The Sunday Times, 8 June
AA Gill at Cha Cha Moon
I did take a solemn oath to you all that I would never write syrupy, boiled-suet peregrinations about the twins. But anybody who’s read any 10th-century Icelandic saga, and I assume that’s most of us, knows that oaths are there to be deoathed, or unoathed, or reconfigured, in a manner that is both committed to maintaining the original integrity of purpose and, at the same time, takes into consideration current practices and the changing social environment. Actually, if you deoathed in Dark Ages Iceland, someone called Yossa Acknipple would come and cut off your legs at the knees and kick your stumps till you bled to death while reciting 17 generations of his forefathers.
Cha Cha Moon - Sunday Times review in full >>
The Sunday Telegraph, 8 June
Zoe Williams visits London’s Pho
Pho bills itself as London's 'first specialist Vietnamese street-food restaurant', but since they opened in Clerkenwell in 2005 I don't see how they can possibly justify this. There's been a restaurant called Hoa Viet on Camberwell Church Street for as long as I can remember, and the one time I quizzed the wizened sage-owner about the name, he leaned in and said, 'Hoa, food. Viet, Vietnam,' and stalked off. Fantastic food. Visit him. But return we to Great Titchfield Street, where the second Pho opened not so long ago.
Pho – Sunday Telegraph review in full >>
The Independent on Sunday, 8 June
Terry Durack at Iznik Kaftan, London
The Turks, as every Turk will tell you, invented gastronomy. In their minds, their cooking ranks with French and Chinese as one of the world's three great cuisines. Without them, we would not have yoghurt, sherbet, baklava, Turkish delight or Turkish coffee. They also gave the world the open-air restaurant, brought to Vienna in the 17th century from the shores of the Bosphorus, and kick-started the Parisian café scene in 1699, when the Turkish ambassador introduced Parisian society to the joys of coffee drinking.
Iznik Kaftan - Independent review in full >>
The Guardian, 7 June
Matthew Norman at Launceston Place
If its new owners have one particular fond fantasy for Launceston Place, it must be a blue plaque above the door bearing the legend, "Diana ate here. A lot." So she did, in frequency if not in portion size, even though fusty, chintzy LP was always the Queen Mum to its stablemate Kensington Place's media-savvy people's princess a mile or so to the north.
Launceston Place - Guardian review in full >>
Are You Ready to Order?
Jan Moir visits newly relaunched Quo Vadis, London
Where are you going? Where are you going? It is an apt enough question for this re-re-re-re-relaunched Soho restaurant, which opened on Monday after a long period of neglect that resulted in it desperately needing a sprinkle of stardust. Certainly, magic is in the air at the moment! The Evening Standard managed to review the restaurant before it was even serving meals, which is quite a catering miracle. Perhaps not quite as miraculous though as the Quo Vadis summer pudding which, like a multi-millionaire eunuch, is all bread and no berries. But wait! I am getting ahead of myself.
Quo Vadis - Ready to Order review in full >>