What the critics say: Babbo, Dinings…

8th March 2010, 11:11am

A round-up of the latest reviews

Babbo, London
Giles Coren, The Times, 6 March

"The menu is carpet-chompingly expensive. We went 100 per cent veggie (Boom!) and still our starters were £10 each, our mains £20. A cursory count of the wine list showed 50 reds, of which 25 cost £100 or more. I think there was one at around £26, maybe one at £30-something, and then it was straight into the forties. Sick-making."

"Esther had a lump of burrata on some chopped tomatoes, I had a dry melanzane parmigiana cut into a cylinder with a pastry shaper like some MasterChef horror of the Loyd Grossman era. Esther had a good risotto, I had a good pasta. I had a very good cup of coffee (so these particular Italians have mastered pasta and coffee – ring out the bells). With a bottle of £42 wine (which was probably about the fourth cheapest on the list) and the pleasure of being treated like scum, the bill came to £135. It was a goddam scandal on stilts."

Dinings, London
Jasper Gerard, The Telegraph, 5 March

"First to go are the Cornish oysters. These are offered individually and covered in such delights as garlic, raspberry soy or caviar. The success of a Japanese restaurant hangs on the skill of the swordsman in its kitchen and the quality of the fish he slices. But as the preparation of dishes is so labour-intensive most can only serve a handful of customers, prompting top specialist suppliers to seek out bigger restaurants."

"For main courses we stick to the specials board favoured by Japanese regulars. Particularly delectable is the soft-shell crab spring roll. 'This dish is always a good test,' says my guest Joe, fresh from a Japanese cooking course. 'Getting the crispiness right is really tricky. It has to be served fresh or it goes soggy in the fridge.' The crab has a wonderfully soft yet crunchy texture. Also impressive is the spicy tuna wasabi rolls with wasabi leaf, a spicier alternative to the more typical wasabi powder."

Leon, London
Lisa Markwell, The Independent, 7 March

"The Leon ethos is one of local, seasonal, good-quality produce made into crowd-pleasing food at a realistic (if not cheap) price. The lengthy queues every lunchtime are testament to the chain's success – nine branches and counting. What's surprising is how well it works as an evening venue when the prices are pretty competitive – only £1 or so more than the take-out list. It deserves to be as well known as a restaurant as a take-away. It's nothing like the big fast-food chains, thank the lord – but if you want a posh pit-stop pre- or post-theatre/ cinema in London, Leon is just the place."

The Orange, London
David Sexton, 4 March

"The furniture is all bleached and scrubbed wood, odd bits and pieces. A coal-effect gas fire roars. Splendid napkins, of course. Downstairs, there's a big dining room, a bar looking into an open kitchen, and a snug little area around the corner remniscent of a scullery. Upstairs it's a bit more formal, though nothing like as grand and comfy as The Pantechnicon."

"And the food? It's not your common or garden comfort food. No, this is nothing less than nursery, dreamily delivered. Smoked haddock, leek and potato cake, citrus crème fraîche (£8.50) sounds rather complicated but was just two wholly unchallenging, if rather dry, fishcakes. A green salad that included roasted red pepper, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and fresh, bland goat's curd by way of cheese (£7.50) was perfectly fresh and as inoffensive as they come."

Franco Manca, London
Andrew Neather, 4 March

"The menu is short and to the point. There are a few starters, mostly involving pizza-like constructions of bread and garlic or cheese, and olives. But the reason to come here is, er, the pizza, of which around eight are available at any given time, from basic tomato with mozzarella and basil to napolitana (oregano, capers, olives, anchovy and mozzarella) and porkier options.

"As it should be, the crust is thin, stretched by hand and spun in the air by chefs. It is crispy on the edges and at the very bottom, soft in the middle, nuked at 485 degrees in a wood-fired, domed oven especially imported from Naples. Tomato sauce: hard to fault. Toppings: sparse but joyous (ie the inverse of Dominos)."

Ba Shan, London
Matthew Norman, The Guardian, 6 March

"A soup listed, in typically enticing Szechuan style, as 'lacy bamboo pith fungus in a gentle broth' was based on a superb pork stock, and just the ticket for a delicate stomach. Pot-sticker dumplings were plump, juicy parcels of porcine goodness buried beneath a thin sheet of batter, and dry wok prawns came all crunchy in their shells and suffused with freshly crushed spices.

"We weren't quite so keen on squidgy 'Chairman Mao red-braised pork', a Hunanese favourite of the Little Red-Braised Book author in which chunks of pork belly are gently fried in rice wine, ginger, sugar and much else; after all, as John Lennon so nearly sang in Revolution, if you go eating the dishes of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow. But diced rabbit in a pile of chillies was a nostalgic delight (and even better than the diced chicken in a pile of chillies we'd had elsewhere not so long earlier), the sweetness of the meat and sharpness of the dried chillies complementing each other beautifully."

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