The Times
Camilla Long went in search of Parisian “ben oui” at a new bistro from Jason Atherton and Row on 5 chef Spencer Metzger in what she called the “Sotheby’s/Christie’s/Savile Row end of Mayfair”, a difficult zone inhabited by “strays – straight gays”: men who think about paintings and fashion instead instead of eating.
“The menu feels more Club 55 than genuine bistro”, listing fish, oysters, scallops, veal T-bones, lobster and bluefin tuna in a tomato elixir. Camilla suggested that “real French cooking – all the bollocks, potted eyes and arseholes – would frighten the other big diner in this area: the tourists.”
The snacks and starters – little Marie Antoinette piles of prawns and crab, a pristine courgette flower with sauce vierge and a scallop with Café de Paris butter – were “beautiful” and “sublime”. But the mains – veal T-bone and grilled lobster tail – arrived after a 45-minute wait and were “uninspiring”, the cooking “completely different”. “What happened?” Camilla wondered. “Did the chef quit his job half way through?”
Camilla Long - 2026-07-12
