BertieWooster

we'll be three blokes and one (birthday) girl. Some of us will have sideburns, some of us won't. We will not be quiet. At all...

Are you there in the evening on Saturday Gary?? We've got a 2pm booking.

wow! Mouth now watering even more at the prospect. Long weekend coming up for Mrs W.'s birthday. Late lunch at Anthony's on the Saturday, then off to The Samling for a couple of nights, eating there on Sunday (Nobody's reviewed t'samling have they--another one to get a star), a day of recovery on Monday and then a lunch at L'Enclume on the Tuesday. Asking about the multi-course they said 'you'll have to get here before 1 to have that really...' Hmm, I think we can manage that...

I managed all the way from New Year's Day till, uhhr, Tuesday this week without a drop of alcohol touching lip, palate, throat or anywhere else. Then I got given this redundancy package, and it seemed rather a waste not to spend some of it on liquid clear king alcohol. Ah, hangovers, how I've missed them...

ON which site the photo of Holly really doesn't do her any justice...

I'm shocked at how the Box Tree can get one and Anthony's not...very odd indeed. TBT surely hasn't been open long enough and still with problems last time I was in. The inspector must have been on a good night! And how is Mr UNderhill's still in there? But me and the missus are staying at Samling's in a couple of weeks and were planning a trip to L'Enclume as well, so we'll be doing the Cumbrian stars over two nights...which should be fun.

didn't Anthony W-T once have a rather well reviewed restaurant though? Who's to say what Anthony Flynn might be doing in thirty years?

That's in Silsden, about five miles away and a completely different environment (think run down ex-mill town as opposed to very affluent suburb--the average house in Ilkley would buy you eight or ten houses in Silsden). Like comparing Shoreditch to Dalston.

That's a lovely idea--we're off there today. We got engaged after dinner at Le Bernadin--it's a bit more expensive to fly back there every year (actually with the exchange rates, it might not be..)

Being a recovering veggie, I used to judge pub grub by the quality of their veggie lasagne and chips. GIven that veg lasagne was usually all I could eat, I didn't have much choice. There seem to be three bands of pub grub developing. At the top are the real foodie pubs--The Star, The Sportsman's, most of which aren't really drinking pubs anymore. Then there's the 'influenced by...' places which serve posh fish and chips rather than the bog standard, and it's here where there was a huge improvement up till about three years ago, and now, as Andy has complained, it's all become a bit bland. But for the chains, this is still something to aspire to (unless you're Market Town Taverns, where it's something to achieve, plus serving great beer). ANd then there's the bog-standard pub grub. Which sometimes is just what one wants. But sometimes is awful. Had a terrible meal on Monday at the Cow and Calf. Beautiful pub, beautiful setting, fires roaring after tramp across the Moor, snow falling outside, and they serve lukewarm xmas dinner, fish and chips with sub MAcD's chips--revolting, could taste it for hours.

Harrogate is a lot, lot bigger than Ludlow. SO either it should be better, or it's missing that small-town size appeal. I'd go for Ilkley (but then I would) as the Yorkshire Ludlow with a re-nascent Box Tree and the over-fussy but still rather good Devonshire Arms plus two top-end bistros. Not quite Ludlow, but not a bad place for foodies to live. Or Helmsley, with the Star just down the road and the Feversham Arms causing good reports. It's also got a castle and a very good deli, just like Ludlow...only thing it's missing (I think) is a greasy spoon. We're off to The Star for lunch. If the wind doesn't knock us off the road...

I've always liked the place, with the exception of the trek to the toilets. Certainly was Leeds best for a long time (okay, with short periods of exception when Rascasse and Guelles were operating properly). We were meant to be doing xmas lunch there, but now that PAs have been included it's been moved to the Brasserie. Doncha just luurve egalitarianism!

Haven't been back this month--am trying over xmas again though. It's becoming one of those 'too local to visit often' places. Did you walk the meal off on the moors? Uhhr, given that it was dark, that was probably a bad thought!

