The Ninth: restaurant review | Jay Rayner

For great food, service, price and surroundings, Jun Tanaka’s latest venture – his ninth – ticks every box

The Ninth 22 Charlotte Street, London W1 (020 3019 0880). Meal for two, including drinks and service: £70 - £110

Jun Tanaka’s restaurant on London’s Charlotte Street does not have the most imaginative of names. It’s called The Ninth because it’s the ninth restaurant with which he’s been involved. Then again, bluntness can be its own reward. Frankly, in an age when there are grown men who think Sexy Fish is a good name for a restaurant – rather than, say, an extremely niche category on Pornhub for people who get off on looking at trout – I’ll happily settle for bland. Lord save us from marketing departments trying too hard.

The killer detail is the limpid pool of a perfectly clarified oxtail consommé: it’s the very essence of moo