Terry Durack reviews

Sunday, June 28, 2009 - Keelung is a mile away from your average Chinatown greasy-chopstick caff, with its smart wall of wines, dark, comfy booths, and eager, gung-ho staff circling the room like minnows in a pond. The menu is different too; Taiwanese food being a grab-bag of dishes from the eastern provinces. It is heavier, oilier, gutsier and in many more ways more interesting than pure Cantonese food, with its noodles, full-bodied hotpots, street snacks and fresh seafood...There is a lot of fun to be had with this home-style cooking, which seems less compromised than that of the please-everyone Chinatown stalwarts.

Sunday, May 24, 2009 - A little starter sings of springtime, as a delicate, clear tomato essence is poured over baby vegetables... Pan-fried sea scallops served with soft potato gnocchi and a whisper-thin layer of octopus form a harmonious balance of sweet and soft; each flavour singular and clear. In the current context, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay probably sits closest to the two-star-and-rising Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester. There are restaurants more ground-breaking (Fat Duck), more personal (Hibiscus), and more exciting (Texture), but you come here for crafty, harmonious cooking with full make-up and not a hair out of place.

Sunday, May 10, 2009 - It's a simple place, pumping out fresh, colourful, crowd-pleasing Italian food in a smart-casual room to which you could just as happily take your kids or your colleagues. The kitchen needs to watch that "fashionably light" doesn't get confused with "bland", but Il Baretto has the makings of a fun Italian restaurant. And Arjun Waney knows how to turn any room into a party, so I expect the pizza oven won't be the only thing that's hot at Il Baretto by summer.

Sunday, May 03, 2009 - Guotie are always a must, and here the "pot-stickers" are unusually fine fingers of pastry wrapped around juicy chicken and shiitake mushroom fillings, their little bottoms enticingly crisp and crusty. They do things the hard way here, making all the noodles, dumpling skins and sauces by hand, and basing soups on three subtly different base stocks…Ask the extremely helpful, gung-ho staff for extra chilli oil if you need a hit, or just sit back and enjoy a gastronomic tour of the provinces of China that Chinatown forgot.

Sunday, April 19, 2009 - The food promises to be lighter and simpler than at the Club, with more flexible options for snacking and sharing. A comp starter gets my interest immediately, with its moreish crisp shell of semolina encasing spiced potato, a play on the street snack gol guppas… The power and subtlety of traditional spicing gives Cinnamon Kitchen an anchor to the past that lets it incorporate some intelligent deconstruction and innovation without losing the plot. It means the food here is as Indian as it is modern, something I had never been convinced was possible.

Sunday, April 05, 2009 - The gastropub is the only hope we have for civilised, democratic dining in this country, taking the substandard pubby stodge we grew up with and reinvigorating it with seasonal produce, fresh ideas and fair prices. Tonight, sadly, has been a step backwards rather than forwards. It will matter little to the hordes who just want to sit in the garden and drink beer – but it should.

Sunday, March 29, 2009 - This is a first: not only am I eating in a shopping centre, but I am eating Mexican. And I'm sober. Next to me, two big, beefy blokes work their way through enormous burritos and tortilla chips; on the other side, toddlers in highchairs cut their teeth on soft tortillas as mum and dad share enchiladas… Wahaca is halfway there. It should be bolder, fresher, sunnier, juicier, spicier and punchier, with better day-to-day cooking skills. But it isn't bad, given the prices; nor is the food completely deep-fried or buried under cheese.

Sunday, March 22, 2009 - It bills itself as a restaurant, and yes, it has tables, chairs and menus, but in all other respects, it looks, feels and acts like a clubby bar, with its attractive, black-clad, high-heeled greeters at the door, sleek lines, dark woods, sexy lighting, and glamorously lit cocktail bar as its heart… Sushinho's claim to fame is to be a cocktail-friendly fusion of Brazilian and Japanese…but the Brazilian effect appears limited to the odd sighting of cassava chips or crumbed plantain, and a small list of specials.

