Square Meal 3 Stars – Accurate ?

To be honest there are many things I disagree with on Squaremeals website. I haven't eaten at Arbutus, neither have I had the pleasure to sample Corrigan's food yet, so I can't comment on your exact comparison. Personally I am drawn to pan-Asian food and especially Japanese. What really puzzles me is how ‘Nozomi’ (a true abomination of a restaurant) is listed under best Japanese next to Umu and Zuma. And it isn't the only example, there are many others. It completely discredits this website as a reliable source for unbiased and knowledgeable restaurant reviews. I have also noticed that in the past six months or so the regular and serious reviewers have stopped posting. Instead an avalange of glowing 10/10 reviews has hit this website, by people who apparently only eat at one single restaurant, which then they choose to praise in one single review. Just like London-eating this website has started well but is going nowhere fast.

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your answer to the original post, but I'd like an answer too.
Since personally I don't eat at French restaurants in London (I also live in Paris and get my french fix there) and consume most of my restaurant meals at pan Asian restaurants, I'd like to hear your position on why those don't seem to deserve a serious visit by one of your reviewers. In Europe, London is famous for offering the highest standard of Asian cuisine (not French or Italian which is better in their respected countries) so surely they deserve to be called ‘must-visits’ too? In fact when my husband and I go for business dinners with clients from abroad their must visits are always Japanese or pan Asian.
I'm not trying to be rude or imply that you aren't serious, but if you have a dozen very bad reviews for a restaurant, how can it still be listed as one of the best?

Regards,
Miss Sushi

I would certainly go to The Square before Le Gavroche and Corrigan's. Arbutus is a different price to the other 3 restaurants but certainly is worth 3 SM stars for the otherall package – my clients love it and it is sensibly priced. From what I believe SM stars are given to ‘overall package’ not just food – you can see this in the mix of pirces/types within each category.

Re Gordon Ramsey – it is still an iconic restaurant with exceptional food. To me a bit stiff/formal/traditional and not my first choice but I can see why it would get 3 SM stars.

I can't undersand Miss Sushi point – I use SM the whole time for Japanese/Indian suggestions. I agree that these are great cusine types to take clients to and that one must not be a ‘French cuisine style’ snob – very few people are now days.

I would hope that SM doesn't just take reader reviews in to consideration. Just as Miss Sushi does not like the over positive 10/10 one should also watch the over negative a la trip advisor.

Thanks all for your comments. Miss Sushi raises another very valid point and that is the manipulation of reviews. Check the comments against Alfie's Kitchen – in particular the dates posted. I had requested removal of these reviews as they were so blatant but at the time of writing, no action has been taken. This can be a little disheartening for those who invest time submitting considered reviews to the site and do expect to see some form of policing.

Square Meal is generally a very reliable source of information although I do question how frequently classifications and reviews are updated and would urge closer attention. For the record, I am not a Ramsay basher but there is a reason that Hospital Road crashed out of the Top 100 restaurants in the World last year and this is echoed by the generally lukewarm reviews by Square Meal diners. I was also surprised to read that many opinions on this particular restaurant are posted ‘directly’ to square meal and not on the website – I would suggest they be published, after all isn’t the whole objective to collect as many opinions as possible ?