Paul Bell

There having a laugh right? Sounds like another pointless exercise in self publicity and glorification.

Sorry for not posting earlier v busy, and in deference to Jay/The Observer won't go into details but: mm well where to start with Union Undeb, well leaving was good, when we got through the security door, and to be fair the company was very pleasant. Service was it bad or just really amateurish and under staffed. Food decidedly average have had worse in Cardiff, but everything heavily oversalted, stuff on the menu that was not on the plate, somethings overcooked, and a very bad dessert which neither of us could finish trifle with Jam anyone! best avoided thanks to Jay all the same though Paul

Le Cassoulet has closed. Best place so far definitely Le Gallois (closed this week and possibly next for summer holidays). Da Venditto good Italian food, wine list absolute rubbish Valentino's good 'old style' Italian food Topo Gigio rubbish 'old style' Italian food Armless Dragon & Woods Brasserie, good ingredients fairly simply done, both promising. Tides MPW ha ha Paul

Have been away, have returned, have volunteered to undertake the burdensome task of eating at someone else's expense. Paul

Interesting about Petrus, as the last time we went April-ish it was excellent and by far the best of our visits there, the room is piss poor though. My understanding is that the restaurant at the Berkeley will be Marcus Wareing's restaurant, where he is aiming to get 2/3 stars etc and he will only do that by cooking there. It was never the intention that he should be at Fleur, and I understand that he is executive type chef thing at the Savoy, as in doing menu, overseeing, choosing staff etc but not actually there, often. I assume he was around a lot at the beginning because the opening was a big event for him and Petrus had closed, with the Berkeley not being ready. Paul

Andy a few questions bearing in mind that Alan Murchison was head chef not owner, it is owned by a venture capital type thingy people, I believe. what happened to the previous kitchen brigade? as L'Ortolan was 'done up' not that long ago I assume the £3 million quid was spent prior to the post John Burton-Race re-opening and has not just been spent. the 2 stars bit is interesting, why 2 and not 3? where is the expectation that 2 stars are achievable, when Harvey's in Bristol only ever got one (not being harsh, just sounds like PR b*****ks to me). it seemed promising when Alan Murchison took over!! Chef's can't trust 'em. Paul

Another chef that did not last long then! Had a look at the website, noted that it is a limited menu, don't seem to have limited their prices though, menu gourmand £49, not much of an introductory offer Paul

Abso-bloody-lutely not Paul

and don't forget those who pronounce it as scown, somewhere up north I think. Paul

No no no, cream first, otherwise the reduced friction caused by Jam in between the cream and the scone reduces the amount of cream that can be applied. You then use a jam spoon (we're posh in Devon) to dribble a small amount of jam on top. Paul

Don't know if it is a coincidence but until recently every Relais & Chateaux place I have been to have either offered free mineral water or have charged for the first bottle only. (Waterside Inn & Gidleigh Park for example, plus several in France). Although on our recent trip to France I think more were charging by the bottle, but a surprising number automatically asked if we just wanted a carafe of water. Paul

mmm perhaps adventurous was not the best word, I meant it in relation to the Bath Priory rather than to say Fat Duck. Bath Priory sticks pretty closely to the modern British (i.e. French with a mediterranean bit chucked in) idiom, you know pan fried sea bass with shellfish risotto, roast rack of lamb that sort of thing, but does it very well and sometimes exceptionally well. The Moody Goose has a similar modern British style but would use more traditional vegetable accompaniments (swede, turnip, cauliflower stuff, albeit not during the summer I guess), or would be the sort of place to possibly include lambs tongue or kidney with your rack of lamb, that sort of thing. The sort of thing you would possibly not do in a five star hotel in Bath but can do in your own restaurant. Paul

Best 2 restaurants in Bath are Moody Goose (centre of town) and Bath Priory (couple of miles out of town). Both starred, Priory does better food, Moody Goose is more adventurous and informal. With all respect to Duncan (and I have met him so don't want to offend him ) I disliked Fishworks quite intensely as a sort of sub Rick Stein copy , not half as good and charging the same prices. The way you can choose your fish is good, but when we were there the cooking of it was not great, and the mashed potato was rubbish. Mind you, we have not visited for a year so the above view may be more reliable. No 5 Bistro used to do quite good mediterranean bistro food, grilled Tuna etc and is a nice informal space to sit. Paul