Sunday, March 15, 2009 - The idea of a new all-Spanish tapas bar in Fulham is appealing. Lola Rojo is as cute as a button, with explosions of bright red, like flashes of a bullfighter's cape on staff aprons, vibrant paintings and stools on the outdoor terrace…Lola Rojo is a happy update for Spanish food in this country, with its simple, modern, unpredictable approach, and sympathetic prices. It's a little bit crazy – the whole place fills with smoke at one point, and what with the "glove artichokes" and "smocked anchovies" Lola's speling cood be impruved – but that's all part of its all-female, all-Spanish charm.

Sunday, March 08, 2009 - Piazza by Anthony is a scarily impressive project, taking up 13,200 square feet, much of which is a striking 125-seater brasserie. Handsome dark chairs, wood-grain tables and curving banquettes in gentle heritage colours spread themselves over what was the corn-trading basement floor… The blatantly crowd-pleasing brasserie menu runs from snacky olives and spiced almonds to small and large salads, pasta and risotto dishes, char-grilled fillet steak and come-hither fish dishes such as Whitby cod with chorizo cassoulet. Something for everyone, as they say.

Sunday, March 01, 2009 - The high-ceilinged dining-room, with its dominant central waiters' station, stained-glass images of Monsieur Bibendum and sleekly framed turn-of-the-century caricatures, is as it has always been. The original wraparound chairs have been replaced with identical models and tables are so well spaced you couldn't eavesdrop if you tried. Even the classic French menu first installed by Hopkinson has been carried on by current chef/director Matthew Harris, who has been cooking here since day one. It may not be set in aspic, but it is certainly gently napped with beurre blanc.

Sunday, February 22, 2009 - The whole place is lively, loud and young. With the bare shoulders, oyster platters and flickering candles, it presents a very pretty picture; but behind it, the offerings don’t really rise much above food-court level. Some ideas are just plain silly, such as having a separate meat and fish “market” menu that itemises the market price and the cost of preparation for the diner to add together at the table. It all gives me a strange sense of being in some expatriate manifestation of a gastropub/chophouse in an Abu Dhabi shopping mall; something rigorously copied and in working order but not quite the real thing.

Sunday, February 15, 2009 - Together with Soho's Bocca di Lupo, Terroirs raises casual, small-plate dining to a whole new level. The food is great, pure and simple. The wine is great, pure and natural. But the best thing is that, like me, Terroirs is genetically unable to see food and wine as being somehow separate. This isn't about food and wine "matching", so much as the two entwined, leading you on, making you enjoy both all the more.

Sunday, February 01, 2009 - So HoSt - as in HOpe STreet, because HoSt sounds better than PeReet – is obviously fine for pre's and post's, but is it a destination diner in its own right? We live in a post-Wagamama world, and the WaMa legacy (sorry, it's contagious), is palpable here in the bare, minimalist lines, communal tables and bench seating, the chicken katsu curry, various soup noodles, and the way dishes are served in the order that suits the kitchen rather than the diner. Other dishes, such as duck, watermelon, and cashew salad, and salt-and-pepper squid served in paper cones have a touch of Will Ricker's E&O about them.

Sunday, January 25, 2009 - Co-owned by Conran, his wife and Peter Prescott, Boundary is part of an ambitious new complex housed in a converted Victorian warehouse in Shoreditch. Eventually it will comprise three restaurants, 17 individually designed rooms, a bakery and a food store…The basement restaurant is lush, lavish, and heavy on the detail – from the mini-Savoy bar to the plush banquettes, mannered French/ British menu, statement fruits de mer selection, and parallel-universe visible kitchen.

