Paul Bell

Lunch at Foliage on Saturday was excellent, we can echo all the good things Scott and Sam had to say about it. Although quiet at the beginning the restaurant was full by about 1.30 which is not that common in London on a saturday and interesting in that Foliage never used to open for lunch at weekends. The price still does not include VAT although it does clearly state this on the menu. The amuse was parfait of foie gras and chicken livers, smoked salmon millefeuile and lettuce soup (didn't realise you could get such depth of flavour from a lettuce). starters we had warm poached lobster with crab fondue and tomato and white onion tarte tatin with warm goats cheese. The lobster was very enjoyable very light (i.e. small) but vibrant and fresh tasting, the tarte tatin was fantastic a very dense dish, the unctuous tarte tartine contrasting with the rich fresh goats cheese. main course we both had the monkfish with parma ham and red wine risotto. The monkfish was perfectly cooked very enjoyable, the stand out part of this dish was the risotto, really deeply flavoured and served in a cylinder made out of leeks, clever and very good. desserts were raspberry ice cream with gratined Lemon(?) chiboust and grilled oranges (quite light very good) and a combination of citrus things tart, sorbet etc which was also very good. Overall this was excellent and we would also put it on a similar level to The Capital, the cooking seems to be lighter than that at the Capital with more clarity, a fresher taste if that is possible. The quality of the cooking has not dropped since the change of chef and interstingly several of the items on the menu are the same. This suggests to me that the executive chef David Nicholls exerts quite a lot of control over the kitchen and possibly explains why Hywel Jones left. Paul

I wonder if you are being a little generous to Pierre Koffman and harsh on a lot of other chefs. I confess that I have never eaten at LTC, I am booked in a couple of weeks but am likely to cancel unless some good reviews appear here shortly. It is however difficult to reconcile Pierre Koffman's ability, professionalisn etc as a chef with the apprently dreadful meal that Matthew had there, if he was that good surely that would not have happened? He could have had an off day, he could be pissed off about leaving the Berkeley but I am not sure that is any justification if he is as good as many people suggest. (Once again I admit that I do not know). Similarly the presumed lack of people visiting LTC cannot solely be based upon Koffman not being a media chef. Most of the chefs in London aren't, its the same bloody ones who are in the media all the time. Simon has mentioned Chavot at the Capital (although he does have that involvement with the Cinnamon Club ) but also people like Philip Howard at The Square, Ollie Coullard (sp) at La Trompette and Chris Staines/David Nicholls at Foliage are producing some of the best food in London, to largely full restaurants whilst having very little media prescence. I am sure if Pierre Koffman was on telly the restaurant would be busier, but bad experiences like Matthews do not help, how many of us have been put off by that one bad review. Similarly the prices are pretty hideous at LTC, I have often been put off by the fact that it seems to be a similar standard to Capital, Square et al but costs 50% more, it needs to be pretty perfect to justify £200 - 250 for me to go there. Possibly the restaurant's style puts people off as well, it appears to be very formal (even if it is not) and is part of a formal and expensive hotel. This is not necessarily a bad thing but is another possible reason for the restaurant not being as popular as it could/should be. That being said I am sure when Petrus moves in and the Gordon Ramsay PR machine gets going it will do very well. Paul

That coz you have to. We were very politely reminded when we booked that gentlemen have to wear jackets. Paul

Having booked twice recently (and had to cancel one) I get the sense that the restaurant is rarely full, which is probably one of the reasons why the contract is not being renewed. Equally it is I beilieve quite a large dining room, considerably bigger than Petrus, Capital etc and it is probably the most expensive restaurant in London? Which may account for a lack of business, if that is indeed the case. I imagine that Marcus Wareing's name (plus Gordon Ramsay associations) will mean the restaurant is full although it will be interesting to see if Petrus' prices go up. Paul

Similarly we had no problem booking for Friday 6th December an hour ago. Paul

The Capital is doing Xmas lunch, although still expensive £125, considserably less than Claridges though. Paul

According to the Caterer Marcus Wareing is moving Petrus to the Berkeley Hotel to replace the Tante Claire next year. He is also going to be supervising the Savoy. Paul

