What the restaurant critics say: Seven Park Place, Galvin La Chapelle…

9th December 2009, 11:32am

A round-up of the latest reviews

Seven Park Place, London
Giles Coren, The Times, 5 December

"Then white beans, with onions and bacon, just a little dab, nicely rich and rustic. With a lobe of seared foie gras on top. Yes, yes, I know. Go away. I'm eating posh for once. There's always going to be foie gras. And I loved the way the old bean stew brought the hoity-toity goose liver down to my level, and stripped it of its airs and graces. 

"Then more white food: pan-fried sea bass with braised Jerusalems, but with a kryptonite glow of green parsley purée, and a red wine jus. And then a best end of Lune Valley lamb, herbed all around, but when you cut it, so red, red, red as to make you think it hadn't been cooked at all, or even killed. Such good lamb, so sweet and tender, served at the temperature of your own blood so it's almost a cannibal act. Esther didn't quite make it, but she'd done well to get this far. And for pudding there was mint parfait with chocolate jelly, which sounded very unusual, but didn't taste very nice."

Galvin La Chapelle, London
Jasper Gerard, The Telegraph, 4 December

"La Chapelle has been described, not entirely accurately, as a bistro. Starched linen, regal red leather menus and purring wine waiters suggest something more serious. True, helpings are as hearty as the gastronomy is gutsy, and there are none of the fussy little free courses found in restaurants with Michelin aspirations. But banquettes of deep-brown leather and antique mirrors are pitched at bankers foraying just beyond the City wall. 

"My starter was simple but lovely: a salad of red-leg partridge. Sweet maple dressing over fleshy, caramelised bird worked wonderfully, lifted further by smoky bacon and acidic pomegranate. An ice-skating judge would declare this a faultless six."

Lido, Bristol
Zoe Williams, The Telegraph, 4 December

"Mains were disappointing. I have half a theory that they're so bowled over by their wood-roasting oven they have taken their eye off all the elements of cooking that aren't roasting. 

"But this is wild conjecture. S had the wood-roasted lamb rump with turnips cooked in lardo and spinach (£16). The lamb was OK, but the turnip had been grated, or certainly chopped very small, before a thorough all-over sousing in pig fat, which it had promptly soaked up like a sea sponge. I have never tasted a root vegetable so unctuous, so totally artery-busting, as this. And lamb is a fatty meat anyway, so even though it was roasted over wood and certainly not horrible, against a backdrop of fatty turnip it felt a bit arduous. I had the wood-roasted pork chop with cima di rape (turnip tops – it's nice to think that nothing was going to waste), olives and rosemary (£15.50). The chop had to be the weight of a small dog, which on another cut, from a different beast, might have been something to celebrate."

Caponata, London
John Walsh, The Independent, 5 December

"The menu is heftily and authentically Sicilian, full of gutsy flavours, rootsy vegetables, robust sauces, mashes and creams. The antipasti feature rabbit terrine with carrots and courgettes, scamorza (smoked cheese) and spring onion in pastry, and tuna tartare with aubergine caviar and caper berries. You can practically taste Mount Etna rumbling away in the background. You half expect Caroline, the waitress, to make you an offer you can't refuse (but she is Polish, not Sicilian, and far too classy to deal in crap Mafia jokes). 

"My friend Amy's perfectly seared scallops sat on cushions of turnip mousse that were unexpectedly, and subtly, delicious (subtle turnip?) and given a kick by watercress pesto. My fettuccine with hare and fennel ragout didn't exactly assault the senses with gamey flavours, but slid down as top-quality comfort food. The presence of raw fennel slices gave the dish some crunch – and ushered in a brief anthropological discussion of The Raw and the Cooked, in homage to the late Claude Lévi-Strauss, that you probably don't often get in Italian restaurants."

Chinese Cricket Club, London
Fay Maschler, Evening Standard, 3 December

"We made a second visit lured by the dim sum selection (served all day) and some other dishes beguilingly described. The expensive cost of each dumpling — relative to Chinatown anyway — between £5 and £9.40 made Chef Wu's dim sum section at £11.50 per person sound like a sensible choice and one that took the dither out of dithering. We chose to interpret the rather clumsy appearance of the various parcels as evidence of homemade.

"Nice Mr Chan explained carefully what each one was and there was a good ratio of filling to casing, like a very satisfactory Christmas stocking, but I have had more skilfully made and subtle dim sum."

Dean Street Townhouse, London
David Sexton, Evening Standard, 3 December

"The food is similarly swell and restrained. Three kinds of oysters are listed and served absolutely correctly, as at Sheekey's, on ice and decorative seaweed, with a piece of lemon tight-wrapped in muslin and a finger bowl, as well as some shallot sauce and Tabasco — for anybody brutal enough to do that to a perfect West Mersea native (£2.35 each, six for £14).

"A starter of red-legged partridge, black pudding and quince (£7.50) was just right too, letting all the ingredients speak for themselves. The quince was simply softened and fried, the black pudding nicely crumbly, and there was plenty of tender partridge off the bone served on bread smeared with a foie gras-ish pâté. Plain luxury.
A watercress soup (£5.75), poured from a silver saucepan over a poached Burford Brown egg at the bottom of the bowl, was as green as green can be, clear and intense in taste."

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