Andy Lynes

Yes, I'm sorry about that! Feel free to start a thread with your proposed itinerary and we will be happy to rip it to shreds for you!

If we get 10 people it will have to be the private room! The Chez Bruce do with 14 of us was terrific, but there was enough of us to create our own buzz. With 8, I'm a little concerned that a private room may lack atmosphere. However, I am easily persauded! And we have 6 people already expressing an interest.

The French have no such worries about taking dogs to restaurants. I remember being in a fairly upmarket bistro in Paris and the table next to us was a man dining alone with his very well behaved and quite large dog cuddled up next to him on a banquette. When we left, the man was standing outside the restaurant with the dog cradled in his arms!

I have recently become a dog owner for the first time (German Shorthaired Pointer, 5 months old, name of Lulu), and although I can offer no advise on dog friendly Philly restaurants, would love to know what sort of dog you are getting. We haven't braved taking Lulu to a restaurant as yet, and I must admit haven't looked into where in the UK might be dog friendly. However, we did manage to have bacon sarnies and tea in a Brighton seafront open air cafe yesterday without major incident. A big leap forward for us.

That sounds like as good a date as any. The private room holds up to 15 people but it will accomodate as few as 8. There is a table for 8 in the main dining room which I think would be preferable if we are that few in number as its a really nice, buzzy space. And I agree with Vengroff that the cheese trolley is an absolute must. We would also want to make best possible use of the wine list which has got to be one of the best in the city.

I think a late January do might be a good call. Once we have assessed interest, I could certainly contact Philip Howard and see what he could do for us in terms of a special menu.

If you search for The Square on egullet you'll come up with quite a few references, but here's on to start you off: click. I've eaten at The Square 3 times, twice for dinner (both times as a guest of the house) and once for lunch (which I paid for). Both dinners were multi- course affairs and the kitchen was really showing off, so my view of the place could well be distorted. There is a report of the first of those dinners here. The lunch was far more simple, but no less enjoyable. All I would say is that the memory of the food, wine and service I experienced at The Square has grown such that very few places manage to live up to it. Philip Howard is one of the few British chefs whose food is individual, intelligent and confident enough to make him an absolute must try in London. His pasta dishes (anything with hand rolled macaroni, gnocchi and especially the crab lasagne), foie gras, lamb and hare signature dishes are all superb, as is the yoghurt and donuts pre-dessert. Sweet souffles and tatins are also outstanding. Thinking about all this makes me want to rush back very soon.

I'll have to check the name, but it was a sort of noodle place near Temple Bar, very popular, noisey, quite a young crowd if that helps you identify it. I didn't particularly like it, but again must stress that the food had nothing to do with my illness.

The forthcoming eGullet.com publication "How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love Wallet-Emptying Restaurant Meals" is currently in preparation and will be in all good bookstores soon.

Aha. So, Mr Lynes, you admit that you don't blame wasabi for the downfall of ship-building along the Tyne? Or is that a non-denial denial? I blame the Tories. For pretty much everything.

She mainly sells to the restaurant market rather than the one you speak of. BTW I think her cheeses are fantastic.

I was invited to try Patterson's for lunch today by PR company Pink Fish. All food and drink was on the house as it always is on these occasions so this is simply a report rather than a review as such. The room is quite plain, white walls, a few large and colourful canvases dotted around, wooden floors, a skylight to the rear and lots of linen. A small bar area has very comfy sofas and turned out to be a pleasant place for a beer and a chat. We ordered from the a la carte which turned out to be a mistake as I got the strong impression that the kitchen was set up for the set lunch and was possibly struggling to produce the carte dishes at their best. However, an amuse bouche of asparagus and shellfish soup was nicely flavoured if a little salty, and starters of smoked haddock souffle and scallops with cauliflower and noilly prat veloute were impressive. My main course of dover sole however was poor: overcooked and served with rather thick skinned and solid lobster tortellini. Venison was judged to be better. Desserts got things back on track with a decent tarte tatin (not cooked to order) and a chocolate fondant with good malted milk ice cream. I would like to return to try the set lunch, which featured the likes of scallops as a starter for just £4.00.

When I explain that the reason I have come to dislike the taste of Wasabi is because I was violently ill after a Japanese meal in Dublin and associate the flavour of wasabi (and pickled ginger come to that) with being "ill" at both ends as it were, you'll understand why I didn't let on to that fact during lunch. I should point out that the illness was due to a virus and was nothing to do with the food (others who hadn't been to the restaurant that night sufferred from the same symptoms), however the association has been made in my mind. This happened about a year ago, so I think its going to be a while before I can face Sashimi again.

