Andy Lynes

Restaurant services have some pretty complete looking lists of Xmas and New Year venues : Xmas New Year's Eve

Lolas are hoping to cash in on the annual health kick by offering a couple of de-toxifiying cocktails in January. The first is Lolas Orange Blossom, this is a combination of rosehip, hibiscus, orange and white grape juice as well as a dash of Aloe Vera and orange blossom. Alternatively, you can indulge in a Refrigerating Cleanser, a combination of carrot, celery, fennel, tomato, cucumber, shallot and lemon juice with a touch of aloe vera. Info courtesy of Sauce Communications

We have been advised of some game specials to be served at Pied a Terre during the season : Partridge and Mallard Pithiver with Chestnut Purée Game Consommé with Wild Mushroom Ravioli Roasted Teal Breast with Choucroute in a Chanterelle Soup Terrine of Partridge, Pheasant and Mallard with Beetroot Jelly and Soused Girolles Venison Fillet with Pine Nut and Swede Gratin, Confit Cabbage with Swede and Honey Purée Roasted Grouse with Sweet Parsnip Purée Brussels Sprouts with Braising Juice Roasted Pheasant Breast, Confit of Cabbage, Braised Lettuce and Fondant Potato Partridge Breast with Pear and Ventreche Boulanger, Thyme Sauce No prices I'm afraid or details of when the particular dishes will be served. Info courtesy of Sauce Communications.

A selection of 4 Lunches Boxes are now available from Shumi "guaranteeing busy people a tasty and quick lunch - in and out within 45 minutes!" according to the press release. Here's the options: Cio-Cio Lunch Box (single tray) - £18 Shumi Salad, Cio-Cio Beef Tenderloin, Rice Flour Spaghetti with Rosemary Sea Bass Lunch Box (single tray) - £18 Shumi Salad, Chargrilled Sea Bass with spiky Artichoke and Pancetta, Rice Flour Spaghetti with Rosemary and Lemon Oil Tomato Lunch Box (single tray) - £15 Shumi Salad, Tomato and Red Pepper Tartare, Pumpkin and Chestnut Risotto Deluxe Lunch Box (double tray) - £28 Salmon Tartare with Caviar, Carpaccio of Aberdeen Angus, Shumi Salad, Saffron Calamari, Chargrilled Sea Bass, Rice Flour Spaghetti with Rosemary and Lemon Oil Whilst at the Shumi Bar and Calma Lounge Tony Conigliaro and his team have a range of alcohol free cocktails including the Apple Mojito (apple juice, lime & lemon juices, poured into a glass with crushed mint leaves), and the English Rose (lychee juices, cranberry juice and rose syrup).

Salt are taking a block booking for New Years Eve in the dining room, for 25 - 35 people, at £75 a head, including 3 course dinner and midnight champagne party. Tickets for salt whisky bar's New Years Eve party are also available for £30 each (included in £75 per head for dinner). Stolichnaya Cristall vodka shots, drams of whisky and DJ's throughout the night, to book tickets and a table area in salt whisky bar or to book dinner for 25 or more call 0207 402 1155 or email Melissa: nye@saltbar.com. New Dining Room menu Antipasti Grigliata Mista di Verdure con Mozzarella di Bufala e Olio al Basilico Mixed Grilled Vegetables with Buffalo Mozzarella and Basil Dressing 6.00 Uovo in Camicia con Sfoglia di Parmigiano, Patate Novelle, Asparagi e Scaglie di Tartufo Nero Poached Egg with Parmesan Crisp, New Potatoes, Asparagus and Black Norcia Truffle Shaving 7.00 Carpaccio di Spada Affumicato con Chicchi di Melograno e Insalata di Campo Smoked Swordfish Carpaccio with Pomegranate Seeds and Mixed Wild Leaves 8.00 L'Antipasto Italiano - Una Selezione d'Affettati Misti e Mozzarella di Bufala (per 2) A Selection of Italian Charcuterie and Buffalo Mozzarella (for 2) 16.00 Zuppe Crema di Piselli con Gamberoni alla Piastra Sweet Pea Soup with Char grilled Black Tiger Prawn 5.50 Zuppa di Ceci, Castagne e Rosmarino Chickpea, Chestnut and Rosemary Soup 5.00 Primi Fettuccine ai Funghi Porcini Home made Fettuccine with Cepes Mushrooms 7.50/11.00 Risotto alla Pescatora Seafood Risotto 14.00 Linguine all'Astice Lobster Linguine 17.50 Ravioli di Verdure sminuzzate e Ricotta al Burro e Salvia Vegetable and Ricotta Ravioli with Butter and Sage 7.50/10.00 Secondi Coda di Rospo con Bietole Ripassate e Brodetto al Pomodoro Roast Monkfish with Italian Swiss Chard and Cherry Tomato Broth 16.00 Spigola in Crosta di Sale (per 2) 'Salt' baked Sea Bass (for 2) 28.00 Polletto alla Diavola con Fagiolini e Patate Arrosto Spicy Baby Chicken with Green Beans and Roast Potatoes 12.00 Stinco d'Agnello Brasato ai Funghi Porcini con Tartufo nero e Purea di Patate Braised Lamb Shank with Porcini Mushrooms, Black Norcia Truffles and Mash Potatoes 14.50 Contorni Bietole Ripassate Patate Arrosto Fagiolini Olio e Limone Purea di Patate e Parmigiano 2.50 Dolci Tiramisu Marsala Wine, Mascarpone cheese and Coffee pudding 5.50 Torta di Pere con Mascarpone e Cannella Pear Tart with Cinnamon Mascarpone 5.50 Selezione di Formaggi dello Chef con Pane alle Noci e Uvetta Chef's selection of Italian Cheeses with Walnut Bread 7.50 Panna Cotta ai Frutti di Bosco Wild Berries and Panna Cotta 6.00 Cassata Siciliana Semifreddo Sicilian Cassata Parfait 6.50

