Reviews

Bettys is warm and comfortable, the kind of place you'd want to linger in

Bettys Harrogate, 1 Parliament Street, Harrogate

Is Bettys in Harrogate still good enough to wash away all memories of queuing up in the rain to get in?

Inside Reviews

Loves, The Glasshouse, Canal Square, Browning Street, Birmingham

Saturday, 23 October 2010

It's a miracle, given the punning potential of its name, that no other national newspaper reviewer has visited Loves Restaurant in Birmingham since it opened a year ago. I can hardly bear to look up and see what the headline-writer has come up with. Loves means never having to say you're sorry? I'll do anything for Loves? How do I love Loves – let me count the ways?

Cambio de Tercio, 163 Old Brompton Road, London SW5

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Ole! When it hits the spot, there is not a Spanish restaurant in London that can match Cambio de Tercio.

Samarqand, 18 Thayer Street, London W1

Saturday, 16 October 2010

There's a very funny press release for the Samarqand restaurant, possibly directed at Russian and Central Asian foodies living in London. It promises, in a kind of meerkat-speak, that this is "The restaurant we've ALL been waiting for!!! SIMPLE CONCEPT which makes the restaurant even more worth going – you SIMPLY feels: at HOME AWAY FROM HOME!!!"

Moran's 289 Abbeydale Road South, Dore, Sheffield

Sunday, 10 October 2010

The meat-and-potato portions are huge at Moran's. As, seemingly, is its commitment to a certain additive

$Trullo serves simple, affordable River Café-style food, at a fraction of the price$

Trullo, 300 St Paul's Road London N1

Saturday, 9 October 2010

Islington might be a byword for north London middle-class smuggery, but one thing N1 residents can't feel too smug about is the local food scene. There can be few areas which offer so many restaurants, and so few decent places to eat. Since the demise of Granita, where the Blair/Brown deal was famously (and it turns out mythically) struck, there hasn't been a new arrival to generate more than local interest. Ottolenghi is clearly fab, but not suitable for all occasions, or pockets.

Hel Yes!, Londonewcastle Depot, 1-3 Wenlock Road, London N1

Sunday, 3 October 2010

Had it stuck around, this London pop-up might have been just the place to change our perception of Finnish food

Fifth Floor, Harvey Nichols, 109-125 Knightsbridge, London SW1

Saturday, 2 October 2010

To access the top-floor restaurant in London's top fashion department store, you must travel up five escalators, past mannequins of increasing barminess. The head of the ground-floor mannequin is made up of nuts and bolts, the next is constructed from cocktail bar paraphernalia, the next from kitchen cleaning products ... it's all so determinedly wacky, you wonder what shrine to surrealism awaits you on the top floor. The big surprise is how un-surreal it is, how studiedly old-fashioned.

The Red Fort 77 Dean Street, London W1

Sunday, 26 September 2010

The food is impeccable, the decor and location spot-on – so what could possibly go wrong at this Soho institution?

La Lanterna 33 Queen Street Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Saturday, 25 September 2010

A resolutely unstylish thoroughfare in Scarborough old town is the setting for an Italian restaurant that some claim to be the best in Britain. Not that you would guess its excellence from the interior design in which vinous impedimenta and framed reviews jostle for space on the walls with the plaudits and photos of celebrity clients. The genial dome of Sir Alan Ayckbourn is flanked by Dickie Bird and Danny La Rue. The menu, bearing a Hockney sketch dashed off at the end of a meal, is your first indication that La Lanterna is exceptional. Offering Piedmontese dishes with a Yorkshire twist, it ranges from a fish stew ("stufato di pesce di Scarborough con crostone") at £9.95 to a seasonal starter of carpaccio topped with white truffle "from £33".