IanT

An excellent first meal at Kitchen Table last night. Highlights were the chicken skin with rosemary mascarpone and bacon jam, venison with collard greens and wild garlic, and a run of very accomplished fruit desserts highlighting some impressive technique. Service was spot on, atmosphere was great, the room is very attractive in a gleaming chef's toy kind of way. The success of Bubbledogs and the press coverage of the hot dogs and champagne concept has probably led to a lower profile for the Kitchen Table. It's certainly one of the best restaurants to open in London in recent years and, in my view, a step ahead of its near-neighboour and press-darling Dabbous.

Excellent dinner here the Saturday before Christmas. I managed to taste most of the menu and was very impressed. Lots of vibrant flavours happily knocking up against one another. Not hiding the Ottolenghi influences but adding its own individuality and showcasing some top class Irish ingredients (we may not have a cuisine worth speaking of but we can certainly produce the, eh, produce). The highlights for me were the roasted beetroot with pickled red cabbage, hung sour cream and tarragon, and the slow-roasted spiced shoulder of Roscommon lamb, yoghurt soup with sweet potato and spinach. Another mention in The Irish Times this morning getting the nod for "salad of the year". It seems you can win friends with salad. Highly recommended.

Dustbuddy - interesting to see another mentin for Gilles Goujon. Not a place that usually gets much attention on-line but well worth its 3* status and strikes a nice balance between the old and new. My UK only list would be: 1. The Ledbury 2. Nathan Outlaw 3. Hand and Flowers 4. Le Champignon Sauvage 5. Sushi Tetsu 6. Dabbous 7. Castle Terrace 8. Sushi of Shiori 9. Yorke Arms 10. Paul Ainsworth @ No.6

1. Gilles Goujon (Auberge du Vieux Puits) 2. The Ledbury (July meal particularly memorable from 4 visits) 3. Le Chateaubriand 4. Le Cinq 5. Nathan Outlaw 6. Hand and Flowers 7. Le Champignon Sauvage 8. Sushi Tetsu 9. Medlar 10.Dabbous (tempted not to include it but the good dishes were very good) Other favourite meals: Hawksmoor (multiple times), Bandol (Berlin), Sushi of Shiori, Pitt Cue, Roka, Trullo, Zucca, Porcao (Rio), Tayyabs, Moro, Nobu, Paul Ainsworth (though patchy), Gero (Rio). Notable disappointments: Olympe (Rio), Vau (Berlin), The Seafood Restaurant (Padstow), Zuka (Rio). "London 2012 - Year of the Hamburger" Award: Hawksmoor. Ahead of Goodman, Burger & Lobster and honourable mention for Byron which is impressively good for a chain. MeatLiquor gets a "could try harder" for letting quality slip. "London 2012 - Also Year of Ramen" Award: Tonkotsu. Ahead of Shoryu and Bone Daddies.

Anyone been? It got a great review in last week's Irish Times: http://bit.ly/Xa7wJ2 The chef, Richard Gleeson, has a great CV for this kind of thing - Ottolenghi and Petersham Nurseries. I've booked in for a trip to Dublin later this month, will report back.

Very surprised on the basis of a meal there last summer, I thought it was overrated at 2*. At the time I said: "Not all that original (I had seen many of the ideas/techniques before), a few good courses but generally gimmicky, I disliked the room and service (sommelier apart) wasn't good (partly due to the awkward room)."

That's not quite right Gary. The criteria for a 1* restaurant is "Very Good Cooking in its Category" but the "in its Category" qualifier is dropped from the 2* and 3* criteria ("Excellent cooking, worth a detour" and "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" respectively). My understanding has always been that 1* hopefuls are judged against other establishments of their category (whether that is pub, dim sum or posh French) but that the 2* and 3* categories are judged against some objective level of quality regardless of category. This limits the ability of pubs to climb beyond 1*. Hand and Flowers does seem a bit of an anomaly on that rationale (much and all as I liked it, The Sportsman would seem more deserving) but no more egregious than lots of other anomalies we could point to (the UK&I 3* list is in particulalry dire need of pruning - Ducasse/Ramsay/Waterside Inn...)

Superb dinner at The Ledbury on Monday night, maybe the best we've had in c.20 visits since it opened. I've been saying it's the best restaurant in London since 2007 and, at this stage, I don't think there's another restauarant in the city that even enters the conversation. I didn't take notes but our menu included: Squid crackers with turbot roe and apple, foie gras with gingerbread Heirloom tomoato salad with dried oilves and goats cheese caneloni A sensational salad of white peach, almonds and shaved foie gras Lobster with Elderflower Quail with apricots Pigeon with cherries, beetroot and foie gras Short rib of beef with English wasabi Cheese Pre-dessert Wild strawberries with ewes milk cured and herbs Vanilla tart with blackcurrants Mango and vanilla mille feuille with kaffir lime ice cream A long menu without a misstep. Both the quality of the ingredients (particulalry the tomatoes, the lobster and the pigeon) and the precision of the cooking (the lobster, the pigeon, the short rib, every piece of protein to be honest) really stood out. And they've absolutely nailed the mille feuille.

