The Observer, 9 April
Jay Rayner appreciates the simplicity and value of the fine food at Dine, London EC4
My main course displayed the same keen interest in dark winter flavours. There was a generous slab of sautéd calf's sweetbread with one luscious pearly langoustine and two slices of cep. A slick of meaty jus and that was it. It takes real self-confidence to plate up so little and make so much from it.
The same instinct for simplicity was shown in a thick boned-out steak of sea bass, cut through the fish (rather than as a fillet), with spears of chicory cooked until they were falling apart. (Meal for two, including wine and service, £70-£100)
The Scotsman, 8 April
Emma Cowing examines the evolution of a classic high-street institution, the Bank Restaurant, Crieff, Perthshire
The scallops in coral sauce were declared a roaring success by my father - plump, pillowy, tangily unusual - while my game terrine with bacon was bursting with flavour and exactly the right chunkiness and consistency.
The main courses failed to disappoint. My Glen Artney venison was flavoursome without being overbearing, the seabass my mother went for was delicate without being bland, while the fillet of Scottish beef my dad tucked into came swimming in delicious Madeira sauce - and, he said, perhaps the best dauphinoise potatoes he has ever tasted. (Dinner for three, £61.35, excluding drinks)
The Daily Telegraph, 8 April
Jan Moir eats at the "wall-to-wall depressing" Island hotel, Tresco, the Scilly Isles
You eat in a net-curtained dining room heated to the kind of tropical levels normal in an old folks' home, served by staff who mostly don't speak English.
The breakfast cereals are laid out at the back of the room as we tuck into baked spinach and oyster tart with glazed lemon sabayon; chargrilled sirloin of Devonshire beef; and best end of lamb roasted with olive tapenade and Parmesan cheese for no good culinary reason I can think of.
The food is beyond grim; cack-handed pastry, tough and tasteless beef, moribund lamb, salads dressed with cheap and nasty oil, and a pudding that appears practically radioactive. (Dinner for two, excluding drinks and service, £76)
The Independent, 8 April
John Walsh is unimpressed by Dune, the new venture on Osia's former site, in London's Haymarket
I'm not sure when I finally lost patience with Dune - when the waiter began spraying a nearby table with lemon-zest disinfectant? When Nessun Dorma was followed on the hi-fi by a bleating Panis Angelicus? When both serving staff disappeared into a little cubby hole for a (gloomy) chat? When the poached pears, clearly poached a good while earlier, were taken out of the fridge and dished up? When the bill came to considerably more than you'd pay in The Ivy?
The Times, 8 April
Ginny Dougary at the very traditional Hungry Monk in Jevington, East Sussex
The mains were an unequivocal hit: straightforward, honest and with none of the tarty tricksiness of that fusion number.
I had crisp breast of Norfolk duckling, which was a swooning pleasure of melting flesh and crunchiness, with a small serving of cassoulet spiced up with the addition of chorizo.
The Sussex lamb was pink and juicy and had an ace sauce; a hint of a Moroccan lift from harissa, good chicken stock, subtly laced with Marsala and balsamic vinegar.
Neither of us cared for the wodge of polenta dotted with red peppers; there being a very good reason, in my opinion, why polenta was one of the shorter-lived crazes of the last decade.
The Independent on Sunday, 9 April
Terry Durak eats Spanish tapas at the classy, cool but friendly Pintxo People, Brighton
Chef Miguel Jessen, who worked at the two-Michelin-starred El Amparo in Madrid, cooks in the I'm-bored-with-this-what-can-I-do-to-it? modern Spanish style. So a list of share plates runs from pickled rabbit "gayoza" with mustard ice-cream, to wild-pork fillet with pineapple and lentil curry.
Jessen first sends out a baby Martini glass layered with foie gras, coffee and mango purée that actually makes me wonder why foie gras is not served with mango purée and coffee more often. (Score: 15/20. Lunch and dinner for two about £50 in the bar, £85 in the restaurant, including drinks and service)