Fine Dire dining

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: there's a genuine pleasure to be had in reading a savagely critical review (and, indeed, in writing one too). Observer food critic Jay Rayner is among the best in the business, so the prospect of Wasted Calories And Ruined Nights, a second volume of his most scathing restaurant reviews, is very welcome indeed.

Among the pieces set to feature is the one on Le Cinq in Paris, which remains one of the best and most merciless maulings I've ever read. The dishes may have been dire, but Rayner's turn of phrase is typically delicious.