Best overall meal (UK) GR @ RHR (with an honourable mention to Petrus which was close to perfect a couple of months ago). Worst meal - MPW Tides in Cardiff (nasty) Most overpriced/overrated (have to go abroad for this one) - Georges Blanc in Vonnas Best value - JSW in Petersfield (fantastic cooking at a good price esp at lunch, from a kitchen the size of our very small bathroom, think Merchant House and then quarter it). Best main course - Roast pork with black pudding, mustard mash and apple cider sauce - Old Chesil Rectory, Winchester Best fish - John Dory with Smoked Haddock Veloute, GR @ RHR Most consistently excellent (not counting GR) Foliage and The Square. Most consistently visited St John Most irritating sommelier - the older one at The Square, (not the new 16 year old who is good). Best Sommelier - still Matthew Wilkin at The Capitol Best sunday lunch - Putney Bridge

Attempted to book for tomorrow lunchtime, but they are full. Apparently they are only using a limited amount of the space available for the first couple of weeks. Paul

Inn on the green - just posted, nice place to spend some time (and money) good food, enjoyable to eat, nothing stunning. L'Ortolan - very nice space, good food (Manoir light), overpriced in the evening though. (Chocolate truffle dessert is very interesting and worth having) Vineyard at Stockcross - outside of Bray, the best food in the area, has the capability to produce stunning dishes, like everywhere else round here overpriced though, don't go too hungry (bit small) and the room is hideous, think Dynasty, white grand piano etc (fun though if you're into that sort of thing). Paul

Not anymore she ain't. Paul

Dawn and I went to Tom Aikens for lunch yesterday (also it appears). I can confirm that Joan Collins (never knew it was possible for a human being to wear so much make up, I was going to say on one face, but I guess she's had several) ate food, as well as the loud, over made up, over face lifted people with her (and that was just the men), can't confirm what they ate though although it was the a la carte menu, and one of the fat blokes could not manage dessert (only coffee for me, wanker ). Any way enough of the C list celebrity bollocks. The room pretty much as everyone described, the chairs are slightly too high for little people though, as Dawn couldn't reach the floor with her feet The room is also very noisy, lots of hard surfaces and hard Chelsea voices (bit like a stylish! Ransomes Dock), not a place for a romantic meal. The restaurant was full in that all tables were taken although they were mainly two's. Started with Kir's, (OK about the usual poor London standard). We both had the a la carte menu, the lunch menu looked nice, and the testing menu very good, but we weren't certain when we would get back (so no lunch menu) and had to get back to Portsmouth to collect beasts (so no tasting menu). The amuse was a watercress soup with a poached quali egg, not very good really, the egg had congealed to the little cup thing, and there was not enough soup to taste properly or to balance with the egg. Starters we had Wild Salmon marinated with beetroot and orange, with caviar, dill and beetroot leaf salad and Roast Langoustines with braised pork belly, chervil sauce, artichoke puree and truffle ravioli. (needless to say I have a menu). The salmon was very good, in effect a grand salmon tartare, a base of marinated salmon with a layer of very thinly sliced beetroot, with salad leaves, on top together with a couple of dollops (sure there is a technical word for this) of creme fraiche and caviar, surrounded by the marinade. This worked very well together, lots of ingredients but they integrated very well. Similarly with the langoustines, three towers of pork belly, langoustine and ravioli, worked very well together (not mine so no more descriptive than that). Main courses we had Poached chicken and confit leg with truffled macaroni, artichioke sauce and Roast turbot with celeriac fondant, braised chicken wing, confit onion and thyme sauce. Chicken was good, stuffed with artichoke and leek (?), perfectly cooked although there was not in truth a lot of difference between the poached breast and the confit leg, served with large macaroni with a truffled cheese sauce and a ravioli with a poached egg in it. Overall this was good, very well cooked, tasted good possibly just a little too much going on, on the plate, The turbot was apparently very good and went well with the chicken. Pre-desserts were a strawberry (?) jelly, cream and mousse thing in a little glass (surprise, surprise, although at least there was no bloody doughnut sitting on top), was good though. Desserts were Raspberry sable with Italian meringue and Apple filo with almonds and green apple sorbet. (The simplest descriptions but in reality as complicated as everything else). The reaspberry sable was a tower, with two layers of raspberries (and cream) and sable biscuit, with a small square of meringue on top, with a small square of raspberry parfait on top of that, with a small square of chiboust with raspberries set in it on top of that with a square of caramel on top. Technically well constructed, in practice it tsated quite good, possibly a little early for raspberries they lacked a little flavour, the whole thing was nice and sweet to it but lacked a little oomph. The apple dessert was layers of caramelised apples with filo, a sweetish apple sorbet (good) and a spiced apple jelly (also good). Petits fours as above were a selection of madelines (not great. too much egg, a bit rubbery) a selection of tuiles (good if you can be bothered with tuile) and some choccy and sponge things (OK), plus the toffee parfait (good) and a cream and prune thingy (not bad) and indeed the spoons did not reach the bottom of the glass (however coffee comes with silver stirrer things which reach in quite nicely for the removal of the lsat little bit of toffee parfait . Service was good in parts and less than average in others, our waiter was good, but we had to wait ages for the wine list and the bill, the first two courses were quite speedy and then a long pause before the dessert. The wine list was OK, did not have a proper look as I had to wait so long to get it I just wanted to order something. Overall this was good to very good, possibly another place where our expectation were (unfairly) a little high, especially as they have just opened, (fresh paint in the ladies toilet, a door lock that does not work properly, one of Joan's lot got stuck in there ), although it is probably already michelin (one star) standard only a couple of weeks after opening which must be pretty good. The food is good, and clearly Tom Aikens is very, very technically accomplished, possibly there is a little too much complexity, too many competing flavours, certainly worth visiting and keeping an eye on. Paul

