Andy Lynes

...and one of the judges is playmate of the year. Could it get any better. And I'm not going to be able to see it. ####! Is it just me or does Todd English look like David Byrne?

Probably the only things that would make me walk from a restaurant would be a bad table exactly as Ruby describes or an inordinate wait for a menu and a drink after having been seated. Thankfully, these have happened to me infrequently and I have only ever walked from a restaurant once, but I can think of quite a few occassions when it turned out that I should have done and went on to have a dreadful evening.

In the right circumstances, I find cooking very theraputic indeed. If I am not in the mood to cook however, I can understand how a lot of people find it a chore. Tonight I will cooking bacon wrapped chicken legs roasted with thyme and lemon butter, braised chicory, mushrooms and crispy shallots, followed by cheese and washed down with a pleasant little bordeaux from the supermarket. I don't do this sort of thing every night of course, but once or twice a week it can be a real tonic.

I've eaten at the Ivy and it was very good, but not exceptional, and haven't tried J Sheekey's but I've heard it's very good. Those two, along with La Caprice are almost in a catagory by themselves as they are celeb central, but are renowned restaurants in their own right, but for the whole package rather than as a gastronomic destination as such. Mark Hix, the executive chef of the group is not a star chef and is not chasing Michelin stars. They've carved out their own space. I suppose punk cabaret was inevitable, but it's depressing never the less. I wonder if the waiter brought the soup to the table then spat in it in front of you, or the barman mixed his cocktails by pogoing.

I really liked Chavot's food when I had it at Interlude, and have heard very good things about the Capital. The only thing that worries me is eating in a half full room. I have heard that he is having trouboe attracting the punters. The sample menu I got from Foliage had about 5 choices per course for lunch, with a couple of £5 supplements fopr shellfish and sea bass.

One of the pleasure of dining out is that the stemware, cutlery and crockery is going to be better than I have at home. I agree with with Steven that even the most run of the mill wine can taste so much better in a fine glass. Isn't it one of the reasons you pay the ludicrous restaurant mark ups on wine for all the trimmings now that cover charges have generally become unfashionable?

Thomas Keller and The french Laundary were the subject of a recent article cover feature in the UK trade magazine Caterer and Hotelkeeper which you can read online here The'>http://www.caterer.com/archive..... The basic premis was that six UK chefs went to check out The French Laundary on the basis that it is considered by some to be the best restaurant in the world. It's an interesting article and the response is generally very enthusiastic from the chefs.

I suppose what confuses me is that the very best restaurants where you might expect the great and the good to hang out are rarely characterised as celeb haunts, whereas a certain sort of restaurant gets famous for it's clientele, and invariably the food is nothing to write home about. The exception could be Nobu I suppose. With Da Silvano, I guess a visit from Warhol would be enough to last a lifetime. Talking of Warhol, is Max's Kansas City still going does anyone know, and if so, does ot trade on the Warhol/Velvets connection?

The most expensive water I ever had was in The Restaurant Marco Pierre White when it was at the Hyde Park Hotel Knightsbridge London (here I go again posting about UK resturants on the NY board, but it's a general topic now anyway isn't it?). It was 1994, and we were paying around £22.00 a head for the set lunch. The water came in a carafe, served at room temperature and could easily have been straight from the tap. It appeared on the bill at £6.00. I nearly fainted. I was relatively new to the fine dining scene, and didn't want to appear cheap. I paid in full and asked the waiter to tell Marco that the meal was lovely but that I felt £6.00 for some water was over the top. When my credit card statement arrived, the cost of the water had been deducted, so the story has a happy ending. These were the days when Marco could get away with £70.00 for dinner with supplements of up to £20.00 for foie gras or even sea bass I seem to remember, so that sort of put's things into perspective.

I'm interested how these restaurants become celebrity haunts, attract agents and publishers, get a book out and keep the whole cycle going. I think our UK equivilent maybe Aldo Zilli, who has a lot of Blist celebs in his places.

Just found this menu on line and it doesn't seem that expensive http://www.kerrymenu.com/Da-Silvano.htm but i don't know how upto date this is.

Peter - I can confirm that I do read your postings and they are appreciated. I can't believe that i haven't responded to one. I'm going to check!

I think that just about seals it then. Unless Charlie Trotter miraculously opens before the end of January, Foliage it shall be. I'll e mail Trotter's restaurant to see if they have any news. And whatever happened to Pierre Gagnaire's London venture? It's all gone quiet over there.

I tried Christophe in Amsterdam, website is www.christophe.nl. It has a Michelin star, was expensive and in the mould of The Fat Duck to a certain extent but nowhere near as experimental, or as good. If I had the opportunity again, as much as I enjoyed the meal, I would try Cafe Roux at the Grand hotel http://www.thegrand.nl/, which is a fair bit cheaper and is a lovely room.

