What the critics say: Gauthier, Zucca…

2nd August 2010, 10:52am

A round-up of the latest reviews

Gauthier, London
Zoe Williams, The Telegraph, 2 August

"Not much has changed since this establishment was Lindsay House, except that you now have to ring on the doorbell. As for the inside, I know I will get killed one day by a precious interior designer, but I couldn't tell the difference from the way it was before. It's still a quirky, five-storey Victorian town house, with a slightly too enormous marble fireplace, that reminds you fleetingly of a murder-mystery dinner party. It doesn't seem to have had the slightest change of personality since Alexis Gauthier took over. On balance this is a good thing. Whenever people try to impress a personality upon a room, it always manifests itself as a great big lampshade. 

"Rather, the chef's personality seems to have changed since his last post at the starchy Roussillon in Pimlico. The menu here is fancy in so far as it has a proliferation of amuse-bouches (chick-pea chips, prawns on sticks, a dazzling, tiny bit of halibut), but it is also accommodating. You can have a dish from each of the five courses (£55), or you can choose three (£35) or four (£45) courses from anywhere you fancy. I liked this: it gave the impression that my appetite was a matter of consequence, and wasn't just a pesky side effect of my existence."

Ognishko Polish Club, London
Matthew Norman, The Telegraph, 26 July

"The beetroot soup, spelt here as Barzcz, was as delectable a paean to coloured dishwater as you will ever find, while greasy blinis came with poor smoked salmon, a few Sevruga eggs and lashings of the sour cream that provided what little flavour there was."

"My guinea fowl, with Calvados and slices of apple that could have done with some Apron seasoning, was overcooked, overcharged and overpowered by monstrously sweet red cabbage. For the £15.30 it cost you could have three courses plus coffee, fresh fruit, chocolates and a shot of vodka at The Patio, our beloved Polish joint a few miles away."

Hinds Head High Street, Berkshire
Amol Rajan, The Independent, 1 August

"The main courses offer a suspicious sop to pescatarians with cod that is 'line-caught' – but the rascal still died, of course, and that doesn't forgive the appalling absence of a veggie option. Oxtail and kidney pudding (£16.95) looks least likely of the few remainders to land me in radiation therapy, and chomping into its ribbons of juicy flesh, and perfect little sub-globules of ravishable kidney, this might be the best such pudding this side of Vladivostok. 

"My companion has a pea and ham soup that tastes of pea and ham, the Ronseal approach to starter school. Then a venison cheeseburger, beautifully cooked, but idiotically served on a tiny wooden board. The thing about plates is that they're useful for putting things on. This titchy piece of oak might be aesthetically pleasing and part of the master plan, but it's a bugger to eat off."

Belvedere, London
John Walsh, The Independent, 31 July

"The menu's pretty vieux chapeau too: hefty Anglo-French terrines, rillettes and parfaits, and classic Escoffier sauces (of which more later) applied to sturdy English ingredients such as calves' liver and pork loin steak. One can imagine Lord Leighton (whose wonderful Leighton House is only a stone's throw away) dining here with Waterhouse or Alma Tadema, and discussing how best to represent the flimsy gauze that half-covers the perky flesh of his naked Carthaginian slave girls? 

"It's also damned expensive (£9.95 for asparagus, this late in the season?) but I suppose you're paying for the lovely setting. I'd been hoping to score an al fresco table out on the terrace, but tonight a private party had colonised the upper room and the outside terrace, from where bursts of cheering and applause regularly punctuated our conversation."

Zucca, London
Jay Rayner, The Observer, 1 August

"There were just two pasta dishes, one of which, wide pappardelle with peas, lemon and a snowfall of grated Parmesan, had run out by 8.15pm, which suggests pretty poor stock control, but the servings going past us looked irritatingly lovely. The other was exactly the same as at Trullo last week: skinny threads of taglierini with brown shrimps and courgette, a beautiful fusion of an English ingredient with Italian principles. Zucca's was as good as that at Trullo – silky egg-yolk-yellow pasta, nutty little shrimps, a ripe starchy liquor – though at £6.50 it was £2 more expensive for the starter portion. Which is what white walls, acres of shiny glass and older, more plentiful and more seasoned staff costs.

"A veal chop, with crisp, caramelised fat and a heap of well-seasoned wilted spinach, was a simple dish full of simple virtues. Another of curiously meaty squid, chargrilled and curled, sprinkled with red chilli and laid on borlotti beans was equally good. The only duff notes were rather ordinary desserts: a slightly overset panna cotta with roasted peaches, and a more than slightly over-baked almond and cherry tart. But when the bill stacks up as it does here – helped by a wine list with lots of choice in the teens – such a thing is merely a vague disappointment rather than the bloody outrage the too-standard three-figure bill engenders."

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