Gary Marshall

montague arms, beaulieu 1*

didn't see any sign of them, they would be very useful. yes, but if you don't like the star then you should really be in a harvester not taking up valuable space at the P&G i think the P&G does have a bit more appeal to the less foodie element than the star does, to many it's just a nice place to go, a function of its size which makes it less threatening i think to the more casual restaurant goer

Well i was convinced i'd started a thread on the pipe and glass but i can find no trace of it, i know i have a few half written reviews scattered over various hard drives but a lunch last friday prompted me to make sure i finally complete a write up. The pipe and glass is the first venture from James Mackenzie and his partner kate, they were previously head chef/restaurant manager respectively at another favourite of mine the star at harome, and indeed this is where i first met them through my visits (and after hours drinking). The pub is a large spot near beverley in east yorkshire and i think once had a good food reputation which had waned over the years and was ripe for a restoration under the new owners, and despite the place apparently losing a lot of its original features in a fire many years ago, they have done well to make an iniviting eating and drinking space. the bar is not massive but the rest of the pub is, so that if you have booked a table in the restaurant you are swifted pointed in the direction of a great reception room complete with wood burning stove and the memorabilia from james and kate's foodie travels worldwide, from the oak room to hells kitchen. there's a seasonally changing menu and a specials board chalked up in the bar and the reception room (you can eat in the bar and like the star there are no reservations taken here) and the menu is where i am noticing the major changes with each visit. When they opened we were busy with our pub so i didn't get to go until they'd been in action for a good six months, initial reports and indeed press stories were that they certainly weren't gunning for michelin stars and were just interested in running a good local pub with decent pub food. our first visit suggested that the goals had moved, and subsequent visits demonstrate to me that a star will eventually adorn their already large trophy cabinet (indeed they already have a bib gourmand so are on michelin's list as would be expected given james's pedigree at the star). The dishes are very much in andrew pern's style of classic british food made with great local ingredients, but they manage to keep their feet on the ground (as we did) by the inclusion of a decent prawn cocktail on the menu (no doubt one of the bigger sellers i suspect) but our most recent lunch saw starters of salmon tartare, salmon scoth egg and a game pasty so there's some interesting and appetite increasing stuff on there too. the dining room is large and extends to a further conservatory which further looks onto a secluded garden which goes some way to explain how they are managing to serve around 1000 covers a week, and trust me, at this level of cooking that is an almost military style operation. the wine list is pretty good, there's a fine wine list of some very attractive bottles but the more mainstream stuff is pretty good too, selected by local merchant playford ros (who do the star too) mark ups are not too severe and it's arranged in a customer friendly fashion by style which makes it quite approachable to the oenologically challenged. our particular lunch was very enjoyable especially after the ravages of a 5.30am finish on new years day i was ready for something restorative, i managed to book a table and luckily it's a fairly straightforward 30 minute drive from my house, the village isn't too hard to find as it's a flat part of the world and the local church has a spire akin to the eiffel tower to mark the location. I took a swift black sheep in the bar (no laughing at the back) and then took our place in front of the fire for some serious decision making, the salmon referred to above seemed a good 'light' choice and indeed it didn't disappoint showing a good level of execution, a nicely chopped tartare, surrounded by a delicate mirepoix ring of boiled egg with a small quails egg salmon 'scotch egg' . Mrs m had a game pasty, which judging by the fact i had to stab a bit off her plate before she scoffed it says it all. Just remembered there was good bread too, a choice of two from a good bread 'tray' and also some toasted poilane to accompany the salmon. For mains we both had the fish pie, quite historically (or not) the first fish pie i've ever had (a particularly poor version forced upon my brother and i as children has never left it top of my agenda) but hey, at 38 if you can't open your mind to new things when can you? This is where i thought the changing of gear became apparent again, now you can find a fish pie in the brake brothers ready to nuke catalgue and it appears on menus up and down the country in earthenware bowls piping hot from the microwave but rarely does it appear in cast iron staub pots with a side of langoustine and fennel salad in its own mauviel copper pot, as it does here. Also the presentation wasn't the highlight, it ate bloody well too! For dessert i think sarah had a gingery burnt cream, although i wouldn't bet my life on it , i had a treacle tart that was decent but the egg nog ice cream elevated it. Taking it easy on the wine front a £19 bottle of spanish chardonnay seemed to do the trick, and total bill was around £90 with the pies being £16 each, the prices are very reasonable given the ingredients utilised and the staff costs for turning out food like this, it is not far off star quality food but it is 20 - 30 % cheaper if our average bills from the two are any sort of guide. so highly recommended, it could get a star this year but that might be a little soon, and in any event the place is pretty much rammed most services as it stands so god knows how a star would change things (and locally after they got the bib most thought tht was a star anyway!) but if they continue with the current tragectory i'd be suprised if they weren't etoiled in the 2010 guide.

might win the prize for most useless post 09 as i haven't seen the clip but would suspect it is from boiling point which featured sarge getting a bollocking many times, doesn't seem to have done him any harm though....

