Gary Marshall

check the menu before you go, according to fay maschler in last nights evening standard, menu has been stripped down. website not up to date

sounds good, i've spent a week in elba, but sadly missed the desert wine!

though oddly the other chefs seemed quite taken with it, and giving him a 9 or 10 would have maybe made making the friday final a formality, which wouldn't have made good telly now would it?! the cod suspense and references to the theme are the most tiring aspects of the show unfortunately, but could be worse, could be x factormasterchef.

Andrew was robbed, what was howarth thinking?

So far not a bad start, thankful for the sky+ to fast forward through the non-cooking parts though! looks like nigel haworth keeping the scoring deliberately tight at the moment, build the tension for the finale....

you won't be disappointed, it's about as 'about the food' as you can get and the wine list is well priced too. do ring them to book the tasting menu, it is not offered without iirc.

online reservation is your friend.

starts on monday, according to the star at harome tweet, they're first up.....

only one david?

reservations open...18th 1st public day

yes, i noticed that too, no doubt 'pre aged' mugs more expensive than perfect ones!

i'm assuming truffle oil, i suppose they could be storing eggs in a jar with a truffle, but for £5.50 a pop i don't think there's much chance of fresh!

The opening of spuntino was seemingly as eagerly anticipated in the foodie twittersphere as the royal wedding in the daily mail. Having heard a lot about, but not ever having tried, russell norman's burgeoning empire of casual diners (will not use the word eatery/ie) it may seem an oddity to jump right in at the latest rather than work my way through its bretheren, but truth be told, although fashionable, no reservation, small plate/tapas style dining isn't my usual cup of; the most exciting thing i could think of to do on monday night was wash the car, i had a word with myself recharged the oyster card and headed into soho rather than saffron walden. As per usual i had absolutely no idea where it was, I have never gone straight to any destination in soho ever without finding the most circuitious of routes but eventually at an early time more suited to afternoon tea than dinner, i arrived. As you no doubt know by now it's an atmospheric, antique room framed by a large central zinc bar which is, bar another table, it. Menu is the placemat and shows a mix of comfort/american diner-esque inspiration rather than the ventian of its sister restaurants. Seating is a small stool, i must say the double sized 'kissing stool' i was next to looked far more inviting given what my tailor calls, my 'full seat'. The friendly, no-attitude, staff promptly offered tap/still/sparkling and some papkrika flavoured popcorn whilst i worked out what to order, and thank heavens did not try to 'explain our concept'. egg and soldiers was first choice from the snacks, a deepfried crispy spicy breacrumbed egg, still soft with toast, a well executed amusing dish. next ground beef and bone marrow from the 'sliders' menus (no, me neither) was a small puck of most excellent burger and onions with a trickle of cheese, very good. I ordered these with a ‘side’ of egg plant chips and fennel yoghurt which arrived before, no problem though they had , like the egg a great crispy batter and aniseedy taste nicely counterbalanced by the yoghurt. ‘main’ course was the now dish of 2011 truffled egg and toast. A cheesy double toast with a yolk in the hollowed out top piece with truffle oil and fontina cheese. A good dish but honestly not revelatory, maybe I was a bit ‘riched’ out by that point, though as a standalone it would make a hangover breakfast of kings I suspect with a bloody mary. Dessert came in the shape of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, given the soliders and the toast I thought I may have gone for bread overload as I wasn’t sure how this would come but no fear, it was two triangular pieces of nutty parfait with jam in the middle sprinkled with peanuts, a lovely deconstructed marathon bar (or snickers if you’re younger) only complaint it was very fridge cold on arrival but soon warmed up to really shine. Probably the ‘best’ dish. Wine list is modest in choice mainly polpo wines so I took the only beer on offer meantime IPA in dinky half pint mugs, with handles ! Coffee looked to be american diner style drip so I called it a day at that point with a bill of £35.44 incl service, a very pleasant way to spend a quiet Monday, I love the attention to detail in the design and menu is thoughtfully constructed, I’m sure it will be another hit, might even have to try polpo and polpetto now, damn!

maybe a trek and (a bit of a busmans hol!) but good write ups on here for Da Piero in Irby on the Wirral.

next year, next year! not seen germain or annie for ages, when he retired he was planning a book to keep in the pubic eye but looks like retirement suits. can't blame him!

no, it's a perfectly good restaurant, but it 'aint the second coming it has been billed as. i think heston would agree, it's a bistro de luxe turned into a destination restaurant due to its parentage.

Hi Richard, yes, it does seem an odd choice, is she still at the clocktower? the 3 of you together sounds like a good match! or bring back germain from retirement!

perny should have north east sown up surely!

not sure if they do lunch but el gato appears to be the place, the millbank it's neighbour closed, even the might of bapi's evening halves of shandy couldn't save them, or maybe was the cause?

I'm working in London so don't get to go as frequently as i once did, i don't think it has been refurbed, i had a very good 'last' meal there just under a year ago before i started work, was planning to go over xmas but they were closed.

expect a dos hermanos review at some point, after 2 visits to be absolutely sure....

beef that's been sat under a heat lamp by the look of it

the majority of the dinner dish is a swathe of mild horseradish cream with the oysters & marrow sat there. the salad leaves seemed superfluous, rob said that to the waiter and they said historically a salamagundy is a warm salad, hence the leaves. not tried the sportsman's one.

I see jan moir is not caught up in the hype either, more 'interesting than delicious' according to tweet from harden's. that's not a bad summary and also like me, not seeing the point of the salalmagundy either!

it was bound to happen. enjoy your meal!