Critic Roundup: London's Jackson + Rye Is American-Style

This week in restaurant news, Bloomberg restaurants critic Richard Vines says stepping into Jackson + Rye in London's SoHo is like entering a restaurant in New York's SoHo.

"This new establishment in the London neighborhood of the same name has the energy and noise levels you might expect across the Atlantic, together with the willing service that isn't always the British style," Vines says, mentioning that the menu is full of classic American dishes.

In Washington, DC, The Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema reviews Catch 15, which he says, with its lighting and decor, feels a bit romantic.

"Even at high noon, Catch 15 feels like eight at night.," Sietsma writes. "The long and narrow restaurant is lighted as though OkCupid has a stake in it. The design details — brown velvet chairs, sheer curtains between booths, Sinatra crooning in the background — only heighten the romantic effect, which feels a little weird when it's just you and a pal from the office out for a bite to eat."

In San Francisco, The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer reviews Iyasare, where "one dish explains more about a chef than a 1,000-word essay," says Bauer. For him, that dish was beet-cured ocean trout, made with "recognizable ingredients...combined in innovative ways and presented in an explosion of color that made the dish as appealing to the sight as to the taste."

Restaurant Critic Roundup: 2/26/2014

Click here for The Daily Meal's "Top Chefs Review — and Rate — America's Food Critics."

Haley Willard is The Daily Meal's assistant editor. Follow her on Twitter at @haleywillrd.