A quick breezy read for when I’m curled up in bed sick. Twenty of Rayner’s most savaging reviews. He went to HABS and really did not like one of the English teachers who was still there in my day, so it’s fun to see how even in presumed rebelling against that, he still writes like a HABS boy. It never leaves you.
I’m slightly conflicted, because on the one hand, there is something very satisfying about an absolute pan of a review; on the other, though, it can all too easily tilt into mindless cynicism, rather than celebrating what is good when it is, indeed, good. Rayner is a talented writer who cares more about the food than he does about being cruel for the sake of it, and his effusive reviews are as fun to read. So morally, I feel fine.
A genuine delight to see a review of a (now inevitably defunct) Bristol restaurant which, by my reckoning, was probably in the space that is now the Pizza Express a mere 90 seconds from my flat. It sounded awful, and I can’t imagine the review helped.
I’ve often wondered how, when I write entries for 1000 Tiny Birds, to treat the more… generic establishments. Am I meant to write about McDonalds the same way I do a Michelin star restaurant? Sometimes I do, and I find that funny, and so too it seems does Jay Rayner, which feels like good company. He reviews McDonalds and Angus Aberdeen Steak House here, and clearly has fun with both. Why not!
Each review is followed by a brief update of where they are now. Most are - satisfyingly - closed. Thank you for your service, Jay.