Full of Schnitzel. Chicken that won't fly. Tasting menus under threat? Plus Critics.
Marina on solo counter dining. Tim considers the collapse of manners. Sitwell tries Agora. Charlotte offers the last review of Daquise. Jay likes Sichuan.
Welcome, everyone. I hope you had a fabulous bank holiday weekend. I’m afraid that this update has several chicken jokes. But before we get to those…
Disagreeing Better at Thirty7
“How do we disagree better?” It’s a question that has been on many minds over the past few years, as populist politicians and shrill online voices attract support and build following on little more than shouty extremism.
But polarisation doesn’t just play in politics and online. Increasingly, many of us feel it at work, too.
So two weeks ago, a few of us gathered at Thirty7 for the second edition of ‘Conversations Over Lunch,’ in partnership with One Question. (Our first lunch, at LeRoy in Shoreditch, focused on leadership, and you can read the full reflection here.)
Over a fantastic white Duoro, we started philosophical: In a world where we want to value greater diversity, what are the common values and principles that unite us? This is a particularly tricky question to answer at the societal level right now, but in a professional context, it may be easier: A good organisation should have a clear handle on its values. And in periods of conflict, they can provide a useful source of unity and means of de-escalation.
As starters arrived, we talked about the need to be better at really listening — to give room for colleagues to properly express their views, with context.
Over a delicious Caesar Salad, replete with anchovies and homemade croutons, we agreed on the need to practice empathy — to try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and see the problem as they do. Expressing empathy, we agreed, was a key step towards compromise. But we also agreed that it was often hard, in the most pronounced conflicts, to emotionally regulate oneself enough to practice empathy well.
As mains arrived — a fantastic chicken schnitzel and dauphinoise for me — we turned our attention to the world beyond work. I wondered about the psychology that drives us to click on things that we know will make us angry. Happily, the psychology expert in attendance had an answer: Dopamine. Projection. And maybe, a means of overcoming our numbness to news.
We agreed that social media is conditioning us all to be more confrontational — a characteristic I have noticed in myself over the last few years, much to my own dismay.
But this unlocked a healthy, helpful thought: Each of us can set the conditions to disagree better by feeling and expressing greater comfort with ambiguity and doubt. We do not live in a world full of certainty, and admitting that we don’t know invites other views and can defuse defensiveness.
I mentioned guidance from trained psychologist and professional poker player Annie Duke in her book Thinking in Bets. She suggests that admitting doubt enhances credibility.
Another effective technique is to simply ask, “Why?” Understanding motivations and context makes it easier to empathise, and sets better conditions for compromise.
Over shared cheese and dessert, we recognised that admitting doubt changes the situational power dynamic, explicitly empowering others and inviting alternative views. But we agreed that leaving space for disagreement was the best route to the most successful outcomes.
Our first two Conversations Over Lunch have both been brilliant. We are currently planning our next edition. If you would like to join us then or in the future, please feel free to register your interest here.
The End of Tasting Menus?
Okay. That was a crappy click-bait headline. Sorry. Tasting menus aren’t going anywhere.
But Restaurant magazine has spotted a trend: A bunch of places that had been tasting menu only are starting to offer a la carte as well.
It’s all about offering a wider range of price points and “reacting to people’s changing eating habits, especially among slightly younger foodies who often don’t want to sit through a three-hour meal every time they want to experience a top restaurant.”
The Telegraph digs further into the trend, talking to some top chefs. Paul Foster, from Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon tells them, “Tasting menus are strong and will be for a long time. But they should be niche, and the right places should be doing them.”
I think that’s spot on. I love a tasting menu, but I also love places like Trivet that just do great food incredibly well, and let you decide what you want to eat.
What’s your view? Do you like a multi-hour extravaganza? Drop a comment or hit reply and let me know.
Hits & Misses
Mini-reviews of places that were either (a) good, but not quite good enough to do a full review and add to the Guide, (b) had a flaw or two, or (c) that I revisited following a prior review.
Hit & Miss: Bébé Bob
Bébé Bob is the sister of Bob Bob Ricard, the place with the “press for champagne” buttons. It sits on Golden Square, that foremost of Soho power addresses, and drips with 1920s glamour. Resplendent in gold trim and red velvet, with a grand bar adorned with polished brass, it is wonderfully over-the-top, as though you’ve stumbled into a cabaret. It recalls a grand west end vibe that’s been muddied over the years.
“Welcome to Bébé Bob, born out of love for chicken, caviar, cocktails & champagne,” says its website. So, naturally, I ordered a glass of Moët and settled in.
The service was fantastic. Waiters in black tie ready with a smile and joke or to deftly vanish into the background, reappearing promptly when an urgent champagne top-up or cocktail recharge is required.
The concept is chicken. There are three options for mains, and they are all chicken. Two of them are for sharing. If you do not like chicken, this is not the place for you. If you do not want to share with your companion, this is not the place for you.