Tony in positive michelin comment shocker! http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/g...0Flinn?from=UNE

if you are anywhere near goldsborough at the end of your trip (it's near runswick bay) then try the fox and hounds , check the opening hours as they are limited but i doubt you'll be disappointed there.

at the risk of opening a tin of worms they do rate relative to categories and i would suspect too, country, if you think in those terms the ratings make sense across the board not just the star. The star is consistently rated and has been for many years, one of the best pubs in the country, that it should get a star therefore is not suprising. That Gordon ramsay has 3* in london but wouldn't make 2* probably in Paris etc, etc. sunday last orders probably is the worst time to go but that's relative in the star you are not going to get the scrapings from the walk -in, i've seen the specials board change over the course of a lunch several times. andrew pern can't drive so the chances are he's in the kitchen as he can't get anywhere else! (and joking apart he generally is in the kitchen). and believe me having run one, people in a pub on sunday people want sunday roast, even the box tree in ilkley does sunday lunch rather than its usual menu and i agree i'd prefer the normal menu in a place like that, but it doesn't bother me too much in a pub environment, it may also be a yorkshire thing. From memory though the star generally only does roast beef and pork on a sunday as i used to kid my self we were only going to go and have a roast lunch and of course we'd get there and it would suddenly be foie gras and turbot ahoy!

it's a common mistake to compare michelin starred pubs with michelin starred restaurants, they are rated seperately, it is about best in class as it were. i know loads of people who have gone to the star expecting a 1* restaurant experience and complained it wasn't what they were expecting. i'm suprised phil doesn't think the star is a destination place, i think it's pretty special and for me it's the total experience the character of the building etc all adding up to a unique place and worth the trip (though for me it's only a 40 min drive), don't forget the whole local food/provenance thing might be common now, but no-one was doing it when they started 10 years ago. and come on phil, 'is sunday the day of roasts?' of course it is! and yes the kitchen does take last orders at 6pm but i've come in at 5.55 before and ordered full 3 courses without an issue in the past.

You romantic bastard Marshall . That poor woman- what did she do to deserve a lifetime at the behest of your sweaty little digits? ← she was very bad in a past life evidently.

so to the star on christmas eve, we got engaged after lunch there a few years ago so there's a lesson for you, don't get carried away with the christmas spirit! for reasons best known to myself i thought it probably wouldn't be too busy at lunchtime so rather than being there on the dot at 12 as usual, we sauntered in at 12.30 - ish, to a full bar, and a 2 table wait. No worries for me as i'd done my driving for the day but mrs m was in full 'i told you so mode' and indeed she had, hey ho, another pint of christmas star please, Elliot..... to start for me what most would call a trio of salmon, hot house, a sort of salmon potted shrimp and smoked, a generous plateful and mrs m who of course didn't want a starter gleefully piled in too. For my main i had something i'd wanted to try ever since reading about it in the book, a braised beef shin with ale juices and horseradish risotto (though minus the seared fillet - no problem there though), it certainly lived up to the billing as a pile of unctous slow cooked beef arrived, i thought for a moment it might defeat me but of course i manfully struggled on whilst sarah made short work of her burger and skinny fries. even though stuffed and with the festivities of christmas day to come i still managed to keep the marshall name in its rightful place by proceeding to polish off a plate of their desserts in minature. to drink a few pints of their excellent hambleton ales 'christmas star' and a bottle of st emilion, for some reason i was on a bit of a bordeaux tack over christmas. Oddly the wine list seemed devoid of its usual descriptions but may have had an overhaul it certainly seemed as long as usual but just read as a fairly straight list with only divisions along the lines of red/white/champagnes etc which is out of character, i wouldn't be suprisied if it was an interim version and forgot to ask. despite a <£40 bottle of wine we escaped at under £100 for two which regular readers/visitors will know that's a 'cheap' outing to the star, but as usual worth paying the extra for the certainty the star provides.

the thing i liked about the punchbowl was its more rustic cooking, i hope it doesn't change too much from that formula.