Thought you may be interested in the following article from the UK Observer Food Monthly at Has'>http://www.observer.co.uk/foodmon..... Has anyone been to Da Silvano. It sounds like the sort of place that the rich and famous pay well over the odds for in order to be away from "normal" people. The article describes Da Silvanos refusal to serve a bowl of panzanella without pepper and the substition of bruschetta that the diner never ordered and did not want. I think the writers means for us to be impressed by this. To me its the worst type of bad manners and the sort of behaviour that british chefs got over in the mid eighties.

I am serioulsy thinking about going to Foliage for my birthday lunch, which is not until January, but I like to plan these things in advance. I got a menu faxed over which sounds terrific, and everyone I have talked to said that they really enjoyed themselves. Is it as good as The Square for instance, or are there other places you would go back to over and above Foliage. I'm a bit worried about the room , as it looks a little corridor like in the upper level. I would be disappointed not to get a window table on the lower level, and I guess these are sort after. (Edited by Andy Lynes at 12:02 pm on Nov. 14, 2001)

This is a very good point, and the fact that I was dining alone meant that my attention was given wholly to the food and I may therefore have been hyper-critical. You can have really great food in very casual places that reaches out and grabs you though. I would single out Mohsen kebab as a recent example where the surroundings and prices lead you to expect good grub, and in the main that is what you get. However, things like the freshly baked flat bread with a basket of fresh herbs and radish, strained yoghurt with garlic and the braised lamb kebabs do stop you mid conversation with their flavours and aromas. Service is very good as well in a small and busy room.

I accept that it's a difficult task managing a guide for Europe, but it is one that Michelin have set themselves. They famously do not explain themselves further than the information printed in their books so the hapless punter can quite easily be led to assume that a star indicates the same anywhere it is awarded. My conclusion is that stars can be taken as an indication of a certain degreee of quality, and that in all likelihood, a restaurant with 3 stars in any given country will be very good, but that you are slightly dodgy ground with 1 and 2 stars. This does lead me on to a wider point about the reliability of any guide book. Here in the UK, I have pretty much given up expecting to agree with the guides rating systems, having had shocking meals in hotel restaurants with 2 out of a possible 5 AA rosettes which should never have been in the guide at all, and fantastic meals in places that the Good Food Guide deems worthy of just 3 or 4 points out of 10. Has anyine had similar experiences, either UK, Europe USA or anywhere else for that matter?

I think it's very interesting that a European guide should apparently have no mechanism for ensuring that it's rating system is applied evenhandedly across all territories. Accepting that's the case, do you know where the "best" starred restaurants are? France maybe? I would guess that the award of 3 stars would be very closely monitored across the whole of Europe, but that 1 star especially would be left more or less to the discretion of the individual guides. Do you think that each territory wants to have, or even needs to have a starred restaurant, to prove that not only does it report on standards in the industry, but in fact influences and drives them up?

I was lucky enough to enjoy a very nice dinner at one of Amsterdam's best restaurants "Christophe" this week. It has held a Michelin star for 13 years. Whilst the surroundings, service, and for the most part, food were very good, I didn't think the restaurant was as good as 1 Michelin starred restaurants in the UK. So, are stars allocated on the basis of the best restaurants in a given country, or on the basis of the best in Europe? In my opinion, a star should indicate a certain standard which you can expect to find wherever that restaurant may be, otherwise it may be mis-leading.

Meanwhile - back at the Bid review. Although I am loath to criticise someone who is good enough to actually get paid for writing reviews of restaurants (unlike some of us, meaning me), I find Mr Grimes style quite difficult to deal with. He seems as interested in his own writing as the restaurant he is reviewing, with the result that you need to wade through the metaphors, similes and artfully constructed sentences before you can find out what he actually thinks of the place. NB This posting has been spell checked for your increased reading pleasure.

Glad you enjoyed Cigala. Sounds like you made better choices than me and that the room was much less hectic. I can enjoy non-French, non-starchy restaurants - Mohsen kebab and The India Club being but 2 examples - but I do admit that it is my favourite and other types have to be exceptional for me to be impressed. Cigala is school of River Cafe which is basicaly very good ingredients, not mucked about with very much, presentation not high on the list of priorities, served in casual surroundings in a casual way. I just have to be in the right mood for that sort of thing, whereas I am almost always in the mood for French food in glamorous surroundings with good service and great wine lists.

the only additional information I can give is that the head chef is Jun Tanaka formerly at the very well reviewed Chives restaurant. Before that he worked with Eric Chavot at The Capital.

Adam, I would be very interested to know your opinion of Cigala, and private Lives as well as I am thinking of booking for it later in the year. This may be over the top, but Incognico do a pre theatre dinner for 12.50 a head, and they are just down the road from the Albery in Shaftesbuty Avenue. Opposite is Mela which I told is very good, and further down is Conrad Gallagher, which does food in the bar.

Benedict - what an awful experience, which must have been very frustrating as the food sounds so good. I would really want to be delighted with everything at those prices, they would raise my expectations sky high. Stephano Cavallini used to run the restaurant before, and he has now opened a deli somewhere. I don't know if he jumped and they had to get David Thompson in, or was pushed so that they could.