The Scotsman, 5 November
Gillian Glover enjoys "brilliant" mains at Burts hotel in Melrose, but is less enamoured with the starters
Apart from soup, most of the starters were cold - carpaccio of beef and a flaked duck salad both appealed, but San Fran man wanted Teviot Smokery salmon (tagged with a £3.50 supplement) and I had to discover what on earth cured beetroot salmon could be. This was served with two perfect little mouthfuls of crunchy tempura fried mussels, but otherwise remained a mystery. How or when the salmon met the beetroot was not clear as there was no beetroot colour or flavour. The only problem was, it tasted of absolutely nothing. We stayed on the Scottish theme for our main courses, too. Roast Highland venison for me, and roasted rack of Border lamb for the invader. The lamb was perfectly pink and tender. Superb. But the venison was a fraction better: richly flavoured and melting as a reproachful look from Bambi. The best venison dish I have eaten in a long time. (Dinner for two, excluding drinks, £67)
The Observer, 6 November
Jay Rayner finds big, earthy flavours of rustic French cuisine in Leeds at No 3 York Place
We, though, were big boys on a mission to lunch, and went for the carte with starters at around £10 and mains in the teens. So there were poached oysters, with a spool of noodles below, and a generous spoonful of caviar on top, dressed with a sweet and sour sauce - which was a lighter broth, punched up with tamarind, than that phrase suggests. Scallops came seared with a cauliflower purée - curiously this season's must-have ingredient - and a sparing amount of a tart caper dressing. There was also a terrine of smoked mackerel, which suggested a willingness to use the cheap but tasty ingredients. I didn't get to try it but it looked pretty. And then those main courses, including (deep breath): braised pig's trotter stuffed with ham hock, black pudding and chicken mousseline, potato purée, buttered spinach, ragoût of baby onions, fumet of truffles. It was, I think, like one of those pointillist pictures which makes no sense close up, but every sense at a distance. (Meal for two with wine and service, £120)
The Sunday Times, 6 November
AA Gill encourages the Ritz in London to join the other grand hotel kitchens in town and move into the noughties
The menu here is stoutly pre-Cool Britannia, a mix of haughty French, smartened up Italian and yeoman English. The one concession to this modernity is a notice at the bottom of the page which says that items in bold print are organic and certified by the Soil Association. I noticed that not a single item was in bold and I rather warmed to them for this dry little bon mot. Every other grand hotel kitchen in London has gone modern and is the better for it. Only here do they keep up with the white-glove butler service and the crpe suzette trolley. I really wanted it to be a marvellous gravy boat of angelic nostalgia. It's not. We started with oysters that were the best I've eaten this season. Plum, ozone-fresh, nicely chilled natives. Then, I had a risotto of Jabugo ham and seared scallops that had a boiled piggy flavour that oinked everything else off the plate. In texture and execution, it was unlike any risotto known to Italy; more like a savoury rice pudding with sausage sauce. (Dinner for four, "£600-odd" )
Time Out, 9 November
Guy Dimond applauds the launch of Iqbal Wahhab's new restaurant Roast in London's Borough Market
Roast specialises in British food. Not the British food of motorway service stations and school dinners, but of top quality produce, imaginatively and carefully prepared. Our meal started well, then got better. Crab cake came packed with well-textured crab and chickweed - that's right, chickweed, which has a flavour resembling raw spinach. Equally off-beat was a flavoursome, oaty white pudding with parsnip mash mixed into it, topped with a perfectly fried egg and juicy Ayrshire bacon. As the name of the restaurant suggests, spit-roasts are a forte, from spatchcocked partridge served with braised red cabbage and cobnut butter, to suckling pig with black pudding and roast apple. (Rating: five stars out of six. Meal for two with wine and service, about £110)