howardlong

Hmm, I quite like the Glasshouse too. My least favourite of the bunch is The Square, although I feel I may be in the minority with that one. I never have figured out why The Square deserved one let alone two stars based on my visits there (although the food was OK bar the incessant use of cappuccino'ing every sauce, the service was what really let it down for me, for example staff including maitre d' not knowing anything about the miniscule cheese selection). H

It's been one of my favourites for quite some time. The wine list in particular is worth a trip, being relatively reasonably priced compared to Central London, in particular the sweeties. Cheers, Howard

Not sure if anyone else has tried this, but it's been a lunchtime takeaway favourite of mine for sometime, if you can stomach being treated like dirt, much like Seinfeld's Soup Nazi (video). Grilled chicken, Tabasco and a green sauce of undefined nature served on a bed of rice and salad. I guess spicy Cajun is about as close as I can describe it. Up to ten polystyrene lunch boxes are lined up on the counter with salad and/or rice. Then on demand each customer in line is asked one at a time their preference for salad dressing. The grilled chicken is then chopped and added. Then the line is subjected to questioning again, this time for Tabasco. Finally the assembled customers are asked their green goo preference. And woe betide anyone who dares to delay their response for more than a millisecond. But it sure tastes good. H

Couldn't have put it better myself, and a direct analogy to what happened with Conran's original incarnations, with their Essex girl/boy reputations of the mid '90s. Places like the Oxo Tower and The Collection could be added to that list. Dare I also mention places like Zuma and Hakkassan in the same breath too? Although at least the food's decent in those last two, but bouncers on the door? Pulease, that says a lot about the clientele you're attracting. The Oxo Tower makes me chuckle: when it first opened maybe fifteen years ago it was _the_ place to go. A few months after it opened, I called up to make a lunch reservation with six weeks notice, and they told me they were full. My work colleague, who had a posh horsey voice (quite unlike my cor blimey gov'nor faux cockney), called up thirty seconds later and successfully booked on my behalf. Enraged, I grabbed the receiver from my colleague's hand and asked the receptionist why they could do the reservation for her and not for me, to which I was told "We had a cancellation". "Of course you did, love". I told her in no uncertain terms to cancel the reservation right away. I pledged never to go back. I held that promise until a couple of years ago when a supplier invited me out. And apart from the view and the company on the day it was uniformly awful. Cheers, Howard

Ate here on Saturday evening amazingly for the first time. In general I loved it, possibly mainly because I'm in a Reisling phase of my life and there must be fifty or so of these aromatic beauties to choose from on the wine list. None of the specialties mentioned in the 2009 Mich guide were on the menu so I settled for the chef's set dinner (£55). They were at pains to check any allergies and likes/dislikes. I'm a pretty open minded guy, so I let the chef get on with it. Amuse bouche was stunning. Very simple, a coupkle of small pieces of fruit with what I can only describe as a spicy satay-like conconction on top. Just divine. Mains included a spicy fish soup, a beef dish, some gorgeous salmon based thing and a rather hot green curry, with lots of chillis. If anything some of the food was a bit over spicy for me, but I was asked if I had any aversion to spicy things, and I did suggest chef shouldn't hold back, which he certainly didn't. I took a simple, but very refreshing fruit plate for dessert. Only down side was the 2 hour table turning that they definitely stuck to, although had service been ever so slightly more prompt it wouldn't have been such a rush at the end. Oh, about the wine. I chose a rather unusual Dr Loosen Ste Michelle Eroica from Washington State (£60). Slightly off-dry, minerally on the nose but strangely not on the palette. Turned out to be a pretty darned good match all round. One thing I like about Thai is that if you're a wine nut you can get away with one wine for the whole meal, thus resulting in a rather more reasonable bill at the end tham one might expect. By the time you've added water and a glass of poo at the front end, including service the total was £140. Cheers, Howard

