In The Daily Telegraph this week Jasper Gerard visits Lucknam Park near Bath, where he has "utterly scrumptious" pot-roasted pork and caramelised apple. The hotel is hosting a gastronomic tour from Germany and Gerard feels the "born-again country house hotel" has acquitted itself well.
Giles Coren in The Times has no kitchen, so is forced to eat his breakfast, lunch and dinner out, at Canteen, Brompton Bar and Grill and Gaucho, respectively. He finds Canteen serving "exemplary" coffee, "perfect" fried eggs and "excellent" sausages. Lunch is "up and down" with "stunning" fish stew, but "unambitious" croquettes. For dinner, he had steak, but found the portion sizes "simply too big".
Zoe Williams in The Sunday Telegraph also visits the Brompton Bar and Grill, where she reports that "it's fine" but wonders if it has enough "oomph" to succeed in restaurant-heavy London, particularly when she has better pastry the next day in Greggs.
In The Independent, John Walsh goes to The Carpenter's Arms in Fulbrok, Oxfordshire and enjoys "familiar porky and fishy ingredients coaxed into sophistication".
Matthew Norman in The Guardian finds Boundary, Sir Terence Conran's new restaurant "almost brilliant". The staff are charming and the place is an "authentic labour of love" but the meal itself was patchy, with over-rediced sauces but great puddings.
The FT goes to Vetri in Philadelphia , touted by the owner as "possibly the best Italian restaurant on the east coast". However, the halibut is overcooked, the veal "astonishingly meagre" and pasta "comically dainty" causing Mike Steinberger to conclude that, while there were some "terrific" dishes, the hype has oversold it.
Commenting in The Observer magazine, Jay Rayner visits Moonrakers in Alfriston, East Sussex, where the perfect chocolate box English location is matched by food which, although lacking in an overall menu theme, is good, and ultimately saved by dessert of iced white chocolate parfait.
Elsewhere in The Observer, Vinegar Hill House in New York is crowned as the world's coolest restaurant, with 'understatement, cosiness and a rough-hewn quality". Cafe Oto, at number four, is the highest-ranked British site. The Dalston property is also rated as the coolest place in Britain by Italian Vogue.
The Independent on Sunday's Terry Durack visits Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, to see if the irascible chef is living up to his Michelin star despite the recent bad pres. He finds classic, sophisticated, well-edited cooking, although the service sees him "lost in a swarm of sniffy French boys".
Kate Spicer in The Sunday Times visits Serpentine Bar and Kitchen, where she feels as though she's sitting in a Boden catalogue, with floral bunting, but is left "super happy" after breakfast and may come back for gin on the terrace.