I have found the good food guide to be the most useful guide, but this is possibly due to the fact that it provides more information, a half page to a page for a review instead of a few lines. I am generally unconvinced by the scores at the lower end. Anything five and above has generally been very good, four and below has varied wildly some very good, some not. Possibly these restaurants are more difficult to distinguish. For some reason I have had particular difficulties with restaurants scoring four, which often seem no better than restaurants with lower scores but with more pretensions. Riva gets a 3, but Sonny's round the corner gets a 4 (and was rubbish when we went there a couple of weeks ago). For that matter Riva gets a 3 as does Cecconis, more different Italain restaurants you possibly could not get in the same city, in terms of style, cooking etc. Both are better than the River Cafe though The Angelsea Arms is in the main section and the Havelock remains resolutely in the round up section. I find then difficult to tell apart (service is better in the Havelock). But as I am no longer certain what my point is I am going to shut up now. Paul

Have just returned from Budapest, on the whole the food was as you might expect, large portions of middle european food at very low prices, although possibly strangely drinks in particular wine are not cheap in most restaurants a reasonable bottle of Hungarian wine was about £12. It is probably similar to Prague about seven years ago (although the food is generally hot). We ended up going to two places twice which is very rare and an indication that these were better than most restaurants and more appealing (to us anyway). The two restaurants are Cafe Kor and Bagolyvar (junior Gundel). Cafe Kor is pretty basic as a restaurant but the food was pretty good, probably the only place we encountered that could survive in London, (broadly equivalent in style and quality to Baltic). Bagolyvar delivers 'Hungarian home cooking', grilled meats, salads, soups and traditional desserts and does it well. Aside from these Museum was very good, Legradi and partner was not that great, food was the least good of all of them at a higher price. There are also a number of excellent cake shops Should anyone ever want more in depth information let me know. Paul

The margins on bottled water seem to be increasingly rapidly, the last time we went to the Square it was £5 for a bottle, but I set a new record in Vienna on Saturday £8 for a bottle of water, so they must be doing quite nicely on that menu item. Paul

You've all been warned about the room We went to the Capital Sunday before last for dinner, and for the first time we were not totally impressed not helped by the fact that Eric Chavot did not appear to be in the kitchen and that Matthew Wilkin was not present either, (although the maitre d' Jacqueline was excellent). The service was excellent except for the replacement sommelier who was nice enough but seemed to spend all his time looking for bottles of wine in the cellar rather than pouring those customers had ordered, He had to be prompted several times by other staff. We had the tasting menu, swapping the foie gras for langoustines, chorizo and bruschetta. Both starters scallops with black pudding and the bruschetta were very good, both main courses (turbot with mushroom ravioli and the lamb with cous cous) were excellent, the sort of dishes that are memorable a long time afterwards and rank the capital as one of the best in London, clearly the cous cous was different from macrosans visit. The desserts however were pants a poached fig with a little ribbon of ice cream (hazlenut or similar) and a small square (postage stamp sized) of a chocolate brownie with some ice cream on top, I do not think either of these were of the main menu (unlike last time we had the tasting menu) and were quite poor. The desserts took the dge off the meal but having had four courses plus freebies etc they did not take away from a good meal with a couple of excellent courses. Still think its better value for lunch though. Paul

I guess like everyone else so far I would put The Capital first, but it would be worth considering Putney Bridge. I was very impressed with sunday lunch a few weeks ago. The food is similar in style to that at The Capital although possibly not quite as polished, the desserts are better at The Capital and may appeal to those with a 'sweeter tooth' more. (Petits fours are probably as good at Putney bridge). The wine list at both starts at a reassuringly low level but goes as high as you want. You might prefer the space at Putney bridge, I like The Capital but I only ever go there as a couple I don't know what it would be like with a larger group, it is very friendly and informal in a formal way (if that makes sense), it is quite a quiet dining room. Putney bridge has great views, plenty of room although I don't know how noisy it gets in the evening, it has lots of hard surfaces and of course people from Fulham, Putney etc who always seem to be loud when we are there. Rhodes in the Square was excellent when we went a couple of weeks ago and is well worth considering, but it was quite noisy when we went (it was a very busy Saturday night) and the desserts were by far the weakest part of the meal. Paul

According to the Caterer, Hywel Jones is leaving Lolas to take over at Pharmacy (so as we all expected that did not last long). Allegedly the replacement at Lolas will be Robert Reid. In addition (stop reading now if you live in London), the Old Manor House in Romsey is closing (or more accurately I think closed on Sunday), we rang to book a table for Saturday and were told they had sold the restaurant. So that's the best restaurant in Hampshire and one of about five decent Italians in the country gone. This is also becoming rather worrying we ring the Sandgate they close, then the Manor House they close, we will shortly be thinking of going to Ludlow again, so I suggest you all book before we attempt to and discover that Shaun Hill is retiring, that Claude Bosi is moving to France anf that the Stagg has stopped serving food. Paul