Interesting: although I've lived within walking distance of the Enterprise for 17 years, I only first tried it about two months ago for Sunday lunch. I really liked it - I had a great red mullet main. The dessert wasn't bad either. My fellow diners decided to test my wine knowledge, and I pinned all three to the grape and the region to my own ultimate surprise, as well as the admiration of my cohorts. I know it's a Stateside thing, but I must admit that I just don't get the TV thing in a restaurant. I'd much rather sit down with the paper. I rate Hamilton Russell chard as pretty darned good value, and is fairly common in London, even making an appearance in some up market boozers. Amazing what they manage to get out of such a short time in the bottle. Cheers, H

Is it still as outrageously expensive as it was a year ago when I last went? True, the only positively memorable bit for me was the dessert, the rest of the food being well done, but not at all exciting, safe if you like. But I'm afraid that the bill was shockingly expensive. And I hate having to carry around wads of cash to settle the service, but maybe that's a French thing. I find GR, although very well accomplished, is in general pretty formulaic however you look at it, and if you can still get the punters in, good luck to you. The only two exceptions to being formulaic are Maze Grill and to a lesser extent Angela Hartnett's Murano. IMHO GR has been going the same explosive way as Conran, Novelli and MPW before him for some time, where the relentless greed and addiction for more and more market share and notoriety has led to less time in the kitchen and more time fannying around with bankers, accountants and TV producers. At least Heston appears to be being rather more resistant to the apparent need to grow exponentially. Cheers, H

I noticed these ventures mentioned in the menu last week when I dined there, but haven't been to them myself. The Lincoln Street Rasoi itself remains at the same level it's been since it opened 3 or 4 years ago IMHO, although in the hot weather some aircon wouldn't go amiss. Mmm... the mushroom and icecream thing they do, that's got me salivating (or dribling depending on how you look at it). Cheers, Howard

At the top end, Maze and Maze Grill have bars you can eat at, but I must admit I prefer a table. Bistro-wise, I regularly dine alone at Racine, and usually I won't be the only one. I tend to dine alone in London more often than in company, perhaps about a couple of times per week. I must admit that at first I was quite self-conscious about it, but these days it doesn't bother me one iota. Very occasionally diners (usually slightly inebriated ones) at nearby tables ask me why I'm dining alone, but I find dining alone is one of the few truly hedonistic plesures left in life. The only problem is that sometimes restaurants, when taking bookings, realise that it's for one and think they'll loose out on a valuable cover. That's easily rectified, just tell them it's for two. Two tips: always take enough reading material (I usually take at least a quality newspaper), and always turn your phone ringer off, taking any calls outside. In fact, preferably turn the whole bl@@dy phone off! Cheers, Howard

Agreed, and for that reason I, and I'm sure many others, would rather take their patronage elsewhere. But as Matthew stated, if it's made clear you have little redress unless the service is less than swift. To be honest, GR places to seem to attract more than their fair share of blue mooners and chef groupies wearing rose tinted glasses for whom Gordon can do no wrong. But if he can fill his restaurants (at least on non-strike days) with lemmings who are prepared to accept two hour table turning, then good luck to him. Just don't expect to attract too many regulars that way. By the way, FWIW back in the days of the Connaught and Petrus, once I'd established a relationship with FOH I found that had no difficulty in retaining the table for the entire evening whether or not I'd been thrown the two hour mantra at booking. Cheers, Howard

I don't know the answer to that, but I'm trying to find out. BTW, Francois Bertrand, previously sommelier at Le Gavroche and latterly maitre d' at Bouchon Breton, was installed as maitre d' at Aubergine a couple of months ago. Cheers, Howard

There's no problem at all if it is made clear. Unless there is a good reason to go, I tend to avoid such places, much as I avoid places with obscenely long advance bookings. I am minded to remember a case at GR@Clardges where I had a table booked for 17:45, and I arrived for that time. I wasn't seated until 18:05. When the menu arrived, it was sans tasting menu. I asked for the tasting menu, and the waiter/ress had to run off to the kitchen to find out if it could be done. The result was a reluctant positive, but of course I had to wolf down the seven or eight courses ASAP. During the course of the meal on four occasions they took delight in reminding me I had to vacate by 19:45. I asked for the bill at 19:40. Needless to say it didn't arrive until 20:10. H