Sunday, January 18, 2009 - To serve consistently good food from such a hugely eclectic please-all menu until 3am is both generous and hospitable, but also, I suggest, overly ambitious. Bob Bob won't ever get to the level of its personal idol, The Wolseley, but there is good business to be had by meaning a bit less to more people. I like the energy, ideas, accessibility and most of all, the sense of affordable fun – something we will all need in the year to come.

Sunday, January 11, 2009 - The USP here is that all the steaks on offer are priced at £25. The menu lists two US grain-fed prime beef steaks (400g rib eye and 350g New York strip) and three Australian grain-fed steaks (400g rib-eye, 350g New York strip, 250g filet mignon), with the only dry-aged option being a blackboard special of an Irish rib eye on the bone (£32 for two). I put their biggest-selling "Goodman American rib-eye" to the test, cooked rare to medium rare. It's not bad… Nothing here is horrible or great, nothing rare or well-done. It's just medium. Sorry, not interested.

Sunday, January 04, 2009 - Every now and then, you get the whole package: people who know what they want to do, and who simply go and do it. This is why I like The Harwood Arms so much. It looks like any smart contemporary gastropub, with its stripped woods, pale olive colours, blackboard specials, and bare tables. But it has real presence, personality and professionalism… This is exactly the sort of dining experience we need right now: a top trained chef dealing directly with country supplies and doing something twisty with it.

Sunday, November 16, 2008 - It was not my intention to review L'Anima. When Francesco Mazzei opened in June, I was desperate to find restaurants where two could eat for less than £80, not more high-end Italians of the calibre of Locanda Locatelli or the River Café. But in spite of its pre-crunch prices, L'Anima has been hard to ignore: reviews have been practically evangelical, and it was recently named best new restaurant of the year in both Square Meal and the Harden's UK Restaurant Guide.

Sunday, November 02, 2008 - Marianna Hadjigeorgiou and Achilleas Agridiotis have knitted together an idyllic little tearoom on a sunny riverside street corner in villagey Barnes, south-west London. Walls are lined with glossy tea canisters, while a marble-topped wooden counter is laden with cake stands and glorious-looking Konditor & Cook creations under a romantic chandelier. Tucked in behind are three little rooms with white brick walls, wooden tables, kitsch tea cosies and darling little floral cups and saucers set on wooden panels as if caught mid-throw.

Sunday, October 26, 2008 - France has never been able to do a British pub, and it appears Britain still can't do the French brasserie of our dreams, especially not on a charmless mezzanine floor of what appears to be a deserted aircraft hangar when the market is not in full swing. Le Bouchon is busy, and could be handy in this restaurant chain-heavy area, but it is too new to yet have that lovely contented brasserie buzziness.

Sunday, October 12, 2008 - Tierra Brindisa still serves up simple platters of jamon, bowls of almonds and unadorned cheese boards, but Spanish-born head chef, José Pizarro is smart enough to know when to just toss something on a plate, and when to do something with it. He stops short of lab experiments, preferring to tease your appetite than play with your head.

Sunday, October 05, 2008 - Like its two sister restaurants in Singapore, London's newly opened Min Jiang is dedicated to the art of Beijing duck (get used to it – the Olympics weren't held in Peking). They will ask if you want to pre-order it when you ring, and ask again when you arrive. It could get annoying, but for one thing: the duck is very, very good.

Sunday, September 28, 2008 - "Confit duck leg, roast sweet potato, beetroot, black bean, licorice and ginger salsa, £12.50." Says it all, really. At The Modern Pantry, you get bits and pieces of French bistro cooking with a touch of the Antipodean and some far-flung exotica at a modest price. Some will see this as a breath of fresh air. Others will curl their lips at what they see as a mishmash of magpie pickings from the global floor.

Sunday, September 21, 2008 - Murano's dress code is clearly stated: "Smart, with jackets preferred for gentlemen. Jeans, T-shirts or sportswear not accepted." Hang on, is this not 2008? … are they really terrified that Mayfair diners will turn up in filthy jeans and fat white trainers?

