What the critics say: Tsunami, Goodman…
27th January 2009, 12:21pm
A round-up of the latest reviews
Goodman, Maddox Street, London
AA Gill, The Sunday Times, 25 January
"Goodman looks like a Russian take on an American chain restaurant, the sort of place the KGB might have built to train spies — it is wood and leather, with a bar and booths and black-and-white urban photos. Staff are particularly friendly and, as with all single-issue dining rooms, the menu makes small talk about starters and side dishes, but it's really just a juggler before the burlesque — we're impatient for them to bring on the meat.
"It comes as a choice of three continents: there's Australian beef, which is braised and finished with corn, and American and Irish, which are all produced raw on a board for your examination like it's a brothel."
Tsunami, Charlotte Street, London
Zoe Williams, The Telegraph, 20 January
"The walls are a cream lacquer with a dainty gold inset of flowers. The seats are white leather, the staff are… well, I want to comment on their spectacular beauty, but they all seemed to be quaking with nerves. My friend R said he wanted to put a calming hand on the waiter's shoulder, but it's hard when you're sitting down. We had to settle for kind eyes. He started with lamb cutlets (£8.50), which looked like fusion cuisine as fashioned in a school play – the chops were finished off with a ham-fisted silver-foil cuff, and the kimchi chilli sauce was served in a scooped out, tired-looking cucumber. Four rectangles of daikon dunked in the sauce were delicious, but not symmetrical enough for the Carl Andre stacker-effect they were going for. Perhaps the lighting is harsher in W1, but it looked naive and a bit wrong.
"The meat tasted wonderful, though: smoky, tender, sweet, hot and savoury in wonderful counterpoint. I had scallops grilled with smelt eggs with creamy, spicy sauce (£7.50), which also looked absurd, arriving on a volcano of salt, to which someone had unfathomably set fire. On an answering peak of salt across the plate, another bit of tired cucumber, holding another scallop shell, this one standing upright like a signal of some sort. I don't know who I'm more worried about – the waiters or the remaining cucumber. Why are they maiming it like this? The scallop was sliced thinly, and was effortlessly lovely, zinged up a bit with the poor-man's caviar, rendered unputdownable by the chilli kick of the sauce."
Min Jiang, West London
Jasper Gerard, The Telegraph, 22 January
"For main courses we attempt braised pork belly, while feeling piggy ourselves. This might be a cheap cut but it is melt-in-the-mouth tender. The rich meat works beautifully with that Chinese staple, star anise. It is accompanied by Chinese buns: pieces of dough first steamed then deep-fried, turning them firm outside but soft and fluffy inside. I enjoy an equally delectable crispy sea bass with "superior" soy sauce, rich with fresh ginger, but there are many dishes I could recommend. On another visit I have squid and crab, and once you crunch through the purgatory of batter you are in heaven with the zingy, spicy flesh.
"Two other good points. One is that the charming female sommelier from Scotland has collected an impressive wine cellar. Tonight we have a Château Noaillac, a Médoc with a wonderful steely edge. The other is that you can have a set-menu lunch with a glass of wine for just £19.80."
Bocca Di Lupo, Archer Street, London
Jay Rayner, The Observer, 25 January
"The mood is brisk and chirpy, as befits a restaurant down a scuzzy Soho side street. At the brightly lit front is a long marble bar, overlooking the open kitchen, where you can graze. Down the back is the more moodily lit dining room, with closely packed tables. Chef Jacob Kennedy was for many years at Moro, and the food here has a similar unfancy charm. It is about simple ideas. Crisp, sweet fried prawns which you just have to eat whole, head and all, came with a chunk of dense eel and a drift of soothing polenta.
"Plump grilled porcini were draped with gossamer-thin slices of lardo – cured pig fat (yum) – that were just starting to melt their salty loveliness. Perfectly sautéed sweetbreads were partnered with deep-fried artichokes which were such a revelation we had to have a side dish of them. The leaves were brown and crunchy, the hearts soft. Apparently putting globe artichokes in the deep-fat fryer is a Roman idea. It's a very good one, even if it does just fuel my suspicion that most things are thrillingly edible if given a bath in boiling oil."
Gordon Ramsay Plane Food, Heathrow
Mark Bollans, ES Magazine, 23 January
"The restaurant is – as you might expect – very light and airy, with what I'm assured are stunning views. Unfortunately, there was a blanket of cloud on the day I was there, and all I could see was the mighty snout of a plane looming out of the mist. The room is painted white and deep terracotta and there is a large, trapeze-like chandelier which looks like a shower of giant glass pebbles cascading down from the ceiling. Very pretty. Service is swift and efficient, which is exactly what you want when you're watching the clock. My expectations were not exactly sky high – I've eaten at two Ramsay gastropubs and been distinctly underwhelmed."
"I started with Caesar salad, pancetta and softboiled egg. Along came a plate of sweet, crunchy little heads of cos covered in a creamy dressing. The crisp pancetta was smoky and delicious, the egg really was soft and the anchovies the freshest I have eaten in England. The dish was a revelation and I was reluctant to continue with my meal because I wanted to keep the memory of this starter intact."
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