Bloomberg, 24 October
Richard Vines at Le Bouchon Breton
Fancy a leisurely lunch with expensive dishes and fine French wines? No, I thought not. These days, people are cancelling lunches, saying they don't want to be away from their desks for hours at a time because of the markets. I suspect we are all becoming a little more price- sensitive, too, as bonuses shrink and jobs disappear. Cue Le Bouchon Breton, a new French brasserie, Champagne and shellfish bar in Spitalfields market, handy for ABN Amro Bank NV's London headquarters and as many bankers as it takes to fill a venue that can accommodate 320 drinkers and diners. There's a 2001 Petrus for 2,200 pounds ($3,413) if you are feeling lucky.
Bloomberg review in full >>
<!--MPU-->
Evening Standard Magazine, 30 October
Fay Maschler at Arch One
After all that and still only a tender 25, Gemma has suddenly popped up in Waterloo at a restaurant and bar called Arch One opposite the main entrance to the station. It looks and feels like a place for after-work drinking. When I rang to book a table — to the seeming amazement of the chap on the other end of the phone — he said I would probably want to be on the mezzanine level. Up there in the evenings tables are laid with beige cloths, leather bucket chairs are comfortable and you are at one blessed remove from the thudding music and madding crowd. A sign that something is happening that is not quite wine bar or gastropub feeding is the arrival of amuse-bouches served in shot glasses. What we each received was a freshly, lightly pickled wild mushroom on a bed of puréed spinach that had a new-mown flavour like grass clippings. It was delicious.
Evening Standard magazine review in full >>
Metro, 28 October
Marina O’Loughlin at The Modern Pantry
Remember fusion? Remember those clashing tastes and menus that needed an encyclopaedia to decipher? Apart from long-standing (and excellent) The Providores in Marylebone, we saw the last of that most pilloried of culinary styles in the 1990s: too many Kevs from catering college flinging blachan into their bain-maries signalled its death knell. Or so we thought.
Anna Hansen – one of London's most highly regarded women chefs – was one of the originators of The Providores and cooked at another seminal fusion perpetrator, The Sugar Club. She clearly believes in hanging on to a formula that has worked for her.
Here are some of the ingredients in the current Providores menu: hijiki, umeboshi, cassava chips; and here are some from The Modern Pantry: hijiki, umeboshi, cassava chips. Plus krupuk, feijoa, yuzu and kalamansi limes for good measure. To be fair, the fusion clamour has been toned down here: several dishes feature an entire list of ingredients we recognise.
Metro 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