The Daily Telegraph, 6 December
Jasper Gerard visits The Pass Restaurant, South Lodge Hotel, near Horsham, West Sussex
Beware novelty restaurants. If staff break into arias, attempt the can-can or act out murder mysteries, chances are they aren't making much of a song and dance about the food. Restaurants are currently serving novelty as their main course in a desperate bid to stand out. I've been hearing about a sushi bar in West Hollywood where you can eat off a naked woman, perhaps in homage to that Seventies book Rude Food (don't tell Gordon Ramsay). Having been forced to dine in the dark and on a bed, I've narrowly avoided visiting The Kitchen, a "new culinary experience" in Fulham where you can cook your own dinner. I'm braced for a restaurant where you don't eat at all. It will, no doubt, promise an "exciting new dining concept, completely food-free".
The Pass – review in full>>
The Independent on Sunday, 7 December
Terry Durack visits TerraVina, Netley Marsh, Hampshire
Don't ask me how I feel until I have opened the wine list, because I won't know. Am I Lively & Fruity? Not at the moment. Intense & Powerful? Never. Smooth & Nutty? Not tonight. Suave & Exuberant? Yes, that's me... and a glass of something Supple & Fragrant for my wife, thank you. "Tell me what you drink and I'll tell you who you are" could replace charades as the new country-house game. Certainly it's the in-house entertainment at TerraVina, an award-winning boutique hotel-cum-country house on the edge of the New Forest created by Gerard and Nina Basset, two of the founders of the groundbreaking Hotel Du Vin group
TerraVina – review in full>>
The Sunday Times, 7 December
AA Gill visits Trishna, London W1
Trishna is one of the best restaurants in the world. Book a table now, and a flight to poor bloody Bombay. It is the venerably packed favourite of a city that eats with its flies open, with unparalleled brio. Bombay really, really loves its food. Loves it dribbling and rich and fatty, sweet and sharp and often and in handfuls. I was taken to Trishna there by the venerable great goddess of Indian food, Camellia Punjabi. The speciality is pepper crabs, dripping, messy, all hands on and claws off, all arms, legs, teeth and tongues. It’s . . . crustacealingus.
Trishna – review in full>>
The Observer, 7 December
Jay Rayner visits The Ellington, Leeds
Everything you need to know about the Ellington in Leeds can be found on page 862 of the Larousse Gastronomique (old edition). For there, in the finest and most baroque of detail, is the recipe for my starter of Quenelle de brochet à la Lyonnaise, or poached quenelles of pike mousse with a béchamel sauce. And what a thing of beauty that recipe is: the making of the panada (a flour and egg paste for thickening), the filleting and smoothing of the pike flesh over ice, the chilling of the blender for the mixing-in of the eggs and the pike and the panada, and so on. Read a recipe like that and you could be forgiven for shaking your head and sucking your false teeth and muttering: 'Ooh, they don't make 'em like that any more.' But they do, you know - at the Ellington, which in its own sweet, quiet way is proving itself a shrine to a certain kind of classicism that I thought had gone out of fashion. Those of you who, like me, have a soft spot for this sort of thing should pop along now for a little light worshipping.
The Ellington – review in full>>
areyoureadytoorder.com
Jan Moir visits Bocca di Lupo, London W1
There many, many good things about Bocca di Lupo. This morning’s delivery of fresh porcini. Our cheerful and funny waiter. A big glass vase on the bar, stacked full of glossy artichokes. The way diners can order small or large portions of every dish, enabling them to try lots of things. Best of all, however, is having lunch at the big marble counter right in front of the kitchen. Eating one delicious dish as you watch the chefs cook your next delicious dish is restaurant heaven for the giddy of mind and greedy of heart. S and I share a plate of crispy fritto di mare - a fresh, sweet tangle of soft shell crab, prawns and squid, each frilled with a tempura-type batter – as our next course is prepared before our eyes.
Bocca di Lupo – review in full>>
By Janet Harmer