For 'everyday' restaurant wine drinking I like to inhabit the good food guide territory of £18-20 (partly on the principle that if I want expensive wine I will drink it at home). I am happy to pay whatever it takes for the food but I dislike paying large markups on wine. I prefer to concentrate on the food although preferably with a lower end wine wine that accompanies it well. At Chez Bruce there are only two bottles (I think) under £20, a southern french red and white at £17.50. There are a few in the £20-25 range including the old favourite on many lists Quinta de la Rosa at £20 (same price as Rhodes in the Square but more than Putney Bridge). There is a lot in the £30+ range. I think my surprise is that the wine list is relatively expensive compared to the food, and also relatively expensive compared to the related Square and Trompette both of whom have a number of bottles under £20, admittedly some of which are fairly uninspiring but some are quite good. Paul

Had lunch at Chez Bruce on Saturday for the first time in almost a year and was very impressed with most aspects of it. Started off as always with a beer in The Hope next door, this place has been re-done about three times in the last eighteen months but still does a decent pint of Pride (note to Andy I will have time before the egullet lunch for beer won't I?). Then on to Chez Bruce, where everyone had clearly got up late as they hadn't even printed the menus when we arrived, judging by the number of times staff rang 'Bruce' I guess he was not in the kitchen, which may account for a couple of niggles but on the whole I do not think this was detrimental to the food. Starters were mackerel with potato salad and bacon (very very good, warm potato salad with two decent pieces of grilled mackerel topped with crispy bacon rashers) and goujons of sole with tartare sauce (also very good and better than previously, the fish was more generous, the batter lighter and crisper and the tartare sauce more well rounded) We both had the daube and fillet of beef as a main course, this was fantastic, fennel (I think) puree with a fillet of beef on top with a generous amount of daube of beef balanced on top of that, surrounded by an intensely flavoured red wine sauce. Desserts were a very moist, bitter chocolate tart with jersey cream and poached plums with vanilla ice cream and madelines (sp), (which were excellent). The only fault in the whole meal came with the ice cream which was crumbly and granular, not at all up to standard. Overall the meal was excellent, the cooking appears to have improved over the last year, the price has gone up but only by £1.50 to £25 which still makes it excellent value for the food and level of cooking provided. The only slight niggles were a slight slackness of service e.g. at the beginning, they also printed the menus incorrectly with the weekday price at the bottom rather than the Saturday price, which is fine until trading standards come and visit, and the guy who took our order wasn't certain the kitchen could manage to cook my fillet of beef medium rather than medium rare! Which they did as I would expect but I do not know why he had to make a big thing about it? Finally I am still unconvinced about the wine list or rather the prices on it, being a cheap git I like to order wine from the bottom end, and at Chez Bruce there isn't much of one, which I find surprising as both La Trompette and The Square have a large quantity of bottles at a lower price than the starting point of the Chez Bruce list. Whingeing over, Chez Bruce is still one of our favourite places, the food is excellent and we are trying to fit in our next visit. Paul

We went to the Vineyard on Friday night for dinner. In short very good food, up to standard for its michelin star, but not as good as it thinks it is, very overpriced, portions quite mean and the dining room as above very dynasty. We started with drinks in the bar/lounge area, decent Kirs and the bar is quite well done in a five star traditional English country house manner (comfy chairs, real fire etc). We then went through to the dining room which is quite different in style, lots of marble, steps with those little fairy lights in them and a piano!! with a pianist!!! who sings badly!!!!. Very californian or what I imagine californian to be. Dinner is £50 for three courses. The amuse bouche were OK, mine was a tomato gazpacho, Dawn was given a salad because her starter included a soup, which in some ways is thoughtful but a salad is a bit pathetic. Starters were the smoked haddock risotto with mustard sherbet and a red mullet thing with fish soup (needless to say not mine). The risotto was excellent the best dish of the meal, a perfectly cooked risotto with decent chunks of smoked haddock with a quantity of mustard ice cream on top. Very enjoyable. For a main course we had chicken with shallot tart, again this was very enjoyable, very well done, a nicely roasted chicken breast witha small shallot tart and green beans. Very good but (1) it had to be ordered by two people, why? it was just a sliced chicken breast each, no fancy technical stuff, as far as I could tell and clearly not one of those cuts of meat that requires a two portion serving (2) it was the sort of dish that Chez Bruce or La Trompette turn out regularly on a saturday lunchtime for half the price of this, and they are in London not Newbury. Desserts were a very,very good tarte fine of peach with pepper ice cream and a very good chocolate fondant (not as good as The Square's). Coffee and petit fours included five! petits fours, very very mean, one of them was a tuile and they don't count and even my seven year old can work out that five between two does not divide well. Coffee was good. Total cost including a bottle of average pinot grigio £150. Overall the food was very good, but I expect a lot more for that kind of money, both in terms of quality and quantity, the Vineyard is not on the same level as The Capital or The Square but it charges the same sort of prices and its in bloody Newbury. Paul

