Review of the REVIEWS

19 March
GILES COREN goes celebrity hunting at BELLAMY'S, London
The "whole point" Rory Ross [Tatler's restaurant critic] was making was that Bellamy's would be "the place" for the next few weeks and then the pikey celebrities of whom you and I have heard would arrive. So now, briefly, was the Golden Age - one which I half felt would end, by definition, the moment I walked in the door. The menu is abbreviated brasserie - rillettes, soupe ˆ l'oignon, scrambled eggs with truffle, whitebait; lobster or crab salad, salade lyonnaise; oysters, sole, John Dory, bream and coquille St Jacques; entrecote, quail and lamb; pommes vapeur, haricots verts, tarte au citron, bam bam bam - and so is the room, with its blue banquettes and brass rails and wooden floors and arty French posters. Not daft-as-a-brush grand brasserie knock-off like the Wolseley, but a strained reflection of the quieter elements.
(Meal for two with wine and service, £125. Score: 6/10)

19 March
TRACEY MacLEOD decides two sarongs don't make a right at PENGELLEY'S in London
Things not to say when you're opening a new pan-Asian restaurant: "It will be like Hakkasan, Nobu, Nahm and Zuma all under one roof." The orientalist making this grandiose claim is Ian Pengelley, golden boy of modern Asian cooking, who has just opened an eponymous restaurant in Knightsbridge. Mind you, he made it in an interview with his new business partner, Gordon Ramsay. And I guess if you've got Gordon breathing down your neck, you're not going to come out with something like, "It's going to be lots of small, over-spiced dishes for rich people who, for one reason or another, don't really like to eat." Our bill for three topped £215. Pengelley's is a decent enough restaurant, if you happen to be craving dim sum, and unable, because of the sheer weight of your wallet, to stagger the mile or so down the road to Chinatown. But in terms of the gulf between aspiration and delivery, it's a shocker. (Food: 3/5, ambience: 3/5, service: 3/5)
19 March
VICTOR LEWIS-SMITH goes veggie at GREEN'S in Manchester
Fortunately, there are some vegetarian wafts whose aroma is equal (if not superior) to sizzling piggy, such as the garlic and rosemary ciabatta I was served as a pre-starter at Green's in Manchester. The smell and taste of boldly-done burnt was highly palatable, because the charring of the herbs had enhanced their natural odours and flavours. As for the accompanying olives, they were the fattest, most piquant I've had in ages. So hats off to Simon Rimmer, whose bold and eclectic approach to his craft shows that the absence of meat from a meal need not feel like a punishment, and whose every dish is presented to diners as though it's ready for the television cameras. (Meal for two with drinks, about £60)

20 March
MATTHEW NORMAN is pleasantly surprised by the food, although not the name of ISHTAR, London
The cuisine belongs to that Europe/Asia-straddling Nato country [Turkey], and it is so reasonably priced that it falls within the budget of a church mouse that has just gone into voluntary liquidation. The fact that the chef claims once to have cooked for Michael Jackson (and far be it from me to advise on PR, but I wouldn't make too much of that at the moment) we will pass over. The food may be simple and unchallenging, but it's quite something to eat so well at these prices in central London, and if the managers smarten up their act they might have a winner on their hands. But for now the business is dragged down by a sense of amateurishness - describing a dish as coming with "a sauce cheese" doesn't instil confidence.
(Dinner for one, £22.30 (with coffee and half-a-bottle of house wine)