Editions

  • My Dining Hell
    Paperback 2015
  • My Dining Hell
    eBook 2012
Penguin Logo
  • Articles, Games and more...

    Articles
    • Recommendations
    • Features
    • Extracts
    • Quizzes
    • View all articles
    Children's articles
    • Recommendations
    • Extracts
    • Games & activities
    • Quizzes
    • View all children's articles
    Penguin Shop
    • Book bundles
      Book bundles
    • Penguin gifts
      Penguin gifts
    • Signed & special editions
      Signed & special editions
    • Writing workshops
      Writing workshops
    • View all
      View all

    • Events
    • Podcasts
    • Apps
    • Newsletter

    • Penguin Classics
    • VINTAGE
  • Categories

    Fiction
    • Action & adventure
    • Classics
    • Crime, thrillers & mysteries
    • General & literary fiction
    • Graphic novels
    • Romance
    • Poetry
    • Horror
    • Short stories
    • View all fiction
    Non-fiction
    • Art, architecture & photography
    • Biographies
    • Business, economics & law
    • Food & drink
    • Health & lifestyle
    • History
    • Politics, philosophy & culture
    • Science & nature
    • Sports
    • View all non-fiction
    Children's
    • 0 - 18 months
    • 18 months - 3 years
    • 3 - 5 years
    • 5 - 7 years
    • 7 - 9 years
    • 9 - 12 years
    • View all children's

    • Puffin

      Puffin

    • Ladybird

      Ladybird


    • Audiobooks
    • Gifts & box sets
    • Must-read books of 2019
    • 100 must-read classic books
  • Authors A-Z

    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • J
    • K
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • U
    • V
    • W
    • X
    • Y
    • Z
    • All Authors A-Z


    Featured Authors

    Philip Pullman

    Margaret Atwood

    Lee Child

    Jacqueline Wilson

    Ian McEwan

    Naomi Klein

    Malcolm Gladwell

    Toni Morrison

  • About Penguin Random House UK

    About Us
    • Overview
    • Company history
    • Leadership Team
    • News
    • Blogs
    Work with us
    • Authors
    • Careers
    • Rights and permissions
    • Penguin Connect
    • Partnerships
    • Penguin Ventures
    • Sales & distribution
    • Student Design Award
    Publishing houses
    • Cornerstone
    • Ebury
    • Michael Joseph
    • Penguin General
    • Penguin Press
    • Penguin Random House Audio
    • Penguin Random House Children's
    • Transworld
    • VINTAGE
    Creative Responsibility
    • About Creative Responsibility
    • Reading
    • Community
    • Inclusion
    • Sustainability
    • WriteNow
    • Penguin Talks
    Contact us
    • Offices
    • Media contacts
    • Catalogues
  • Gifts for bibliophiles

    Penguin's Christmas Gift Guide
    • Beautiful gift books
    • Festive Christmas stories
    • Books for your secret santa
    • Best books for children
    • Must-read celebrity memoirs of 2019
    • The biggest books of 2019
    • View all
    Penguin Shop
    • Penguin gifts
      Penguin gifts
    • Book bundles
      Book bundles
    • Special and signed editions
      Special and signed editions
    • Writing workshop
      Writing workshop
    • View all
      View all

  • Home
  • My Dining Hell
My Dining Hell
  • Imprint: Penguin

  • Published: 26/02/2015

  • ISBN: 9780241973479

  • Length: 96  Pages

  • Dimensions: 181mm x 6mm x 111mm

  • Weight: 58g

  • RRP: £4.00

My Dining Hell

  • Twenty Ways To Have a Lousy Night Out.

  • Series: Penguin Specials

Jay Rayner

  • Paperback
  • Ebook
  • Hive Waterstones Amazon

I have been a restaurant critic for over a decade, written reviews of well over 700 establishments, and if there is one thing I have learnt it is that people like reviews of bad restaurants. No, scratch that. They adore them, feast upon them like starving vultures who have spotted fly-blown carrion out in the bush.

They claim otherwise, of course. Readers like to present themselves as private arbiters of taste; as people interested in the good stuff. I'm sure they are. I'm sure they really do care whether the steak was served au point as requested or whether the soufflé had achieved a certain ineffable lightness. And yet, when I compare dinner to bodily fluids, the room to an S & M chamber in Neasden (only without the glamour or class), and the bill to an act of grand larceny, why, then the baying crowd is truly happy.

