PoppySeedBagel

David do you mean that you went to Leeds especially to visit this restaurant? If so what did you think? If not, are you planning to go?

I bought some ho-hum Jersey's from Waitrose. I also bought a bag of 'heritage' potatoes. I am afraid I can't recall the variety but they were recommended for baking. They were sprouting a bit, and too small for baking so I steamed them and then mashed them. They were really delicious - I wouldn't boil them as they were so floury, but they really did produce a tasty mash.

I always recoommend them in London, but their pre-theatre menus are fabulous - I am talking about Arbutus, Wild Honey and the latest Les Deux Salons (the latter has a £15.50 pre-theatre menu - really good food; stunning value). I also second Sofra and Leon for good value eats. The Sofra in Shepherd Market has a lot of character - the whole area has now it's been, ahem, cleaned up. Kim take a look at the menu of the Wolesley - some dishes are pricy but not all, but it's so beautiful, and has such a buzz, it might be worth pushing the boat out a bit. The food is good IME - afternoon tea is served till quite late and I have eaten that instead of dinner before now. Finally I love the Parlour at Sketch - it's part of a really lovely smart restaurant, but is more casual - great for people watching - and their viennoiserie are utterly utterly delicious, and not that expensive. Make sure you visit the loos.

I had a good light lunch at Quod in Oxford on Saturday - it's a brasserie, with quite an unusual menu. Very good chips...

I second the Waitrose Organic - we always go for the chipolatas, cook 'em till they're mostly chestnut brown, and they are very good.

We're heading to Pendeen, near St Ives but also near Penzance in June. I have booked a window seat for dinner at the Porthminster Café - where else is good these days round there please? (Last year we had delicious coffee & cakes at a lovely café in Penzance - Mackerel Sky, so we'll go back one evening to try their Tapas).

I went on Saturday - we were going to the theatre in Drury Lane at 7.30, and I reasoned that a booking for 5.30 would allow us plenty of time... Firstly, we loved the place, and the food was gorgeous. Mr PSB & I had the pre-theatre menu - fabulous and fabulous value. Mini-PSB [11 3/4] had the terrine from the main menu, plus as a main the snail pie ( he's a big fan of snails, and found these a little disappointing - too chewy - the only fault that any of us found with the food). He & I then shared a Paris-Brest which was comme il faut. The main waitress and other staff were lovely - bright, frendly, etc. However - there were so many delays it was laughable. Every. Blooming. Course. Was late. Plus Mr PSB's rabbit terrine came without toast - even that took 10 mins to arrive. We said we had a theatre to get too - made no difference. In the end we gobbled down the Gâteau Paris-Brest, ignoring the coffees that arrived as we were leaving, although we'd chased two or three times. Oh and they originally couldn't find my coat when we left, and had mislaid my scarf. We covered the trip to Drury Lane in 5 mins and got there just in time, ie it had taken almost 2 hours. I suspect that we were very unlucky - maybe having a starter as a main threw them. Everyone around us seemed to be getting served pretty promptly. When the food is that good I will forgive almost anything - but I don't think I'll go there pre-theatre again.

Maybe you should complain as an old student. Charity trustees are in a very difficult position as they have an obligation to maximise returns, and probably feel they can't afford to be sentimental. You could suggest that they should follow the example of the de Walden Estate around Marylebone and increase the overall value of their portfolio by encouraging the sorts of shops that people living nearby want to use, hence increasing the value of the flats etc. It may too late to save Fitzbillies, but it may stop something else being replaced by yet another photofit coffee shop.

A lot of very old pie recipes call for puff pastry, mind, though I don't know about S&K, specifically. To quote Jane Grigson (from memory) these days we prefer short crust. I love S&K pie but agree with Jane - puff gets too slimy when mixed with gravy IME.

We went there a year ago on the advice of someone who posts here - I can't find the thread. Our experience was the same as yours - it was excellent & like being in Italy. I was so pleased when I saw its high score in GFG.

Rosalind's Kitchen opened a couple of weeks ago, and I've been buying my lunch from there ever since. It's run by the Cookery School on Little Portland Street which is over the road, and the food is cooked there and taken over. The quality is superb - it's so fresh and the ingredients are top quality plus almost everything is organic (the chicken is from Sheepdrove for example). I do recommend it to anyone who works in the area. It doesn't have a seating area, unfortunately. For lunch today I had (very moist)baked pollack with herbs and garlic mayonnaise, with tabbouleh and roasted vegetable salads, then a chocolate and almond (gluten free) cup cake. Not cheap at £8-odd, but really good. Soup & a roll (both 'home made') is £3.50.

Decided to fluff this thread to keep things tidy - we're heading to a cottage in Bedale (in Wensleydale near Leyburn) around Easter. I'd appreciate tips though on undiscovered good restaurants/pubs in North Yorks or even as far as Leeds York and Harrogate, as well as good food shops - Lewis & Cooper sounds fabulous. I'm originally from Yorkshire, and we have been to York recently, so know about Betty's in Northallerton, and the various Michlin-starred places. I'm looking for something, if possible, that hasn't hit the journalists' radar yet!

If you go on the website they have a voucher for a reduction in Mon to Saturday lunch. They don't have the lunch set menu PDF up though - just the ALC.