Natalia, apologies for not responding to your posts sooner. I would like to echo Dallardice's thanks for your contribution, its always great when a "lurker" makes the leap and posts on the site, and especially in this case as we now have both sides of the story. Paolo website here.

If it was me, I'd be tempted to try Launceston Place. It's in the area, is a sister restaurant to Kensington Place and as such has some input from chef Rowley Leigh, and looks like a comfortable and intimate sort of place where they might look after a lone diner. Website here.

It's £49.00 unfortunately - full SP at Sally Clarkes website.

I believe he does take a look from time to time.

Oh, you old cynic you!! Here's a statement from Morgan's PR : "I've just been speaking to Morgan Meunier about the website you sent over last week. I posted him the comments and we have just been chatting about them - he was hugely grateful for the feedback and is definitely going to respond to the people on the site in the new year. He acknowledges that there have been problems with staffing and has now hired a restaurant manager which should hopefully make things run a bit smoother. As soon as I have a statement from him I will send it to the website".

Quote from the above mentioned review : "Then the waiter returned with a steaming jug of Tarbes bean soup, and a little speech about the provenance of the bean. There would be many such speeches over the course of the evening, together with a quantity of napkin-fluffing and glass-filling which made it impossible to maintain a conversation. The service ran like clockwork: we just wished we couldn't hear it ticking quite so loudly." Did others get the speeches and general noncing about? If so, that could easily explain why the service was so slow, or as Jon says, maybe the kitchen is shorthanded and they are using the speeches to cover up the gaps in getting the food out into the dining room.

If I was going to be pedantic, I'd point out that JD found the service "clumsy" and that you reported that the service can be "shambolic" and that the table next to you were "disgruntled". I might also mention that slow or disorganised service has been a feature of nearly every posting on this thread since Bloated's first which described it as "very slow indeed". Given that Matthew's post sounds more like the script to an unfilmed episode of Fawlty Towers than a restaurant report, and that he was there only a week or so ago, I'd say it was reasonable to assume from the evidence we currently have available to us here that things have not significantly improved service wise at Morgan M. However, I'm not the pedantic sort, so I'll just promise to try and keep up in future (insert smiley of choice here).

The Point would like to be modern, clean, minimalist and boutiquey. In fact its a cheaply made over office block and it really shows. The bar is about the best thing in the whole place. The food is pretty dire, and seems to rely on a lot of bought in stuff.

I can't remember a restaurant that has been reported on egullet in recent times that apparently has such good food yet such poor service. Based on Matthew's report, things are not improving. The place has been open long enough now for this to be more than teething problems. Would anyone who has eaten there like to take a stab at what might be at the heart of the problem: Are there simply too few staff for the numbers of diners, is it a training issue, are they having problems retaining staff?

George the first week, The Point the second. BT gets quite hefty discounts on rack rates so it wasn't too bad. I couldn't really recommend either of them however.

So let me get this straight - are we saying we don't really rate this restaurant, is that it?