Sushi Tetsu opened on Monday night in the very tiny premises formerly occupied by Passage Cafe on Jerusalem Passage in Clerkenwell (next door to the Dove Belgian bar). It's owned and run by Toru Takahashi and his wife. Toru was sushi chef at Nobu for five years before leaving to open his own place. I don't want to burden them with massively inflated expectations, but this was the closest thing to the Yasuda experience I've found in London. Toru served up piece after piece of top class sushi whilst keeping up a patter on Belgian beer, bossa nova (Astrud v. Bebel Gilberto), blues (Does Johnny Winter hate Japanese people? Why Bobby Bland isn't really blues) and the relative merits/demerits of various sushi restaurants in London and further afield (in fact he namechecked Yasuda as an influence). It's a more classical sushi bar than Sushi of Shiori (which I also very much like). No hot food, no miso. Just sashimi, nigiri and maki. It's a true sushi omakase experience, one piece of nigiri at a time, the meal developing its own flow, its own momentum. It is quite traditional, occasional use is made of a blowtorch but not to the extent it is used at Yashin. The torch giving an effect not unlike the grill used by Masa in Tokyo. In the end, of course, this is London. Billingsgate is not Tsukiji. The fish is not quite at the level of Yasuda or Kuruma (who can import directly from Tokyo) not to mention the Tokyo heavyweights. But it's very, very good and it's prepared with immense skill and passion. This was a hugely encouraging first meal (all the better for it being 400 yards from my front door). I suspect the London sushi scene has a new contender.

This is rather the problem with internet forums and blogs - regularly eating out does not establish "dining credentials" sufficient to pass declarative judgments on restaurants at this level. This is not a food specific issue, no doubt the same thing manifests itself on boards debating wine, classical music, art etc. Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion (opinions are like...) and its fun to discuss and debate them. Indeed, that's what internet forums are for. My issue is with posters of (with respect) relatively little knowledge holding themselves out as experts and offering definitive views slating something they barely understand. Even more so when there's something such as a perceived slight, a preference for a style of food/ingredient or some other prejudice influencing the view. I suspect the "dining credentials" comment was aimed at me so, just to clarify, I've eaten at the 4 UK 3* restaurants, 11 of the 2* restaurants and approx. 40 of the 1* restaurants. Perhaps more importantly at this level, I've also eaten at most of the best 3* restaurants across Europe and indeed many other 3* restaurants around the world. I'm still far from an expert and would never hold myself out as one.

We were there again in April, it's a consistently cracking restaurant, solid 2* level and one of the top five places to eat in the country.

Trangallan I've been meaning to post somewhere about this restaurant for months. Top class, modern Spanish food that seems to have flown under the critics' radar (perhaps becuase its in not-so-fashionable Newington Green?) Our first visit in January came a week after a meal at Pizarro (which we really like) and, hands down, the meal at Trangallan was better. Some whimsical dishes ("Tortilla 2012", the latest in a an annual series of the chef's interpretations of tortilla) but what really stood out was the top-class fish dishes particulalry the most perfectly cooked hake. Cracking sherry list and very friendly service. This goes beyond being a neighbourhood gem and could be the best Spanish restaurant in London... Yipin China The chef from Golden Day has moved to set up his own Hunanese/Sichuan joint in Islington. We were alerted to it by Jay Rayner's review in the Observer a couple of months ago and visited last night for a pre-cinema dinner. We had man & wife offal, crispy pigs intestine, fish poached in chilli oil and Chairman Mao's pork. Far too much food but everything was top class, just as good as Bar Shu where we usually get our Sichuan fix. Highly recommended.

We're planning to visit Le Chateaubriand (with Le Daupin as a fall-back if the line is too long) this Saturday night. Any recommendations for places to have a few ncie cocktails nearby beforehand? Cheers, Ian

I am stunned at the extent to which he has "paid homage" to Noma. So many elements - the tables and chairs, the bread in the hop sack, the presentaiton of the tuilles, the herring mayonnaisse... But the tartare with sorrell and juniper really takes the Danish butter cookie.

I'm a fan. The robata dishes are pretty much all excellent. Most of the best dishes are off the robata grill - the lamb chops, aubergine, chicken wings, sea bream, duck, quail are all outstanding. Also the king crab hot pot (to share). Its not a place to go and eat sushi though. If you are keen to try some really good sushi then I'd suggest Sushi of Shiori (similar level to Umu though a lot less expensive).