Not sweet on Sugar

This review was first published in November 1999

Mark Fuller, co-owner with Jimmy Lahoud of the ?3 million restaurant and bar SUGAR REEF, announced before opening last week that his establishment would "show up Terence Conran's over-priced food factories for what they are", going on to describe them as repositories of indifferent food, poor service and outrageous prices. It is a brave, or perhaps naive, chap who takes on the opposition before discovering whether his chef is up to scratch or whether his black-clad waiting staff can find their way from the kitchen to the table with the right dishes in their hands.

Sugar Reef has been flagged as London's biggest restaurant but the space allotted to dining does not seat record numbers. The perception of volume resides in the fact that the licence allows 1,000 people on the premises, which encompass ground floor and large basement, given over to bar, lounge and dance floor. A waterfall capable, last week anyway, of only an old man's trickle sent out some a rather contradictory message to the notion that this is the all-singing, all-dancing place to be at.

The food, basically American-theme restaurant in style, was execrable. If a kitchen cannot get a Caesar salad even nearly good, dredges a soft-shell crab in uncooked cayenne pepper, renders Miami steak hash as a burger in a bun served with chips way outclassed by McCain's, and spells the famous ice-cream confection as Nickerbockerglory and layers it with chopped mango, then Fuller was probably right to do what he has apparently done and move out the chef.

A chef previously working at Joe Allen is now in charge and, until Monday 22 November, the restaurant will only be open in the evenings serving a pared-down menu while systems are sorted out. I think Sir Terence need lose no sleep.

Sugar Reef
41 Great Windmill Street, W1