I was having that 'I wonder if Anthony's will go straight to two' conversation only yesterday! But I assume they don't do that...Has Pool Court still got one Gary? Wonder also whether Michelin has an unofficial limit for stars within a region. I know the maitre d' at Dinham Hall in Ludlow was saying they'd never been reviewed (at least since he'd been there), and the food there was so far in advance of Underhill's it deserved one rather more.

On another point then, have we heard of a definite sale date for the Merchant House yet?

I have to agree with Scott on this one. There was a definitie ganging up on Mr Weaver, and Bapi's comments to him were arrogant, vindictive, and bullying. No one thinks that PWeaver was making the whole thing up--even Andy admitted there was SOME basis for the comments, but suggested the situation had been provoked. The original post did not come across as a deliberate attempt to smear (I've been involved in online flame wars for nearly 20 years and it had none of the ring of those), rather it came across as someone hurt, bewildered, confused and slightly embarassed, and that embarassment was made worse by being roundly condemned by some of the regulars here. Perhaps there was some 'provocation' in the form of whispering or whatever, but frankly there's also a responsibility on the restaurant to deal with that as early as possible and in a civilised manner. To react even with a tenth of the venom as was suggested (and a tenth seems the minimum we can believe) was totally unprofessional. Those of us with short tempers would probably react differently to Mr Weaver. As to not posting the complaint in the first place, I'm a little bewildered. This is a beloved restaurant universally praised. That doesn't make it above criticism. I'm sure if something similar happened at Anthony's I'd be rather more shocked, but a report should still be posted, if only to allow future visitors to report on how they found the place. This mindless springing to the defence without evidence except the belief that 'they wouldn't act like that' is all a bit, well, irrational.

To be pretentious, how easy is it to separate your food experience from everything else you experience in a restaurant? Can you simply isolate the sensation of taste (well, even then, vision is also part of one's understanding of a meal, and vision involves what ese is going on around one). But, nah, I wouldn't argue that the technical ability going into the food is greater at Tubby's than at the Box, but I simply don't believe that the actual experiecne of 'taste'/'consumption' can be separted from everything else when dining out.

'Twere definitely fillet on the menu, cos I'm looking at it now! On Ilkley, I'd still say Tubby's is a better experience, but it's a bistro not a 'rest your ant'. Steps needs a new chef, as it's just been awful up to now. The real problem for everyone in Ilkley is the quality of the service they can provide--if you use local schoolkids, you can't expect perfect every time. Or any of the time in some cases

