Keller Forgets First Rule of Hospitality. Credit Card Wars. Critics & More.

Andy & Tom on the Lavery. Giles feels Capital. Sam loves New Haven pizza. Charlotte heads to Broadstairs.

May 26, 2025

Thanks to everyone for all of your warm wishes and congratulations following my news last week.

To answer the most common question, received here, on LinkedIn, via WhatsApp, and over e-mail, Professional Lunch will continue on the same cadence it has since launch: An update, including the Critics Wrap-Up on Monday and, each Thursday, a review of a place I recommend for professional lunch, dinner, drinks, or something else.

I have taken your suggestions about featuring a bit more wine and drinks content, and have plans afoot to do so. In the meantime, I’ve got a Chat Over Lunch with high profile critic Jimi Famurewa on Thursday, a postcard from Paris, and a review of the Sportsman all in the works. Also, I tried Joséphine Bistro in Marylebone on Friday, and it was ace. That review to follow soon. I’m eager for any other suggestions. Please drop them in the Comments.

The Economist Rates Lunch a “Buy”

Thanks to my friend Iain, who flagged this piece from the Economist which appeared back in April. (To say that I am behind on my reading doesn’t really do the concept justice.)

It’s the kind of powerful data-backed argument makes the Economist so compelling. It cites an array of strong reasons to take the time to enjoy lunch. Among my favourites is this practical gem:

There are measurable benefits to downing tools and joining colleagues over lunch. According to a study by Kevin Kniffin and co-authors at Cornell University, firemen who eat together are more co-operative and generally better at their jobs. Platoons that shared a meal during the working day were found to achieve higher marks for their teams’ performance.

But the most crucial point is this:

Meetings scheduled around one o’clock surely ought to be considered a serious breach of office etiquette.

Let’s normalise that midday pause to allow us to gather around food and drink. It makes the whole day so much better.

Chef Thomas Keller Bullies SF Chronicle Critic

It’s impossible for me to be objective about Thomas Keller. I revere him. He has remade American cuisine. And he has given me three of the greatest dining experiences that I have ever had the privilege of experiencing.

But the French Laundry has been open for 30 years under his reign, and Per Se is now 20. Irrespective of reverence, the world moves on.

It’s not surprise to learn that his food might not be as ground breaking as it once was. Nor, perhaps, that he might be struggling to let go of the idea that things have progressed. There have been tough reviews recently in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, Keller’s hometown paper.

A few weeks ago, the Chronicle’s new critic decided to return to the French Laundry to see how it is fairing. Her experience makes excruciating reading.

After seating her party, Keller called the critic outside for a chat. In the chilly Napa evening, he imposed a conversation on her. And after a weird meander, they finally come the nub of the issue:

As she recounts, “He personally does not care about the reviews, he insists, but his staff? It gets to them. And for that reason, even though he doesn’t know me, even though he’s sure I’m a nice person, he does not want me here…After 30 minutes in the courtyard, Keller decides it’s time to wrap up. OK, he says, that’s enough, let me walk you back inside. He tells me that he’ll feed me a little something before I go. I ask for clarity; if he still does not want me at his restaurant, I would rather get a jump on the long drive home. No, no, he says, that would be rude.”

He wound up feeding the critic and her friends the whole tasting menu, and then trying to comp their dinner, which she was not allowed to accept — something he and his team certainly knew.

It is impossible to reconcile Keller’s essential belief in hospitality with this sort of behaviour. He seems to have forgotten the most important rule: Be nice and try not to make your guest uncomfortable. This whole encounter was rude. Including the over-generous service that followed, clearly intended to send a message.

Needless to say, all of this has spurred a lot of conversation. Though, as far as I can tell, neither Keller nor his team has responded publicly except via comments to the Chronicle.

I’m not ready to cancel Keller, but I hope this will be a wake up call for him and for his team. Hospitality does not include bullying your guests.

