14 February
TRACEY MACLEOD retreats to the countryside to enjoy the kitchen delights of BARNSLEY HOUSE, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire
[The specialities] included two of the Walnut Tree's best-known dishes, Lady Llanover's salted duck, the breast sliced and served cold with pickled kumquat and gooseberry, and vincisgrassi, a "white lasagne" made with Parma ham, porcini and truffles. Both lived up to their reputation, the vincisgrassi, in particular, a rich and intensely savoury sensation. Marinated fennel brought out the character of a plate of silky home-cured bresaola, while crisp belly pork was a masterclass of texture, its surface crunch yielding to a mouthful of melting sweetness, echoed by the accompanying mustard fruits.
(Four courses, excluding wine and service, £46 per head)
15 February
AA GILL is less than impressed with LUCIO in London's Fulham Road
I had calf's liver. The waiter asked how I'd like it. I managed to avoid saying "out of a cow", and said I'd like it the way the chef is pleased to serve it. With hindsight, I should have said "out of a cow", because what arrived was a remarkably faithful imitation of sheep's liver, fried to dessication.
15 February
MATTHEW NORMAN sees stars (well, a star) at Dover Street restaurant ALLORO in London W1
The Michelin inspectors' failure to award Alloro a star means they must be blind, frankly, because this Venetian joint is an absolute cracker in every respect. I went for the tagliatelle with fresh tomato sauce and basil, always a true test for an Italian chef, despite its apparent simplicity, because everything about it - pasta, quality of tomatoes, consistency of sauce and seasoning - must be right or it will bore the socks off you. Here it was glorious - zinging with freshness.
(Dinner for one with coffee and a half-bottle of house wine, £41)
17 February
GUY DIMOND samples the precise cooking at ALIMENTE at the Phene Arms in Chelsea, London
Chef André Wessman has worked in some of Stockholm's best restaurants, and has brought a precision to Alimente that makes it quite different to the usual gastropub grub. There are gratuitous appetisers (pumpkin soup), foams (of lime, accompanying a scallop starter), and elaborate touches (Parma ham rolled into a "cigar" and crisped). But the core of the cooking is still safely in the modern European mainstream. A starter of "lime-smoked" fillet of lamb was tender and juicy, served with slow-roasted tomatoes and jazzed up with sage and capers vinaigrette. Black sea bass, a fish of US Atlantic coastal waters, was seared and served with yellow beetroot. (Two courses at dinner, £21; three courses, £28)
14 February
MATTHEW FORT finds an unlikely, retro-French style at work at LA TOQUE in Beeston outside Nottingham
The quail was tender and juicy. The lemon sole, an easy fish to reduce to unappetising mush, was firm and fresh. However, technique is not the same as taste - that is, taste as in what goes with what, taste as in telling combinations. There were no glaring mismatches, no bonkers combinations. Flavours were comfortable with each other, more so than the menu rubric suggested. But there was something distinctly 1970s-ish about the cooking and plating arrangements - protein piled on a central base, decorative molehills of garnishes at various points around, big sauce. (Dinner, two courses, £18.95; three courses, £24.95)