Rayner & Hayward Sign Off. Perils of left handed dining. Hit in Islington. Critics & More.
Ivers Skofs in Manchester. Hayler buys a House. Giles sells the Cotswolds.
What a week it’s been in London. Sunshine and warmth have been wonderful. I had an amazing time in Scotland and managed to fit in two spectacular meals. More on those soon. For my review this week, I visit Row on 5, and you’ll want to read this one. It was a Saville-row caliber experience. That will be along on Thursday. For now, let’s get to this week’s update.
Last Orders for Rayner & Hayward
Without wishing to steer too much into hyperbole, this has to be the biggest week in UK food writing in a decade or more.
Jay Rayner has been the restaurant critic for the Observer for 26 years. Giles Coren has been reviewing for the Times since 1993. A.A. Gill did 23 years at the Sunday Times, and Nick Lander’s served 30+ years at the FT before Tim Hayward took over and did 12 years. It’s fair to say that turnover in these roles is… limited.
So it’s even more surprising that two top critics would step down in the same week. But this week was, indeed, the final review for both Rayner and Hayward in their current roles.
And both signed off with aplomb.
Hayward bends the FT’s deadline rules to get to the rebooted Midland Grand and try Victor Garvey’s modernist take on French. Hayward is staying on with the FT to write food-related features, and offers very little in the way of valedictory remarks, but I suspect the final paragraph of his review was about more than his experience at the Midland Grand.
“I’m glad I broke some rules. I’m glad I surfed the deadline. It feels good to have been there, at the start of something spectacular.”
Rayner is more reflective.
“Sharmilee was the second restaurant I reviewed when I started writing this column in the spring of 1999 and it’s the only one of the first six that is still trading. …
“[The UK] may not have the deep culinary culture of France, Italy or Spain. Instead, we’ve long had profound culinary breadth, by being open to the food of elsewhere. …
“I have been blessed with good fortune and I’ve tried not to take that for granted.” …
“It’s time for me to lay down my knife and fork and call for the bill. Thank you so much for reading. It’s been an honour. But it’s time for me to go.”
Rayner is leaving the Observer following its sale to Tortoise Media and will join the FT as its critic. The brilliant Marina O’Loughlin is also joining the FT as a monthly columnist. Rayner, O’Loughlin, and Hayward are truly a restaurant writing dream-team, as I said back in November. The FT now has, without question, the best stable of restaurant writers of any UK publisher.
is its only real rival, though on a very different, more flexible model.I’m really interested to see how Rayner’s approach changes with his move to the FT. I suspect he’ll spend more time in and around London and feel less pressure to travel the UK. I’m intrigued to see how he and O’Loughlin compliment one another, though I understand they have been friends for many years.
Hayward did a brilliant job in his role for the last 12 years and was incredibly generous and kind to me last year, so I am rooting for his continued success. In addition to the FT, he will be writing for a new project called Scribehound, which hasn’t quite launched yet, but sounds like it will be fantastic.
I wonder what the Observer will do about the critic’s beat. Rayner has been a high profile source of readers, and I suspect his loss will have real impact. I hope they find someone with a real critic’s eye. A proper professional who knows food inside and out. We’ll see.
and others have wondered whether there’s still a role for national critics writing for the big papers. In spite of the rise of excellent online writers like and others that I now include in my wrap-up every week, I think national critics are still important voices for hospitality, advocates for diners, and influencers of trends.In my working life, I’m acutely engaged with our increasingly uncertain world. Consistency of casting among restaurant critics was a weird font of stability. But the beat goes on. Sitting still means going backwards. And I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Eater Refreshes 38 Best in London
As I mentioned in August, Eater was the perfect foodie news source for years and years, until the London edition closed in 2023. Happily, Eater global presses on, and former London editor Adam Coghlan (now with
) has just updated their list of the 38 best restaurants in London. It’s not a ranking, but stand-out inclusions for me are Planque (Hackney), Bar Italia (Soho), and Goodbye Horses (Dalston).
The Challenge of Dining Left Handed
I loved this piece in the FT from Courtney Brandt about the perils of dining left handed. (That’s a gift link so you can go and read it.) In short, everything is backwards. But Courtney has also spotted “the switch” — “the art of recognising a diner’s dominant hand and subtly rearranging the table setting to accommodate their preference.” What a wonderful way for a restaurant to recognise and adapt to its diners’ preference. Do read the whole piece. It’s excellent.
Hit: Prawn on the Lawn
Hits & Misses are 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.
Prawn on the Lawn started as a fishmongers and small restaurant, just off Highbury Corner is Islington. A few years ago, it moved to larger space a few doors down, but never lost its excellence. The premise is really simple: Fresh seafood, brought in daily and cleverly cooked. On a recent Friday, we worked through an array of dishes that included a perfectly seared tuna, octopus served teriyaki-style, a fantastic hake fillet, and lovely salmon ceviche. We used to live around the corner from Highbury Corner, and if we still did, we would certainly be regulars. As it stands, it’s the perfect spot for dinner before heading to Union Chapel for an evening’s entertainment. You really should try it.