a late 'light' lunch yesterday as a prelude to a few xmas drinks in york, steamed pork buns 3 of them like tennis balls in size but luckily not texture , the beijing dumplings which are the ultimate hangover fix, and the lamb broth which was noticably hotter than the leeds version but after the inital 'F$% me that's hot' got scoffed with some egg fried rice. my mate couldn't believe the lamb was a portion for one in theory. the food was £17 ! we left stuffed and rolled into the living room for a few pints and then a few hours later rolled back to Akbars for some dinner

hmmm, i wonder in a non-libellous fashion how well that CV would stand up to legal verification i thought this sounded like a doomed venture before it opened, i'd like to be proved wrong as i know how hard it is setting up and running any restaurant but it does have a strong feeling of running before they can walk. Much like i thought anthonys would be when i heard of an ex el bulli chef opening in leeds and i was proven quite wrong

well it's going to be fun in the vincents david when scott comes up in the new year scott is right though, with restaurants there are always quibbles or things of personal taste that will always vary from person to person but a raw fish is a raw fish and the only thing to do with that is let them know, not gripe about it afterwards. and charles i'd love to be on the payroll of all the places i like but unfortunatley the truth is much less exciting, please feel free to ignore my thoughts as biased if you wish, but i think i've eaten enough serious meals in the last 15 years to have a pretty good idea of what's what. and with that i'd better get ready to go to the star at harome, i know them too so that's another post you don't have to read

well if you were in leeds as i was on friday night, you'd be glad there were bouncers on the door, they're not there to give you any trouble entering the restaurant just keeping trouble out of the restaurant. we were there for our office xmas bash, the low prices and ability to hold decent sized groups made it ideal. It was i can assure you very pleasant to be able to have a beer and chat pre-dinner as opposed to the scrum that was leeds pre-christmas. once seated i think the only gripe of the evening became apparent, the girls were cold and all fled to the cloakroom for their jackets/throws etc, i know it's been an issue so i would presume a fix is in motion, but it's always going to be a challenge to keep such a large space warm, but that skyline at night is breathtaking, so it's a bit quid pro quo. i had black pasta ,garlic cream and squid to start, for £5.25 it was a cracking dish, different to the usual brasserie offerings and well executed . my main at £8.25 was sausage and mash, a great cumberland ring on creamed pots, good gravy with some small onions. great winter booze absorbing stuff. i think to grumble about portion size is missing the point, the cooking is way ahead of anything else at this price point so it's going to be poriton controlled to a certain point but having said that i was perfectly able to face the rigours of a night out on the tiles in leeds with just those two courses (ok , i admit i hit mcdo on the way back to the hotel but at 2 am with a 6.30 alarm call i thought it was necessary!) we washed it down with a bit of champagne and some very servicable house wines Everyone enjoyed it, so much so that a friend of mine who tagged along sent me a text on saturday saying he'd gone again sat night and it was his new favourite place, and a colleague of mine's only complaint was that they needed to crank up the PR as most of her friends were unaware of its existance. i don't know why people would be suprised by tony jnr keeping out of the way, he's not head chef there, they have a kitchen full of chefs , tony's just helping out until it's all running smoothly.

a group of us were there again on saturday, another great meal, epecially the turbot in vin jaune sauce (insert homer drooling emoticon) none of us would let the girls clear the table until we'd got spoons/more bread to finish the sauce (oh, and the homemade foccaccia (insert ....etc ) . truely superb and if i can make it from leeds with a 6.30am start after my office xmas bash with 3 hours sleep, you can do it too! it's well worth the trip and not that hard to get to, victoria to faversham train £10 taxi from there.

yes foie and black pud is the main signature dish alongside crab with bloody mary dressing. They are very strong on fish too , usually a good selection from the east coast.

more a function of the fact they have a customer base that will spring £800 + for a table so if it's there..... this could also be the start of the push for 2*, the new room is well up to that standard.

And of course, you'll be driving Sarah back home after that meal won't you Gary? ← errr , maybe not. i had to laugh on friday, elliot asked sarah in all seriousness if she actually drank at all

with pleasure ....

