quality comfort food and had one been served it in an atmospheric pub would have seemed just the thing. The kitchen here, run by executive chef Russell Ford, is competent enough. A 'chicken lunch' was much the same, blandly acceptable again. Obviously we should instead have taken up the challenge of The Doyle Collection Burger served with Kensington Fries.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009 - There's a new long oak-panelled bar with an open kitchen behind and a stuffed owl above. Inside, it's dark and cool with a maroon ceiling. Outside, there are a few tables on the pavement under a bright red awning...Roast wood pigeon hit the spot, served halved off the bone in a winey reduction of pan juices accompanied by fresh peas and asparagus tips, rather than the listed broad beans, and a considerable amount of soft and mild confit garlic.

Thursday, June 11, 2009 - Keelung delivers gutsy street food in stylish surroundings, a great combination. The expertise here would put many gastropubs and bistros to shame. It's one of the rewards of London that you can, so cheaply, so casually, eat food as enjoyable and intriguing as this which otherwise might only be found in Taiwan itself...Keelung goes high on to the list of places I'd recommend to a friend.

Thursday, June 04, 2009 - More is open for long hours, from breakfast until late at night. They say they are happy for people to come simply for a drink — and they also offer a takeaway service… When we ordered seared salmon with cauliflower caponata (£13.20), we were told it would be only lightly cooked inside, as though some people might find that problematic. As it happened, it turned up pretty thoroughly done. A good portion, the fish came posed upright on the plate, on top of a punchy caponata, featuring those giant caper berries it’s hard to imagine anybody ever choosing to serve themselves at home.

Thursday, May 28, 2009 - From the starters we opted for one of van der Horst’s signature dishes: foie gras (again, sorry), cooked from raw this time, with espresso syrup and amaretto foam. It was sensationally good, crisped on the outside, perfectly undercooked inside, with an enjoyable little crunchiness that didn’t overwhelm the whole. Such unctuousity, a hint of sweetness, first-rate goose-liver precisely cooked — this was a blast…The big disappointment, damping down the whole experience, is the design. The room feels dark, leathery, beigey, oppressively Spanish in feeling, if not Zara-esque.

