When what you get from a restaurant review is that the best part is the decor, it does not entice you to think of paying them a visit especially when the bill for dinner for two amounts to $412 (wine and gratuity included).
The review in question says Big Bill, Bad Meal about Helene Darroze at The Connaught (in London) by Jay Rayner (Guardian, Observer, December 14).
The most positive comments are the following:
"There were good things and they were all tiny: an amuse of a foie gras
brûlée with a gasp of bright green apple sorbet; a mid-course of a
traditional slow-cooked cereal thick with pungent cheese; a pre-dessert
of pineapple with a lime and vanilla granite. Our two other savoury
courses weren't bad, but they were unmemorable, and that's not good
enough for £84.38. Darroze's shtick is to serve big-flavoured
ingredients in deep wells so that they merge together. The result is
that a plate of squid and chorizo with a squid ink risotto and Parmesan
foam just became a thick black mess in the bowl. The foam lost any
tumescence within seconds and was gone. The same applied to a bowl of
lobster with cepes. I have eaten some truly fabulous combinations of
these two ingredients, but this one just clattered about, the two
flavours becoming entangled in each other."
brûlée with a gasp of bright green apple sorbet; a mid-course of a
traditional slow-cooked cereal thick with pungent cheese; a pre-dessert
of pineapple with a lime and vanilla granite. Our two other savoury
courses weren't bad, but they were unmemorable, and that's not good
enough for £84.38. Darroze's shtick is to serve big-flavoured
ingredients in deep wells so that they merge together. The result is
that a plate of squid and chorizo with a squid ink risotto and Parmesan
foam just became a thick black mess in the bowl. The foam lost any
tumescence within seconds and was gone. The same applied to a bowl of
lobster with cepes. I have eaten some truly fabulous combinations of
these two ingredients, but this one just clattered about, the two
flavours becoming entangled in each other."
Besides his overall bad experience, Jay Rayner asks a legitimate question: Is an astronomical restaurant bill ever justified?
Related: $2,000 Seven Course Meal at 'Vivat Bacchus' in London