edmundcarver

All these suggestions are great - I will be getting stuck into some American wine at these restaurants over the next few weeks. Henry's End in particular looks to be exactly the type of place/winelist I had in mind. Thanks!

Sorry New York

Ok - bear with me on this, this is quite demanding: I have recently moved here from London, and I am trying to find a decent, modestly priced restaurant with a wine list that features a really good range of U.S produced wines. I am thinking of a neighborhood type place, not too fancy but somewhere that has put some thought into their wine list. I have been here a few months now and I am surprised that many restaurant wine lists have a great selection of wines from all over Europe but the section dealing with U.S wines is often subordinate to this, in terms of quantity of wines and variety of different regions / grapes. There are so many fantastic U.S wines, and the selection available to us in the U.K is generally limited, so it is my aim drink U.S as much as possible. I am living in the downtown area but would love to hear any suggestions wherever they are. Thanks!

Hi I have just got back from a month in Argentina, the cuisine across the entire country is fantastic, and there are lots of seriously good restaurants but one particular place I feel compelled to recommend was La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar in San Telmo Buenos Aires. The tasting menu of 11 courses has touches of molecular gastronomy (liquid nitrogen, sous vide etc), but is essentially just really good ingredients inventively cooked, often with an Argentinean theme. A particular highlight was an egg yolk in filo pastry with truffle shavings.

The Perseverence on Lambs Conduit Street, has a pretty good menu and solid pubby feel, twenty minutes (ish) walk from Covent Garden.

I had a similar experience (food looked good but was bland) at the Savoy Grill on friday evening, unfortunately for us the service was very average aswell. Myself and the missus had the tasting menu the only highlight was a dish of calves sweetbreads, everything else seemed a bit below par and certainly not as good as it had been on previous visits. Maybe it is the time of year: grey skies, grey London, grey food.

These guys are reallly good, haven't stayed at the ones in Paris but the London ones are excellent: http://www.citadines.com/ukindex0.htm

Mince pies, Christams pudding and Christmas cake all seem to be variations on the same bitter, dark, gluey theme. I guess when you eat them they serve as a memory trigger for happy holidays past though which may explain why some people like them, but I personallly can't see the attraction. Mulled wine on the otherhand, now that is something to look forward to.

In the U.K Starbucks do a gingerbread latte which is very tasty. Mince pies which are also very popular in the festive season are a crime against the tastebuds.

I liked the quote "house of misery by the sea", it is a bit of a shame because there are very few restaurants with much of a reputation anywhere in that part of the country and I was under the belief that this one was pretty decent.

Burn marks on the chickens hocks from the ammonia in their excrement this is caused by them growing big so quickly that their little stumpy legs cant support their weight so they just sit down on the floor and slowly fester.

I watched this documentary, I do remember seeing a similar program some time ago (possibly Panorama). I have friends and family who are invovled in agriculture and I think that perhaps the program did not reflect the attitude of farmers in general. Admittedley within agriculture the poultry side of things does have a worse reputation than livestock, possibly due to the numbers of animals invovled and their size. but all the farmers I know do care a great deal about the welfare of their animals. Ulitimately people want cheap convienient food and the supermarkets (and therfore farmers) will continue to provide it while that demand is there. Possibly this attitude is slowly changing for example M+S only use free range eggs in all their products, but when you see see which supermarkets are enjoying the most growth and profits ( ie Tesocs & ASDA) it is obvious that the 'pile em high sell em cheap' philosophy is still king. There is a second installment of the program this week which I imagine will be equally grim.

I would agree with Winot that Smiths of Smithfield is pretty good, it is always quite lively Thurs - Sat. I would avoid Levant though, I ate there 2 months ago in the evening and it was looking very dated and the staff were thoroughly miserable. If you could make it, the River Cafe in Hammersmith is a fab venue for lunch and will be especially nice while the weather is good.