Standards of service at Roux at the Landau 'fail to meet expectations'

Michel Jnr and Albert Roux's latest restaurant venture, Roux at the Landau at London's Langham hotel, doesn't live up to the standards of service one would expect, according to Hugo Rifkind writing in The Times.

Filling in for Giles Coren, Rifkind enjoys the food at the restaurant, the first collaborative venture between the father and son team in nearly 20 years. But he finds the front of house "surprisingly weird", especially considering Roux's recent TV series, Michel Roux's Service.

He says: "The table was set for four, even though I'd called up to tell them we'd only be three, which seemed to send the waiters into an uncomprehending loop, incapable of even acknowledging our presence while we remained next to an empty chair... I'm not kidding; we were honestly there for 45 minutes before we even had a drink."

Meanwhile The Guardian's John Lanchester says although right on the pulse as far as culinary trends go, the menu at North Road is hit and miss. "When Hruskova is on form, you genuinely feel you're getting a glimpse of something new... The pleasures aren't obvious ones. This leaves a lot of room for underwhelmedness when it doesn't go exactly right," he says.

The Independent's John Walsh complains that the food at the restaurant at the Royal Academy seems to be an afterthought to the décor and advises the chef to visit some decent suppliers.

The Telegraph's Matthew Norman has a long, confusing meal at L'Etranger in London and vows to remain a stranger to the restaurant until Doomsday at the earliest, while The Observer's Jay Rayner says despite being run by women, Opus in Birmingham is a macho restaurant lacking in guiding passion or principle.

Finally, Yotam Ottolenghi gets a more positive review from the Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell, who says the chef, author and delicatessen owner has struck gold with his new restaurant Nopi in London's Soho.

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.

By Kerstin Kühn

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