Michelin Predictions. Camilla Long Takes Over as Sunday Times Critic. Notable Closure in Clerkenwell. Critics & More.
Rayner wild for Mezzogiorno. Ellis decimates DakaDaka. Coren dances for Mambo.
Throughout my 18 years in London, I've tried hard not to complain too much about the weather. But, I have to confess, the last few weeks of incessant rain are starting to get to me, and, perhaps more importantly, my shoes.
Luckily, Michelin is going to cheer us up, putting the UK and Ireland in the spotlight at its big annual gala. Let’s dive straight in.
My Predictions for Michelin Stars
For the first time, Michelin takes its UK & Ireland gala to Dublin, where it will announce new stars and other major awards at a ceremony this evening. I’ve been a defender of Michelin over the years, and I think the Guide continues to make strides towards covering a wider range of cuisines and styles than it did in years past. On the other hand, Vittles features a great conversation with Grand Master of Fine Dining, Andy Hayler, who knows a thing or two about Michelin, and says that the Guide’s quality has become diluted.
The ceremony starts at 6:00 p.m., and if you want to watch, all of the info you need is here.
Michelin Tiers for Restaurants
At the lowest level, a restaurant can appear in the Guide. That’s a pretty good point of distinction all on its own.
My Predictions
Last year, my Michelin forecast fared badly, but I am happy to dust myself off and stride boldly back into pointless prognostication.
⭐️ Securing 1 Star:
Bonheur. Destined for two-stars or more, Chef Matt Abé’s new place probably hasn't been open long enough to make the leap immediately, so will settle for one. (My review.)
Clearly at a two-star (or better) standard, Bonheur will have to content itself with one star for the moment. Corenucopia. Michelin loves a chef whose restaurants have won stars before, and Chef Clare Smyth might as well be her own constellation.
Legado. Similarly, Chef Nieves Barragan Monaco has a long track record of Michelin success, and Legado is her best effort yet. (My review.)
Camille. Some of the best cooking in London, has to attract Michelin’s attention this time, particularly with its better wine list. (My review.)
Planque. Not the best restaurant in London, but damned good, innovative cooking. (My review.)
Eel Sushi. From the guy behind Dorian, so another Michelin pedigree. It’s buzzy and stylish. A long shot, but I think it will make it.
Labombe. Pedigree again. Isa and Jonny plus a team drawn heavily from Dinner, offering delicious food at an iconic address. (My review.)
Kudu. A long shot, but it currently holds a Bib Gourmand, and its new location gives is more pomp, while the cooking remains outstanding.
Maré (Hove). Brighton / Hove secures its first star since 1974. Food and service are at the right standard, and Michelin likes to expand its footprint. Chef Rafa Cagali’s name on the door helps. (My review.)
Lobster rice at Maré in Hove, a Michelin-worthy dish.
⭐️⭐️ Grabbing Two Stars:
Row on 5. Chef Spencer Metzger and his team are creating some of the best food in London. Their whole experience is calibrated for Michelin, and their efforts will pay off. (My review.)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reaching Michelin Nirvana:
Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud. I used to stay at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin for work once a month, and I have eaten at the PG at least a dozen times. After years as Ireland’s best, Michelin will make it Ireland’s first three star. After all, why host the gala in Dublin and not make news?
Though there is lots of speculation about Ikoyi and Ynyshir achieving three stars, I think Michelin will let Ireland have its moment and pass on elevating further places from Great Britain this year.
Not Making the Cut:
The Cocochine. In an unfathomable error, Michelin will overlook Chef Larry Jayasekara’s place again, in spite of its legendary food and uniquely incredible ingredients. (My review.)
XXL scallop at The Cocochine should attract a star. 74 Charlotte Street. I know a lot of people are rooting for Chef Ben Murphy, but my experience was nowhere near the right standard.
Wildflowers. Big aspirations, but simply isn’t good enough. (Full review.)
Trinity in Clapham won’t quite manage its second star.
The Angler. After a change in head chef, the City spot might lose its star.
