The Daily Telegraph - 27 September
JAN MOIR bemoans the lack of flavour at Marcus Wareing's PETRUS, London SW1
I can hardly believe it myself, but the main courses are disappointing, with a strange lack of flavour drifting through every dish, almost as if an obsessive chef had felt the need to conquer and denature all the food to the point of taste oblivion; to attain the moment when the food is so under his control that it almost ceases to exist. A small fillet of sea bass is served with a drizzle of sauce matelote and is as bland as the farmed variety. Even a dish of hare, always so reliably gamey, oddly tastes no stronger than meekly braised beef. It is all very, very strange.
(Dinner for two excluding drinks and service, £110)
TimeOut - 30 September
GUY DIMOND, however, is impressed by the bon-bon trolley at PETRUS
Then the first trolley appeared. The splay-legged cheese trolley has a sturdy Perspex lid, and looks like David Blaine's box; but it is to contain the smell of an entropic French cheeseboard, not a dystrophic magician. Then came the trolley to end all trolleys. Was it designed by Jeff Koons, inspired by the Brothers Grimm? This mobile tree of silver-plated Little Bo Peep baskets looked like the natural habitat of sugar mice, it was so kitsch. Instead, it divulges The Best Turkish Delight in the Universe.
(Meal for two with wine and service, £190)
Evening standard - (This is London website) 17 September
GORDON RAMSAY takes the family to the RAINFOREST CAFE, London
Jack's chicken goujons were a nasty contrast of luminous orange breadcrumbs, freezer-dehydrated chicken and an oil slick that could rival the Exxon Valdez. Holly's Chicken Cocoon was a vile, spongy, chicken hot dog encased in sweet, synthetic bread, accompanied by limp chips. For mains I ordered both a vegetarian and carnivorous option. My Ozzie Spring Rolls confirmed my worst suspicions about vegetarian food. Yet more deep-fried pastry, whose under-layers were greasily raw. A sledgehammer of chilli sauce couldn't disguise the fact that the filling was 90% cabbage. At £11.95, this is not just poor, it's daylight robbery.
(Meal for two adults, four children, £160)
The Sunday Times - 28 September
AA GILL on the "passé" BERKELEY-SQUARE CAFE, London W1
Nicely made, served on plates, tasteful and polite, and so pass‚ and taupe and inconspicuous that you want to scream for a chilli pepper hidden in the garnish, or a topless waitress - just anything to remind you that this is supposed to be an aesthetic experience. This menu is like eating George Michael's Faith with Los Lobos's La Bamba. It's like fillet of Bonfire of the Vanities with a jus of Fatal Attraction and a garnish of RoboCop and Wall Street.
The Independent - 27 September
RICHARD JOHNSON at the American Southern regional restaurant ASHBELLS, London W11
The big bad flavours just didn't materialise. There was no taste of pecan wood. The mechanically chopped strips of pulled pork looked mean. And the special barbecue sauce was more a colour than a taste. I know that South Carolina is the sort of place where the secrets of your sauce are protected by state law. ("Forget about the Food and Drug Administration, we don't have to tell anyone what's in it", etc). But I doubt anyone would want this recipe. I could have created something a lot better at home.