Didn't really think this was her best review, she seemed to quite like the food (apart from the chicken) but got really hung up on the fact that they kept giving the wrong food to each of them. We quite enjoyed ourselves when we went there, don't see how it got two stars though (although we went a couple of years ago). service wasn't great then either, it took me about 40 mins to get the bill. The armagnacs of Helene Darroze's brother were quite good though. Paul

Don't know where it is, but it sounds horrible. Paul

All being well, we are going next week. As an aside interesting that this restaurant, with relatively little publicity is getting significant interest (from us) but as far as I know Sketch is still unvisited Paul

Re-visited Zaika on Sunday night, (the last time we went was three years ago? when it was situated on the Fulham road). We were not totally impressed then but always thought we should go back. The space is a bit of a barn and does not seem to have changed much since it was L'Anis, apart from the addition of sime Indiam statuary. Dawn and I both had the Jugalbandi menu (the smaller of the two tasting menus) and the children had butter chicken and mustard chicken respectively. (Aplogogies for any imprecisions regarding dish titles which follow). We started wih an amuse of coconut and pistachio lassi which was tasty yet delicate, very refreshing. Dawn and I then had a starter of tandoori smoked ssalmon, duck roll and scallop with a saffron and cocnut sauce. The salmon was fantastic, one of those memorable things that stand out in any meal, full of flavour, succulent, really good. The scallop was in a creamy coconut and saffron sauce, this was also very good, quite sweet, good depth of flavour, the duck roll suffered by comparison in that it was minced duck rolled in herbs, quite enjoyable and a pleasant meaty contrast to the other dishes. We followed this with wild mushroom rice with tomato cream, this was a small dish of, in effect a basmati rice muchroom risotto with a ball of tomato ice cream on top (Dawn loathes tomato ice cream, but smallest child is quite impressed). The taste of the mushroom rice was excellent equal to any or most mushroom risottos, however the rice was rather mushy and overcooked, I suspect a nice idea, but not the rice for the job. The ice cream was fine but a liquid sauce would probably have complmented the rice more. We then had roast sea bass with couscous and a saffron sauce. Sea bass was excellent perfectly cooked, a very well sourced ingredient, the couscous was more like wet polenta rather than the drier larger grains I am used to, the sauce was quite good, not especially memeorable. This was followed by chicked roated with coastal spices, coconut and steamed rice. This was excellent, moderately hot with a high degree of layered spicing, and notes of coconut in the sauce. Of the main courses the children had, the butter chicken was OK, it came in a tomato sauce, with saffron rice and more tomato ice cream, so youngest child liked it, the rest of us thought rather bland. The mustard chicken was also really good (only got a small bit) but again good depth of flavour, very nice. To finish we shared some Indian ice cream which was very enjoyable (not a lot else to say about it). The wine list was pretty good, lots in the £18-30 range, we had a decent languedoc sauvignon, that went well with everything. Service was very good throughout. Overall this was a really enjoyable meal, and we were very glad we went back. I find it quite difficult to assess, as it has few comparisons, and being an Indian restaurant it can be difficult to get away from preconceptions of what such a thing is. It does sometimes fall between being an 'indian' restaurant and a 'michelin starred' restaurant, (the wild mushroom rice) at other times it hits heights that certainly make it worth visiting (the smoked salmon). Paul

