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martinbainbridge's review
3.0
Like Jason Donovan's 'Ten good reasons' (eleven tracks), Rayner's 'My dining hell: twenty ways to have a lousy night' under-promises and over-delivers comprising as it does twenty-one restaurant reviews. Perhaps one wasn't lousy after all...
This is a slim volume and a quick read so if Rayner's taste buds weren't tickled, your funny bone may as well be for an hour or two.
I'm looking forward to reading his follow-up 'Wasted calories and ruined nights'.
Choice cuts:
On the meatballs at Bloom's: "'Gedempte' usually means 'long cooked', so that they fall apart. Here 'gedempte' took on an onomatopoeic quality, as of the sound a boulder makes when dropped into water."
Of Abracadabra's cubicles, "...the toilet is rested on a sculpture of a naked woman so you sit on her lap to evacuate. Hurrah."
This is a slim volume and a quick read so if Rayner's taste buds weren't tickled, your funny bone may as well be for an hour or two.
I'm looking forward to reading his follow-up 'Wasted calories and ruined nights'.
Choice cuts:
On the meatballs at Bloom's: "'Gedempte' usually means 'long cooked', so that they fall apart. Here 'gedempte' took on an onomatopoeic quality, as of the sound a boulder makes when dropped into water."
Of Abracadabra's cubicles, "...the toilet is rested on a sculpture of a naked woman so you sit on her lap to evacuate. Hurrah."
ferocity's review
4.0
I admit, I'm not even really done with this, but my kid keeps asking why I'm laughing, so I think that means it's a great book.
danperlman's review
3.0
According to the author one (me, I suppose) must be a horrible person to have picked up his book. After all, it's a mere compendium of 20 of his negative restaurant reviews. And they are negative. What at first might be enticing in that sort of vicarious thrill one gets from reading a truly trashing review becomes wearing when piled one atop the other. They worked spread out over years of publication - gathered together, they don't. While now and again Rayner gets off a laugh out loud line, overall he's not nearly as humorous as he thinks he is. Read it in small doses and you might enjoy it far more than I did sitting down and plowing straight on through.
littlelibraryreviews's review
4.0
I found this teeny-tiny book on my mum's bookshelves and decided to give it a quick read, and I was not disappointed! I loved his cynical approach and condescending tone mocking absolutely everything about these restaurants, and his audacity/bravery at points (himself, a Jew, going to have lunch with a Nazi at an anti-Semitic cafe was an interesting idea, to say the least). also, he has some really good one-liners that are guaranteed to make you chuckle. this was perfect for reading in the car on an hour-or-two long trip, and I highly recommend!
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