Gary Marshall

If i were spending £250 on food alone i'd go to the Ledbury and Hedone rather than this pop up, not either or, both! and you'd probably still have change for a bag of chips on the way home.

good pics thanks, have fancied a trip to windows since seeing garret's food on gbm, looks top drawer.

usually a different 'reporters' version sent later on, haven't done it for a while, but did this year.

nice review in weekend FT with some background.. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/31ee4c1a-c874-11e0-833c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1VYiL6zcG

wine pages thread suggests a very pleasant lunch was had at the ledbury yesterday, business as usual.

Love Akbars, they don't play the bar trick in York, but do give you a tray of 'complmentary' pickles and ask if you want poppadoms, which of course you do! They also always ask 'if you are celebrating a special occasion' which i love! rarely vary from lamb chops which i think are as good, if not better than the benchmark at tayyabs and /or sheek kebabs. chicken & keema mix and bread, the giant naans are excellent. If you stay off the cobra it's £15 a head, but that's easier said than done most visits.

midsummer house in cambridge is worth both of its 2*.

from what i've seen that's ex-wine.....

*really* should speak to heathcote http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2011/07/27/339496/Paul-Heathcote-closes-his-Grill-amp-Bar-in-Clitheroe.htm

and we await la masch tonight, perhaps?

I think James Martin should have a chat with Paul Heathcote before he plans to take over the north west. There may be lessons to be learned.

yes i was going to mention jose's pork, i've had that and it is good, but did leave me wanting a nice charred spanish asador style steak! eta: a very positive review from marina this morning in the metro too.

all that meat looks like boil in the bag at its worst.

I went back last night for what i thought would be a relatively swift dinner (i'd promised a new colleague dinner and she lived nearby so seemed appropriate) booked in at 6.30, got there 6.20 left at, err lets just say a good six hours later! Already in a week there's noticable improvement, especially the gazpacho, now it punches out tomato and dill flavour and i can still taste it. as we wandered in mikael asked if i liked live scallops, like? don't know, never had one, and coming from York, for a long scallops were deep fried potatoe cakes! so i couldn't refuse , straight out of the shell trimmed and plonked on a plate, it was delicious the very essence of scallop (and hand dived off the south coast btw) so quickly the menu was ..berkswell and blackcurrant biscuits, a monagesque deep fried beet thing (barbajan?), umami flan , gaspacho steamed turbot which worked far better than sea bass, roast duck with a lobster sauce! Slow cooked duck egg and morels with white peach, cheese, little millefeuille type desert and less successful soufflé – which is work in progress. mikael is clearly loving it and growing in confidence daily, go and have a chat with him and the staff they are all very keen and i'm sure they'll cook a meal that will knock your socks off. (some of you may know the excellent FOH Aurelie (sp?) ex -trompette, texture , poss chez bruce iirc.) on the wine front got stuck into the 1er cru montagny and the fanny sabre bourgogne, all good stuff.

i think they raised the prices from the initial opening levels which talked of decent value iirc, it wasn't when i went. All you needed to know was in my post david, it's just not good enough for the prices!

So to Hedone, the eagerly anticipated first restaurant venture from the most committed foodie i've ever met, Mikael Jonnsson whose desire to find the worlds best ingredients seems to know no bounds, even re-locating to malta for a while just for the fish! (probably) Easy to find on chiswick high st it's a good space, with a shiny open kitchen on the first floor with an as yet uncompleted wine cellar, private dining room and downnstairs bar, complete with the legend 'we only serve doubles' , i suspect that will not survive the refit! Holding about 30 covers the industrial looking space evokes an atelier robuchon type aesthetic with bare brick walls and obviously the open kitchen with most of the kitchen bar the prep area (i assume) open to view. French seems to be the kitchens lingua franca so it has a continental vibe to it. We had pretty much the same menu as matt, which under the soft opening is 9 courses for £60 and 5 courses for £45. After a long tube journey out at rush hour, we weren't going to have the lighter option! matt has described the dishes and i would certainly agree there is already a clarity of flavour and precsion of cooking you would not expect to find in a new restaurants second service, especially in one where the chef has not spent the last 20 years doing service in a professional kitchen! some of the dishes eg the scallops were perhaps a little too refined compared to the likes of the sportsman which is probably the nearest comparator in terms of ethos (and mikael is good friends with stephen harris and spends plenty of time there)but the skill and attention to detail was evident. for me the standout was the beef 45 days aged from o'sheas cooked not in a bag but in a pan and a more ethereal piece of meat i have not had the pleasure of eating all year, and in recent memory, served with jersey royals smoked over juniper berries that were just the most potatoey potatoes i can also remember with just a hint of juniper but not smokey. wine list is 140 bins long and is strong in the classic regions we had a good 1er cru montagny , a fanny sabre pommard vielle vignes and a tasty desert wine which escapes me , plus a glass of cremant de loire on the house with canapés. All told a stunning debut, knocks pollen st social out of the park, going back Wednesday.....

I'll take your word for it matt Booked, very much looking forward to seeing what mikael has been up to, last time I saw him, he'd just finished telling heston where he was going wrong

and finished off the top of my head, plenty of mid-range options but other than Box Tree, ilkley and the yorke arms out in the sticks near pately bridge, that's it. red chilli chinese can be mind expanding in many ways or trad brit/chinese if you want. akbars/ aagrah good curry.

another mixed review from marina this morning in the metro.

thanks to harden's, celeb chef in cooking in own kitchen shocker.... http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/food-drink/eating-in-or-out/home_james_to_the_kitchen_1_3395998

yes, should be good. enjoyed hywel's cooking last week.

i have shared your frustrations and took the easy way out and sold! But things you can do - all the guides have forms to fill in good food guide, good pub guide , aa, michelin etc, send them a covering letter explaining what you do, enclose menus and wine lists. That should get you started but unfortunately i don't think there is a quick fix. out of interest we probably got most guide book related interest through the good pub guide. are your rooms registered with local tourism board? they can push business through we also got decent flow from a bookings website called 'i know' in our case iknowyorkshire. i'm sure you know all this given your hotel background but anyway at least you know you're not alone.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/restaurants/8489789/The-Star-Inn-Harome-restaurant-review.html 9/10 review in the sunday telegraph. Had that duck plate on my last visit, i nearly swapped it out thinking it would just be a bit of confit leg and seared breast, how wrong i was! They're also running andrew's gbm menu as well i believe.

small review by marina in metro today, also concurring grown up sensible restaurant.

yes, whites in beverley?