For starter, I went for the Anchovy Egg Mayonnaise, which at least finally resolved the eternal conundrum: “Which came first?” It was delicious if unconventional — an egg, halved, and served over mayonnaise.
Main was chicken. Schnitzel. It was very good. Not quite as good as The Delaunay, slightly better than Thirty7 (see above), and far below Trivet.
Dessert was Paris-Brest, which is a favourite of mine, although the name and resemblance had my very cultured, French-speaking friend sniggering.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch at Bébé Bob. I would love to return for pre-theatre cocktails, ideally in black tie and accompanied by Jay Gatsby. But I can’t recommend it for Professional Lunch. It’s too over the top. “Hello, client. I’d love to take you for champagne and caviar, with a side of chicken.”
Sadly, it’s just never going to fly.
Critics Wrap-Up
✍🏻 indicates a review that you should read for the writing.
🍽️ indicates a place that sounds excellent and is probably worth a try.
✍🏻 Marina O’Loughlin has the final instalment of her summer FT residency. This week, she’s gone deep on solo counter dining. “I love eating at the bar, perched facing the door, surveying the pulsating scene, elevated enough to be part of it without getting sucked into the melee.” She’s also got a review of Toklas in the Strand.
✍🏻 Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) reflects on Daquise, a long-standing Polish place in South Kensington that’s likely to disappear to redevelopment in the coming months. “It takes 77 years to build [a restaurant] like this. It’ll only take a couple of days to bulldoze it.”
✍🏻 Angela Hui and Jonathan Nunn (
) review Wong Kei in Chinatown, reflect on its 50 years of service, and the huge changes that have come to the area in the last few years. It’s an extraordinary piece.Jay Rayner (Observer) goes to Panda’s Kitchen, a Sichuan spot in Harrow. “The Sichuan Mao roast duck is a quiet showstopper. Bone-in pieces of something similar to Cantonese roast duck bob in a light, chilli-boosted broth full of bean sprouts, handfuls of coriander, dried chillies and so very much more.”
David Ellis (Standard) is the latest to try Cornus. Spoiler: It’s expensive. “This is a place for those who were already in, whose jewellery in the sunlight gave the room its own strobe-lighting, who talk of summering somewhere. It is not, perhaps, for the hot young things.” Jim Famurewa was off this week.
William Sitwell (Telegraph) visits Agora, the hip, downstairs sister of Oma in Borough Market. “We chomped and shouted at one another merrily within the concrete walls, glugging the crisp and fresh Greek wine and thinking what fun this all must be for teenagers.”
Tanya Gold (Spectator) visits Bistro Aix in Crouch End. “This is rare food, and I suggest you rush to Crouch End for it. I didn’t eat this well in Lasserre in Paris itself (wrong man, wrong-ish food). Bistro Aix outdoes Chef Roux at the Langham – it gifts its diners windows too – and is a fair match for Pavyllon at the Four Seasons on Park Lane.”
Andy Hayler (independent reviewer) tries Giula, an Italian joint near Shepherd’s Bush. “Giulia is a pleasant neighbourhood restaurant and its bread and pasta in particular were very good quality.” He also checks out 6 Hamilton Place in Mayfair, declaring it, “an unusual place given its home in a casino, but the Cantonese food here is very good, and the service is exceptional.”
🍽️ Gavin Hanly (Hot Dinners) visits Marceline, the brand new floating French brasserie in Canary Wharf. It’s a “a traditional grand-cafe-style French brasserie that we can see doing very well in Canary Wharf, feeling in many ways quite close to Corbin & King openings of old.”
Jules Parsons (LOTI) offers a brief review of Lasdun in the National Theatre and calls it “worthy of a visit at any time.” He also visits Goodbye Horses in Islington, which has “smashed it on the food front.”
Amanda David (Chatting Food) checks out Xi Home Dumplings in Shoreditch. In the photos, the food looks amazing, and it is “great value and would be an absolute steal for group dining.”
Edible Reading (independent critic) tried Plaque in Haggerston. “It was more a place to admire than necessarily enjoy eating in.” … “Leaving a good restaurant should make you feel so many things. But you shouldn’t leave it, I’m sorry to say, feeling like you could murder a KitKat Chunky.”
✍🏻 Nick Lander (janicsrobinson.com) was in one of my favourite corners of Ireland: Kinsale, an emerging foodie paradise.
Grace Dent (Guardian) was in Folkestone. Giles Coren (Times) was in Cardiff. Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) was in Spain.
✍🏻 Tim Hayward (FT) has an amusing piece on table manners. “The laws of dining might seem immutable, but when novel foods appeared we did absurd things to adapt.”
Thanks so much for reading. If you’ve got a sec, hit reply or leave a comment and let me know your favourite meal from this summer. Subscribe if you haven’t already. See you back here later this week.