I am not certain but I believe they have stopped offering the a la carte at sunday lunchtime, certainly last year we were offered both but this time everyone just got the sunday lunch menu, although most of the items on the menu are either off the a la carte or simplied versions thereof. Bearing in mind the cost of taxis in London, the cheapest way to the restaurant is probably a train from Waterloo to Putney BR station (which does of course mean extensive travelling south of the river). Although both times we have driven because on Sundays you can park right by the restaurant. Paul

There was an article in the the business section of The Observer about the possible recession in the restaurant industry. It included a throwaway remark that this was a reason for Pierre Koffman retiring early. Nothing else no dates, anything, difficult to tell whether it was a rumour or fact as there was no other information. Paul

Visited Putney Bridge for lunch on Sunday and it was very very good. The only previous time we had visited this restaurant was for sunday lunch about a year ago, it was good then but this time it was better at all levels, the food was better, there was more choice and the price has actually gone down. Sunday lunch is a set three course menu costing £22.50, there are five or six choices at each course and it includes canapes, amuse bouche, pre-dessert and petits fours, the full michelin experience, for this level of cooking it could be the biggest bargain in town. We had: veloute of potato and almond as an amuse bouche, (very good, smooth and creamy veloute with a deep almond taste and containing small pieces of almond) scallops pan fried and tartare with a coral and carrot sauce (very enjoyable albeit if you like scallops you can't go wrong with this sort of thing) seared tuna with black pepper, green leaves, sesame dressing (I think) (again a fairly standard combination, but very well done, the tuna more generous than is often the case) lasagne of rabbit with mustard dressing (did not get to try this and the children eat the lot) main courses of: sauteed John Dory with shrimp and chanterelle mushrooms (very good, a generous piece of fish cooked properly with a light shrimp flavoured sauce and garnished as above) roast pork belly with gratin of macaroni (the pork was very moist and gelatinous, very tasty possibly slight less well done than is fashionable at present, the macaroni consisted of four long tubes of pasta stuck together and topped with a cheese sauce) slow cooked lamb, with artichoke and tomato stuffed with rice and mint. (excellent, the lamb was unctuous, and even the tomato tasted really good, I didn't get much as again the children scoffed the lot) desserts were: caramel jelly with poached pear and liquorice ice cream (the jelly was slightly salty and almost meaty, didn't get any of the pear or ice cream). passionfruit cream with white chocolate mousse, this was really good, the white chocolate mousse one of the best I have tasted. waffles with chocolate syrup and chantilly (very light waffles, very enjoyable). apologies if my descriptions are not the best, I am in a hurry and struggling this morning. overall the cooking was of a very high standard, as you would expect, I suspect it would be more challenging in the evening, but this was hugely enjoyable and very good value. Paul

OK slag me off if you want but I've been through ten pages of this bleedin message board and I'm starting this as a new topic. Went to Locatelli for the third time on Saturday. Both previous times we have come away having enjoyed it but feeling something is not quite right, having been again I think it is the atmosphere of the restaurant rather than the food, it is perhaps that the restaurant space and the service don't quite match the style of food, which varies from simple Italian to 'modern London Italian' (Peter behave). The restaurant is more 'fine dining' and formal than the food is, I prefer sitting in Zafferano for example. The food as always was very good Italian (I confess I don't quite get comments describing Locatelli as not an Italian restaurant, it does simple antipasti, simple pastas with tomato sauce or red mullet and olives (as you would get in Liguria) and main courses such as chargrilled lamb with limited contorni. Granted there are also dishes which owe more to Locatelli having been in London for ten years (or however long) and the desserts are definitely not Italian). For those interested we had: Sformata of potatoes, tallegio and panchetta (good a mixture of layered potatoes and creamy tallegio cheese with some panchetta in the middle) Pasta with red mullet and olives (very good, a light dish with lots of red mullet) Ravioli of guinea fowl with marjoram (enjoyable the guinea fowl was possibly slightly overpowered by the sauce, a pheasant version eaten previously stood up to this better). Chargrilled chicken (same as always, very enjoyable) Involtini of pork (this was very good, the pork was was rolled up to make very dense sausages, stuffed with herbs) Tart of the day (sponge base, custard, raspberries and blackberries) Spiced bread with a duo of chocolate mousses, rose petal sorbet and rapberries (the mousses were excellent as was the sorbet, the spiced bread was actually a couple of triangles of spiced tuile which was OK but nothing special. the service was much slower than previous visits, which had matched the more usual hour and a half for an Italian restaurant, this time we were there for two and a half hours, which is not a complaint just markedly different from before. Overall we really enjoyed the food without having the 'stunning' dishes such as you might get at The Capital etc, then again it is a totally different style of food. I suspect we will end up going here again and again, as it is one of the few good Italian restaurants in London and one of the even fewer open on a Saturday lunchtime. Paul

