What the critics say: The British Larder, Digby Chick…

7th September 2010, 9:36am

A round-up of the latest reviews

Woodlands Eat, East Row, North Yorkshire
Lisa Markwell, The Independent, 5 September

"Specials chalked up include monkfish cheek, fennel and cockle pie, mussels with Yorkshire cider, and some halibut that's just been landed. Since we're at the seaside, we eat all of the above, plus some potted shrimps and Dover sole. All the plates are thoughtfully and prettily presented; the pan-fried halibut comes with pea purée, a tartar hollandaise and some excellent chips (I'd expect nothing less). If the kids are disappointed not to have battered fish, they fall silent and polish off their plates soon enough."

"Meanwhile, my Dover sole is wonderful; small but flavour-packed with a punchy caper-y brown butter, served correctly on the bone with some good boiled potatoes. It's 'as nature intended' looks work well as a foil to the pie, which is elegance itself. Only the slightly less than meltingly tender cheeks let it down, but I dunno, maybe monkfish have Botox."

The British Larder, Suffolk
Tracey MacLeod, The Independent, 4 December

"Their menus, which change daily and draw heavily on the region's abundance of quality suppliers, artfully steer a course between traditional pub fare and the more ambitious dishes documented on the blog. The remodelled pub has been gutted and decorated in the kind of unshowy good taste – all sombre heritage paint tones, tongue and groove panelling and exposed brickwork – which is easy to take for granted until you glimpse the last surviving trace of hellish swirly carpet in the unmodernised ladies' loo."

"A long wait for our starters was repaid by a quartet of dishes which produced a rapt chorus of 'oohs' and 'wows!'. Everything looked exquisite, with drizzled sauces and filigreed herb shoots giving a polish to even the simplest fare. Swoonily creamy celeriac soup came swirled with herb oil, while a dainty scroll of pea shoots adorned an open tart of caramelised beetroot and airy, whipped goats' cheese."

Digby Chick, Scotland
Jay Rayner, The Observer, 5 September

"The menu is not without its faults, though it is specifically the menu that is the problem, rather than the food it is selling. It is over-written. Fancy restaurant words – timbales, ribbons, reductions, supremes – are splattered around as if there is something that might need apologising for in advance. (What there isn't is any mention of a Digby Chick which, according to Mr Internet, is a Canadian way with herring. No loss; it doesn't sound very nice.) On the plate though it all makes a kind of sense. 'Seared curried scallops, smooth apple chutney, Stornoway black pudding and coriander crème fraîche', wasn't quite as exhausting to read as the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but bloody close. 

"What came was two fabulous, well-seasoned local scallops, expertly seared with a disc of equally fabulous blood sausage, with its crisp exterior like the summer crust on a soft marshy bog, and a couple of sauces. Another of a mackerel fritter with seared mackerel, from the set-price menu (£23 for three courses) was let down only by a light hand with the salt. That's always solvable."

Gauthier Soho, London
John Lanchester, The Guardian, 4 September

"The Irish chef Richard Corrigan was running the restaurant, and I wanted to eat some Irish cooking. I mentioned this to a waiter, who recoiled as if I'd said, 'I've only just met you, but let's have a gay wedding while skydiving naked.' Service is smoother under the new regime – a bit hovery, perhaps, but that goes with all the Michelin palaver. It was 45 minutes from our arrival until the first course came, which would have been really annoying, except there were waves of free nibbles, involving vegetables to dip in a salsa verde, a smidgen of foie gras, and a mullet and squid sort-of escabeche."

"There was also a choice of seven breads accompanied by two olive oils and two butters. There were free bits at the end of the meal, too, in the form of a (delicious) pre-dessert of raspberry, meringue, sorbet and coulis. It is a fandango, and you do have to be in the mood, because the fiddliness continues into the menu, which is a simple and very good-value deal at lunch (£18 for two courses), but in the evening lets you choose three, four or five courses (or 'plats') at £35, £45 or £55. This is on-trend for fancy restaurants."

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