BertieWooster

Though not the main Haggogate or main York ones. The smaller ones are nicer. Betty's Ilkley is my local (excellent macaroni cheese too). When we got wed, the (not-quite-yet) Mrs drove past and the FoH staff came out to wave at her. We are VERY good customers though.

And its going to get a hell of a lot worse. The recession has hardly started moving into the real economy yet. Should be another three years of pain at least judging by housing/real estate super-cycles (something the horsemen of the appocolipse will be riding). BLaming the media for whipping it up is missing the point that everything in markets is based around fear and greed. Its an essential part of the process.

Even if there are rooms at The Star, it'll be very expensive. Course you could stay at the other place in the village (The Pheasant) which is very nice in a 70s sort of way, lovely people running it, and then eat at The Star (though not sure if the latter are doing xmas lunch). IN Derbyshire there's the Riverside at Ashford, which is lovely, not many rooms though IIRC. We once got a couple of rooms over boxing and the-day-after-boxing at The Endeavour in Staithes, which was stunning in every way. White Swan at Pickering is worth recommending too. Pickeing generally has a few nice places in it.

Damn, if they're rewardng restuarants for having good views now...

As is Sat Bains.

Just to note a special one-time only appearance by the Arbutus boys. Also to note that the linked website hasn't been updated for far too long. [Edit: and apparently that event has been cancelled. So much for providing the latest news]

Wasn't aware the tin said 'abysmal service, terrible food.' Must have missed that. No, I don't suppose they will.

Yeah, but a lot of 'destination dining' is both staggeringly expensive AND very disappointing--viz. The Waterside. I think most people would rather be mildly disappointed for less money. Of course, this is ignoring the bit of the fine dining economy based (like contemporary art) on the essential human need to say 'you paid how much? for that?'. Call it the Reggie Perrin complex.

Some weird things are happening. I know Room in Manchester is now charging for bread (£2-50ish IIRC), which just seems tight amd likely to put people off. Other places (and it might be my imagination) are making much more of selling up--that extra bottle of water, or the sides. Course, things started to bite at the beginning of the year as product costs started to rise (which should ease again by the end of this). As a mid-ranker, we've been doing fine, even slightly increasing. Maybe its the very top-end thats suffering. And I would think some of the identikit one-stars will struggle with their GP. Oh, and if GP ruled our lives before, its now a minute-by-minute concern rather than a day-by-day one. Course, comfort food is the answer! I predict a big run on crumbles and pies.

Glad you enjoyed it Nicki. They won't have any fear of me darkening their doors again though!

Don't particulalrly like the restaurant bit, but sitting outside in the sun on a summer's day (uhhr....) is wonderful there.

Is Mr Flinn seen as too old now? Jason Birkbeck at Hipping Hall is impressive. INteresting, but unsurprising, that Birmingham does so well as the second city.

We went at the beginning of AUgust, doing the double with the FD. Best bit was arrival via launch from the river. From then on, with a couple of exceptions it was a disaster. The service veered between the sneerily servile and the simply sneering (examples...my wife asked for steak and chips (sorry, 'steak et pommes pont neufs') and requested it 'medium-rare'. SNotty waiter..'we can serve it medium or rare'. MrsW: 'between the two?. SW: 'chefs need to do one or the other'. Moi:' cooked on the outside, still bloody.' SW:' oh, you mean rare-medium'....second example, same waiter..my wife has a dairy intolerance..he clarifies..SW:'so just cows dairy. MrsW:'just cheese, milk and butter'. SW gives look, 'what other sort of dairy is there?' MrsW..'well, if you need to instructed in the basics of food groups...') Actually, the intolerance thing was very difficult. Usually, you go high-end, its dealt with superbly. THe FD of course asks the question. RHR, LCS, Petrus just wave their hands and tell you its not an issue. Here we were told, 'well, this is going to be very difficult, all French cooking uses a lot of butter.' Mrs W, being pregnant, nursed a single glass of champagne. Which meant I a) wasn't handed the wine menu till I asked, b) didn't have an order taken till I asked and c) didn't have my half-bott delivered till I'd asked again. Mr Roux was prancing around like a procurer for a Victorian brothel, poncing for the American billionaire (one of the Forbes lot) in the corner who was just trying to read his WSJ. Neither he, nor the Maitre d', approached our table till right at the end. As to the food. Not great. I had a red mullet which was fiercely medicinal in flavour, Mrs W had scallops which would have been better treated in a Loch Fyne. Cooking barely one-star standard. Looking out on the river, of course, one is also crammed in with everyone else near the windows. Once it got dark, making more use of the space would have made more sense. Won't be back. Over-priced, massively over-rated, over-inflated sense of their own value. Sure you'l have a great time though!!

Morning after eating at the FD, sharing our table at breakfast was a young chef from Keller's place in New York, doing the rounds of UK restuarants avec girlfriend. Very nice and chatty he was till he said he'd trained at Aikens. I made the required joke about whether he'd survived and got a very stuffy response. 'Tom is one of my closest friends, we're staying with him...' etc. How passionate these followers get...

Good to see the Whitworth cafe won best family restaurant of the year in the GFG.

Presumably its the same number. UNless it was in GRH's contract to take it with him. Judging by the latest Harden's you wouldn't blame them.

He's away this week. But, yes, I've heard similar regarding the current level of service there. Which is a real shame. Sure they'll sort it out.

Well, its better than being slapped in the face with a wet fish certainly! I somehow doubt we'll win though, but its nice to be thought well of. However, listing or non-listing in the GFG will make the difference between very happy Modernites and slightly downcast ones, only leavened by the new lamb's tongue dish on the September menu (you see what I did there?).

We went a couple of weeks back, did the double with The Waterside. THe FD was lovely, excellent service, total VFM as far as we were concerned. Unlike The Waterside.

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. A little, and little-trumpeted (though, as its always packed, it doesn't need to be), gem. Hoe the permanent rain didn't scar the holiday too much

The couple are currently looking at three possible sites in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town and plan to launch a six to eight bedroom property with a 35-cover restaurant serving classic food." ← Pretty sure they're still living in Manc. They;re in the local pubs often enough.

On the Today programme discussion, the Unions were clearly suggesting the change could leave staff worse off because of the imposition of NI contributions.

Soho Covent Garden/Seven Dials area, try Monmouth Street COffee Company, which is lovely. Thye have another branch too, in Borough Market. http://www.cosycoffeeshops.co.uk/2008/03/m...any-covent.html

Its not on The Observer site yet, but that nice (he even tells us he is) Mr Rayner gave a very fair review of The Modern. Thankfully reviewing the place in its own terms rather than as a fine dining restaurant. Though the image of the tundra of his chest will stay with me. And using a line from a Liverpool band in a review of a Manc restaurant should have the subs shot. [edit to add link to review]

The Box Tree, Simon Gueller's home, is very good (I used to criticise but its improved a lot over the last year). I wouldn't have put it on the same level as the Dev Arms, but then the chef of the latter left. Only issue, it is expensive. Good value lunches though. Typical late seventies michelin in service style too, and you will get Mrs GUeller talking at you for ages. Worth it, finding a table for nine in the tiny rooms (they have private dining, but not sure about use of it for lunch) could be interesting. M&V Jay liked the service and disliked the food IIRC. I hated the service AND the food. The main people (who had previously won awards elsewhere) have now gone I think. Its trying to be something it isn't, a posh restaurant in a place that is very well-off but desires the more laid-back, good, but unobtrusive quality. Farsyde is far better at the 'notch-below-star' level. And then The Vaults just below that. (and I count Ilkley as being in the Dales...its home, after all).