US-based French chef Jean George Vongerichten's astronomic prices have made their way across the pond at Spice Market but sadly the great food has turned to mush, says Jay Rayner.
The three-Michelin-starred chef's new restaurant at the W London Leicester Square serves a menu that works on "that carefully calibrated scale between awful and mediocre" according to the Observer's food critic.
He says: "Far better versions of all these dishes can be found at a third of the price elsewhere in London. As we left I consoled myself with a single thought: this is one restaurant I will never have to visit again."
Writing in the Independent, John Walsh says uncertainty characterises everything about Bennett's Oyster Bar on Battersea Square, south London. "Bennett's also has a breakfast menu, and bakes cakes for its teatime clientele. But hang on, it also has a special Store, selling wine (which you can drink at your table for a small corkage fee), fruit and veg, and flowers. I'm surprised they haven't thrown in a multiplex cinema, a bouncy castle and a boutique, as well."
Meanwhile the Sunday Times' AA Gill finds honest, good ingredients, made with pride and served with nonchalance at Chabrot Bistro d'Amis, a new restaurant in London's Knightsbridge from French chef Thierry Laborde.
Zoe Williams of the Sunday Telegraph likes the food and beautiful people at Brawn, the second restaurant venture by the team behind Terroirs, while The Guardian's John Lanchester is impressed by the Turkish food served at Sheesh, Chigwell, Essex, housed in a former pub now owned by Sir Alan Sugar.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market deserves to bomb >>
Tim Tolley to leave Spice Market just weeks after opening >>
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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