Tonyfinch

FG,yes. I'm always impressed/surprised at how slowly people drive in the US. You actually stick to the speed limits, something your average Frenchman/Italian/German feels duty bound to rebel against. Obeying rules does not square with their sense of machismo Italians are very fast drivers but are also very good. The Germans are extremely aggressive.

The River Cafe in London was one of the best marketed restaurants of the 90s. It actively stressed the primacy of ingredients and proposed that the chef's art was to know just how to apply enough technique to get the best out of them. Yet the chefs (Rogers and Gray) were not anonymous-far from it. They became well known media faces and the cookbooks from the restaurant sold in millions. A few dissenters asked why are we paying top money for unmucked about ingredients, but not many did. People appeared almost relieved that they could relax knowing that the food was going to be delicious but undemanding. They did not WANT to be gastronomically challenged by the chef's techniques. They felt SAFE. Its no accident that this was/is an Italian restaurant (yes I know Pumpkino, I know) and this is why people like Italian food.

The French are in denial about many negative aspects of the role of alcohol in their society. Not surprising as a goodly proportion of its population makes a living from the production of alcoholic drinks. Drinking all day long is still seen as "normale" in many parts of France and many in the wine industry distill ferociously strong eaux de vies for home consumption from its by-products. The British plan their drinking a little more. They "go out for a drink" and in planning it they are more likely to leave the car at home or arrange for someone sober to drive. In rural areas some pubs lay on a minibus to drive customers home-unheard of in France.

Er....everyone in the UK drives on the left. Hence that should make no statistical difference.

I resemble that remark.

I don't think it's a shallow bugbear at all. Comfort and space has become much more important to me in a restaurant as I've got older. Being able to have a reasonably private conversation, not having to listen to others' inevitably more boring conversation, having some elbow and table room, not having to breathe others' smoke etc. are all important factors in an enjoyable experience. I looked in at Racine the other night and immediately decided that I wouldn't want to go there for precisely that reason and I always ask now about the table situation when booking, something I never used to do.

Mogsob, you'd have thought so but that's not the way it appears to work. Most places (though not all) appear to charge more corkage than the price of their cheapest wine. At The Square their are several wine on the list for less than £25. I suppose they don't want to be seen to be actively encouraging BYO as selling wine is their major profit area. Make it too cheap and too many people might start doing it. It's interesting how virtually all of the people who answered the phones in the restaurants I rang had to ask their managers what the BYO policy was, indicating that it is a rarely asked question. QC in Holborn, however, charge a mere £5 corkage so go figure, as our American friends say.

BTW when I rang Le Gavroche and asked if I could BYO I was told "not normally". When I asked what that meant I was told "it depends on the client". I was then asked to hold and someone else came on and asked what I wanted. I was then told that BYO was "not possible". I was tempted to make up a "don't you know who I am" routine but couldn't be arsed.

Adam, I haven't finally decided but possibly the '83 Grange, precedeed by a '96 Meursault Premier Cru.

Er.....ya didn't think I was only taking one bottle did ya? Two bottles two people= £50 Two bottles three people=£75 Three bottles two people=£75 Half bottle half person.....don't ask

Why would that be? The chap at The Square was very encouraging about BYO and exhorted me to bring my wines in a couple of days before so the could be properly "prepared". If you want to drink some really fine wines with a special meal it saves you loads. I thinkit just doesn't occur to people to ask. If more of us did restaurants would have to start considering it.

Cabrales,have you reported on The Square anywhere? I can't find much about it on the UK board.

Thanks for all suggestions. I've booked The Square which,although fixed price,has terrific looking memus and charges a reasonable £25 per bottle (or per person whichever is the greater) corkage.

I went to a German Eiswein tasting earlier this year and overall I was disappointed. There were some lovely wines but a number of the older ones had lost their balance and were losing sweet fruit. Balance between sweetness and acidity is everything in a sweet wine and to my mind these wines were not in the same league as some of the top sauternes I've tasted or some of the top Austrian sweet wines. Possibly some of them had been kept too long.

Jon, I've tried them already. They can't/won't seat us before 10pm on that day.

The Connaught does not allow BYO, The Orrery charges £30 per bottle, Zafferano £25, The Greenhouse £15 and QC £5. I reckon Jay should do a feature article about this.

I'll check out Orrerry and Ransome's Dock. Does anyone know QC in Holborn?

I want to take Fahro for a splendid 20th anniversary meal on Jan 7th. The criteria are as follows. The restaurant must be open on that day- rules out Le Gavroche, Aubergeine, La Tante Claire. It must be able to start feeding us between 7.45 and 9pm- rules out GR@RHR It must have an a la carte (as opposed to prixe fixe) menu- rules out The Square, Foliage It must allow BYO (with corkage,natch)-rules out Bonds, Foliage, Petrus. It must have at least a bit of a buzzy atmosphere-rules out The Capital It must be reasonably central-rules out Putney Bridge. At the moment it looks like the pub. Any suggestions?

Yes they do make more than one. I tasted two at the Decanter Wine Encounter in London last month. One was young and fresh and the other more mature, although I can't remember what they're called. They are amazing wines, much more intense than any German Eisweins I've tasted. Very concentrated, marmalady, deep finish with all sorts going on.This is the wine to stand up to your sweetest puds but you could also sip it away on its own. Nectar for around £45 (for, I think, a 50cl bottle).

Hardens likes Monsieur Max better than its eponymous proprieter does. See the Chez Max thread.

In Saturday's Times Jane Maquitty concluded her top 100 Winter wines with a selection of 20 which cost more than £10.50. It was odd that several of the 10 reds all came from the same wine merchants (Headley Wright?) who I,for one, have never heard of. This begs the questions of how widely could she have tasted and whether she has a particular reason for pushing this particular merchant's wines. She did not declare an interest and she may well have none, but how much credibility can her list have when the range tried is apparently so narrow?

I fear the answer is no.Last time I went for lunch I looked at the a la carte menu and it waas clearly more elaborate, with more unusual and expensive ingredients and more complicated preparations. The set lunch offers very limited choice and although it may be worth it to sample "Le Gavroche Experience", food wise I've never found it particularly memorable.

Maggie, that particularly pungent fish and chip shop is the great Nautilus. A North London institution and one of the best fish and chip shops in town. Ask for plaice on the bone or halibut and ask that they fry in egg and matzo meal for a haimishe fried fish experience. The people who ran Laurents have moved their coucous house to Friern Barnet but for years it was reckoned the best place for brique and cous cous in London. Don't know who runs it now.

Well my eyes glazed over after he told me he did a thousand sit ups a day.

Pedantic correction here . It was Stephen T making that point, not me.