There's very little tastier than a large helping of shoe pie served up by Jay Rayner - and boy did Il Borro get the boot. By all means, head to the self-styled Tuscan bistro populated by braying City types if vastly overpriced pasta and "swabs of focaccia with the dense, moist texture of a sodden Tena pad" are your thing. (In the restaurant's defence, though, I suspect that the "soft, lilting chill-out cover" of Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' that offended his ear was the work of Nouvelle Vague - a heinous concept on paper, but nowhere near as egregious in reality.)
The review encapsulates what I love about Rayner: his way with words, of course, but also his relentless focus on the quality and value of the food and refusal to be dazzled by reputation, image or decor. By way of balance, he also recently wrote a positive piece, picking his ten "best value places to eat around the British coastline". The round-up features Chinese and cheese toasties as well as that seaside staple, fish and chips - which is perhaps why Riley's Fish Shack unfortunately doesn't merit a mention.
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