Romaney O'Malley

Really Nice - this is super and makes so much sense I have printed it out and when my mind is going wild about what to cook it will give me help in structuring everything! Thanks a million

Moby - /Website

After much homework and contemplation I thought I had finally decided what to do for our anniversary. What I hadn't completely appreciated (which was naive on my part) was it's not as simple as picking a restaurant and more about where you can get a booking. And I thought Gordon Ramsay was bad! However I am happy to report that after a marathon of phonecalls we are having lunch at Le Meurice. I ended up going for the 1st class eurostar as will be that extra bit nicer. Thanks to everyone for all your help. I will of course report back with details of lunch and hope Mr O is suitably wooed

I second Fi's idea of a picnic - spend the money on posh food and a killer bottle of bubbly or red wine. Proper plates and glasses and two rugs - one for over one for under. You can just cloak your bag of stuff when you get to the theatre. Have a lovely evening

A couple of quotes from Victor's review: "Authority seldom responds well to sarcasm, and they kept me waiting until the next flight, but then I always seem to get delayed at airports. I put it down to all the offal I eat doing this job." Really? - I would put it down to making absurdly stupid comments to security at an airport during a time of high terrorism risk. Seriously though - I'm not an uptight person but did anyone even find this funny? "It's the job of a good maître d' to spot a late diner in distress and calm things down." Is it? Victor states that he had to wait until the next flight - so how late was he I wonder? I would guess Very. Did he even bother to phone? I can't help but feeling that this is a review where the starting point for the restaurant wasn't exactly ideal. I don't get the impression Victor was desperate to apologise for his lateness either - more that he had hurtled himself into the restaurant quite late and expected everyone to drop everything immediately and commence placating him over his bad day. Am not particularly sympathetic and would not judge the restaurant over this review. Maybe he's just pissed off that they didn't know who he was .....

BLH - there's specific mention of the herb garden on the website as well - maybe they had a bumper crop of thyme

I'd go for SE1 to start. Have an early lunch and then walk along the river. Mr O and I did this once crossing over from south side to north over one of the bridges (Albert maybe) then kept walking through the chelsea bit - crossed over a bridge again I think and eventually ended up at the bar under Putney Bridge restaurant. It was fun (if you like walking) and shows that great cross section London has with really wealthy places next to quite industrial looking and council housing type areas (which is why I love this city - I'm a south east london girl at heart). It's a relaxing but interesting walk and prompted some great conversations. Have fun! Ps - I drive past the Anchor every Sat on the way to Borough market and I seem to remember it doesn't seem to be open for lunch sometimes - might be worth checking.

Wholly agree with Matthew. 50% off should equal 50% off - and that means what you would normally be paying if you weren't there on a deal. If you are getting a different menu - then call it that - 'special set menu' or some such. Incidentally - Mr O and I took up an offer at Putney Bridge through toptable which was so reasonable we couldn't resist, and whilst I expected not to be choosing from the a la carte menu I certainly didn't expect the food to be inferior - and it wasn't it was superb. Conor - I am looking forward to visiting 1880 and have heard great things but am disappointed at your response - I hope you can understand the reaction to your comments.

Right - have just requested a reservation for Le Meurice and also at Les Ambassadeurs (sp?) so fingers crossed we can get a table at one of them. Scott - your idea about Le Manoir is great... unfortunately Mr O beat me to it and bought a course for me as a Chrissy present. Actually I still haven't been as I haven't been able to organise the time off work that coincides with the courses I want to go to. But am making sure it's in the next six months. Will post details after I've been. Still not sure about the eurostar thing but it's not a biggy - my friend tells me they sometimes have deals where they give you a free upgrade so may wait a couple of weeks before I book the tickets incase a deal comes up. Thanks again everyone - will let you know how I go with the reservations. Hopefully socks will be suitably knocked off

great thanks gary - used to go up to peterborough on the GNER first so I know what you mean. Will save the money and get a good bottle of champers instead. now it's just a small matter of choosing the restaurant

Am trying to delude myself that it's going to cost less than that at the moment! I actually looked at that Ducasse website as well - was confused and then I worked out the menu prices were just for one course not a couple (115 euros!) Am more of the: "Oops look how much I accidentally ended up spending!" school of thought Think I should bite the bullet and do it with intent from the beginning

origamicrane - I live in south east London and last year I found about 10 morels growing in my driveway! so excited - when I looked at my mushroom book it said they liked disused railways lines and rubbish tips - yep that's pretty consistent with the conditions of my drive - people seem to mistake it for a bin. Have refused to let Mr O do any major cleaning incase they don't come back will keep you posted over the autumn - fingers crossed oh sorry - don't know anything about growing them on purpose

Tryska - if I sense someone stalking us around Waterloo I'll know it's you! Just curious - has anyone been first class on the eurostar? Is it worth it? Doesn't seem much more expensive but it looks to me like it might just be paying extra for a three course meal, which we won't want as we will be saving ourselves for lunch. If it's nice and spacious and we can crack a bottle of champers tho am thinking it would be nice. Gary - am with you on the airport thing - not quite the romantic start I would be after. I don't mind normally but the thought of traipsing through Stansted with loads of people and a crappy coffee won't quite set the mood. also when I've been on Eurostar it's all been very easy and quite slick. Have pretty much decided against the idea of getting a personal chef - agree with robyn it just won't have the same impact at home - no guaranteed wow factor and I might get an average chef which would be so annoying. So Paris is the immediate plan. Will keep you updated