Agreed, their centralised booking is a real PITA. So you're going out for a meal at £100+ pp and you get put through to a call centre? I did have 'special' numbers a few years back for Petrus and the Connaught that put you straight in touch with the front desk, but I'm afraid I could never figure out if it was ever any benefit: I tried a couple of times with the Petrus one and it didn't get me anywhere. Another problem with their centralised system is that I found they're sometimes a bit over familiar with you in the restaurant when they see you come up on their database and think they should pretend to recognise you. H

This is spectacularly interesting for me. I called up at about 6pm on that very day to request a table, on a punt that there'd be some cancellations due to the tube strike, and was told they were completely full. Either the punters who'd booked didn't cancel (an inexcusable malfeasance in my book, tube strike or not), or, as has been suggested, they keep the tables open for supposed special customers. (In the end I went to Le Gav instead, and despite not having dined there for about three months was greeted and addressed by name as if I still go there at least once a month by Maitre d' and many of the other FOH crew throughout the evening.) H

Despite an earlier false start I had some time ago, Maze Grill has more recently turned out to be a good option. Good: if it's the steak you're after, there's not anything I'm aware of that's better for quality and selection in town. Roasted garlic thingy super. Surprisingly the wine list is not stupid either. Bad: Octopus starter I had recently was the only bad thing I've ever had, it had a taste and texture of a dry soya substituted chicken. Service is really very mediocre too. This may be harsh conjecture, but I just had this feeling that remuneration isn't the best out on the floor. If you want good service, we all know you need at least a solid leadership of Frenchmen/women. At the Maze Grill it's rather like the latest experiment on Indian subcontinent outsourcing, so you can imagine the interesting cultural and language misunderstandings that can and do happen. One last thing that comes to mind, like any Ramsay place, it does attract the irritation of the odd fawning Gordon groupie. Plus the infamous Ramsay 2 hour table turn. Still, all in all a rather enjoyable way to spend one's Sunday afternoons if you can avoid being pushed out. Cheers, H

The Pyrenees Lamb on the Menu Exceptionel is on at this time of year. Tucking in to a cheeky mini Souflee Suissese in between a couple of courses is always a net giga-calorie asset and is difficult to turn down. Not sure if it's on at the moment, but again at this time of year they do a Serrano Ham, Asparagus and Parmesan thingy. A bitch to match wine with (either an Oloroso sherry or even better a slightly madeirised champagne work the best). One of my favourite dishes. H

Heck, Howard, why not push the boat out? Don't you know it's Christmas? ← Unfortunately the Batard Montrachet and the Richebourg were off. H

On Saturday we did the Selfridges stint where you buy a bottle from their entire selection on off licence display and pay a tenner to drink it at the bar. Very civilised if you ask me, and it was quite fun as it went. We had a 1999 Beaune at £65. I like the idea of knowing you're not going to be pumped silly money on the gouge. But it got better... A welcome if rather alternative find at the weekend was stumbling into (but mostly stumbling out of) the Hanging Ditch wine merchants where you can buy anything from their substantial list and they charge £6 corkage to drink it on site. The down side is that on the food about all they have is olives. But I sneaked across the road to Harvey Nicks, purchased some matzos, Epoisses, Beaufort and a Brie de Nangis, they helpfully plated it up for us and away we went. The place was pretty much full when we left last night at about 7:30pm: we'd been munching away from 4pm. Super keen staff there, all with plenty of knowledge who made every effort to welcome everyone in, wine geek or not. It turned into a very convivial early evening drink up. http://www.hangingditch.com/. Forget the closing times by the way - if there's people in there and the tills are ringing, they stay open. BTW, my favourite wine of the day: Petaluma Tiers 2002 chard (£60). We also had a go at Leeuwin Art Series chard 2005 (£40) and Chocolate Block 2007 shiraz blend (£20). Not the cheapest for off sales, but certainly the cheapest for the privilege of sitting in licensed premises by a long chalk. Cheers, H

