Bloomberg, 28 March
Richard Vines visits Inamo, 134-136 Wardour Street, London W1
Here’s a way to overcome staffing problems: Inamo has replaced waitresses with a computer. Instead of young women (or men, depending on your gender and orientation) who laugh at your jokes, spot when your glass needs refilling and, if you are very lucky, pretend to flirt with you while taking your order, this fusion restaurant in London’s Soho district offers the unfeeling efficiency of electronic interactivity where a smile is a :) and a friend is someone you know on Facebook. Fortunately, it isn’t all just a gimmick to distract from lackluster Asian food. You can eat well at Inamo, even if it is one of the few restaurants where a mouse might be welcome and no one views it as rude if you click your fingers for the bill.
Inamo - review in full >>
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Evening Standard, 1 April
Fay Maschler visits Ba Shan, 24 Romilly Street, London W1
There is an advertisement for some bank or other (who cares which one) shown at the movies where the plot, if it can be called that, is the visiting bank executive’s necessary understanding of the local customs of far-flung places. At the newly opened Ba Shan in Romilly Street the hero of this ad would not have done as I did and ask why the restaurant diagonally opposite called Bar Shu (in the same ownership) was closed. The waitress looked at the floor. I stumbled on. “Am I right in thinking there was a fire?” She continued to look at the floor but also sideways. “Was it a problem with the extraction?” She quietly left our side.
Ba Shan - review in full >>
Metro, 1 April
Marina O’Loughlin visits The Vault in London’s Vauxhall
It was in Hong Kong that I first encountered the underground restaurant, semi-secret, semi-legal rooms up rickety flights of stairs or down dark alleys where you eat a selection of weirdnesses and the hostess might sing some Chinese opera. Now the recession has thrown up our own versions of the restaurant shebeen.
The Vault – review in full >>
Time Out, 2 April
Guy Dimond visits Double Club, 7 Torrens Street, London EC1
Double Club’s an unlikely hit. It serves ‘French and Congolese’ food, and is a ‘temporary’ restaurant – which sets me thinking of food stalls at festivals. Yet the bar’s packed every night, and the wait for a dinner table is longer than an MP's expenses claim form – table turning every two hours has become the norm. So why is it so instantly popular? The secret is that Double Club has attained that elusive quality – cool. One of the many people behind it is Mourad Mazouz of Momo and Sketch restaurants. Double Club consciously sets out to attract a similar, design-savvy, looking-over-the-shoulder fashion crowd to the target customers at his other places. Carsten Höller, the artist behind the looping slides in the Tate Modern a couple of years ago, is also involved, and Double Club is even described as an ‘art project’. A bit pretentious perhaps, but the design is certainly striking.
Double Club – review in full >>
By Janet Harmer
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