Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Lost in Piccadilly

The Criterion in Piccadilly has a cursed location. It’s lucky I love rotting beauty

issue 30 April 2016

Batman owned the Criterion in The Dark Knight, but could he do anything about British Telecom? Savini at Criterion, an Italian restaurant, waited four months for an internet connection and telephone line as they prepared to launch this year; when it arrived they gave BT what must be the worst review in the history of telecommunications: ‘This wouldn’t happen in Italy.’

It ruined the launch, they said. They couldn’t invite actors, except by pigeon post. And because actors are, in restaurant marketing terms, signposts — and they do look like signposts, specifically Monagasque signposts — no one knew Savini was there. It has no constituency. It is George Galloway, who has inexplicably blocked me on -Twitter.

But I am too gloomy. The Criterion is, from the street, the most beautiful restaurant in London; it walked out of Paris and washed France off its face.

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