Review at a glance: ★★★☆☆
Critics sometimes get it wrong and restaurants have off nights. A reminder of this materialised last week in the chipper form of Ledbury chef Brett Graham, who works six doors down from Eel and Dorian, a magnificent pair of restaurants that share an owner in Chris D’Sylva. Having lunched at the former, I was emptying the cellar at the latter with D’Sylva when Graham, perhaps picking up the scent of Chassagne-Montrachet, spotted us and popped over. That both are restaurateurs and Australian expats makes it easy for them to see eye-to-eye, helped in a literal sense by the fact they are, curiously, exactly the same height. Unsure if Graham would remember or even have read my lacklustre review of The Ledbury on its 2022 reopening, I thought it best to clear the air. “It was gutting,” he said. “And I still remember the service — the drink spilt on you, the late booking, drama in the kitchen.”