Credit Cards Battle For Restaurants

A couple of weeks ago, I covered the DoorDash acquisition of online booking service SevenRooms, and voices concern about a single platform controlling a substantial portion of my experience.

There was more to the story.

It seems that credit card companies see a huge opportunity in restaurant booking sites, both as a revenue stream and a way to provide a benefit to their cardholders.

The New York Times reports that American Express bought both Resy and Tock in the last couple of years, and is using those platforms to benefit its customers.

Partially as a result, Visa has done a deal with OpenTable and is helping attract restaurants into that platform by paying substantial bounties.

Debby Soo, the chief executive of OpenTable, said these cash payments are part of a strategy to get “the best and trendiest and hottest, most popular, most awarded” restaurants on OpenTable, a platform that has lagged behind in that particular category for several years.
“The top echelon of restaurants, they are market movers,” Ms. Soo said. If they adopt OpenTable, she said, other restaurants may follow.

I assume there is similar activity in the UK.

To be clear, I’ve got no problem with this. Indeed, I’m in favour of anything that adds revenue to restaurants that need it. But I think it’s an interesting window into a competitive market that I didn’t know existed.

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.

Giles Coren (Times) weighs in on one of last week’s disagreements. “Tom Brown is back at the Capital and this time it is deeeeeelicious.”
🍽️ David Ellis (Standard) goes to Town, a new place in Covent Garden — “a Wolseley reimagined for the modern age.” … “True, no one went to the Wolseley for the food, but I suspect they just might here.”
- Catherine Hanly (Hot Dinners) also test drives Town. “Town is one hell of an endeavour.” … “If we had a quibble, it would be that it's a little all over the place in terms of identity and concept.”
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) checks out the Lavery in South Kensington. “This is a place that gets everything right: the service, which purrs and glides, warm but well drilled. And the light, which today floods through the vast picture windows, holding the whole room in a mid-spring embrace. And the food, from head chef Yohei Furuhashi.”
- Andy Hayler also tries the Lavery which he found, “a pleasant enough experience, though even in a currently rather barren Italian restaurant scene in London, there are better places to be found.”
✍🏻 Similarly, Hayler (independent critic) isn’t High on Gordon Ramsay at the top of 66 Bishopsgate in the City. “Many years ago, I published a review with ‘Hayler’s Law’, which was that food gets worse as it gets higher.” … “Tonight was just another example… The best thing that I tasted all evening was the bread.”
Jay Rayner (FT) reviews Little Noodle Bar in the Peninsula Hotel and Song He Lou in Chinatown, and reports that they “are very different propositions. But they are both about the way of the noodle.”
Marina O’Loughlin (FT via Instagram) checks in from Toklas in Aldwych. “A superb lunch: glorious ingredients (those puntarelle!) cooked with brio and served generously.”
✍🏻
Dominic Preston
(Braise) only vaguely remembers why he is eating at Raya in Walthamstow. “I would never have known that Raya was worth my time if it wasn’t for spotting it on Leung’s Instagram stories, for adding it to my map, for noting down that I should go and eat the curry puffs. But I’m glad that I did, and maybe now, after reading this, someone out there is making their own helpful note.”
Sam Wilson
(Bald Flavours) tries New Haven style pizza at the Bedford Tavern in Finsbury Park. “The notion of ‘authenticity’ in food is, for many, a hollowed, nebulous idea; there’s still a lot to be said for the sincerity of the people who make it, and on this count, you can’t knock Max. That said, New Haven natives have given his pies clearance — what more proof do you need?”

