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Most Overrated Restaurants 2008

 

The editors of OAD compiled this list by identifying the lowest-scoring restaurants in our survey that also have what we consider to be a high rating in the Michelin or Zagat guides. Unfortunately, if you want to do a specific comparison between our results and theirs, you are going to have to do a bit of research on your own. For those of you who are new to our guide and our 120-point rating system, here is a key that explains how it works

 

Rating

OAD Recommendation

105+

Worth Planning a Trip Around

100-104

Worth Going Out of Your Way For

95-99

Important Local Choices

90-94

Recommended Restaurants

85-89

Perfectly Acceptable

Below 85

Restaurants We Can’t Recommend

 

ALL REGIONS NEW YORK CITY UNITED STATES UNITED KINGDOM EUROPE

 

 

UNITED KINGDOM

 

 

1.

 

Cartmel, Cumbria

 

Mind you, our panel normally likes experimental food, and a number of restaurants that claim it as their specialty were recommended by our surveyors. Unfortunately, Simon Rogan’s restaurant in Cumbria isn’t one of them, compiling one of the lowest ratings in the entire survey. From our vantage point, Rogan’s decision to serve a 20-course tasting menu—of food that people don’t particularly like—seems to be driving the results.

 

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“The chef is stuck up his own arse believing he’s much better than he is.”

“Combinations were generally poor, and the quality of some of the ingredients was questionable.”

 

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2.

 

Belgravia, London

 

This is a shocking result given David Thompson’s reputation as an expert in Thai cookery. Criticism ranged from “sloppy cooking” and “slow service” to a complaint by one panelist that “the staff tried to coerce me into ordering more food than I actually wanted!” One person who has sampled Thompson’s cooking on two different continents told us, “He couldn’t cook when he was in Sydney and he doesn’t cook any better here.”

 

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“Flavors are out of balance, making the food nearly unrecognizable.”

“While the chef seems to know a lot about old Thai recipes, his kitchen seems remarkably unable to cook them well.”

 

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3.

 

Belgravia, London

 

Few restaurants raised the ire of our panel as much as this attempt from the owners of Veeraswamy to create an “Indian Hakkasan,” with food that was described as “poorly conceived and poorly cooked,” service considered “too pushy,” a room that was criticized for being “too noisy,” and prices that were called “simply too expensive compared to the other contemporary Indian choices out there.”

 

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“It was an irritation rather than a privilege to eat there.”

“One must be gullible or anorexic or both to enjoy this place. Absolute rubbish.”

 

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4.

 

Mayfair, London

 

London restaurants serving modern Indian cuisine produced more overrated restaurants than did those of any other category. Benares was an exemplar for the types of problems one runs into at these restaurants, attracting comments like, “Did they have to Westernize the cuisine to the point of removing the flavor from the food?” and “It’s very fashionable if you’re the type who thinks that footballers and their wives make a restaurant trendy.”

 

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“You can’t help but think that the entire experience missed the point of Indian cookery.”

“Whilst service was polite and efficient, it couldn’t save Benares from feeling like a tourist haunt.”

 

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5.

 

Soho, London

 

This surprisingly poor showing from Richard Corrigan featured one panelist telling us of a “disappointing meal with multiple errors in food and service, wine poured at the wrong time, dishes that were overseasoned and tasteless, and a collapsed soufflé for dessert.” On the positive side, a number of people like the romantic dining room, which caused one person to say, “It’s worth getting a mistress just to take her there for a long lunch.”

 

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“Dining with a group of foodies, we were unanimously disappointed. Service was awful—long waits with no attention, mix-ups, etc.”

“Food was slightly gimmicky and showed no real innovation.”

 

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6.

 

Padstow, Cornwall

 

If we were to create some type of statistic that measured a chef’s fame in relation to their low OAD survey rating, Rick Stein’s Cornwall-based restaurant might get the highest score. Comments ranged from “overpriced, tacky and touristy” to “steep prices for the style of food and service on offer.” Even booking a table came under scrutiny, with complaints about the “quite rude telephone reservationists.”

 

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“They use superb raw materials, but they need to be dissuaded from cooking them.”

“High prices for food of the same standard as what you get at a lot of good pubs.”

 

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7.

 

Bray-on-Thames, Berkshire

 

With our panelists describing the cuisine as “caught in a time warp” and “old-fashioned, oversauced and pretentious,” it’s hard to believe that the second generation of the Roux family is in charge of the kitchen at this lovely restaurant on the banks of the Thames. Besides the tired cuisine, the restaurant features a wine list that is “so horrifically overpriced” that “only winners at nearby Ascot can afford to buy a decent bottle.”

 

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“The party was over long ago, but someone left the lights on.”

“What a waste of a beautiful setting.”

 

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8.

 

Belgravia, London

 

This less than compelling entry from the Gordon Ramsay empire, featuring Marcus Wareing behind the stoves, attracted comments like “ingredients of middling quality prepared with little refinement” and “the savory courses were oversalted to the state of inedibleness.” The high prices and an excruciatingly expensive wine list help to make what is already a bad situation even worse.

 

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“Dull, with execution at a level no better than mediocre.”

“Safe for a business lunch but not a gastro-encounter.”

 

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9.

 

Covent Garden, London

 

This restaurant dates from the 1700s and lives up to its reputation as the most touristy restaurant in London. Described as a “Victorian Disneyland” with a “décor that is cluttered and ironic in that typical old-British way,” Rules even led one person to say, “As a Londoner I’m ashamed of the place.” Its saving grace is the game it sources from its own estate in Scotland during the season. But throughout the rest of the year . . .

 

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“Strictly for American tourists and sixty-something Englishmen who grew up in a culture that hated food.”

“Overpriced, unattractive and filled with hapless tourists. Service is downright nasty.”

 

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10.

 

Wandsworth, London

 

The high level of popularity (there is at least one other guide that lists it as the most popular restaurant in London), makes Bruce Poole’s French restaurant a contender for the most overrated in the city. The location south of the river makes it an even more tenuous choice for diners traveling from central London, with one regular customer saying, “If I didn’t live around the corner, I wouldn’t travel to eat there.”

 

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“Three visits to Chez Bruce revealed a level of inconsistency that is hard to explain.”

“I’m not entirely sure what all the fuss is about the place.”