Zoe Williams enjoys cooking that's almost flawless at Gauthier Soho

French chef Alexis Gauthier's cooking at his new restaurant Gauthier Soho is nigh on flawless, according to the Sunday Telegraph's critic Zoe Williams.

The former Roussillon chef-patron, who has taken over the former site of Richard Corrigan at Lindsay House, serves a fine menu that offers something for everyone. "Chalking up the pea royale to some devilish mismatch of vegetable, form and palate, I would say you cannot go wrong on this menu," Williams says. "It is not enormously surprising, but then a lot of surprises aren't good ones."

The Sunday Times critic AA Gill reviews Pierre Koffmann's comeback restaurant Koffmann's at London's Berkeley hotel, which serves "accomplished" food "full of technique and precision". "The kitchen is grander than this room implies; Koffman [sic] can't reduce his natural affinity with ingredients and method. This is Messiaen playing Johnny Hallyday hits," Gill says.

The Observer's Jay Rayner enjoys his meal at Zucca, which he describes as a reasonably priced Italian restaurant serving a menu worth crossing the river for. "The most indecently indulgent of the lot, however, was a plate of the vegetable from which the restaurant takes its name - zucca is the Italian for pumpkin - soft cooked, chipped and lightly battered. For £3. Oh my. If I lived nearby I would sneak in for a plateful every day, until I was the size of an apartment block rather than a mere house," he enthuses.

Writing in The Independent John Walsh is disappointed by the Belvedere in Holland Park, which has one of the most beautiful restaurant interiors in London, but doesn't feel friendly or romantic. "There's something both disappointing and disappointed about the Belvedere at present," he says.

Meanwhile, Amol Rajan, of the Independent on Sunday, says Heston Blumenthal's Hind's Head in Bray, Berkshire, is a gorgeous English pub, which is much more appealing than the restaurant upstairs: "Downstairs is a glorious English pub; upstairs, the restaurant feels like a reunion for the East Devon Conservative Association."

For these reviews in full and more, see What's on the menu? Visit Guide Girl for the latest gossip from the fine dining world.

Alexis Gauthier buys former Richard Corrigan restaurant Lindsay House >>

Pierre Koffmann is back at the Berkeley >>

Menuwatch - Zucca >>

By Kerstin Kühn

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