Don't believe me? Then why, presented with the chance to buy this ebook filled with accounts of twenty restaurants - their chefs, their owners, their poor benighted front of house staff - getting a complete stiffing courtesy of the sort of vitriolic bloody-curdling review which would make the victims call for their mummies, did you seize it with both hands?

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • Published: 26/02/2015

  • ISBN: 9780241973479

  • Length: 96  Pages

  • Dimensions: 181mm x 6mm x 111mm

  • Weight: 58g

  • RRP: £4.00


  • Share at

  • Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook
  • Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter
  • Pinterest - pinterest Pinterest - pinterest
  • Email - email Email - email
  • Whatsapp - whatsapp Whatsapp - whatsapp

More in this Series

View all View all
  • Being Sam Frears
    Being Sam Frears
    • Mary Mount
  • A Love Letter from a Stray Moon
    A Love Letter from a Stray Moon
    • Jay Griffiths
  • Great Battles: The Battle of Alamein
    Great Battles: The Battle of Alamein
    • Colin Smith
    • John Bierman
  • Perfect Christmas Day
    Perfect Christmas Day
    • Felicity Cloake
  • The Economist: State Capitalism
    The Economist: State Capitalism
    • The Economist
  • Great Battles: The Battle of Isandlwana
    Great Battles: The Battle of Isandlwana
    • Saul David
  • Who's in Charge Here?
    Who's in Charge Here?
    • Alan Beattie
  • Abroad
    Abroad
    • Penelope Lively
  • At the Hairdresser's
    At the Hairdresser's
    • Anita Brookner
  • The Economist: Cuba
    The Economist: Cuba
    • The Economist
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker
    The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker
    • Will Self
  • Famous Trials: Lucky Escapes
    Famous Trials: Lucky Escapes
    • Alex McBride
  • Everybody's Hacked Off
    Everybody's Hacked Off
    • Brian Cathcart
    • Hugh Grant
  • The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo
    The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo
    • John Garnaut
  • Benjamin Britten
    Benjamin Britten
    • Igor Toronyi-Lalic
  • The Drugs Don't Work
    The Drugs Don't Work
    • Professor Dame Sally Davies (and others)
  • Alzheimer's
    Alzheimer's
    • Andrew Lees
  • The Land Lubbers Lying Down Below
    The Land Lubbers Lying Down Below
    • Helen Dunmore
  • Pray
    Pray
    • Nick Hornby
  • The Badlands
    The Badlands
    • Paul French
View all View all

About the Author

Jay Rayner

Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer and broadcaster, best known as restaurant critic for the Observer. He is a former Critic of the Year and Restaurant Critic of the Year, and in the 2014 British Press Awards he was shortlisted for both Critic of the Year and Specialist Journalist of the Year. In a recent survey of journalists and the public by UK Press Gazette Jay was voted the most influential food and drink journalist in Britain. He likes pig.

Jay Rayner

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, offers and more 

  • Please enter an email.

    Please enter a valid email address.

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

Thank you for signing up to the Penguin Newsletter

Keep an eye out in your inbox.

Oops! it seems you've already subscribed to this newsletter. View all newsletter

Subscription failed, please try again

About us
  • Our company
  • Work with us
  • Getting published external-link-icon
  • Careers
  • Publishing houses
  • Creative Responsibility
  • Contact us
  • Send website feedback
Useful links
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & conditions
  • Help & FAQs
  • Gender pay gap reports
  • Industry commitment to professional behaviour
  • Permissions
Stay connected

Follow Penguin

  • Facebook Facebook
  • Instagram Instagram
  • Twitter Twitter
  • Youtube Youtube

Follow Puffin

  • Puffin Facebook Puffin Facebook
  • Puffin Instagram Puffin Instagram
  • Puffin Twitter Puffin Twitter
  • Puffin YouTube Puffin YouTube

Follow Ladybird

  • Ladybird Facebook Ladybird Facebook
  • Ladybird Instagram Ladybird Instagram
  • Ladybird Twitter Ladybird Twitter
  • Ladybird YouTube Ladybird YouTube

© 1995 - 2019

Penguin Books Ltd.

Registered number: 861590 England.

Registered office: 80 Strand, London,

WC2R 0RL UK.

Penguin Random House

Penguin Books Limited

A Penguin Random House Company.

We use cookies on this site and by continuing to browse it you agree to us sending you cookies.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here.