Christopher Sharp travelled to three different restaurants each owned or run by a famous celebrity chef and found one was levels apart from the other two
What’s in a name? Quite a lot depending on who you speak to, especially in the world of hospitality. If the right name is attached to the right venue it can do a world of good.
However, with a great name comes great pressure to get the whole thing right or risk reflecting poorly on the famous name attached to the venue.
With that in mind, over the summer I recently reviewed three restaurants, each with a celebrity chef name attached to them. One was owned by James Martin, another by Jamie Oliver and the final one by Gordon Ramsay.
For each restaurant I had two courses plus a glass of wine or tap water depending on whether or not I had driven to the venue. And having been to all three, I realised there was only one winner.
James Martin’s Grill at the Lygon Arms
James Martin’s Lygon Arms is nestled, as you may have guessed, inside the Lygon Arms hotel in the beautiful Cotswolds village of Broadway.
The restaurant was decorated with Bluebird blue walls, light wood furnishings, and chandeliers that appeared to have been made out of antlers and shaped into trees. Intimidating, but at the same time welcoming.
During my visit to the eponymous chef’s restaurant I opted for a starter and a main with a double espresso. The starter was Cornish Dressed crab with apple, celeriac and lemon, with toasted rye bread, even if the last element was decidedly untoasted.
Nevertheless, the crab mixed wonderfully with the celeriac and lemon. I was left feeling both that it was light and filling at the same time, a beautiful combination. Following this up was the Blythburgh Farm Pork Chop featuring cider Bramley apple compote, crisp sage, all-butter mash, and roasting juices alongside grilled Hispi cabbage with ranch dressing.
Like the starter before it, this was a fantastic experience with the zinginess of the cabbage elevating pork chop and creating a memorable eating moment.
Although the end price, £82.11 which included an overpriced £5.75 double espresso, was steep, it felt like a place that had earned that right to charge that much given the truly sensational food and the service that came with it.
Jamie Oliver’s Catherine Street
Next in my reviewing crosshairs was Jamie Oliver’s Catherine Street Restaurant in Covent Garden, London. Six years after the Jamie’s Italian chain collapsed in 2019, this venue was dubbed Jamie’s London comeback when it opened in 2023.
Created in partnership with theatrical legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, it is located a stones throw from the capital’s theatres and main tourist arteries. The aim, it appears, is that if you’re looking for a pre or post show meal, you should go to Jamie’s.
Just like the other two restaurants in this summary, the restaurant was well presented and had a vibe of its own with a youthful atmosphere and the walls covered with pictures of the great and the good. However, the aesthetics is where the success ended.
When it came to the food, I had a main of beef pie with mash followed by, due to a hiccup in the ordering process, two puddings. This was accompanied with a 2021 Petrollo “Torrione” red wine that was described to me both as one of Jamie’s favourites and the best pairing for the pie.
Unfortunately, the pie, mash and wine were unremarkable, quite plain and didn’t make you feel they were worth the price. Disappointingly unmemorable was my overriding experience. Onto the desserts, the Rummy Raisin Apple Pie with golden puff pastry, cinnamon sugar and Jude’s vegan vanilla ice cream, and Eve’s pudding of steamed sponge, British apple compote and vanilla custard.
In short, the Apple Pie tasted like a poor attempt to copy the apple pies produced by McDonald’s, but Eve’s pudding helped Jamie’s Catherine Street venue to recover some dignity with an inoffensive and homely taste.
Overall, Jamie’s Catherine Street felt like a place where the food is designed to appeal to as broad a range of people as possible and, given its location, that’s not surprising at all. It can’t afford to be different or experiment, but the food is prepared well enough that it will be a welcome place for people passing by.
The final bill was the cheapest of the trio, £57.94 with one pudding mysteriously given free of charge.
Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen & Bar
The final place I reviewed over the summer was Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen and Bar located inside the recently renovated Battersea Power Station. It was by far and away the most disappointing of the three venues.
Gordon Ramsay’s net worth stretches into the hundreds of millions, but the meal I had wasn’t worth the £92 I paid for it. At the heart of it, price you pay versus the food you receive is the main issue with this venue.
My main was a steak with macaroni and cheese with a green salad drizzled with a scattering of pomegranates. This was followed by a spiced apple crumble with a dollop of ice cream laying on its surface.
The steak in its bill bursting entirety, before the accoutrements, was £45, not far off the price I’d paid at Hawksmoor only a few days earlier. While it was a perfectly edible piece of meat, it wasn’t much more than that with the macaroni and cheese doing a lot of heavy lifting the salad feeling very quickly put together.
The venue clawed back some ground with the apple crumble that had a warm feeling of spice through it that was evenly tempered by the ice cream that accompanied it.
Overall even if the service was decent, the place was half empty and overall quality of the food was mediocre for the wallet ripping price myself and my fellow diners ended up spending on it.
If you’re looking for a nice posh meal out in London, avoid. Alternatively go to somewhere like Brasserie Zedel in Piccadilly Circus instead, you’ll pay a lot less money and have a much better experience.
Verdict
Although all three venues follow the same theme of posh place with celebrity name, there is a clear first, second and third.
In third place by a margin about as long as the Thames is Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street due in large part to the gargantuan price.
In second is Jamie Oliver’s Catherine Street venue. The food is well priced and pallatable, but it’s somewhere you’ll go as a back-up if better and more exciting places are fully booked.
In first place, by quite some distance, is James Martin’s Grill at the Lygon Arms. Yes, £82 is expensive for a two course meal, but what you get for that money is exactly what you should receive and is in a league of its own compared to the other two I reviewed.
You get great food, quick service, and an all-round calming experience. If you’re in the Cotswolds, and can afford it, go there.
