[7] While Gary Rhodes had promised to be present in the kitchen whenever he could, the head chef on launch was Brian Hughson.

[9][10] Giles Coren reviewed Rhodes W1 for The Times in 2007, describing the food served as "like a mini-smorgasbord of flavours".

[4] While he criticized that many items on the menu carried supplementary charges which brought up the price of the bill, he suggested that it simply made the restaurant more suitable for a celebratory meal.

[4] Terry Durack also reviewed the restaurant in 2007, for The Independent; he gave it an overall score of seventeen out of twenty, summing the restaurant up as "Rhodes W1 shows that the chef's chef can bring a lighter, modern, touch to his almost anal brand of food perfectionism.

"[8] Marina O'Loughlin gave the restaurant three out of five stars while reviewing it for the Metro, while warning people when visiting to avoid the similarly named brasserie.