What's on the Menu? – A round-up of the latest restaurant reviews

13 July 2009 by
What's on the Menu? – A round-up of the latest restaurant reviews

The Independent, 11 July
Tracey MacLeod says Fishy, Fishy in Brighton - newly opened by TV presenter Dermot O'Leary - is a welcome alternative to the mid-market dining scene in the seaside town

Fishy, Fishy - review in full >>

The Times, 11 July
Giles Coren likes the food, but is appalled at the over-inflated prices at Dolada in London W1

My "new spaghetti carbonara", "new" in the sense that the components - a coil of pasta, a pile of bacon, some grated parmesan, a raw egg - came separately for me to compile myself, was (have a guess) EIGHTEEN POUNDS! I'll admit, it was delicious, and I'd have gladly paid, say, £11 for it. But £18 is just ridiculous, the deconstructed nature of it only underpinning the ridiculousness, as you fork out a £20 note (inc serv) for one egg, one rasher of bacon, a small piece of cheese and 50 grams of pasta. I'm not even getting the spadework of the kitchen boy who would have stirred it together for my money, and I'll wager I charge more for my labour than he would have done. (Price: ha ha ha ha ha… Rating: cooking 7, service 7, value 1, overall score 5)
Dolada- reviews in full >>

The Observer, 12 July
Jay Rayner was glad to leave the country after eating at the New York Grill & Bar at the Radission SAS Hotel, Stansted Airport

We ate, for the record, two good things: a Caesar salad, with a proper ripe, creamy dressing and some whole salted anchovy fillets, and at the end a chocolate brownie which was, much as I am at the middle, soft and gooey. The rest was a disappointment for being so predictably disappointing. Woody, tasteless asparagus, just out of season now but clearly on the printed menu all year round, were advertised as chilled, as though that were a good thing. Fridge frigid they indeed were. A hunk of Asian spiced chicken was dusty, dry and tense, as if the bird had caught sight of the final bill for this meal shortly before being slaughtered. The most shameful was the steak: £23 for a 10oz rib-eye is going it some. It's close to larceny when what's delivered isn't recognisable as a rib-eye - where was the fat marbling? - and has been cooked to buggery and back. (Meal for two, including wine and service, £120)
New York Grill & Bar - review if full >>
The Sunday Telegraph, 12 July
Elfreda Pownall finds eating at Due South in Brighton to be a hit and miss affair

My fish soup was a thin, peppery tomato broth, faintly fishy. In the middle, rearing up in cobra pose, was a langoustine perched on its claws, surrounded by three clams and three mussels. I had been expecting a French soupe de poisson, thick with the microscopic bits you get from pushing bony fish through a sieve, but this was refreshing in the heat and the langoustine was sweet (though the clams were gritty). G's main course - the best dish of the day - showed that the kitchen does know how to cook. It was a small slab of crisp-skinned turbot (£21.50), juicy on the inside, on a bed of shredded cabbage with a butter sauce - a good combination. My grilled half-lobster in garlic butter (£18) was a fine-looking, heavy-shelled beast, but was so undercooked that the claws, when I managed to prise them out, were ghoulishly jelly-like. (Three courses, £29.50. Rating: 5.5/10)
Due South - review in full >>

By Janet Harmer

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