What the experts recommend
Paradise 61 Rupert Street, London W1; paradisesoho.com
“Calling a restaurant Paradise might seem the definition of hubris,” says Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times. But pretty much everything here is in fact “divine”. The expensive-looking decor (all angular lighting and hand-thrown tiling) makes it a “chic place to hang out and watch the vestiges of Sleazy Soho across the road”. No less captivating is Charith Priyadarshana’s Sri Lankan cooking. Mutton rolls are the best I’ve eaten, the “spicing multilayered and resonant”. And such is the “thrilling complexity” of a pork cheek curry, flavoured with stout and lemongrass, that I’m still thinking about it days later. “Even the incidentals are notable”: the
sambols (chutneys) are deeply flavoured, the hoppers “pancakey in their depths”. Central London sites don’t come cheap (this one was advertised at £200,000 per annum, following the departure of the “much-loved Spuntino”) and you worry that the investors have rolling out “firmly in their crosshairs”. I hope not, though: “I like it just the way it is.” Starters £4-£8;
mains £10.50-£12.90.
Bank House 11 High Street, Chislehurst, Kent (020-8249 0461)
Stuart Gillies, the owner of this wine bar and restaurant near Bromley, was formerly the CEO of Gordon Ramsay’s global empire, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. As I have never been one of Ramsay’s greatest fans, it’s quite possible that Gillies has “a photograph of me on his desk complete with scribbled devil horns and a Beelzebub tail”. But possibly his opinion of me will soften now, because “I really cannot quibble” with any aspect of his first solo venture. Housed in a “handsome” Victorian building in Chislehurst (which I discover is a “magical place”), Bank House serves “fiendishly drinkable” cocktails, thoughtfully chosen wines (you can order Royal Tokaji Late Harvest by the glass), and food which occupies a happy middle ground between “house burger” and “excruciating tasting menu”. Buttermilk chicken in tempura batter is “marvellous”; fillet of plaice flecked with beetroot and minutely diced parmesan might have been “vile” in the wrong hands – but here is “perfectly judged”. Added to all of that, service is “brilliant” and they do half portions of everything for kids at the weekend. “You can’t ask for more than that from a local joint.” About £30-£35 a head, plus drinks and service.
The Boxing Hare Banbury Road, Chipping Norton (01608-683212)
I arrived at this Cotswold pub with some “trepidation”, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. It is located on a “thundering” through road – and I’ve got a thing about traffic noise in the countryside. But I needn’t have worried: on a winter evening with the windows closed (and with the sound of lively chatter inside), “you can’t hear anything”. And things only got better once we’d sat down. Before taking our drinks order, our waiter had brought over bread, butter and water (“it always baffles me as to why more places don’t do this”), and service remained “immaculate and sensible” throughout. As for the food, a starter of “twice baked cave aged Cheddar soufflé” was “so deeply tasty that I forgave the lack of hyphens”; a main course of “joyfully charred” rib-eye, served with thick and crisp chips, was similarly “faultless”. Pudding was a deliciously oozing chocolate fondant. Well-lit, and stylishly furnished, The Boxing Hare is worth a visit, whatever your feelings about the A361. Dinner for three £68 excluding drinks and service.