Tracey MacLeod in The Independent Magazine revisits The Walnut Tree Inn in Llandewi Skirrid in Abergavenny.
The last time she was there it was the subject of the “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” TV programme and closed soon afterwards.
It is now under the stewardship of Shaun Hill, the former patron of Ludlow’s Merchant House, and Macleod witnessed big improvements.
She says the roast partridge was a “discreet master class” and a “super-competent front-of-house team” only matched the cooking.
She concludes the “renaissance” of the restaurant is now “guaranteed”.
Meanwhile, Mark Palmer in the Daily Telegraph takes a trip to the 2008 Capital of Culture and tucks in at 60 Hope Street in Liverpool.
A haunt of local footballers (one had just held a baby shower), he believes it will appeal more to “safe, affluent” Liverpool than to “cutting-edge” culture types.
Nonetheless, the food provided by chef Sarah Kershaw goes down well as does the Lebanese 1998 Chateau Musar, a favourite of the late Auberon Waugh, at £33.95 a bottle.
Matthew Norman in The Guardian Weekend magazine pays homage to Quilon, the south Indian restaurant, which is attached to the Taj group 51 Buckingham Gate.
Despite having the ambience of a hotel restaurant, he is bowled over by the food of chef Sriram Vishwanargab Aylur who has just been awarded a Michelin star rating.
He considers the £20 three course set lunch a bargain and “cannot recommend” the restaurant “warmly enough.”
Hugo Rifkind visits the Michelin starred land of Bray in Berkshire, which is home to two thirds of Britain’s restaurants with a three star rating.
The Caldesi in Campagna is not in that category and Rifkind found his main course of pan-fried calves liver “a little bit sticky”.
Yet, the cheese board was “a creamy evocative joy from start to end” and the fact the waiting staff took the trouble to suggest a glass of Bardolino rose to go with it “showed they cared”.
The Independent 16/02/08 (Magazine) page 51
The Daily Telegraph 16/02/08 (Weekend) page 20
The Guardian 16/02/08 (Weekend) page 86
The Times 16/02/08 (Magazine) page 63
