crsm

If Alex is open, definitely try it (it's my favorite restauarant in LV). I wasn't particularly thrilled with The Mansion. I dined there the night after Alex, and it couldn't hold a candle to Alex. I did love Le Cirque at the Bellagio (even though I'm not a big fan of the NYC version of Le Cirque). I too can give Le Cirque a big thumbs-up after having dined there this week. We took the pre-theatre prix fixe menu and had a superb lobster bisque followed by the signature sea bass dish and then a lovely souffle to round things off. I know I will sound patronising but this meal was better than many that I've eaten at 1* restaurants in Belgium and France. We also dined at Daniel Boulud, which whilst not bad, is not in the same league as Le Cirque. Richard

Hi Carolyn, Thanks for the advice on steaks. Our favourite Chinese food is Cantonese or Szechuan at a push. Cheers! Richard

Forgive me if this has been covered in earlier posts but.... I'll be in SF for a few days in September and wanted recommendations on where the best place for steak is? Preferably not too difficult to get to from Union Square. On a different topic, I've read that the best chinese isn't found in China Town...if not then where is it? Cheers! Richard

Hi, Has anyone tried the Six Tables restaurant in Summerlin, Las Vegas? If so, what are your thoughts/opinions? Cheers! Richard

I completely agree. Last summer we tried most of the 1* in this area and there was nothing to touch Le Clos st Pierre. We dined there twice and would have gone a third time if they'd had a free table

We ended up going to Al Frash in Ladypool Rd which we thought was rather good. Cheers! Richard

I had lunch here last week and had the Feeling and Taste menu. Whilst the food was very good I think it was somewhat over-priced. What also left a sour taste in the mouth was being charged €17.50 for a glass of champagne which was a long way short of a reasonable measure and €12.00 for a coffee. Cheers! Richard

Thanks for the advice. I probably should have said that I was mainly interested in hearing about non *'d places, because places with *'s are generally easy enough to get reviews of. Sa.qua.na does sound interesting though! My wife went to Normandy a few years ago and thought the moules were fantastic - she's Belgian so she knows her moules! I'm sure she'd like to repeat the experience. She also raved about the fresh foie gras and calvados...... Trouble is she can't remember where she ate and of course things have probably changed in the intervening years. Cheers! Richard

Anyone got any up-to-date recommendations for restaurants in or around Honfleur? Cheers! Richard

Surprised you didn't like Lasan. It's one of my favourites. If you want Balti, you really have to go to the Balti Triangle, a few miles south of the city centre. Of the places there, I've tried Jyoti's http://www.jyotis.co.uk/ which if you can get past the rediculous appropriation of the Jamie Oliver brand (he ate there once, and was reasonably positive about it) is a good vegetarian Indian restaurant. Certainly no bells and whistles there, but solid homely cooking. For a very cheap and informal lunch, a meat balti at Saleem's is pretty good (Ladypool Road). People speak highly of Al-Frash and it has won various awards http://www.alfrash.com/ but I was not 100% convinced on my visits that it was up to much. An Indian friend of mine swears that the Haweli on Hagley Road is the best Indian restaurant in Birmingham, but the one time we had a take-away from there, I wasn't particularly convinced. It was fine. http://www.birminghamplus.com/reviews/revi...3&iid=308&uid=6 I have heard good things about Itihaas http://www.itihaas.co.uk/ but not yet been there. Shimla Pinks I agree is pretty poor. I'm afraid I still haven't had the Indian restaurant nirvana that I was expecting when I moved to Brum. Lasans and Jyoti's probably do it for me the best. ← Thanks for the info and links. Maybe my expectations of Lasan were rather too high, or they just had a bad night. I noticed they made a big thing about healthy eating and the fact that they don't use ghee, maybe that's the reason I thought that there was something missing! I used to go to the Royal Naim in the balti triangle but I hear that's closed down. It's difficult to get reliable reviews of other places so your views are very welcome. Most recently I've tried curry houses in Halesowen and Lye and to be honest can get a much better curry in Brussels! Changing the type of cuisine completely I also plan to have lunch at either Turners or Purnells on this trip. Cheers! Richard

Anyone got any recommendations for balti/indian restaurants in Brum? I tried Lasan and Shimla Pinks few months ago and was sorely disappointed. I'm visiting Brum again in the next few weeks and would be grateful for other recommendations. Cheers! Richard

First, You will really enjoy Mirazur. THe food is exceptional as is the service. I have friends who highly recommend Restaurant Bacon in Juan les Pin for boulubaisse. ← Bacon is in Cap d'Antibes not Juan les Pin ← Oops, my mistake/ Also agree that the lunch deal at Louis XV is amazing and worth every Euro. ← I would also recommend lunch at Louis XV. I was on the Cote D'Azur earlier this summer and the best meals I had (apart from the above) were at the 1* Le Clos St Pierre in Le Rouret which I guess is about 30 minutes drive from Nice. Cheers! Richard

It's about flavor, not consistency. It seems there are a couple of different points of view; some people like the flavor of cooked egg yolks with chocolate, and others think it's a distraction. I'm in the second camp. Chocolate is also one of the flavors that gets muted very easily by milk fat. Because of this I use less than half as much cream in chocolate ice cream as in most other recipes. The fat in yolks may have the same effect. In general, I use about a third as many eggs in my ice creams as most people, because I don't want to notice them. In chocolate I don't use any. ← Okay, thanks, Paul. I also use a lot less cream than the recipes call for. ← I was using quite a lot of cream and eggs to make my custard so my first thought was the fat content that was causing the problem. At any rate it sounds like I have some more experimentation to do with the correct chocolate, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it.

Thanks, that's very useful advice, I'll checkout their websites.

I was using a 70% cocoa content chocolate as I wanted a real chocolate taste.