You may have noticed that I have been conspicuous by my absense of late. But don't worry, I have not turned by back on eGullet.com, I have been merely slaving for my real employers in Edinburgh and staying in hotels with no internet access i.e. cheap ones. So I have given my collegues the slip for one night only and am enduring the unpleasant surroundings of a crappy internet cafe to bring you news of my recent adventures in eating, with only a sandwich and cappucino to sustain me. My credit is running out so maybe I ought ot get into it : Kalpna - probably the best Indian meal I have had in the UK. A stunning thali of Gujarati vegetarian dishes with great breads, rice and dhal. £40.00 for two with some beers and service. Cafe St Honore - decent enough grub in romantic surroundings, very pleasant, slightly flirty service. Nicely cooked squid and prawns made a pleasing start to the meal, whilst a cassoulet of pork and veal with mash was very light on beans but flavourful. With a bottle of wine (sorry can't remeber the details) water coffee and service 2 of us paid £70.00. I would return. Hard Rock Cafe - opposite our hotel, I had never been in one, what the hell. A "pig sandwich" of pulled pork was very heavy on the vinegar and not very pleasant as a result. Spring roll type thingies with black beans and chicken to start were a bit of a mistake. In fact the whole idea mis-fired. Some interesting memorabilia on the walls though. First Coast - the esrtwhile Mr Balic graced me with his presence at this Haymarket area newcomer. Tightly packed tables, noisy room, upbeat service, the place was rocking. A funny old starter of oxtail mash and gravy was expertly cooked, whilst Adams white bean and salt cod soup was delicious. Ling with some sort of pea and potato casserole was a damn sight better than my special of grey sole with a cheesy topping, new potatos and red onion and tomato salad. Adams roly poly pudding with custard (something he'd never tried before!!) again efforlessly trumped my inedible poopyseed parfait. With way too much wine, we paid £70ish. More soon.

A good read, but I'm disappointed that you ducked out of the lobster experiement and that you didn't like the sprouts. How can any cheesey vegetable gratin be bad?

Dr Batch is a bit of an enigma really. His correspondence is erratic and quite unpredictable, and, as it is highly unlikely that he will appear on these boards in person, we will just have to make of it what we can. I have an uneasy relationship with him, and I can't honestly say that I particulary look forward to his visits, but I know that our paths will continue to cross.

From the very little I know of the set up, I think its fair to say that Ramsay/Wareing work in close association, but then I believe that Ducasse works closely with his chefs so that shouldn't be a barrier to 2 or 3 stars. I suppose the bottom line is that I had lost some faith in Wareing and my recent lunch has restored it. I have eaten his food far more often that Ramsay's so maybe I need another trip to RHR to get a better perspective (well, that sounds like a reasonable excuse to spend the kids Xmas present money on food to me).

Perhaps a test of that will be whether or not Wareing gets his 2 stars in January, but rightly or wrongly I have always viewed him as his own man, right from the very early days of Petrus. I think he has his own style and vision (although undoubtedly working very closely with Ramsay) and is amongst the very best that London has to offer.

An update from Sauce Communications on this venue tells that Ed Sullivan of the Evening Standard gave it a three star review although this doen't appear to be online and that the Dining room opens on Monday 8th Dec for dinner and bar snacks available from 12pm.

Sauce Communications have provided some details of their clients Christmas and New Year's deals : Open throughout Christmas and New Year: Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, 55 Brook Street, W1A Christmas Set Menu - 6 courses - £185 New Year's Eve - 8 courses £150 - early sitting, 8 courses £250 - late sitting The Connaught, Carlos Place, W1K Christmas day menu - 6 courses £150 New Years Eve Menu - 8 courses - £250 Boxwood Café, The Berkeley, Wilton Place, SW1X Christmas Day menu - 5 courses £120 Children's Christmas Menu - 4 courses £50 New Year's Eve - 6 courses £85 Savoy Grill, Strand, WC2R Christmas day menu - 6 courses £185 (Children under 12 £100) New Year's Eve - 9 courses £150 - early, 9 courses £250 - late The Royal Clarence Hotel, Cathedral Yard, Exeter, EX1 1HD Christmas Day Lunch - 7 courses £75 including free glass of champagne New Year's Eve dinner - 7 courses £90 including comp glass of champagne Open for New Year: Benares, 12 Berkeley Square, W1 New Years Eve dinner - 5 courses £59 including a complimentary glass of champagne at midnight Salt, 82 Seymour Street, WC2 New Year's Eve pre-book party

Although,shamefully, I have never eaten his food, isn't Gagnaire anomolous at the 3 star level? Again to paraphrase MPW, restaurants with 3 stars a "playing a defensive game", holding on to what they've got by relentless consistancy, working within their known limitations. Arguably, that's bound to result in the type of experience you describe above. The natural conclusion of the agruement is then that you don't have to be a genius to get 3 stars, and to a certain extent you spoil it for everyone else if you are.

If he was, how might that manifest itself on the plate?