Sunday, September 07, 2008 - Tayyabs is more rough-and-tumble than refined, but it has something magical that makes it 10 times better than committing hurry-curry in Brick Lane. It simply does an excellent job of keeping everyone happy. Though unlicensed, you can take a bottle and the waiter will toss you a corkscrew.

Sunday, August 24, 2008 - It is not at all what I thought it would be. Instead of a happy-go-lucky seaside caff, it feels more like The Ivy by the Sea. The 40-seat interior borders on the sumptuous with its studded mustard leather banquettes, pressed white tablecloths, monogrammed plates and library-shelf wall of wine. Through a large window, Prowse is doing a fine impression of a whirling dervish over his pots and pans and the kitchen's pride and joy, the smart new Spanish Josper charcoal grill/oven.

Sunday, August 17, 2008 - That Magli and Pili named their restaurant not for the most momentous period of social, political and cultural upheaval in Italian history, but for a simple little runabout, now seems perfectly right. The tiny Cinquecento is functional, unpretentious and good value. It isn't trying to change the world, just be a vehicle in which people can enjoy themselves.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 - Like everything else tonight, it is exactly what I felt like eating, making Quo Vadis pretty close to my ideal modern British restaurant. The Soho thing makes it artier, edgier (and louder) than The Ivy or The Wolseley, and the old-style, hands-on hospitality is a refreshing return to how things used to be. I think we are lucky to have Quo Vadis... for as long as it knows how lucky it is to have us.

Sunday, July 27, 2008 - The girl at the door tries to give me a credit card. "No thanks," I sigh. "I'm trying to give them up." She insists I take it. Without it, you won't be able to eat or drink, she says. Tell me about it.

Sunday, July 20, 2008 - Princess Victoria hasn't looked this good for a long time. Honestly, she doesn't look a day over 150, and I know she's been around since 1828, when she was a "dram shop", before graduating into a gin palace in 1829, and a proper pub in 1872.

Sunday, July 13, 2008 - Forget the ice disappearing from the North Pole; it's the hand towels you should be worried about. Those piles of neatly folded face-washers that upmarket restaurants give you in the loos are vanishing, credit-crunched out of existence. And thank heavens for that.

Sunday, January 06, 2008 - Sake No Hana is undoubtedly a class act, impressively designed as a conduit for some very fine talents. It remains to be seen if it has what most of us want from a Japanese restaurant. But then, I'm not entirely convinced it is interested in most of us in the first place.

Sunday, December 02, 2007 - This is not Monsieur Ducasse's best restaurant (that is in Monte Carlo), but it is still a marvellous manifestation of the French meaning of the term savoir-faire, literally, "to have the knowledge of what to do". Pure craft. *

Sunday, June 24, 2007 - The grape - half a grape, actually - has been caramelised with cognac and a little sugar, before being finished with sherry vinegar and Sauternes. It's a lot of work, just for a grape - half a grape - that is going to perch on a button of foie gras on a crisp slip of fine gingerbread. And that's just one of the appetisers.

Sunday, July 23, 2006 - The view improves immediately when the food arrives. Take everything you know about Provence and lay it on to a wisp of beautifully golden pastry and you have Galvin's seared-tuna tarte fine. A smear of caramelised onion, in the manner of pissaladiere, is topped with a deconstructed ratatouille of courgette, aubergine, tomato and artichoke, in turn topped with paper-thin, overlapping slices of barely seared tuna. Flavours are delicate but finely tuned and fresh.

Sunday, October 24, 2004 - Real Eating is something that most restaurants in Britain are not - it is modern. It belongs to today, instead of yesterday. The restaurant industry has a real choice: to stay mired in the dated and overly detailed French style of dining, or to seize the day and redefine itself, with a serious commitment to quality produce presented without fuss or bother in a uniquely British manner. At the moment, the gastropub movement is the closest intimation of how great real British dining could be, with rare treasures such as Real Eating providing further refinement and definition.