Gary Marshall

I was 'sulking' as 'someone' hadn't realised the kitchen at the bridge was being refurbished You can't be that cavalier where lunch is concerned! Think yourselves lucky i didn't demand we all got on the train and went to Anthony's asap! However the chop house was good, i could just eat that corned beef hash cake with HP sauce right now mmmmm. I struggled with panacea, i just can't do fashionable restaurants with 'concepts in dining' and cocktail lists longer than the wine list, seemed much more suited to being a bar for conspicuous champagne consumption, which of course i'm way past doing nowadays.

and it can't be that exclusive if i can get in

Considering the wolsely is aimed directly at its target market i think the ivy has done well to keep its profile. It is still the one place our over-entertained clients get excited about an invite to. I can't see how anyone that regularly dines out in london could consider it expensive either, it's remarkably good value considering its popularity. Although Ramsay gets the most publicity as a chef/owner the poole/platts-martin/howard partnership has built up a pretty good collection of restaurants too.

thanks for the update tony, reminded me to get back on the phone to LCS and sort out a reservation.

the traditional guides are michelin, good food, aa and harden's. all have their advocates.

juniper is highly rated by many in the industry. there's nothing else like it in the area, that's for sure.

i think royale normally involves a mixture of meats and seafood. this isn't quite as royal as it's merguez only, but i think that's how it was presented on the menu.

When skiing earlier this year our instructor took us for lunch, the plat du jour was 'cous cous royale'. He seemed very keen on it so i followed his example, I didn't know what it would entail but luckily, it was excellent! It came dish of cous-cous and a big pot of merguez sausages in a spicy broth to be spooned over the cous-cous. i've now got some merguez and cous-cous, anyone have any thoughts as to how to recreate the broth? thanks gary

I have the set lunch regularly at no3, it is well priced and well executed. Last week i had a very good fishcake, well two actually perfectly spherical and evenly coated balls with a tomato butter sauce. Simple but made and cooked with care and precision. To follow was duck Confit with Celeriac Dauphinoise, Buttered Savoy Cabbage and a Port Wine Sauce. It was all textbook and given the size of the leg it must have been swimming near some sort of nuclear power plant, For £14.50 this is good value given this also included a decent gaspacho amuse and as much freshly baked bread and butter as you can eat, in my case a fair bit!

Had the opportunity for a quick meal at anthony's this week, pleased to report that it is certainly firing on all cylinders ahead of their summer hols/kitchen refurb due 3rd -13th september if you're thinking about a trip. I had two new dishes (from the ALC) with poached quail with a croissant veloute to start. I was thinking of the old risotto favourite but went for a new one, it was quite a big dish actually a bowl with the poached breasts and the trimmed legs,the thigh boned and the 'end' left on the bone. The veloute was poured over the dish at the table and was nice and rich, but not heavy. my main was lemon sole, white peach and ham hock ravioli. On a rectangular plate there was a decent chunk of sole and under the ham hock rectangular 'carpaccio' of white peach, 2 mm thick slices. Of course being anthony's the ravioli wasn't pasta but a very thin sliver of 'pig' wrapping the ham. A very enjoyable dish, i was tempted by the roast silver hake with baby squid and garlic cream as Tony's squid 'n cream is one of the finer combinations i've ever eaten, but in the interests of research had to try the new dish! unfortunately i didn't have time for desert just a swift coffee and with a bottle of viognier, the cocktail amuse, amuse, bread & butters & service the bill was an eminently reasonable £55. The tasting menu is now available as bertie mentioned, but it is not fixed or printed in the menu so it is a 'menu suprise', from what i can gather it is going down very well with the customers and giving rise to serious food envy from the ALC diners when they see the succession of plates going out! I'm not sure what the current situation is regarding tables on the evenings but given the holiday season is upon us, the chance of a table at lunch certainly is pretty good at the moment. if you've been thinking about a trip now might be a good time to try....

i seem to think some friends were sent there on the basis they had better kebab action that tayyabs, i'm sure the verdict was they hadn't. so you're not alone in not being excited.

agreed, they're often on uk food or whatever and even after repeated viewings are still great to watch, especially when you get the youthful messrs hill, rhodes and stein making an appearance.

Usually about the same time as the chef is emptying the contents of your dinner plate over your head and kicking you out the door. ← i forgot i'd told you the story

did you ever take your free dinner? i think andy's words are reasonable guidelines, don't write anything you wouldn't say or certainly be aware there's a good chance they'll read it/hear about it. There's very few restaurants that can resist a bit of googling every now and again to see what's being said about them, usually you find out about this a bit too late

Err, i think you'll find the refurb was planned to finish some 3 weeks before our planned visit. I'm sure the person most peed off about all this is David & his team, turning away 3 weeks of reservations has got to be a very demotivating job to do, even ignoring the obvious loss of income. They were hoping to have access to the kitchen by last friday, and then a few days to get the stocks and prep done so Tuesday sounds about right. I did suggest that we weren't bothered if the restaurant wasn't finished but unfortunately it's the kitchen that was the last to be finished I'm sure it will be worth the wait and also Lypiatt House where we were going to stay were very accomodating with our late cancellation so give them a call if you're planning a trip.

i did get a tip for you out of bapi when i collected the cash though, that must count I must add basil is very generous host and has given us more than our fair share of drinks when we happen 'to be passing' post pub closing/ slacker booting us off his wine terrace

With tony snr's control on costs an expensive kitchen to start was obviously not the agenda, for the food they turn out, the kitchen is pretty basic and standard, certainly not a lab! from memory on opening there was a normal stove, salamander grill, a flat hot plate thingy for the fish and a small pass. That's about your lot. They have extended the kitchen a bit already and got things like a low temp oven but it's all pretty standard stuff, oh and the bar from its nightclub days is still down there! september closing has stopped a proposed friar/marshall roadtrip but i'm sure i will get down there soon for a fix.... oh and of course glad to hear you enjoyed your dinner bertie!

it's the disco/wine merchants pulling in the sophisticated punters like gary barlow, word spreads you know

i keep thinking i've got this sky+ and i haven't so i missed most of it, just caught it from the 'travel' section, after 5 minutes of wifey half watching the comment came 'what is this irritating programme?' i had to laugh given the contents of this thread.

i buy the chef's beer in my local every visit, in fact they just stick it on our tab now. i get the best food and they even reciprocate with the beer so it's win/win!

i've not come across fresh cherries as 'petit fours' before, where did the thought come from bas?

i thought that too, also no lobster ravioli

he sounded more confident when i booked for dinner on the 6th! ← hopefully their timing is right as i've just called to confirm our table and the answer message says they re-open on thursday 4th!

exactly, someone who has opinions and isn't afraid to go against concensus.

Problem is that they have ripped off top gear and don't have a jeremy clarkson character, just as top gear would have struggled to get going without him. Maybe if AA Gill fronted it they'd have someone similarly acerbic and un-pc to hang the show around.