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.
✍🏻 🍽️ Tim Hayward (FT), in his final review as the FT’s restaurant critic, loves the rebooted Midland Grand, now under the care of Sola chef Victor Garvey. (I reviewed it just the other day.) “It feels good to have been there, at the start of something spectacular.”
Lobster at the Midland Grand by Chef Victor Garvey. David Ellis (Standard) adores La Palombe in Kensington. “Duck à l’orange, but no Seventies tragi-comedy of sugar and marmalade chunks. I can’t remember anything so tender since the morning after a fight.”
🍽️ Andy Hayler (independent critic) reviews The French House in Soho. “The French House is charming, serving appealing rustic French food in a friendly, relaxed environment. Michelin has ignored this restaurant, yet the food here is better than most bib gourmands.”
Marina O’Loughlin (independent critic) reminds us why J Sheekey is so excellent. “Fish and seafood treated properly, from a whole, cheesy-bechamel lobster thermidor (with chips, obviously) to the more newfangled salmon.”
Seafood brilliance at J Sheekey. Photo by the restaurant via Instagram. Catherine Hanly (Hot Dinners) test drives Bar Valette, “the hipper sibling to The Clove Club.” … “Service is on point and there's much on the menu to enjoy. We do worry that the prices are pretty punchy for this part of town, though. They might want to bring in an early diners set menu option as a way to allow new fans to the fold to try them out.”
🍽️ Gavin Hanly (Hot Dinners) rushes to The Knave of Clubs, a buzzy new place in Shoreditch. “A proper pub in every sense that's already building its own community and one that's backed up by an excellent pub menu.”
🍽️ J.A. Smith (Palate) heads to Wildflowers in Belgravia. “A true showstopper: carabinero prawn and smoked veal sweetbread baked rice.”
- (Braise) goes deep on Szechuan at Ling Ling’s in Seven Sisters. “It’s Chinese food shaped by London, and shaping it back in return.”
Hilary Armstrong (The Glossary) checks out Nipotima, an Italian spot in Mayfair. “This is the food real people want to eat, real people who exist in Mayfair, too.”
Nick Harman (Foodepedia) tries Kapara, a new Mediterranean place in Soho. “I was soon snatching greedily at every dish as they were all so good.”
Alex Larman (Arbuturian) reviews Camino, a tapas place in Farringdon. “It’s a tremendously fun, lively spot, another palpable hit for the Camino group, and, in an area punching above its weight with terrific restaurants, a true destination place.”
Alex also visits The Grill on Fifth at Harrods, which “is indeed magnificent, and against stiff competition is one of the most exciting and successful carnivorous restaurants that I’ve eaten at in recent memory.”
Beyond London
✍🏻 Jay Rayner (Observer) returns to Sharmilee in Leicester, the second restaurant he reviewed after becoming the Observer’s critic in 1999. “Upstairs is the restaurant where, in 1999, starters were £2–£3 and mains rarely broke a fiver. Given that starters are now about a fiver, and mains rarely break £8, I don’t think the bill has quite kept pace with food price inflation.”
🍽️ Charlotte Ivers (Sunday Times) visits Skof in Manchester. “The technical precision is astonishing, the creativity equally so. There’s something deeply romantic about it.” … “Skof is not a copy of L’Enclume. It is younger, trendier, made for the city and not the Lakes.”
✍🏻 Giles Coren (Times) travels to Cheltenham to check out the Tivoli. “Esther had roast cod, pearly white and fat, skin blackened and sea-salted, on buttered January King cabbage with brown shrimps and a chicken sauce for winter heartiness — a brilliant thing.”
✍🏻 🍽️ Lisa Markwell (Telegraph) reviewed Osip in Somerset. “The pride with which [Chef Merlin Labron-Johnson] describes the farm on which the produce is grown, and his love of a hard-carved counter for diners who want to be even closer to the chefs, is palpable, but I sense it’s been a tough journey. He deserves the reward of more acclaim, more awards, more customers.” William Sitwell was off this week.
✍🏻 Grace Dent (Guardian) has a bizarre experience at Satori in Birmingham. “This wasn’t sushi worth making a special trip for, and pretty indistinguishable from the freshly rolled options at Waitrose.”
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) revisits Browns in Oxford. “Nostalgia has rarely tasted so dull.”
Daniela Toporek (Palate) tries The French Quarter in Newcastle. “Lustful, indulgent and unapologetically decadent, and The French Quarter encapsulates this entirely and unexpectedly in the heart of Newcastle.”
Nick Lander (jancisrobinson.com) is on a tour of Manchester this week.
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Apologies for the typo in the original headline of this week's update. I know how to spell Tim's name. I promise! I blame stupid autocorrect.
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