Jay Rayner Blasts Restaurant For Charging £36 For Salad And £90 For £12.75 Bottle Of Wine

A food critic has blasted a restaurant situated on the rooftop of London's Dorchester Hotel for charging £36 for a salad that looked like it was made by someone with an 'organising compulsion' and putting a £90 price tag on a bottle of wine which he found for £12.75 online.

Jay Rayner didn't hold back after visiting the Polo Lounge, explaining that he didn't go because he 'likes watching rich people pay ludicrous prices for cack-handed food' but because some operations 'need to be called out'.

The pop-up lounge is up until the end of the month and models itself on the original which opened in Los Angeles' iconic Beverly Hills Hotel in 1941.

The menu includes £38 crab cakes (this is a starter), a £36 McCarthy Salad, Rigatoni Bolognese which will set punters back £38 as well as American Wagyu Sliders (again, £38).

Instagram/jayrayner1

As well as the Strawberry Soufflé and custard-splitting Banoffee Tart (£20 and £16, respectively). On top of this was a bottle of Terrasses Rosé from Château Pesquie which cost £90... but is £12.75 (including VAT) online.

He noticed that the cheapest wine (which he called 'bog-standard') on the menu was £84 and knows that it generally retails for around £13.95 meaning that it's six times pricier.

Instagram/jayrayner1

At the end of the meal, Rayner was hit with a bill for over £370 which he says in his Guardian column was for 'dreadful salad, terrible crab cakes, mediocre pasta, and a grossly overpriced rosé'.

Earlier in his review he noted that the dishes are designed to 'share' to which Rayner says: "I apologise to my companion for doing so." He also spotted on the menu that the food orders would be delivered 'as they are prepared to ensure you receive them at their best' to which he wrote: "This is their best? Oh."

When it came to the larger dishes he ordered, he explained how the crab cakes tasted only lightly of crab 'as if embarrassed about the star ingredient' and the pasta had a 'grimly sweet and cloying sauce that tastes mostly of tomato ketchup and profit'.

Give the full review a ganders here.

Topics: Food, Entertainment, Celebrity

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

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