The departure of Marco Pierre White has given Quo Vadis in London’s Soho a new lease of life, says Jay Rayner in The Observer.
New owners Sam and Eddie Hart are disconcertingly charming and run a really good restaurant.
Their principle is simple: pornographically good ingredients cooked to their best advantage in a selection of dishes that can’t be argued with. It is grown-up, serious food.
Rayner ordered pigeon, which turned out like a baby after a warm bath; pink and tender.
Only the profiteroles proved the one niggling fault, with the chilled choux pastry just a little tough.
The Independent on Sunday’s Terry Durack paid £6 for a two-course lunch of phenomenally-fresh fish at the Dolphin Inn at Hastings, East Sussex.
It’s a bog-standard local boozer with wooden tables, not a gastropub; the service was rubbish and so was the décor. But the fish had the “absolute pure, singing clarity of flavour that screamed genuine straight-from-the-fisherman freshness”.
Durack says he hasn’t eaten fish so fresh at either Scott’s or J Sheekey. What’s more, he enjoyed a lovely pint of Wells Bombardier.
But he adds that he cannot advise readers to race off there for a fabulously gastronomic experience because they may not get one.
The Thai-style spicy fish soup was small, coarsely hot, pink and oddly thickened with lentils, while the gammon ham was dry and tasteless, although teamed with truly excellent eggs and crunchy sun-tanned chips.
Chef Simon Constable describes the Dolphin’s fare as “restaurant food at pub prices” and adds that he likes a good challenge.
The Observer 03/08/08 (Magazine) pages 54 & 55
The Independent on Sunday 03/08/08 page 45
