battleofthebulge

Food Snob, I like to read your comments/reviews, however couldn't you post them on the site rather than simply putting in a link. ← I completely agree. The point of posting on egullet is to put your review in the thread. Otherwise it just looks like a traffic driving exercise for the blog. I was going to post a bit of a rant a couple of months back when all the review posts just seemed to be food bloggers linking to their sites, but couldn't be bothered. Seems to have died down a bit now the blaggers have discovered egulleters aren't that bothered about anyone else Sarah

What did the hairy troll taste like? Sarah

Wonderful, thank you! Though I can't ever remember any champagne being left over by the time we get to cheese. In the unlikely event of a guest leaving it, my husband will hoover it up. Sarah

hmmm .. some friends of ours are coming round in a few week's time with a couple of different vintages of the Leeuwin Estate Art Series. Should I serve it with the cheese course rather than the roast chicken? Sarah

Lunch on Friday. Firstly, if the taxi drops you off at a big building with no.85 on the wall, which is the address on the website, that's the office block next door. The entrance to the restaurant is tucked away on the east side of the building. So, you enter up some steps and are greeted by the first set of, well, greeters. Then the people behind the bar say hello. Then you say hello and your name to the two greeters at the restaurant entrance. Then you say hello to the 2 or 3 waiters you see on your way to the table. Was quite exhausted by all the hello-ing before even sitting down. The room reminded my companion (E.) of an Intercontinental hotel breakfast room. The carpet is ghastly and the Lutyen-esque details look a bit stuck on (though probably cost a fortune). But the open sea food bar is very appealing. The staff are lovely, especially the sommelier who admitted he has been trying hard to sell the £315 Batard-Montrachet, but times are tough. I had the lobster mousse to start, which I thought was a bit bland. The texture was rather gloopy and it didn't taste very much of lobster. E had the foie gras and toast, which I think was good but it got demolished too quickly for me to ask about. We then has the same mains as Gary - I had the delicious suckling pig which came with the best apple sauce EVER, and E had the veal cordon bleu, for old times' sake. He agreed that it was excellent and cheesy. Dessert: the tarte fine was more of the same delicious apples on a crispy base, with a caramel icecream which was slightly disappointing. Not quite caramel-y enough. E had a very pretty grown-ups version of jelly and icecream with blackcurrent jelly, poached currents and madeleines. Three courses each, a bottle of Piedmontese white, two glasses of Pol Roger, two espressos and petit fours came to £183. Not bad at all. But I think I shall continue to mine the toptable offers for the summer. Even Corrigans are now offering 50% off the food bill .... Sarah edited for spelling

On the site of the Med Kitchen on Kensington Church Street, a block south of Kensington Place, Kensington Wine Rooms is now another excuse to drink too much wine and then roll gently home downhill. It's a series of Enomatic machines with a wine bar and small restaurant attached. 40 wines by the 125ml or 175ml glass, plus a very extensive wine list which I'm afraid I didn't look at in detail, as we were busy planning how many of the glasses we could get through between us with dinner. The food is not terribly exciting, but then that's not the point of the place. It is very good value. I had a zippy gazpacho with good olive oil, with a Costieres de Nimes rose which just about stood up to the spice. Steve had tuna carpaccio and mango puree with the suggested match of a Marlborough Sauvignon. The wine wasn't an exemplar of the form but did well to cut through the oiliness of the tuna and the sweet mango. Mains were tempura of cod (excellent light tempura, perhaps not quite golden enough) with chips and mushy peas, and a reasonable duck confit with lentil salad and green beans. To match the cod Steve first chose the entry level SA Chenin, which was nothing special, so then swapped to the white Burgundy which was excellent - nicely balanced, not too oaky and relatively cheap at £5 for 125ml. I had the 2004 Brunello by Argiano. Not a bargain at £14.75 for a 175ml glass but a relatively cheap way to drink this great vintage which is already very approachable. I think this may be the first time my main has cost less than the accompanying glass of wine. None of the desserts appealed - chocolate mousse with black pepper ice cream? No thanks. So instead we had a couple more small glasses of red. The Nine Popes shiraz (Charles Melton) was pretty good, but the Ata Rangi Pinot Noir was superb. Staff were smiley, and topped up the tap water regularly with a fresh carafe. So, 34 quid on some good food and £60 on wine which ranged from acceptable to really really nice. From their facebook page looks like they are constantly changing the wines in the enomatic, so looks like we'll have to go regularly to see what's on. Annoyingly their website - http://www.greatwinesbytheglass.com/ - is just a holding page with no wine list. Sarah

Is this the meal you have before going on for dinner? ← Well spotted. Meant pre-theatre. Their early evening menu is v. cheap, so am hoping it's not just borscht followed by dumplings. I'm not a fan of beetroot. Sarah

Gosh. A review of Nutters by Harters. Perhaps you should also have invited Blowers and Aggers? Explanation here for our foreign readers: Oxford-er Sarah

And I've booked for lunch next Friday. However as I'm also booked for pre-dinner at Baltic that evening I may not be able to work my way through much of the menu. At least, not without falling asleep in 'The Cherry Orchard' (which has been known before). Thinks - we need an 'I've eaten far too much and am feeling fat' emoticon. Sarah

Quick google shows that she's written a range of articles for the Ind since 2008, mostly on food, London and swine flu. At some stage she was also Features Editor for Easy Living Magazine. She may also be the same Lisa Markwell (if writing under her maiden name) as graduated in 1983 from Reading High school. Sarah

