New York kitchens: not as hot as they think

At least you don’t have to stand and wait in London restaurants, says paul levy

So, Frank Bruni, restaurant critic of the New York Times, has given his verdict on Gordon Ramsay At The London (right), Gordo's new place in the Big Apple.

Bruni has given it a disappointed two stars out of four: the room's too tasteful and the food's too tame, coming from the wild man of Hell's Kitchen. Maybe Gordon's restaurants in London are better.

But a Manhattan friend says: "I don't go to London anymore. The prices are insulting. It's not that I can't afford $250 for dinner, it's just that I can get the same thing for $100 in New York."

Can he? In London (and across Britain and most of Europe, come to that) we have some minimum standards for a meal out, even