Christina (LOTI) is the latest to try Krokodilos in Kensington, and it’s “showing that our love for Greek food is still going strong.”
Nick Harman (Foodepedia) tries Toba, an Indonesian spot in St. James and finds “excellent cooking which is both firmly traditional but at the same time smartly executed.”
Chris Pople (Cheese & Biscuits) heads to the Parakeet in Kentish Town. “The Parakeet are doing more things right than wrong, and if that seems like damning with faint praise it still puts them ahead of a lot of spots.”
Salty Plums reviews Ekstedt at the Yard in Whitehall. “We ate at the chef’s table, and it was fine but isn’t going to be one of my best meals of 2025.”
Alex Larman (The Arbuturian) enjoys 3 Gorges in Fitzrovia. “Larry nods in approval. ‘Just as good as what you’d get in China, and none of the hassle with immigration.’ I can only concur.”
David Baddiel (Observer) offers his second “celebrity” review, this time trying Darjeeling Express in Kingly Court. “Our waitress has already hinted that we might need a bigger table,” he reports.
- Andy Lynes
  offered his own view last week of these “celebrity” reviews, directing his comment at the Observer’s new owners:
  “Next week it’s David Baddiel again. He’s been to Darjeeling Express. I like David Baddiel but I really could not give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut what he thinks of Darjeeling Express. Think of all the young, ambitious food writers out there who would kill for a chance to write for the Observer. How are we ever going to find the new Fay Maschler if all we get is the cast of Celebrity Masterchef and The Great Celebrity Bake Off?
  “In a statement on the Tortoise website, editor in chief James Harding says, ‘We think the enemy of nonsense, as George Orwell called The Observer, is needed now more than ever.’ Well, I’m sorry, James, but by employing David Baddiel to review Darjeeling Express, you are the friend of nonsense. You are its best mate. You go out for drinks with nonsense every night. You’re [sic] wife has started complaining that you see too much of nonsense. She’s jealous of how much you like nonsense. James, she is thinking of getting a divorce. You see that load of old nonsense over there? That’s you that is.”
  I generally try to keep my opinions out of the Critics Wrap-Up, and just provide the tightest summaries that I can, but I’m going to make an exception this week. It’s been 9 weeks since Jay Rayner wrote his last column for the Observer. Why do they continue wasting space on mediocre reviews from “celebrities” that I routinely have to Google and featuring restaurants that have mostly been open for ages? I mean, Darjeeling Express? Seriously? I have no explanation, but I do know from a footer in this week’s review that Baddiel’s book, “My Family: The Memoir” is out in paperback. If I buy 50 copies and leave them outside the Tortoise offices in a lame protest, will that nudge editors towards retaining a proper critic? Or at least giving some food writers a try-out? There is a wonderful tradition of great restaurant writing in the UK. The Observer has been a vital player in developing that tradition. It’s time to move forward. Stop the nonsense. Please.
  Update: A friend suggested that the original book gag was in bad taste, so I have removed it. But I stand by my point.

Beyond London

✍🏻 🍽️ Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) visits Tony and Becky Rodd’s new place in Broadstairs. It’s called Fifteen Square Metres, because it is. “It’s simple stuff. It has to be. The Rodds are the entire staff — both cooking, both serving. The kitchen is about the size of my dining table, and I’m constantly complaining that my dining table is too small.”
William Sitwell (Telegraph) tries Dongnae in Bristol. “The beef caressed the palate before melting. It was rich and satisfying and a dish that makes one simply admire a vegetarian for their willpower.”
Grace Dent (Guardian) gushes about Winsome in Manchester. “Winsome is far from a novelty restaurant. Yes, there are little playful touches here and there – dino egg cups, cow-shaped gravy boats and school dinner puddings – but it’s all done in such a sleek, cool and pared-back way.” … “Winsome may well be my new favourite restaurant, and it’s the new, big, generous beating heart of Manchester hospitality. It’s classy but come-all – bring your gran, bring your baby, no one need feel conspicuous. There’s something about the place that makes me want to use it as a canteen.”
Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) checks in from Tokyo with two reviews.

Thanks so much for reading this week’s update. And thanks for subscribing to Professional Lunch. See you back here Thursday for my Chat Over Lunch with Jimi Famurewa.