What's on the menu – Adam's is an 'extended audition for Michelin' says Marina O'Loughlin

What's on the menu – Adam's is an 'extended audition for Michelin' says Marina O'Loughlin

Adam's, Adam Stokes and his wife Natasha's new restaurant in Birmingham, leaves the http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/jul/12/wild-garlic-bed-breakfast-dorset" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Guardian's Marina O'Loughlin](http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/13/adams-birmingham-restaurant-review-oloughlin) wishing the experience had been more about her as the diner than an "extended audition for Michelin and the big time".

[The Observer's Jay Rayner](http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/14/honey-and-co-restaurant-review) becomes the latest critic to declare his love for the Middle Eastern food at Honey & Co, the London W1 restaurant by former Ottolenghi pastry chef and Nopi executive chef Sarit Packer and her husband Itamar. When a chef tells you he prefers eating to cooking, says Rayner, you know you are in good hands.

The cooking at the Dairy, overlooking London's Clapham Common, impresses north Londoner Joe Warwick to such an extent that he considers a permanent move across the river. [Warwick writes in the Metro](http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/11/the-dairy-restaurant-in-clapham-is-cream-of-the-crop-3877401/) that it is "fantastic, creative cooking - reasonably priced, served in an unpretentious fashion with passion and professionalism, in a fun, low-key setting".

Fay Maschler visits Picture, the new venture by chefs Alan Christie and Colin Kelly and manager Tom Slegg, all of whom were working at restaurants in the Arbutus and Wild Honey group, for the [Evening Standard](http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/restaurants/picture--restaurant-review-8699618.html) this week. She finds the small plates, hopeless acoustics and the belief system that sharing makes the world go around dominate at this Marylebone eatery.

Chef Michael Hazelwood and business partner and manager Alex Thorp's Toasted is the latest London restaurant in the Terroirs tradition. When [Time Out's Guy Dimond](http://www.timeout.com/london/bars-pubs/toasted) visits he finds a buzzing neighbourhood bistro that's already a local sensation in East Dulwich.

Japanese restaurant Shiori in London W2 offers "glorious cooking" and a "totally uncompromising experience of Kyoto", says [Giles Coren in the Times](http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/magazine/article3811106.ece). But the restaurant's decision not to pander to Western tastes is likely to divide diners, he adds.

The food is as authentic as it is comforting at old-school Italian Acciuga in London W8, says [Lisa Markwell in the Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/reviews/acciuga-343-kensington-high-street-london-w8-8701449.html). And all this from Guglielmo Arnulfo, a chef who's 24, an ex-lawyer and rugby player, and only been at the stoves for three years.

In the [Telegraph, Matthew Norman](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/restaurants/10166445/Restaurant-review-Potato-Merchant-London.html) says that Potato Merchant in London EC1R is the perfect place for a drink and a bowl of nuts at an outside table before dinner at Exmouth Market neighbour Moro: "It doesn't have a clue whether it's Arthur or Martha, King Edward or Maris Piper".

[Grace Dent for the Evening Standard](http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/restaurants/grace-dent-reviews-hutong-at-the-shard-8687974.html) is the latest critic to visit high end northern Chinese restaurant Hutong on the 33rd floor of the Shard in London Bridge. While Dent is far from a fan of the skyscraper, she is impressed by the "bangs, trumpets and whistles" in her dinner but balks at the lofty prices.

HOTELS

[The Times' Tom Chesshyre](http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/travel/wheretostay/southwest/article3814273.ece) highly recommends The Queensberry hotel in Bath for its slick service but says the acoustics in former Fat Duck and Danesfield House chef Chris Cleghorn's restaurant can make it quite noisy at times.

Pen-y-Dyffryn, near Oswestry, is a Shropshire hotel offering homely rooms, simple food and a lovely setting in Rhydycroesau village says [Fiona Duncan in the Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotel/113452/Pen-y-Dyffryn-hotel-Shropshire-review.html), describing the daily changing cooking of long term chef Dave Morris as perfect for the place.

The new incarnation of Masterchef winner Mat Follas' B&B and restaurant the Wild Garlic in Iwerne Minster, Dorset, is a curate's egg - with touches of class, but a nagging lack of character, says [Sally Shalam in the Guardian.

*

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* Visit Guide Girl for a round up of UK restaurant and hotel reviews from the last seven days*

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