Should happen but won’t:
The Waterside Inn, Alain Ducasse, and Sketch should be downgraded. I also think L’Enclume is more two stars than three, and that Moor Hall is a lot better, but I doubt Michelin values my opinion..
The Ritz Restaurant should move to three stars, but Michelin’s reluctance to recognise one of London’s top places will hold it back again.
What are your predictions for tonight’s ceremony? I’d love to hear them in the Comments.
Iconic Club Gascon Announces Closure
Sadly, at least one Michel-starred place will drop from the Guide in the coming weeks, as Club Gascon in Clerkenwell has announced plans to close on 28 March. It has held a star since 2002, and was one of the key forces that made Smithfield Market a top London dining destination.
Sunday Times Names New Restaurant Critic
My fears of a long interregnum at The Sunday Times were groundless. The baton pass was carefully planned.
Veteran editor, columnist, and television critic Camilla Long has added to her portfolio, taking over this week as the papers’s restaurant critic. Also well-known for her appearances on Have I Got News for You?, Long served as an editor for A.A. Gill earlier in her career. (While Charlotte Ivers announced on Instagram that she is taking over the TV critic’s beat.)
It will be interesting to see how Long approaches restaurant criticism. In her writing, particularly her TV criticism, she demonstrates a biting wit and capacity for incision normally left to scalpel-wielding surgeons.
She has written at least one restaurant review in the past, back in 2014, when she filled in for Gill and recounted a visit to Spring in Somerset House. Unique among commentators — and refuted by the restaurant’s subsequent decade of success — she utterly despised it.
There has been a lot of debate lately about the role of restaurant critics and whether they should publish negative reviews at all. Vittles convened a conversation among eminent critics to explore the topic. Former Sunday Times critic Marina O’Loughlin writes in the FT this week (gift link) that reviewers have an obligation to be critical. And I agree with that.
But today’s London is not Gill’s London, full of bad restaurants and depressing dining experiences. In today’s London, great restaurants close all too often. (See above.)
But they do offer a momentary oasis from pessimism, division, geopolitical uncertainty, and the depressing absence of effective leadership in the UK, so I hope Long can find opportunities for enthusiasm and avoid the temptation to make restaurant criticism a new front in the culture war.
I am not optimistic. For her first review, Long visits Rules, which Sunday Times subeditors have dubbed, “Her first victim,” in a subhead. It isn’t. Long’s take on the place is ultimately positive. But the agenda is apparent: Negativity and snark drive clicks. Restaurants are victims. Consequences be damned.
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.
Camilla Long (Sunday Times) offers her first review in her new role, venturing to Rules in Covent Garden. “I’m not saying Rules is the best restaurant in the world but it knows what it is, and who it serves, and why they are there. It offers what it has with warmth and humility.”
🍽️ Jay Rayner (FT) goes wild for Mezzogiorno, the new place in the Corinthian Hotel in Whitehall from Chef Francesco Mazzei. “The earthy, jagged edges to his food are heavily inspired by his Calabrian upbringing, but never get rubbed smooth by the gilding of the grand dining room.”
Ben McCormack (Wallpaper) checks out Tiella in Bethnal Green. “Who says a pub in east London isn’t just like a trattoria in Emilia-Romagna?”
Joel Golby (Observer) reviews Caia, another Italian-accented place, this time in Notting Hill. “There’s a certain older-brother-cool macho swagger to this cooking: food that seems to say, Yeah, it’s good, isn’t it? with a detached shrug before smoking a cigarette out by the shed.”
✍🏻 David Ellis (Standard) swerves consensus to hate DakaDaka, the new Georgian place in Mayfair. “We were recommended both the pork and the shiitake girolles khinkali, the soup-filled dumplings. Why? They were barely distinguishable, though one similarity was the paucity of filling.”
🍽️ William Sitwell (Telegraph) raves about Michael Caines at the Stafford. “The hare arrived and it was truly royal – richer, even, than Croesus, the meat almost black and also earthy and herby. I would go so far as to say it was a perfect dish of hare.”
