The Daily Telegraph, 5 July
Jasper Gerard visits Jamie’s Italian, Oxford
It is ages since an apparently carefree Jamie Oliver and his band were Dancing in the Moonlight. Nowadays, he is singing to a banker's beat. He might wear jeans hanging off his bottom, but in a deeper sense the Naked Chef is clad in City chalk stripes. Television shows, cookery books and campaigns have made him an ethically-responsible multinational corporation. Even his scooter - emblem of carefree, youthful loft-living with gorgeous friends swinging by for bacon sarnies - has become a lucrative logo, as identifiable as a McDonald's twin arch.
Jamie’s Italian – Daily Telegraph review in full >>
The Guardian, 5 July
Matthew Norman visits Maze Grill, London W1
The best thing about Maze Grill, at least for those of us who are unwilling to pay £120 for a small steak, is the non-view. From nowhere within this first-class traveller's airport lounge of a room is it possible, without the aid of a bendy telescope, to see the American embassy. Apologies to all concerned if that appears to damn the enterprise - in which the money is supplied by Gordon Ramsay and the cheffing by the immensely talented Jason Atherton, who made his name at the magnificent Maze on the other side of the front door - with the faintest of praise. There are good things here jostling with some irritants.
Maze Grill – The Guardian review in full >>
The Times, 5 July
Giles Coren visits Cha Cha Moon, London W1
It really does upset me when a famous restaurateur opens up the first outlet of a new cheapo chain and invites all the critics to special private meals before the official opening, and then plies them with dishes biked in from his celebrated upscale eateries round the corner, or has food cooked specially for them on-site by his own private chefs, so that they write reviews that are wholly, wholly wrong and misleading, and the place ends up thriving, instead of closing as it would in a just world, within the week.
Cha Cha Moon – The Times review in full >>
The Observer, 6 July
Jay Rayner visits Lemonia, London NW1
For the past couple of years the family holidays have been spent in Greece, a country with which, gastronomically, I have a love/hate relationship. At first I love it. Then I hate it. I like a good, creamy non-DayGlo tarama and a basket of fresh hot bread with which to shovel it away. I think a bright, spiky tzatziki is a thing of beauty, and I barely need to tell you how happy bits of chargrilled animal on sticks make me. The thing is, they only make me happy for about three days. On day four I open the menu and sigh. By day five I am repeating the famous dictum by the American food writer Jeffrey Steingarten: never take advice on matters culinary from a people who 'pickle their cheese and put tree sap in their wine'.
Lemonia – The Observer review in full >>
areyoureadytoorder.co.uk
Jan Moir visits Scott’s, London W1
Whatever it is that Scott's has got, people want a lot of it. Since the day it opened in the dark December of 2006, this latest incarnation of Scott's fish restaurant has been an absolute smash. Celebrities and politicians love it; the rich and famous forever clamour to punish the parquet and their wallets in this sleek Mayfair outpost. On one celebrated evening earlier this year, Scott's diners included Tony and Cherie Blair and the topless model Jordan with her husband, Peter Andre. Not together, sadly, although this odd culture clash featuring crass exploiter of dubious artificially inflated assets (Tony) alongside big girly blouse (Peter) illustrates the central truth about Scott's. Everyone wants to come here.
Scott’s – Areyoureadytoorder review in full >>