The Sunday Times, 19 August
Kate Spicer at Wahaca, London

My first experience of Mexican food came in the late 1980s. I was 19 and in thrall to a short and utterly corrupting liaison with a much older man, a comedian in his early thirties. Once, after a day lying in bed watching him watch himself on video, he took me to a burrito joint in Islington, repeatedly telling me how much he loved Mexican food. I remember thinking that it was stodgy and horrible – although refried beans, guacamole, tortillas and tacos certainly had their place in soaking up the copious quantities of alcohol he was so expert at putting away.
Whaaca – Sunday Times review in full >>

The Times, 18 August

First, I introduced the meat/fish score to my restaurant rating system to encourage the industry to adopt a more sustainable approach to the sourcing of its ingredients, since when organic or free-range or locally reared, or at least vaguely respectable meat and fish has begun to feature more often than not on the menus of decent restaurants. Then I went after water, scoring restaurants 10 out of 10 for the exclusive provision of tap water or sustainably-minded bottled versions such as Belu. That’s moving along nicely now, with the makers of Evian, Perrier and San Pellegrino on their financial knees, screaming for mercy, and the world water ecology beginning to turn back from the brink of apocalypse. And so now, because there’s no campaign like a new campaign, I’m turning my mind to hand-driers.
Geale’s – Times review in full >>

The Telegraph, 18 August
QI at The Vineyard at Stockcross, Newbury

Earlier this year, The Vineyard at Stockcross was awarded two Michelin stars. It's interesting to speculate on just how well the owner, Sir Peter Michael, would have rubbed along with the Michelin brothers, André and Edouard. All three were industrial entrepreneurs: Sir Peter made his fortune in electronics and the Michelins turned a rubber-ball company into a global tyre giant. All cultivated serious extra-curricular interests: Sir Peter founded Classic FM, established a winery in California and a brace of hotels in Britain, while Le Guide Michelin has grown to become Europe's most powerful arbiter of culinary taste. It's a shame, then, that the institutions founded by these great widget-makers-turned-gastronomes take themselves so seriously.
The Vineyard - Telegraph review in full >>

The Independent, 19 August
Terry Durack at London’s Pinchito Tapas

Something is missing. I can feel it the minute I walk in the door of Pinchito, the new pinchos bar from the team behind Brighton's award-winning Pinxto People. There are no pinchos, or pinxtos, the bite-size snacky things on bread that are the Basque form of tapas. Not a one, not even a little pinchito.
Pinchito Tapas - Independent review in full >>

Are You Ready to Order?
Jan Moir at London’s Bloody French

Not a very clever name for a restaurant, non? There are 270,000 registered French citizens living in London, a number swelled by the millions of French tourists who visit the capital every year. Bloody French can forget about most of them phoning up to make a reservation, or skipping though the door wreathed in smiles, their wallets flapping open as they beg the chef to take as many of their hard-earned euros as he wishes, for the dubious pleasure of sampling his filet de bar or tatin de carottes a la marocaine. After all, not many of us would rush to a Parisian restaurant called English Pigs, would we?
Bloody French - Ready to Order review in full >>