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Gary Marshall

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Posts posted by Gary Marshall

    Hedone

    in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining

    Posted

    Well someone certainly 'gets' Hedone.

    AA Gill 5* Food 5 * Atmosphere

    'i'm wary of absolutes, and leagues and top tables of best, better and bestest,, but if you ask me, and i suppose you are, to recommend just one gobstopping, heart racing dinner in all of london, it would be hedone.

    Wow.

    That bang? the reservations system imploding!

    Well done all at hedone.

    Sir Charles Napier

    in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining

    Posted · Edited by Gary Marshall (log)

    i think hopefully by now it's been explained for better or worse it's all to do with category so to compare pub to resto or across continents , that way madness lies.

    i am perplexed by your comment David that somehow pubs don't have massive start up costs or other overheads - versus city centre restaurants i assume?

    My pub had been there centuries yet the kitchen and other refurb work cost £80k, you can't just go from chicken in a basket to one star wannabe without incurring cost, and old buildings need constant work, which has to be paif dor £2k for chimney work in our first week for starters! depreciation is a very real expense not an accounting issue!

    Ingredients cost the same, water and 'leccy cost the same, minimum wage costs the same, the idea that pubs or out of town restaurants are somehow running a different economic model is a fallacy, ok prime central London is a different beast cost wise but then so is the footfall, Yauatcha doing 650 covers a night, that could easily be a months covers in a country pub!

    Michelin Guide 2012 – UK

    in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining

    Posted

    Although Michelin get a slating every year for their conservativeness, at least Sat's promotion and Hand & Flowers 2* is a little unexpected.

    Compared to Good Food Guide who were proudly trumpeting Heston's Dinner & Pollen St Social as news which added absolutely nothing to the debate.

    Very pleased to see Michelin made no fuss over these two above and beyond the mandatory star that usually follows a starred chef with history.

    Michelin Guide 2012 – UK

    in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining

    Posted

    Unbelievable , the Lenclume team...and fans must be banging their heads against the walls in shock....Something very suspect going on inside Michelin HQ.I`ll be eating at Lenclume tomorrow and know only too well that it certainly lives up to its placing of Number 2 in the UK....Thanks to the Good food guide.

    I would suspect Michelin have thought that the opening of Roganic may stretch the team so no way they'd go 2* without seeing if it has any affect on the mothership first.

    Restaurant Sat Bains

    in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining

    Posted

    without getting into the current debate, unfortunately customers tend get the reservations policies they deserve.

    If 99% of people turn up when they're supposed to, then generally all is good but if you're turning away people, and the booked don't turn up, it is an issue.

    It creeps up on you, we had no shows for rooms and tables when we had the pub and suddenly you think, 'right we're charging up front for a night at the time of booking' , and thus it rolls on depending on your place in the food chain what you can request.

    When Hibiscus opened they had a no credit card details required policy as in Ludlow no-shows weren't a problem, in London people were booking multiple tables in different venues and deciding on the night where to go and often not even cancelling , it was costing thousands in lost bookings.

    Although most of the people with an over developed interest in food don't act like this and see 'onerous' cancellation charges as an affront however, i can assure you, we are not the norm.

    No-one sets out to be overly contractural but restaurants have high fixed costs and the tables need to be full, a lost table in a small venue can be a significant portion of a nights revenue - eg adrian at margots twitter the other night he had a 6 no show, despite a text reminder, that's c. 25% of his capacity lost, that he could have sold.

    Duck Soup

    in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining

    Posted · Edited by Gary Marshall (log)

    Given my renowned ability not to find anywhere in Soho without at least four attempts, finding duck soup wasn't as bad as i might have imagined.

    It's at 41 Dean Street and despite a handily named (and numbered) restaurant 40 next door, I blithely wandered past, quite taken with Dean Street Townhouse which looked suitably louche as i have been led to believe.

    The fact it didn't have any signeage (until this morning according to twitter) didn't help but eventually i managed to work it out, and recognised the setting from photos. Not being totally sure of the layout I was quite surprised how small it was, it makes spuntino look like Quaglinos - though on querying it appears there is a downstairs dining room also, i think they can seat 40.

    Much has been made of the 'bring your own vinyl' schtick which initially put me off thinking it was going to be a bit too cool-for-school for me, but it turned to be quite retro with some quality Supertramp on in the early evening, giving a very 'mellow vibe'- I think is the parlance.

    Upon taking a seat at the bar it was a bit of a no-brainer to have a beer after a hot central line journey and of course rude not to try the i-can't-believe- they-called-it-that 'Fucking Hell' beer, which wasn't as far as i could tell a novelty own brand, but a proper German beer.

    Much has also been made of the menu, or lack of it, a handwritten A4 sheet was the master copy that i was entrusted with whilst the rest was written on blackboards of various sizes and portability.

    Being greedy and wanting a meal rather than a pitstop I had a small selection of the bar snacks at £3.50 a pop - tete du moine cheese, girolles and st marcellin and salami. Tete du moine is an old favourite from the cheese trolley at winteringham fields in the schwab's glory days so good to see it again, a very nutty cheese cut properly with a little guillotine into ribbons basically. the girolles and st marcellin was just that and the salami whilst looking quite puny, was way punchier than it looked, and was my favourite, as a precursor to a meal, a better start than the cheeses, which i knew, but greed got the better of me, again.

    To accompany a glass of their house white, a golden cortese which belied its price. The wine list is felt tipped on tiles which is inkeeping with the general lo-fi approach of the place. A word of warning though, the pours are a skimpy 125 ml, if you were perhaps, i don't know, err, thirsty, you can rattle through them, my errr, friend told me. Ahem.

    'Middle' course was ceps, lardo & parmesan on toasted sourdough. this was really good, just as billed and some nice nuggets of ham on the lardo which looked like it has come from the almost finished leg of ham on the bar, initially slightly disappointed that the berkswell cheese of earlier menus was parmesan were soon dissipated on tasting , really excellent cheese i can still taste, £7.

    Along with a glass of i think barbera my last course was lamb chops with salmorigio a herby topping, it was just that at £14 which is quite punchy, but got to say other than tayyabs/needoo chops which are a seperate category, these were truely excellent, up there with Robuchons lozere lamb (but without the pommes puree- there are no sides at duck soup). Dispensing with cutlery (and the handily provided sharp knife) i got stuck in, I even ate the fat which is not usually my scene at all, and even greater reason why my earlier in the day gym joining was required.

    Given the next course was either more cheese or a creme caramel, i gave up on the food and opted for a cleansing half of draught vedett, paid up and headed off to find gelupo for a quick desert fix. only four minutes away according to the phone, 20 minutes later i eventually found it.

    Overall a fun experience, better than the deliberate low -key looks would suggest, certainly not designed like russell norman's spuntino/polpo empire but similar in ethos. My only quibble whilst admiring the business model from a financial view point, it is quite ruinous for the greedy/thirsty. That casual dinner cost a short £70! (31.50 on food for clarity so you could escape for less).

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