The Guardian, 28 June
Matthew Norman visits Number One Café, London, W10

If there is one question that people ask more than any other when they learn what I do for a living, it's ... Actually, before we go on, honesty demands a correction: there is only one question people ever ask, and that is a variant of, "Ah, that's fortunate, because my Afrikaner cousin is over from Geneva at the moment and I was wondering if you could recommend somewhere that does a decent biltong fondu? I don't want to spend more than £7.50 a head, and it has to be within 45 yards of Oswestry station."
Number One Café – Guardian review in full >>

The Independent, 28 June
John Walsh visits The Botanist, London SW1

When you first visit The Botanist, you think to yourself: here is a place that needs absolutely no help from a restaurant critic. You can feel (and see and hear) its howling grooviness, its 24-carat trendiosity, from 100 yards away. It radiates heat. It palpitates with excitement. It is the hippest place in town since Sir Hippesley Hipman opened a hip-replacement clinic, to cries of hip-hip-hooray. It is, indeed, full of Hooray Henries and Henriettas. The nouveau Sloane Rangers stride in and out of The Botanist as if they own the place (a sure sign of its success) and crowd along the pavement in braying herds. The men are burnished by suntans recently acquired in Ibiza, and wear blue jeans with frayed hems; the ladies mostly favour a Mariella Frostrup blonde bob, and wear cream tops to render their pale skin even paler.
The Botanist – Independent review in full>>

The Observer, 29 June
Jay Rayner visits Tom Illic, London SW8

Tom Ilic is not a versatile chef. He will never thrill you with his witty take on the flavours of Greece. He will never serve you a plate of food inspired by the noble traditions of Uzbekistan. And he would probably rather barbecue his own gonads than dribble ponzu or miso over anything. He cooks in the French idiom and in a very specific way. He does big, deep flavours. He loves braising bits of animals and serving them with the sort of sauces whose flavours stay with you for days, half taste, half memory. He is a cook for a northern European winter. In short, Ilic has almost no breadth, but he does have extreme, ocean rift-like depth. This, to me, is a very good thing. I get suspicious of chefs who, after years of bourgeois French cookery, suddenly slip in a little bit of Thai because they've been there on their holidays. I'm pretty sure I could recognise a plate of Ilic's food blind. That has to be a recommendation.
Tom Illic – Observer review in full>>

The Sunday Telegraph, 29 June
Zoe Williams visits Bingham, Richmond, Surrey

I loved Bingham, a restaurant in a boutique hotel, as soon as I walked in, for its tang of the 1990s. A similar restaurant opening now would have such a high finish it could be anywhere, from London to Hong Kong. This place belongs to a more innocent time, where you could tell Richmond even from Twickenham, probably, and you could buy fancy velvet furniture and shimmery wallpaper without necessarily having to rip out all the skirting boards. I started off in a glow of approbation, and this lasted me right up until pud.
Bingham – Telegraph review in full>>

The Sunday Times, 29 June
AA Gill visits Quo Vadis, London W1

This week’s restaurant was going to be L’Autre Pied, but it turns out someone has already done it, and we have a strictish double- indemnity rule here, which is bloody lucky for the Other Foot, because they gave me two of the most tongue-scrapingly repellent dishes ever: fish in a custard-sweet sauce and banana soup. But we’re not going to do them. We’re going to do Quo Vadis. Which, actually, we have done before, but now it’s under new management. This was an old Soho Italian restaurant, famous for flambéeing everything. They’d set fire to your date if she were boring. And Karl Marx worked upstairs, which is now a cocktail bar and private club. Such is the irony of the march of political philosophy. Quo Vadis is Latin for “Where are you going?” Or the more common Soho translation of, “Going my way, dearie?”
Quo Vadis – Sunday Times review in full>>

By Janet Harmer

Caterer Eats Out
Check out the latest dining deals or book a table at 100's of restaurants at Caterer Eats Out here