Giles Coren (Times) dances for Mambo, the Malaysian spot in Clapton. “Everything was gloriously original, alive and confident, the chilli heat always mediated by sweetness and salinity, tempered in coconut, never wantonly aggressive.”
Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) returns to the Sportsman in Kent, which I adored last year. “We left completely satisfied, only keen to return.”
Richard Crampton-Platt (The Greedy Dick) heads to Peckham to try Connie’s Pizzeria, “An adequate local pizzeria. If you live nearby, you will go because it is there.”
Richard also tries Casa Italiana in Clerkenwell. “The menu has focaccia, burrata, pasta, rum baba and plenty of wine. So far so typically unhealthy, but there are olives, artichokes, blood orange, turnip tops, and quinces too. More importantly there is company.”
Bruce Dessau (Eats Dulwich) checks out the improved Bear pub in Camberwell. “There wasn’t a dud on the menu.”
Gavin Hanly (Hot Dinners) test drives 2210 by NattyCanCook, a new Caribbean spot in Herne Hill. “Here you'll find really accomplished food from a chef who is doing something new and different with Caribbean cuisine, and as such it's very easy to recommend.”
Catherine Hanly (Hot Dinners) sticks a little closer to home to check out Stable Wines in Islington. “We came predisposed to like Stable Wines; it's in our part of town, and we'd loved both Goodbye Horses and The Dreamery. All we can say is that we weren't disappointed.”
J.A. Smith (Palate) reviews La Palombe in Kensington. “Perhaps what is most impressive about La Palombe is its apparent simplicity yet it’s clear every detail has been thought through carefully.”
The Picky Glutton raves about Akara, the West African place in Borough Market, which I adored, twice. “Akara is a treasure. But I don’t want it to stay that way. I want it to become the even-better version of itself that I know it can be.”
Beyond London
✍🏻 Meg Houghton-Gilmour (Bristol Sauce) writes a compelling review of sandwich and ice cream shack called Soft Buoys. “There’s more reasons to lament America than there are stars in the sky, but my motto is that if you’re going to feel depressed, deeply anxious, horrified, enraged, nauseated or any of the other negative emotions that are incited by a quick check of the BBC news homepage, you might as well do it with a grilled cheese in hand and a soft serve on the way.”
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) heads to Birmingham to try Cuubo, a “modern British restaurant with a pronounced Italian accent.” He finds, “An exemplary parmesan risotto, topped with crisp slices of mushroom, and a fillet of beef in a peppery reduction that lows with bovine heft. Puddings are excellent.”
Grace Dent (Guardian) is also in Birmingham, checking out Cylla, a Greek place. “You get a real feeling that this is a restaurant that’s ploughing its own furrow, which in this day and age is increasingly rare.”
✍🏻 Dominic Preston (Braise) travels to York to visit Los Moros, a North African joint. “You’ve got to respect any restaurant willing to go to the effort of making its own sausages. It’s a faff, but one that shows a commitment to doing things right, beginning to end. At Los Moros in York, those sausages are homemade merguez, thick and spiced. … It’s a wondrous thing, perhaps the best merguez I’ve had the chance to eat, and an unmissable order if you’re here.”
🍽️ Daniela Toporek (Palate) travels to Edinburgh —well, Leith, actually —to check out Chorrito, a Mexican spot. “I am a chorizo slut, and the LA biscuit tacos are a Chorrito chorizo signature. Two blue-corn tortillas are layered with crispy, grilled cheese, Mexican chorizo, black beans, guacamole, crema and jardin. Be still my beating Mexican heart. It was filled with texture and was a lovely ode to back home, while showcasing quality ingredients from my new home.”
Thanks for reading this week’s update. Please do subscribe if you haven’t already. And let me know your Michelin predictions in the Comments.
I think its Mambow...
As to critical reviews, as is often said, restaurant reviews are about selling papers, not food.
No-one has mentioned/reviewed Glyn Purnell's new place in Birmingham, Trillium, that I have seen. Not been open long enough to register, I suspect. Cuubo is good but not 1* for me.
I thought that, as last week, the Observer review was desperately overwritten. The reviewers have too much space to fill so there is plenty of waffle.