circeplum

i love the arkansas grill! the barbary duck sandwiches are also quite magnificent. and bubba, the bbq guy, is a true, one-off, eccentric, dyed-in-the-wool, enthusiast. he should be on e-gullet.

just got the hang of emoticons. now all i need to do is work out quotes. the luddite.

sorry - haven't looked at this board for a while. thank you all so much for your recommendations. am off this sunday with them all duly noted down.

it was my 100th post today, too.

just found this review: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_an...sp?story=323832 sounds, erm, interesting.

just as i remembered: great steaks, abject everything else (a duck 'spring roll' lurks unpleasantly in my memory.) have you tried 'black and blue' - a small chain (i think there's a couple of them) of steakhouses from the people who own tootsies? there's one just by kensington place and the steaks were pretty damn' fine. there's also a whole onion, floured and flowered, which struck me as a great way to add to my enbonpoint.

there's a fish and chip shop - the quality fish restaurant - in richmond near where i work to which i'm devoted. not only is the food brilliant - they take the skin off the fish, something i've rarely found since leaving scotland - but the decor is a miracle of dark wood veneer seventies gorgeousness that would have wallpaper magazine foaming at the mouth. i am usually the youngest person there by decades. my italian mother likes pizza hut ... under extenuating circumstances (hangover) i can truly love a kfc zinger burger. for this last, i apologise.

yes, please.

i have recently had first-rate meals at deca, la chaumiere and - sorry simon - marco pierre white's belvedere which has the added advantage of one of london's most glorious locations. i second the locanda locatelli and embassy recs. (simon - could you direct me to the thread where you outline your antipathy towards mpw? i seem to have missed it and am intrigued.)

my mother is italian, from liguria, and an enthusiastic and talented home cook dedicated to the food of her heritage. i can honestly say she's never cooked us a veal dish in her life. (brains, yes. but that's another story.)

there's a place called just the bridge which actually looks onto the wobbly bridge from the opposite side to the tate modern. don't know what the food's like - menu reads a bit modern britishish - but it's from the same guy as just st james. gladwin, i think his name is. the view looks sensational and there are tables outside. there's also laughing gravy for an informal, fun little place and the honest something or other (cabbage? goose?) on the cut which is pleasant and reasonably priced.

my two children, gabriel aged 6 and circe aged 4 have been brought up in EXACTLY the same way with one difference. gabriel happily eats sushi, sashimi, crab, whole baby octopus, 'stinky cheeses', even broccoli - loads of things that his peers go 'eeuuw' at. to my despair, his sister eats none of these, preferring fish fingers and the blessed heinz tomato ketchup. the difference? when gabriel was tiny i had time, so i pureed vegetables and fruit and also breast-fed. as a weeny baby, poor circe had a full-time working ma, so was weaned on formula and packets and jars of food (albeit organic as a sop to my conscience). significant?

definitely locanda locatelli. still dreaming about those truffled gnocchi. looking forward to the revamped wheelers (i know it's marco pierre, but hey), the rumoured charlie trotter and sketch. i just love restaurants.

smooth, garlicky chicken liver pate is absolutely gorgeous with good-quality blackcurrant jam.

amen to all the recommendations. but - while not the hautest of haute - maggie jones in kensington church st is really good fun for unreconstructed british food (game; jugged hare with sauce made with its own blood, etc); dusty, eccentric atmos; and the campest waiters in town.

potted shrimps (ecrivisses grises, i think) with poilane bread - strangely sweet and totally solid. almost had to slice them. lots of spice: mace? smoked duck salad - very tiny portion of rather ordinary meat. good beans and excellent dressing. special of quail in lemon sauce with girolles - sensitively handled birds, not at all dry. gritty mushrooms. glorious dauphinoise potatoes. cornfed (?) chicken with lentils, creamed spinach - nice if unremarkable apart from a sensuously tarragony herb butter. montblanc - great meringue topped with wormy threads of creme de castagne. far too sweet. the butter - echire - was sumptously, addictively good. i ate far, far too much of it on rather inauthentic baguettes (tasted a bit delice de france if you ask me.) andy - sorry this isn't as comprehensive as the magnificent cabrales but i'm allegedly working.

went last night. thought it was quite nice - wouldn't raise even an eyebrow in france - but wouldn't rush back. i'd use it if it were in my neighborhood thanks to the gorgeousness and hospitality of the staff. it was full of restaurant critics: tracey mcloud and caroline stacey from the independent and aa gill plus blonde who took notes. was gratified to notice that aa is fighting a losing rearguard action against going bald. for someone as famously vain as he, this must cause him untold anguish. tee hee.

the blue elephant is fantastically child-friendly at the weekend - sunday, i think. they do a massive buffet with an enormous range of dishes, unusually freshly-prepared for this type of operation, which youngsters and grown-ups love - my kids usually od on the dim sum-type stuff. they often put on some kind of entertainment. plus people of all ages seem to love the bonkers decor: all huts, streams with fish, and a jungle-like profusion of plants. wapping food is also brilliant for young people: they love the strange bits of old machinery which the staff seem quite happy to let them interact with.