Well, Saturday night and the previous opinions were proved to be well-founded. The food is somewhere between good and very good, but the service is struggling. Rena as maitresses is very good, there was a French bloke who seemed efficient but didn't come near us after taking the food order, and a wine waiter who--well, see below. The complement was made up by two or three local girls, one of whom seemed to have trouble keeping her mouth closed, and had to have things explained to her at least three times every time. Four of us arrived a bit early, and got put upstairs and, uhhr, left for about ten minutes. So, okay, we WERE early...Ordered food, pointed out we hadn't seen the wine menu by the point we were being taken to the table. So, uhhr, okay... Seated in a corner near the kitchen door. But two 4-tables were in a space better suited to a 4 and a 2. Which meant the waiters couldn't really get to my chair and spent the night leaning across others to pick up my plate and so on. Ordered wine, nice tannic Oz Shiraz and a house chablis. The latter arrived with ine waiter saying 'we've sold a lot of these tonight, so it might not be cold'. It was actually warm, so it took fifteen minutes to chill it--no offer of an alternative, no attempt to get another bottle. Gritted teeth result. Amuses were cucumber (?) jelly things with salmon froth. Very gentle, sharp tang, really rather nice. Starters--Risotto of lobster for me, excellent, gloopy not soupy. Mosaic of farmhouse chicken, wild mushrooms and pancetta, pronounced over-complicated. Looked interesting, but not a patch on Ramsay's chessboard. Roast sea scallops---great hulking things, very good Mains--I had Roast Wild Sea Bass, Aubergine caviar, anchovy beignet, confit tomoatoes. V. tasty slice of fish, the anchovy was the most interesting bit. This sort of thing is a dish that often annoys me because the pieces don't fit together, but here it worked very well, the anchovy thing was strange but surprisingly good. Others had veal with sweet potato puree, adjudged fine, and the fillet of beef, with petit onions, lardons and ceps. The meat (this time they had asked how it was wanted) was excellent, but fatty--weird for a fillet, not something we'd encountered before. Dessert (accompanied by some ports because we'd run out of wine--it was that sort of night)--panna cotta, pistachio biscotti, raspberry milkshake, an amazing dish, or rather three, mixing flavours, alternating fruity joy and alum tight-mouth, also Lemon Tart, which was very large and the cheeses which were too much for one. Service throughout was, uhhr, interesting...dropped cutlery, much leaning over, many near accidents. Simon came out a few times and was looking sort of hassled (understandable I guess) and a bit nervous. It was very busy, which was good. As the night went on, Rena was getting more and more irritated--also understandable. Especially when at least two parties started asking her about Anthony's success ('well, of course, Simon did all that, and now we want to be a bit more relaxed...' Hmm, lady doth protest???) But, anyway, a good night, the food was near to v. good, company excellent, lots of alcohol drunk. We waited and waited for the taxi, then just walked home. £300 sovs for four, including three bottles of wine, a couple of ports. On the expensive side for what it was. Not sure it rates even as the best in Ilkley yet. I'm sure the problems will be ironed out soon. (and the exam was a beeyatch, but I'm sure I struggled past the pass mark...)

We've got a table booked for tomorrow night. Given I have a couple of exams during the day I'm intending to celebrate/drown my sorrows. Either way, I shall be very merry. But I shall endeavour to remember what I had and report back...

Ilkley--nicely placed between the station and home for those all important pick me ups. Only down side is they don't open evenings. NOrthallerton is the only one I haven't done, must make a visit soon!

Has anyone eated at Pool Court recently?

NOt enough mentions of Betty's on this forum--my local bakery, lovely... Lincoln has a wonderful tea shop--imperial teas of lincoln. NO website I think, but their number is 01522560008. I bought a 'rare teas box' from there last summer which I'm still working my way through--ring of jade; taiping houkui; huiming temple tea and a few others---gorgeous

Went for Sunday lunch , menu as Gary said, only with Wild Salmon standing in for the John Dory. The Mrs and her mum both had the Roast Beef. Meat was good if somewhat fatty. I had the salmon which was lovely, though, well... Overall, 7-ish out of 10. The food was good (the langoustine risotto as a starter was excellent, very delicate flavourings, just the right amount of clarty-ness). downside markings... 1) No one asked the ladies how they wanted the beef, or even mentioned how it was done. 2) Drinking wine by the glass, no one came to ask if I wanted another till they were clearing the plates away. By which point I didn't. 3) The salmon WAS lovely, but compared to the roasts, its a meal for dieters...why can't fish have some pots or something with it as well? Or at least be somewhat filling. 4) The gingerbread cannelloni wasn't at all gingerybread-y... So, apart from the last two, its service teething troubles at fault. The place has been cleared of the junk nicely and doesn't stink of mould and rot anymore. Only other downside was the ex-Emmerdale actress braying right behind us (the whole dining room and they do that trick of putting all three parties within touching distance to save the waiters trouble) and calling the waitresses 'dahhhling'. Which is hardly the Guellers' fault! We'll be back for 'proper' evening nosh in a couple of weeks.

Ah, there was I thinking you meant the White Swan in Pickering, North Yorks., gorgeous food, great rooms, and one of the best St Emilion lists in the country