I admire Grace Dent’s restaurant reviewing in the Guardian. I sometimes mention and link her reviews in my posts. I’m starting a thread dedicated to her reviews.
Kicking off this thread with her latest review, another typically elegant negative review of a London restaurant:
I remain astonished that she appears to be so unrecognised in restaurants and not infrequently encounters appalling service.
$57 USD for mullet, and almost $60 USD for “aged pork chop” (per the blackboard). 
But hey - the piece of plastic was free! Wait - I guess it wasn’t since they took away the dish and didn’t replace it - but still charged for it, as they did for the unrequested amuse bouche.
The potato side fried in duck fat looks absolutely luscious, however. And is it just me, or is plating fried chicken on pine needles a bit…odd?
Comments on the article are fun to read as well. 
I could spend all day reading her reviews! Here’s one reviewed over a year ago for a place called “Eggslut”. Yes, you read that correctly. I snorted loudly enough reading the first paragraph that my coworker next door came over and asked if I was OK. 
I remember this review! And the renewed respect for the good old McDonald’s Egg McMuffin it gave me!
I don’t think I would want my fried chicken smelling like pine, which reminds me of cleaning products. Also, those pieces of chicken look tiny.
I’m a big fan of my fellow northwesterner. I suspect her relative anonymity may be drawing to a close, with her taking on the “diner” judge role in the forthcoming Celebrity Masterchef series. I presume that, if all goes well there, she’ll completely replace the all but completely disgraced Gregg Wallace, across the brand.
Her books “Hungry” and “Comfort Eating” both draw on her working class roots in northern Cumbria and are good reads Since her mother died a couple of years back, she’s less need to travel back home so I’m sure I note fewer northwest restaurant reviews than previous.
Agree–I love reading GD!
Her photo in the Guardian columns looks very different from more casual photos I’ve seen elsewhere. I’m not surprised that she can go without recognition.
I love Grace Dent reviews as well, and often go to them when I need a lift after a horrible day, week, or quarter…She’s hilarious and this reminds me I need to contribute to The Guardian, which has lots of great recipes, entertaining reviews of restaurants in the UK I’ll never go to, great human interest articles like “Dining Across the Divide” and in general a much-needed perspective for me on news happening across the Globe. Thanks for the reminder!
That was my immediate thought. Barely a mouthful each.
Fun read, thanks!
I read The Guardian online, look forward to Dining Across the Divide and Blind Date.
Was reading the Guardian for free for a long time, but switched to a subsciption last year. Money well spent.
Also very glad my boss is paying for my Financial Times subscription, now featuring Jay Rayner, formerly from the Guardian.
Jay Rayner first review in the FT is free to read for all, and @Harters should be glad it is featuring Rules!
Thanks for posting that @damiano, very enjoyable read!
Ahha. You remember that Rules is my fave restaurant in the capital.
A glowing review of a Ukrainian restaurant in London.
Isn’t there an Eggslut in Boston by now - it is a food truck originally from LA which has expanded quite a lot by now (and makes actually quite decent sandwiches) - and the name is quite clever from an ad perspective
According to the Eggslut website, the US locations are all in Las Vegas and Southern California.
Looks like based on Yelp there was a NYC location a few years ago but it is closed now. Surprised that they didn’t follow through on their east coast expansion plans as there are now Eggslut locations in London and Tokyo
