Criterion Restaurant - Piccadilly Circus (Criterion)

Member Name: chris105

Product:	Criterion
Date:	26/01/02 (3414 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unbelievably excellent food, Great decor, Impeccable service

Disadvantages: expensive

Last weekend I got the most incredible surprise - two tickets to London, leaving the next day. That's the stuff dreams are made of, I tell you! My wife decided I should celebrate this birthday in style, so she got me these flights to my favourite city in the world, bar none: London.

There we met up with my brother, who lives in the city, whose birthday present this year (to my immense luck, there seems to have been a conspiracy to treat me on a grand scale this year! - do they know something I don't?) was a dinner at the Criterion Restaurant.

Now the Criterion is one of London's mythical restaurants, founded and operated by none other than Michelin-star rated chef Marco Pierre White. It's a regular on all the city guides, usually found in the "very expensive but fantastic food" section, and is the stuff of raving reviews in the press. I'd passed by this restaurant countless times -which, given its central location bang in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, is not so strange -always eyeing it and hoping that one day I'd get to eat there.

And eat there we did. Established in 1874, the Criterion consists of a vast gilded hall, high ceilings and all, vaguely reminiscent of a grand Turkish palace. Entering from boisterous Piccadilly Circus, via the quaint revolving door undeneath a stained glass canopy, one has the feeling of having been transported to another epoch and place. The hustle and bustle, come si dice, of the fast food joints outside is left at the door while depositing coats and jackets in the cloakroom.

All the trimmings of the great restaurants (the truly great, not the merely pretentious) were there. The waiters gave new meaning to the word courteous; the worn cliche' "crisp tablecloths" came to life as never before in my experience; and each table was laid fit for a king and queen. Waiters dashed around with food, always presenting the right dish to the right person at the r
ight time, awaiting pauses in conversation to approach the table.

And then of course there was the food... that minor detail! For one like me who loves nothing better than a good meal, this was the culinary equivalent of heaven. For once, the food lived up to the livery of the place. Each item any one of us ordered was presented impeccably in nouvelle cuisine finesse (but in more reasonable Mediterranean quantities!) with that undefinable element of perfection in taste.

Have I given the idea that I was overwhelmed by this place? I hope so, because I really was. I'm not usually one to be easily impressed when it comes to food, hailing as I do from a country that loves its mealtimes, but this restaurant's food came as close to perfection as has been my experience to taste.

For starters (what an indelicate phrase to use for such an op, but whatever... you get the idea) I had a divine risotto Milanese, while my wife had asparagus (the best tasting, according to her) on a delicate fresh sauce, and my brother had pasta tossed with vongole and chillies. What amazed me in these dishes was how even the more seemingly mundane of them (risotto Milanese and spaghetti vongole are quite staple items in Mediterranean menus) were elevated to other-worldly levels with the exact combination of complementary spices and aromas. In fact, not once did any of the flavours clash or aspire to compete with each other. They all blended incredibly, probably the result of hours of experimentation by the chefs to create that RIGHT combination of flavours.

Mmmm....

As a main course, the torture was to actually choose one dish over another. The choice was quite extensive, with an entire list for meats and another for fish. Two of us had duck (sorry all you veggies...), enriched with a mint sauce and the perfect honey jus. The other choice was salmon - divine, or so I'm told.

I had no tiny nook left for dessert, so I can't commen
t on that (not that I wouldn't place bets on its quality).

Of course, such a dream meal comes with a price tag to match. ...Luckily I wasn't paying, though... so we'll skip that bit, this time!

There isn't much more left for me to say about the Criterion, since the ideal way to review such a restaurant would be to place samples online for virtual download, but seeing as that's impossible so far you'll just have to take my word for it.

If you happen to be in London on a special occasion, and you want to treat your loved one/yourself/anyone to a very special meal, ignore the noisy location of this restaurant and head straight to the Criterion. You won't be disappointed. Au contraire, you'll leave the restaurant in awe of the marvellous art of cooking (and eating).

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