Sheer greed really. I am often on a budget when I eat at these places and like to know that I will have enough booze to see me through the meal after a long and boring days auditing. Frankly, 2 or 3 glasses would not usually be enough. I enjoy good wine, but find that I can appreciate good food with a reasonable bottle, rather than worry too much about matching each dish to the appropriate wine. That said, a recent meal of game at Putney Bridge was accompanied by wines chosen by the sommelier which did raise the level of enjoyment significantly.

No, for two! I reckoned on about £9.00 X 2 for the bellinis, £5.00 x 2 for the water, £5.00 for the Ame and £5.00 x 2 for the coffee, which converted to $72.00. Add that to the $225.00 and add 18% service charge and you've got your $350.

Ok, I just figured out what I would expect to pay in the UK at the equivilent level and I came out with a figure of almost exactly $350.00 based on an 18% tip as per the website. It soon adds up doesn't it?

I think you could say that about the vast majority of awards ceremonies, unless there for bravery or something of that ilk.

$125 for bellinis, water, Ame, coffee (?) and service. I'd be shocked.

I was going to check the prices on the website, but they are no longer listed! I was in my mid-twenties when I first started eating out "seriously". My wife and I were usually the youngest in the room by some margin, a fact that I quite enjoyed. It made me feel as though I had discovered something my peers had not, which at the time was partly true. I did intially feel a little uncomfortable on first entering seriously expensive restaurants, but a glass of wine or beer at the bar soon did the trick and I quickly relaxed into the experience. But I can empathise with adrober's "in over our heads" comment.

I like to think of my self as an enthusiastic and open-minded diner, but sometimes the food at what are generaly to be considered to be the best places just doesn't register with me in the way I would like and expect it to. And that makes me wonder sometimes if my palate is not as highly refined as it ought to be. But it also makes me wonder if the food I am eating has not been seasoned correctly, or is not of the finest possible quality, or if the dish is simply mis-concieved or has been poorly executed, all of which are sadly plausible explanation in even the very best restaurants in my experience.

Well I think I enjoyed reading your account of the meal more than you actually enjoyed the meal itself. Although I take Craig's well made point, I do think that for $350 you have every right to expect to be blown away by a dining experience and disappointed if you are not. "Nuance, balance and elegance" should be givens at this level, as should flavours that will haunt you to your grave.

I was invited to lunch at the Atlantic recently and was struck by how lovely the room is. Now 10 years old, the place has aged gracefully and remains as glamourous a space as ever. It was also a rather empty space, but I was informed that they had only recently started serving lunch, that there had been a bit of a cock up on the PR front and very few people actually knew that it was open during the day. So I can confirm that the Atlantic is now open for lunch and at £19.95 for three courses is pretty good value. The food had elements of Aussie fusion, Italian and classic French exemplified in part by Scallop "bon-bons" with wasabi mayonnaise to start, a really excellent loin of lamb with cous cous and a classic lemon tart. The scallops were enourmous and wrapped in smoked salmon and then some finely shredded vegetation that I couldn't identify, and deep fried. The lamb was a lovely cut of meat and cooked to rosey perfection. the tart had the required citrus kick, but a less than crisp pastry shell. The large blob of cream it came with was a little unwelcome. I was accompanied on this important bit of field research for eGullet.com by MobyP who I hope will give his side of the story.

I know what you mean, but it's like the Oscars, best picture doesn't necessarily have the best director or actors. It was a short ceremony, just the 7 awards and I think they wanted to cover as many restaurants as possible. It would have been rather boring for Wareing and Petrus to hoover up the lot.

An hour!! I assume the room was full, but even so that seems an excessive wait. The cheesey tatin is interesting. When I "worked" in the Hotel Du Vin for a couple of days earlier this year, they were trying out an assiette of duck. One of the elements was a little tartlet spread with apple puree on which a slice of foie gras sat. When we tasted the finished dish, I noted that the tart tasted cheesey. It turned out we had mistakenly used the puff pastry that had cheese folded through it for cheese straws. Luckily, the dish was just a dry run for the kitchen and never went out to the dining room. I wonder if a similar mistake was made here?

I walked past it on my way to Pied A Terre a couple of weeks ago, still going strong by the looks of things.