The Guardian, 10 May 2008
Matthew Norman visits Divo, London SW1

So powerful is the grip of atavistic loyalty as it stretches down the ages and across the seas that I could not bring myself to review the Ukrainian restaurant Divo when it opened last autumn. Especially not in light of its receiving some of the most monstrous reviews a central London newcomer has earned since a stupendously dreadful clip joint, W'Sens (the least pretentious thing about it was the name), opened in the same grand building near Piccadilly a few years earlier. Divo's critical mauling raised the intriguing question of whether a restaurant can inherit the traits of its predecessor on the site, much as recipients of transplanted organs are said to exhibit the donor's characteristics. Six months on, it seems the Odessa catering firm that owns the place took note.

Divo – Guardian review in full>>

The Independent, 10 May
Tracey MacLeod visits Royal China Club, London W1

It's Sunday, just after midday, and the queue is already spilling out of the door. The lobby is jammed with a cross-section of Londoners; old gents leaning on sticks, elegant Indian ladies, American brunchers glowing from their power-walks, Chinese families of all descriptions. As the numbers swell, voices rise, tickets are waved, small children trampled underfoot. How good can the food here be, that these otherwise rational people put themselves through this ordeal?

Royal China Club – Independent review in full>>

The Observer, 11 May
Jay Rayner visits Bord’eaux, London W1

I wish I had been at the meeting where they decided the name for this restaurant, if only so I could go around slapping people, shouting: 'Oi! No!' It's such a small thing, isn't it, that apostrophe between the 'Bord' and the 'eaux'. Apparently it is meant to suggest a balance between land and sea, or some such other rubbish. All it makes me think is that somebody has been seriously overthinking this. Bord'eaux - and that's the only time I will deign to type the name - is meant to be a Parisian-style brasserie serving rustic food.

Bord’eaux – Observer review in full>>

The Sunday Telegraph, 11 May
Zoe Williams visits The Bath Priory, Bath

The actual hardware of the Bath Priory - its green, green lawns and traditional heavy drapes with deep fringes and all-round plushness - is well done, though I have to admit slightly comical. You can't do English Country House properly unless you take yourself pretty seriously; but you start taking yourself seriously and, before you know it, everything is maroon and everyone's whispering. Within those parameters of weirdness, this is about the best executed Total Englishness I've encountered, and I say that despite the fact that the chef seems to have some kind of eating disorder.

The Bath Priory – Sunday Telegraph review in full>>

areyourreadytoorder.co.uk
Jan Moir visits Vanilla Black, London EC4

Vegetarian restaurants are like London buses. They’re big, red and bendy, and you need an oyster to touch in. No, start again. Vegetarian restaurants are like buses. You wait ages for a new one, then two come along at once, both keen to tempt customers with 101 interesting new ways with nuts and a bill that makes you think: how can a few carrots and a bit of filo pastry be so darned expensive? A few weeks ago we went to Saf, a new raw vegan restaurant in Shoreditch that was intriguing and confounding in equal measure (review elsewhere on this site). While their beetroot salads and organic cocktails were delicious, Saf’s devotion to all things vegan could make customers feel as if they were joining a cult instead of having dinner.

Vanilla Black – areyoureadytoorder.co.uk review in full>>

By Janet Harmer