Thanks so much guys - this is great stuff. It's sounding like one of two: - Paris is sounding like a very good idea indeed. The Eurostar is easy for us and I think a top restaurant in Paris would have the desired effect (plus it's fun getting to Waterloo and then realising you aren't going anywhere in London - nice surprise) - The personal chef thing. I emailed Leith's (thanks origamicrane ) and am waiting to hear back from them but apparently they have chefs and service staff as well which I could book for a night. One other idea - was thinking a suite at a London hotel with a balcony where we could have dinner. Would pick a hotel with a great restaurant and ask them to do a dinner for us - think Paris beats this tho. So the Paris idea is in the lead and am about to embark upon the Paris restaurants threads. I'll keep you posted as to plans any other ideas welcome! Thanks again xx

Mr O and I are coming up to our first wedding anniversary. He is always the one who wows me with Ramsay-esque style experiences for my birthday and I'd like to surprise him. (Cue people feeling nauseous at level of cheesyness sorry ) Rather than just booking a really good restaurant for the evening, which is still an option by the way, I was trying to come up with something a bit different and I'd be really grateful anyone has any experiences or ideas they would share. Food related of course or something else combined with food. A couple of ideas I had are: - organise a personal dinner for the two of us. Would need a personal chef and a waiter - haven't had much luck on the net has anyone done anything like this? - I could cook and then transport dinner to somewhere special (but where?) - Take him to Paris for lunch Alternatively - if there are any restaurants you think would be great for the occassion I could do that too - was thinking the Capital or 1880 but I haven't been to either so not sure. It's the 1st of November which is a Monday (unfortunately). Will be chilly in London by then so not outside. Would really appreciate any contributions - sorry again for the cheese levels. Many thanks xx

thank goodness you're back GIMB - have been having withdrawals wondering what you've been eating!

Fair point basildog. I suppose what I am trying to say is the booking time thing is not a big deal for me as a customer when we're talking about 15 minute increments. However I would be annoyed if there was lots of hard work involved in other areas on top of this, lots of fussing about recooking part of the table's meals for example and yet overall it was an ordinary experience. If the meal was great then you're not going to hear from me about booking time (full restaurant or not), taking credit card numbers, cancellation fee policies etc etc. etc. But if you do all those things and then it's below average - you're going to hear from me about all of them I must be one of those wholly inconsistent annoying customers that you know and love so much

sorry to butt in here but I think this is slightly out of hand. Is it really such a big deal if they won't take quarter past? If they only took bookings on the hour and half hour and everything else was great then who cares? I can't believe it would inconvenience a customer that much for the sake of 15 minutes. I don't know the same can be said for the restaurant (and I mean literally I don't actually know if it would so am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt if they refuse) Jay's point I can understand which was (correct me if I'm wrong here) that the restaurant wasn't full (somewhat negating the benefit of the doubt I would have prevously given them) and if at the end of it you feel like you've done a day's work and it wasn't spectacular then you're going to be pissed off. And you won't go back. Please ignore me as usual if necessary

I would have thought the decision to increase the service charge would not be one that was taken lightly. If the service is so good (which I found it to be on the one time I went there) do they just feel justified in increasing the charge by 2%? or is it because of a cost issue - I guess no one except the restaurant can answer that one. I'd be interested to know what fed this decision, if it was just cost based and what affects, if any, the restaurant anticipates this will have ie if there is any negative fallout from peeing off their regular customers? Or maybe it's just not that big a deal....

Does it stay brown after you wash it? ie is it hard to get off or just weird?

I use the recipe from David Thompson's Thai Food. It is really delicious and not even that much work to make from scratch. I am practising getting the sour/salty/sweet balance just right which is a bit of a challenge. I love pad thai

Le Zouave - have alook on this link Eats in Sydney and Melbourne as it has new stuff on it Bigorre - there are lots of high end places around the quay which, whilst they may not all be the 'best' places would be a good place to start from a job point of view and will be doing very well I would think. Ones that come to mind are: - Guillame at the Bennelong - this is at the Opera house and has won some serious awards I think -Quay - I think this is also recognised as one of the better ones - Aria (is this still here anyone) - mod oz again I think - Cafe Sydney - mod Oz on the roof of a building at Circular Quay - great food and an awesome space - Aqua Luna upstairs restaurant - modern Italian I really liked this place but haven't been there for a few years sorry if these are out of date please correct me fellow egulleteers! Then there's the obvious ones such a Tetsuya, Rockpool, Claudes and Pier - all awesome restaurants. I was at Tetsuya and Rockpool in November and both were world class. Haven't been to Pier or Claudes yet tho. There are some real gems in the suburbs like Bondi Icebergs and there's a place in Randwick which is supposed to be very good (anyone know the name? Balzac?). I will post more if I remember - good luck I hope this is of some use.

Think your menus sound better! Would definitely have had the rib or beef or the sea bass. The salt cod was really lovely though The table wait didn't bother me so didn't mean to sound like it did. The staff were really nice and we just sat at a table by the window and people watched and drank lots of gin - I love summer in London

Really? I love tamales - or are you just referring to the quality? think I might be going off topic sorry