Thursday, May 14, 2009 - This week, The Drapers Arms has finally been re-opened by its new owners, Nick Gibson and Ben Maschler, with the kitchen now led by Karl Goward, formerly head chef at St John. The food he is turning out here remains distinctively the “nose-to-tail eating” pioneered by Fergus Henderson. You know that as soon as you see the menu: ox heart and ox tongue, pig’s ears and duck hearts, plainly named and served straight, too. From the mains, quail, lentils and wild garlic was just right: a crispily roasted, spatchcocked bird on some excellent Puy lentils, with the garlic leaves adding a subtle tang.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - Now Crouch End has a new gastropub, Villiers Terrace, formerly the Princess Alexandra. The place has been thoroughly made over with a loggy bar, a big new wooden fireplace, mirrors, chandeliers, candelabra and some wacky wallpapers and paints. There’s a big and busy kitchen, with Richard Teague, formerly at the Market restaurant in Camden, as head chef…it’s trying hard, if not yet getting it all right. Service is assiduous and it’s pleasantly busy with a much more mixed clientele than you’d ever find in Islington or Highgate.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - They don’t take bookings and often that works fine. You can walk straight in for a glass of wine in the early evening, just sharing a plate of antipasti — all very soothing. During the week, you can usually immediately sit down for lunch, too… A plate of cheese is not the most dietetically balanced meal you can eat — the Epoisses and the Gorgonzola both clock in at 48 per cent fat — but when it’s as good as this, it is a gastronomic experience of the highest impact. Worth fasting for. Even worth queueing for.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - The cook, Enzo Giustiani, is from Naples, and the barista from Campania too — the coffee is great. They do appealing cooked breakfasts (brunch, if you must) — eggs in olive oil with parma ham on a rocket salad, for example — and more ambitious meals at the weekend with fish and lots of sausage and rabbit... Perhaps it needs to make up its mind if it is mainly a restaurant or a shop. On the other hand, it is, unmistakably, the real thing. And that’s charming.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - The food is pretty good, though not the main point. From the starters recently, ranging from £3.25 for soup up to £7 for smoked halibut, a big baked king scallop (£6.75), on the shell, with chopped bayonne ham and lots of crunchy and very garlicky breadcrumbs, was delicious and disappeared in a flash… And it serves as a fine foil to the real focus — the great wine list. Andrew Edmunds offers really good value, mostly French wine at all levels. There aren’t many by the glass, because that would really be a waste, when the bottles appeal so much.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - The concept is a pretty standard issue steak and burger menu, presented with maximum bling… A 300g “New Yorker” fillet steak was tender enough but not especially flavoursome, as usual with this cut, though it came with pretty good chips and top-notch fried onion rings. Meat & Wine also offers a small selection of “premium game”, including kangaroo. I tried springbok — two big chunks of undisguised meat, ¬surprisingly less gamey than British venison, a little bland even, not a beast I’d hurry to order again.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - The new Barny’s has seating for 40 and it’s quite nicely designed in a robust, industrial sort of way, with exposed piping, rough-cast concrete walls and counters, and utilitarian tables with Formica tops on tubular steel frames… the menu is pretty basic: just sandwiches and salads. Hold the giant snails. But the food itself is remarkably good, much tastier than at Pret or Leon, which is all you really need to know. From the serve-yourself salads, butternut squash with charmoula, coriander and pumpkin seeds, accompanied by a little jar of tahini, was delicious.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - Foodwise, nothing much has changed. Where originally all the dishes cost a bargain £3.50, prices now take account of portion size and the cost of ingredients, although remaining incredibly cheap with a £5.50 top price.…Yau himself rates the Singapore fried noodles as “the anchor dish”, “the raison d’être of the overall menu strategy”. It was unequivocally great stuff, a big serving of rice thread noodles, with smoked chicken, red and green peppers, prawns, bean sprouts, some egg and cabbage, quite hot and funky. A dish I’d be happy to eat over and over again.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 - When it comes to main courses, the menu gravely explains: “Winter is time for food full of flavour and nutritious benefits.” Thus, as well as the likes of Danish-style beefburger, baked plaice and pan-fried salmon, some appealing braises are listed. Pig cheeks, cooked with Danish lager and parsley (£12.95), were fantastic…Madsen is stylish, enjoyable, good value, especially for this part of town — and different from anything else on offer. Altogether from a cooler clime.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - Boundary is not cheap per se, certainly not for East Shoreditch. But if you are at all up for spending this kind of money these days, it’s nothing less than a bargain, both for the quality of the food and the whole seductive experience. Terence Conran has given us a great deal over his long career. Here he’s let us in to the restaurant he himself would most enjoy. Thanks, I say.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - If Boundary feels like a subterranean secret, Albion, its cut-price brother, is right out there on the street, proudly calling itself a caff… You enter via a little grocery store, itself more a display than a shop, with its preserves and quinces, though the bakery looks useful enough. Then you’re into a fine long room, busy, bright and warm, with a sizeable open kitchen. It’s one of those places that at once feels just right.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - Were the steaks good? No, they were great. The huge rib-eye, cooked medium, came taken off the bone, arranged in strips, pinker in the middle, all with great charring on the edges. It tasted fantastic, making all the beef one normally encounters seem suddenly flavourless, if not pointless. So this is how beef should be, you think, happily…The bearnaise sauce, generously served in little jugs, was excellent, not too thick, tangily flavoured with tarragon without big leaves of the herb itself obtruding.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - When you hit upon a really good gastropub you begin to wonder why you’d want to go anywhere else. And the Bull & Last, up the hill from Gospel Oak station, is about as good as it gets. It was opened in this incarnation this summer by Freddie Fleming and Ollie Pudney from the highly rated Prince of Wales in Putney. They are currently running this place so well, they could give lessons in how to get it right.

Monday, November 10, 2008 - Perhaps the chef's formidable reputation is responsible for the hushed and reverential atmosphere, with people talking in low voices the way they do in church just before a wedding begins. The décor remains masculine with lots of dark wood and claret-coloured walls - and male customers predominated. The staff are welcoming and utterly charming…Treats began arriving almost immediately: first came tiny triangles of foie gras that had been crisped at the edges. Incredible.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008 - If, at Westfield, the restaurants are emulating the shops, catering to the fantasy of being able to have it all, to graze endlessly and move on, Ito aims to provide a version of that experience all by itself. It sells tapas-sized micro-portions of modern European, gastropub-style food — “fast food for foodies”, it claims...There are oak floors, a white marble bar, lime green banquettes, crisp wooden tables and chairs — all trashed by painfully loud music on our visit. Just like in a rotary sushi bar, there’s a conveyor belt option, taking all these little dishes on an endless trip to nowhere.

Saturday, October 04, 2008 - York & Albany is a handsome old coaching inn, part of John Nash’s scheme for the whole of Regent’s Park, carried out in the 1820s. Unfortunately, Parkway, on which it stands, is now a roaring six-lane highway and the building had been derelict for 20 years before being bought by Gordon Ramsay Holdings...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Dieter Müller is a big deal in Germany. He’s been cooking at the Schlosshotel Lerbach near Cologne since 1992 and has held three Michelin stars there since 1997, and he’s also written several cookbooks, albeit available so far only in German...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - So St Pancras Grand is where a curious French visitor might finally plunge into British cooking (no cuisine for us, thanks) at the very last minute — or else check it out on first arrival, before deciding whether or not to proceed any further into perfide Albion. They'll get a misleading impression either way, because the food's all pretty decent.