Another trip to the star on friday night, it's become my favourite place to go now it's cold and miserable, it never fails to lift my spirits. so we've had a few visits recently and no doubt i'll be up on christmas eve as per usual too. fridays meal was a return to a signature dish of theirs, black pudding and foie gras. i had it years ago and thought it ok but not spellbinding, but a another portion of it at the taste of leeds back in summer refreshed my memory as to how good it was and it was good again on friday, a nice chunk of Fg sandwiched between black pudding with a bruleed slice of apple atop. good stuff. for main i had a 'posh' ham and pheasant pie with sherried cream, as well as probably being the worlds most expensive pie at £18 it was luckily one of the nicest, a with some good pastry skills being exhibited in the lid and a lovely grain mustardy/sherried cream sauce. It was great but it also put paid to any thoughts of dessert, probably the first time in over 30 visits that i've not had the star desserts in minature. as i was in pie mode i didn't bother with wine (!) and instead stuck to several pints of nick hambleton's christmas ale, which was superb. We also had a nose around the 'new' restaurant which is where the old kitchen used to be, and it looks superb, rather than try to fake antiquity in the new part, they've gone for a total contrast, think plush parisian bistro, huge red banquettes, expensive chairs and zinc topped bar, it might not sound right but trust me, it looks the dogs bits. The new kitchen is massive, about the size of claridges' and the chefs table is very cool, it's not in the main kitchen per se, it's just off to the right but has it's own cooking station in there with a very dinky mini range (i want one) and rottisserie, only drawback is it's a minimum £800 spend for up to 8. i'm looking forward to christmas eve already.....

The Ellington hotel and restaurant opened a couple of months ago making much of its connections (read consultancy) with le gavroche both kitchen and foh, naturally over the years many a decent name has been put next to a pile of tosh in the interests of the bank balance over the food, so it wasn't particularly high on any list to visit, especially bearing in mind i'd have to walk past long time favourite no3 york place to do so. Local restaurateur chat suggested the service was excellent but food nothing to write home about - reasonable brasserie fare, but Jay's piece below suggested there may well be something warranting further investigation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/200...nt-review-leeds as it 'appens a colleague was celebrating a birthday and had booked the ellington anyway so i was quite interested to see how it fared. first impression on entering the bar/reception were of a typical boutique hotel, too open plan for my liking, i prefer a bar to be something to stand at rather than a seat and be served affair, but that's maybe just my pub heritage no-one else minded and staff were very efficient serving my beer. wandering downstairs to the table the consultancy made sense, it is very gavroche like, nice thick carpets and probably the most comfortable banquette i've had the pleasure of parking my posterior on a great spot to settle in and hold forth for an afternoon, which i did. As we were a reasonable sized group we had a choice of reduced ALC or set lunch, most went for the set lunch, i of course had ALC, which did unfortunately omit some of the classier dishes from the menu. so for me it was pretty much a classic brasserie affair, gratineed onion soup, rib eye with bearnaise and tart tatin. the soup was fine, with a good base stock , the steak however was a peculiar beast, i ordered it medium rare, and at first cut it looked v rare but had a nice char so not a problem. problem was it was tough as old church's and quite sinewy i had perform above average levels of dissection to get to a decent bit of edible protein, i can't remember a steak before that was simultaneously rare and chewy! The bearnaise was excellent and the chips thankfully didn't stray into chunky territory, i wouldn't go as far as to say they were cooked in duck fat, but they had an extra dimension of fattiness to them that i approved of. There was also watercress. tarte tatin with salt caramel ice cream was perfunctory rather than revelatory, a slice from a bigger tart rather than an individual cake meant not too much of the crust, which is of course the best bit, ice cream ok, but not sure i'd identify it as salt caramel in a line up. wine list is comprehensive and usual corporate mark up as to be expected, as we were a group i didn't have the opportunity to go to town and had a serviceable italian chardonnay for £25 -ish and a parker station pinot noir for similar £ which was ok, i warmed to it, post meal we had a barrossa valley merlot that was a very pleasant drop for £28, probably a bit too much as a 'food' wine but ok for post meal supping. so although it didn't blow my socks off the ambiance was excellent, the staff were very well trained and knew how to do it properly, it's an ideal winter afternoon hideaway so i think i'd certainly give it another go, almost certainly to try the quenelles de brochet if nothing else.

just been to red chilli for a swift lunch, they've pulled the usual business lunch offer and replaced it with a significantly more expensive 'christmas lunch menu' . there is indeed a surcharge on the bill , headed as such, the waiter said it was for december only and went to the staff, who knows? anyway onto the good stuff, great beijing dumplings to start, then the green beans, chilli and pork dish for moi, a random mushroom with dumpling on top combo with pak choi for and two stir fry lamb dishes. All v tasty the bean dish especially so, though i thought it also had the garlic shoots in too but now see that's another dish. I can see that would be a good partner to the lamb broth.

have a look at the £250 challenge thread howard....

I love the concept of a light meal that includes 4.5 pints....total class. ← you can't buy it, especially not in leeds. just to clarify before bapi leaps in with some comment about drinking halves, that was 2 pints each for me and colleague and a half for other colleague who popped in but was too hungover for anything more than a half.