Don't know what you class as authentic food, but my favourite place in Stockholm is Wedholms Fisk, fantastic fish dishes, generally huge pieces of fish with simple sauces, I guess it is Swedish but not the place for reindeer etc. Paul

There appears to be a lot of genralisations being made in this discussion, whether children should be taken to restaurants, what sort of restuarants they should be taken to, whether they should go to 'fine dining' restaurants and what age they should be. I shall declare an interest here as we have two children (seven and twelve) who we fairly regularly take to restaurants in London (on the whole we prefer eating out on our own but it is not always practical). In terms of our experience, which has worked quite well, we started eating in proper restaurants about a year to eighteen months ago with the children (I think we started with the Angelsea Arms and The Brackenbury, then Baltic onto Drones, Enoteca Turi, Racine etc). That means we started taking the youngest when he was six which is probably the earliest we could have taken him, he also likes to eat which helps, and wants to be a chef (god help us, bacon cake anybody?). It was very much a case of staring in more child friendly places and getting them and us used to eating out. When they are are in a restaurant they are expected to behave appropriately, no shouting, throwing stuff, whingeing about the food etc while understanding that they are children, so lots of playing on gameboys which doesn't affect anyone else. All that being said we always try and choose first and foremost restaurants we want to go to, but in which they will also have food they want to eat, with two of them cost is also an issue, we would not for example take them to GR@RHR, I suspect both of them would enjoy the food there (It is one of my favourite restaurants but its menu is full of things you would like to eat) but it is quite a small intimate room and is expensive enough for two of us let alone four! Other places we would not take them to would be The Capital, The Square, Tante Claire etc, largely the 'fine dining' places (although we are taking the oldest to Petrus in a couple of weeks time, because we cannot normally get there on a lunchtime and they have a cheaper set lunch menu, and I don't like the room much anyway so if we disturb some prissy bankers, good ) Where we would, and have taken the children are the restaurants below this level and this is where I have some concerns regarding the use of the term 'fine dining' above. This weekend we took the children to Locatelli and Putney bridge, both at lunchtime. I would not describe Locatelli as fine dining but probably would Putney bridge, both meals were excellent (I will post separately for ease of reference), both restaurants had children in them, Locatelli in particular had a number of families, the youngest children were probably 5 or 6, and it is in many ways an ideal family restaurant, comfortable seats, wide ranging menu at all price levels and they do childrens lasagne (which they don't advertise). I am sure you are all getting bored now so will stop there, except that the children's favourite restaurant is St John. Paul

Peter Andrea Riva the owner is Italian, as is the chef as is one of the waiting staff who never actually says anything (I'm beginning to make this sound quite strange, which it isn't). Paul

Forgot to mention Riva, it is probably my favourite Italian restaurant in London, granted there's not much competition. It specialises in fairly 'rustic' generally northern italian cooking, the menu rarely changes except for the addition of some occasional specials. The service is very much Italian trattoria style, they leave your food and wine and let you get on with it (totally opposite to Locatelli) and 2/3rds of the waiting staff are Polish so Peter you may not get all that far with your Italian. Paul

The chef at the Fire Stables when it won the the Time Out award was/is Frances McKellar, who opened her own short lived restaurant in Kennington before taking over at the Fire Stables. Have been there a couple of times and found it to be very good, it is more of a restaurant than a pub albeit in a very noisy 'neighbourhood restaurant' sort of way. however I have noticed that it is not in this years Time Out guide and before going there again I would check who the chef is now. Paul