Putney Bridge is not open Sunday night, it is definitely worth going to if you can get there for Sunday lunch, aside from the food, service and wine, it has a fantastic view. (you do of course have to put up with the shouting of people from Fulham and dare I say it Chelsea) (It is worth going to in the evening, but I would probably put it at or near the top of Sunday lunch places whereas there are several restaurant I would go to in the evening first). Paul

Chez Bruce and La Trompette also both open for Sunday dinner. The Square is really good, no negative comments really, it is one of our favourite restaurants. Service can become erratic as the evening progresses, the head sommelier is a prat, but they have a new young lad (12? possibly 14) who is excellent. Desserts can be hit or miss (which I find strange, but they always have been). That being said it is a restaurant we go to as often as we can and has delivered several stand out dishes and meals. Paul

We (Dawn, myself and two children) returned to Putney bridge for lunch on Sunday. It is probably still the best value in London, although not quite as good as previously, in that (I suspect as a cost cutting measure) they have cut out the amuse bouche and the pre-dessert, and instead of petits fours with coffee you get coconut crusted marshmallow. You do still get the cheese straws, gougeres, tasot with tapenade etc while you peruse the menu. The menu is still a variation on the evening menu rather than a separate lunch menu and as such offers excellent value at £22.50 for three courses. To start we had the Squid (the same as Andy's), Asparagus with serrano ham and poached egg vinaigrette and chilled tomato gazpacho. I won;t comment on these as Andy's has described the Squid perfectly well and I did not try the other two, although all parties were well pleased. For main courses we had roast beef, roast pork and slo cooked sea bream with herb risotto. The pork looked excellent (I didn't get near it), generous thick slice of 'black pig from Gascony) with black pudding, roast apples and a sort of crushed potatoes (I think) and roast carrots (which were excellent, I did get one of those). the beef was excellent and would I imagine satisfy anyone with a roast beef craving for sunday lunch, it came with fondant potatoes (even if they were described as roast and green beans). The sea bream was very good, slowly poached (in oil?), very tender, very flavoursome, served with a good toothsome green herb risotto, a swirl of green olive puree, and a razor clam shell of assorted fishy bits. Very good, I think I am slighty less effusive as I was watching everyone else have roasted meat while I had the fish. The desserts were chocolate soup with coffee ice cream (excellent judging by the speed with which it disappeared), apple tart with vanilla ice cream (very enjoyable, excelleny ice cream very smooth and unctuous) and a jelly of rhubarb and blood orange with topped with a sabayon and pink grapefruit sorbet (very refreshing and very good). Oh and we had the cheap £15 bottle of wine Andy mentions, which was not bad, not a lot of depth but good varietal/terroir character for the money. Overall this is still a really good place for sunday lunch, very fine cooking, good choice, excellent service. If you do go over the summer make sure you request a table overlooking the river, as they get booked more quickly. Paul