Alcuin The Indian YMCa does extremely good-value Indian food, and not too far from where you are. [YMCA Indian Student Hostel, 41 Fitzroy Square, London, W1T 6AQ] Places I'd also recommend for good cheap food are: Pho restaurants - small chain serving vietnamese street food Sofra restaurants - small chain serving turkish food Leon restaurants - small chain serving healthy fast food - try the soups and salads And... Arbutus - it has a lunch menu of 3 courses for £16.95 - drink water and eat plenty of bread - it'll be worth eating... (if you go early in the evening it's £18.95.) Edited to add that the best [and stunning value] pastries I have ever had in London are at Sketch patisserie on Conduit Street - you can buy them to take away - only £1.40 for a superb chausson aux pommes. mmm-mm

I am a tax consultant and am part of a forum that asks opinions of other tax professionals. One recent post caught my eye: My client has set up a one-off high-class Pop-up restaurant in an old shop. It will operate for a month. He is expecting to make a fortune, as he does not have to comply with health and safety rules nor with employment law, and business rates are not payable...[tax question] Forget the tax aspects - the hygiene issues are rather worrying, no?

I only watched the first one and having loved A Cock & Bull Story out of which this came, I was looking forward to it. However I found it really self-indulgent, not that funny, and they didn't talk about the food. Sounds like number 2 was better so maybe I'll give it another go.

They were very clear in the review that they had previously enjoyed the restuarant. If a fisrt time diner were to go and have that sort of experience at those prices they would be justifiably aggrieved. Since the CCs had posted their good meals, I think it's fine for them to post the less than perfect ones too. That's the power of the www, like it or not. What is disappointing is the fact that Marcus W saw fit not to take their comments in the spirit in which they were meant - to phone as he did is appalling.

I left it too late to get a table for the soft opening so shall wait till things have calmed down. Looking forward to hearing what it's like.

I ate in the café last night - we shared two starters - pappardelle with hare ragù, and butternut squash risotto with sage and curds. Both were really excellent - the hare deeply savoury, just like the best Italian home cooking and the risotto extremely light and delicate yet still tasty. We did consider having two more starters as mains, but went for the tarte flambée - I think it had been forgotten as when it eventually arrived after two reminders it wasn't well-enough cooked, so was a bit flabby. The bacon/cream bit tasted fine though - it was a shame it didn't come with a nice endive salad or something. The wine was from a good list, and all in all I thought it was a cracker.

I've been out to lunch in London a fair bit recently. I usually go for the set menu as it's interesting seeing what the chefs can do with cheaper ingredients. Lunch at the Landau at the Langham was excellent - it didn't feel like the fixed price menu so elegant and delicious was the food. The service was superb. I make exactly the same comments about Galvin at Windows - also excellent. I love Arbutus and Wild Honey - went to the latter last week and strayed into the carte - excellent grouse. Not lunch but I had an extremely chic afternoon tea at the new restaurant in Fenwick's as we didn't fancy any of the main courses. Everything is in doll-sized portions but was superb. Now I'm back to eating at my desk - flute pavot from Paul plus a small bit of aged gruyere. Simple but delicious.

I like Wild Honey too - see posts passim. I think it was £28 but it might have been £22.

I've just been inspired to order two from my local butcher - £8 each in Surrey which seems not too bad. I had it cooked for me at Wild Honey last week - excellent, though I don't think it goes too well with raw blackberries. It is my favourite meat, so many thanks to this thread for reminding me that I could cook it myself!

We had lunch at G at W yesterday (Sunday) taking mini-PSB (sge 11) to ease the pain of returning to school today. Like David I thought the set menu was superb value given the food the setting and the service. I couldn't fault the meal at all, except for some ill-advised white chocolate and olive oil ganache with the pudding. The food was sophisticated yet tasty, and beautifully presented. My main stood out - slow cooked belly pork in lovely sticky rich sauce with claims. Mini-PSB had sea bass and cuttle fish with pearl barley and parsley risotto, and cleared his plate. Mr PSB had a vegetarian feuilleté (sp?) which he said was good but I was enjoying my pork too much to demand a taste.

I ate at Tom's Kitchen at Somerset House last night. It was a soft opening as official opening is on 1 September: 25% was knocked off the price. We had the confit lamb for 2 with balsamic onions and mustard mash. The lamb was faultless, as was the rich gravy and the spinach - the meat came in a huge le Creuset dish, and a spoon and fork were provided for us to serve ourselves. [Luckily I wasn't wearing anythng special, as it did splash.] The onions were far too vinegary though - I can't believe it was balsamic they used: whatever it was needed cooking a lot longer: it was just too sharp and overpowering. None of the puddings appealed - they were all too rich and claggy - we wanted something fruity. The service was good - friendly and helpful - there weren't many of us to serve, obviously. Would I go back? Possibly - if I were not paying. The mains were 'reasonable-for-London' prices, and the quantity of lamb was embarrassingly big: it was the extras where the prices were high - £5 for a tiny dish of spinach - £4 for a tiny pot of mint/lemon tea. I had earlier had a coffee and an almond biscuit at Tom's Deli - lovely biscuit/awful coffee - a huge cup of dishwater-thin 'filter' coffee. Again service was charming. Those prices weren't too bad. Very silly benches - 3 stools sort of stitched together, so very difficult to move - but they looked great. The Terrace at SH also belongs to Tom, and in a monsoon-like rain storm looked fun, though the band was very loud

Pam (and others concerned about the welfare of animals that they eat)I raised with Waitrose your point about whether the cheeks were simply packed in UK. I have just received the following email from Waitrose: Dear [Ms PSB] I can confirm that Waitrose Pork comes from British farmers that exclusively supply Waitrose. All of the Pork is reared naturally by a small group of farmers mainly based in east Anglia. We sell two types of pork on the service counter and both are free range. The Hampshire breed which comes from pigs sired from Hampshire Bores, which are a traditional breed famous for there tender succulent meat. They are reared on just three farms, where they spend most of there time in open fields, with access to huts with straw bedding for shelter in winter and shade in the Summer. The other type of Free Range pork on sale on the service counter is the Berkshire Pork. This is a type of pork that is only sold in a small number of our branches and is supplied by just one farmer George Gittus, who recently received an award for outstanding quality. I hope this information is helpful to you and fully answers your question.