The Independent, 17 May
John Walsh visits The Bath Priory, Bath

It's so long since I dined in a country-house hotel, I'd almost forgotten their qualities: the dust of centuries rising from fat velvet cushions, the Miss Havisham curtains, the leather-bound menus, the raised eyebrows when you ask for a second apéritif before dinner... Bath Priory features some of these delights, but transcends them in considerable style. It's a small, Gothic mansion dating from 1835, built with the town's honey-coloured stone, on land once owned by the Priory of Bath Abbey: there's a cloister-like tranquillity about it still.
The Bath Priory – Independent review in full >>

The Times, 17 May
Giles Coren visits The Glasshouse, Kew

Every spring, when the gardening issue comes round, they tell me to go and review Petersham Nurseries. They told me when it was newly opened and unknown and when more people would have put their money on Skye Gyngell being a weird cable channel (maybe devoted to Morris dancing) than a chef. They told me when it was at the top of its form, well-established, and coming top in all the meaningless lists and winning all the meaningless awards. They carried on telling me after people began to say it was actually maybe a bit expensive for what it was. And they told me to review it again this year. But, as you will notice from the restaurant named at the top of the page, I haven’t.
The Glasshouse – Times review in full >>

The Observer, 18 May
Jay Rayner visits The Dogs, Edinburgh

The last time I saw Dave Ramsden he was running a restaurant in Leith which looked like a cross between a Swedish women's prison and a gay brothel. To be honest, I've never spent time in either, more's the pity, but I've got a vivid imagination, combined with some dodgy cinematic references, and I'm certain if you mated those two venues the result would have been (Fitz)Henry: all varnished wood, flounces of material, and dark brooding ceilings. Ramsden, who is toothpick thin and shaven headed, has a voice so deep it seems to begin its life somewhere around his gonads. He suited the place beautifully.
The Dogs – Observer review in full >>

The Sunday Telegraph, 18 May
Zoe Williams visits Launceston Place, London W8

I used to work for the most hateful man, who every day took his lunch at Launceston Place, and every morning would ring up and say, “May I have table three, for two, for one?” and the maître d' would blow a gale of laughter you could hear right across the corridor. Every sodding day. Its tired old cushions and peeling beige paintwork were supposed to be a “witty” foil to the Kensington postcode, I think - it was a faux country-house hotbed of ghastly English sycophancy, and if they'd fed me the tongues of larks who had died of exhaustion while singing my praises, I still wouldn't have been able to stomach it. So the short version is, the revamp definitely hasn't made it worse.
Lanceston Place – Sunday Telegraph review in full >>

areyourreadytoorder.co.uk
Jan Moir visits Pavlos Fish Taverna, Agnondas, Skopelos

Oh, the Euro is a cruel mistress this summer! And have you seen the price of octopus? A dozen or so years ago, it was always one of the cheapest meze items on any Greek taverna menu. In fact, greedy S used to regard octopus the way a greedy octopus regards small crustaceans; as a cheap and tasty filler until something nicer, like an unsuspecting lobster or perhaps a red mullet or two, wanders along. Now it is one of the most expensive dishes on the menu. What happened? At Pavlos fish taverna, situated on the pebbled fringe of a beautiful green bay on Skopelos island, octopus grilled over charcoal costs more than the pickled fish, the sun-dried fish, the tarama and the smoky aubergine puree put together.
Pavlos – areyoureadytoorder.co.uk review in full >>

By Janet Harmer

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