Well I went on Saturday with three others. I attempted to get the Chef's table on two occasions only to be told that they'd call back. They didn't. And guess what? There isn't one. Not yet anyway. Some time next year apparently. We also had the Surprise menu. Chef is quite full of himself. He introduced himself and proceeded to tell us about the gazillions of 3* places he's worked in, dropping names like Ramsay, Gagnaire and Ducasse, then said he was only 26 years of age. In two words - foam city. The first course (the scallop - note the singular) had a completely tasteless foam. Other foams were marginally more tasty but you has to search for it. When taken to task, it was revealed that it was because it was a more healthy way to eat using a foam apparently. Chef's attitude when we mentioned the foam after the meal (under his own solicitation) was "if that was all that was wrong..." was like a red rag to a bull. I won't bore you with the menu, because it bores me thinking about it, except to say that the beef course was ridiculously tasteless. Apparently he has twelve in the kitchen. You need them for the fancy layout and multitude of ingredients to prepare for each mini mouthful, but sadly it was lacking in the taste department. We imbibed on the "Iconic" wine selection. But the sommelier had never tried any of the courses and it truly showed rather dramtically I'm afraid. When offered the choice of two different wines on some courses, I asked if we could try half and half, thereby hopefully enhancing the experience, which it did, until the bill came: more in a tick. In general, I found the service was really rather good except that the sommelier had a nasty urge to clear away wines well before they were finished. The bill arrived. We had been over charged for two bottles of Bolly, where they showed a fiver over the menu price on each. That made me look a little closer. There was a real mess where we were charged a number of different supplements, only one of which made sense. I still don't understand it now, but it was to do with the wine selections (having half and half) amoung other things. Needless to say on the ~£600 tab we were over charged over £110. I wanted this to work out. Hopefully one day soon it will. It takes a lot of balls to set up something like this out in the provinces, and I really do want it to work for them and for Manchester. I haven't quite given up. Yet. Cheers, Howard ** Edit: sorry, was in a rush to get out so didn't proof read anything. Hopefully corrected most of it now.

I particularly share your view about "pointless foam". Form over function I'm afraid. I remember The Square also seems to have a recurrant affliction with the cappuccino machine. Billy Drabble once told me that chefs use foams because it stopped a skin forming on top of sauces. Ever since then whenever I see a foam I suspect how long it might've been sitting on the pass. H

There you go Howard .... ← Uh-oh: how I wish I'd never asked! Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. I am now looking forward to this weekend with buttock clenching afrontery, if there is such a thing. Cheers, H

Oops! That'll teach me not to keep a keen eye on what's going on on this forum! Cheers, H

Anyone been since the reopening? I'm booked for Saturday, and I'd be interested to learn anyone else's views. Cheers, Howard

Excited?? Nope, sorreeee! Not since I had a rather unfortunate incident at Montes where he was Exec Chef (estranged) where the lighting was so dim I mistook rock salt for cous cous... H

How 'connected' is it with Grosvenor House? The reason I ask is that in my opinion Marriott have managed to single handedly screw up one of the top UK flagship hotels by mistakenly thinking that their business model of using underpaid, untrained and unmotivated staff, and slapping on their global corporate brand mediocrity, is enough to keep regular punters coming through the door. I had an absolutely disasterous pre dinner meet up a few months ago at their Champagne Bar staffed by people who'd never poured a glass of Champagne in their lives let alone opened a bottle. Our table ended up wet through on both top-up occasions from two different servers: I suggested that we pour ourselves. Very shoddy, so I refused to pay the service charge: the last time (and the only other time) I did that was at Club Gascon about five years ago. Not sure if Corrigan will live up to Chez Nico, that was my favourite restaurant for some time, but I wish him luck and look forward to giving it a go myself. Cheers, H