Fine Dining comes to London 
The Bloom is gone, and with the Bloom go I
Matthew Arnold
Observer restaurant reviewer Jay Rayner and his food-blogging friend Silverbrow have shared a supernally awful meal at the surviving Golders Green branch of the once legendary Bloom's. There is no one more eloquent than a Jewish messenger bearing bad news, and both of these unhappy diners take us so vividly through their gastronomic trials as to make Moses’ ordeal in the wilderness seem like a holiday outing.
Forty years ago my experience of Bloom's was altogether happier. When the Whitechapel original closed early in 1996, I wrote a lament to the Jewish Chronicle which they duly published in the next issue:
Sirs:
As a goyischer aficionado of Jewish cuisine (how's that for
a linguistic mish-mosh?), I was much saddened by the demise
of the Whitechapel Bloom's. When I came to London from
America thirty years ago, it was the only decent restaurant
open on Christmas Day, so I went there for my first
Christmas dinner in England. It was a long holiday bus ride
from South Kensington, but it was worth it. When I told the
waiter why I was there, I was treated like visiting royalty.
Never in history has hot salt beef been served with such
aplomb or eaten with such relish! If there is a broche for
the death of a great restaurant, let it be said.
John Whiting
©2007 John Whiting