No. I agree with most of this. I prefer to be comfortable when I eat. I prefer not to feel like I'm eating in a post-Soviet hospital, with staff to match. For some reason I usually feel like I'm being watched, and if I don't make suitably pretentious conversation, will be judged accordingly. I don't think this is Fergus' fault, I think it's perhaps the fault of his customers. The bone marrow is wonderful, really really wonderful, I just wish I could eat it in less sterile surroundings. Sarah

Talking today to someone at work whose friend manages a well known and expensive London restaurant with a view. Said friend reckons that the up-tick in the minimum wage due in October also comes with extra rules which will no longer allow restaurateurs to top up their staff wages (actual wage well below the minimum hourly rate) with the monies received from the service charge. This will mean that the service charge will be reduced to around 7% but food prices will go up by at least 10%. Friend of friend also claims that there are quite a few restaurants in London who don't pay their FOH staff anything at all apart from the tips. This raises any number of questions in my mind. For a start, I can't find anything on the directgov pages which mention the change in rules for tips. And I certanly can't see any restaurant reducing the service charge. And are there serious restaurants in London who are currently getting away with paying wait staff no guaranteed salary? What have you lot heard, if anything? Sarah

Re: tea. The Wolseley is very grand but I don't think it represents a true afternoon tea experience Some other ideas: The Goring, which has got a very nice lounge, a terrace that looks over the small but lovely garden, and veranda which is a covered but outdoor space. It's the only family-run 5 star hotel in London, and you might even bump into a Royal or 2. For a more "grand" atmosphere, Brown's is very nice. It is sophisticated, airy, nice piano, and a good selection of tea and pastries. It might be pretty busy over the weekend though. Sarah

Great pics of the room. How much was the bill? (us mere mortals need to know these things) Sarah

The food at the Blueprint Cafe (above the Design Museum at the end of Butlers Wharf) is always interesting and sometimes outstanding - sorry can't be more specfiic about when it's likely to be great. Depends on the menu. The views however are always wonderful, especially if you get a table in the far corner of the room nearest Tower Bridge. Sarah

Have been twice now. Apologies for not posting before. First time end of November, two people. Second time on Thursday, three people. All of them called Steve apart from me. Starters: I recommend the linguini with bone marrow, if you're hungry, and the fried oysters with chorizo if you're not. Mains: The grouse pie with foie gras was amazing - alas it's no longer on the menu and the venison in pastry on Thursday was "very nice but not in the same league" according to Steve1. The lamb kebab sounds rather strange on the menu but comes on a huuuge platter with two sauces and is a great deal of excellent lamb ("the best lamb I've ever had in a restaurant" - Steve2) with a rather pungent kidney. The spinach is great - cooked to just the right point, full of flavour and garnished with pine nuts and sultanas. Delicious AND good for you. The wine list is divided into useful sections depending on style, and not arranged in ascending order of price, so look carefully at the whole list to find the bargains. I recommend the '98 Cahors, a snip at £45 and they decant it for you. Which is nice. On our first visit we had no room for dessert so had coffee and a glass of dessert wine, with which they brought petit fours on a cute silver plate. Second time we all had coffee or tea but no petit fours presented this time, even though we'd spent more. Oh well. Bill for 2 in November for champagne, the Cahors, 2 courses including the grouse, 1 coffee and 1 dessert wine was £155, which we considered to be very good value indeed for the quality of food. Thursday's bill for a similar amount of food for 3, but with an extra bottle of red was £243 which somehow felt slightly less wonderful. Probably because of the lack of petit fours Service is charming, but I am unnerved by the fact that the black wait staff wear white jackets, and the white wait staff wear black suits. Seemed a bit .. 1950s cruise liner? However this is still a great experience and I know we'll be back for the spring menu. Sarah edited for clarity

If you're doing the whole of the C2C in just 12 days, you won't have any time for foodie detours. Quite a few of your stages will be 20 miles or more, and the path isn't waymarked. Even with maps and a GPS be prepared for some wrong turnings and potentially very long days. We did the middle section of the Pennine Way (74 miles in 4.5 days) in September, and I recommend Keld Lodge, in Keld, obviously, where the PW meets the C2C. Very good food, genial hosts and a very large drying room. We also started off with the aim of doing 15-16 mile days, but found 12 was more than enough, as those 74 miles included 24,000 feet of ascent and many many miles of squidgy bog with no proper path. In Richmond, try the Frenchgate. I haven't been but have heard good things. Here's hoping it doesn't rain! Sarah

Hello, You're probably better off posting this in the European / France / Dining section. Depending where you're staying, I really like Le Dome du Marais. Fixed lunch menu is about 35 euros, it's a beautiful old building with a romantic glass dome and the staff are wonderful and don't care if you don't speak French. http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/g...d=41102&id=5829 Sarah

Not a terribly good basis ← If it makes you feel better, I also checked out Dos Hermanos, who also gave a very positive review. Sarah

Yes see my thread from a while ago here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...8382&hl=bethnal Sarah

Oh no. Just as they were getting busy. And they'll miss the Christmas trade. Thanks for letting us know. Sarah

As some of you may know, in early August Bacchus became Bacchus Pub and Kitchen, still under Nuno's ownership but with chef Richard Tewnion turning out good value, high end pub food. We had a great meal there in August, with perfect potted shrimps and unctuous mushrooms with deep fried polenta. However we were one of just two tables eating there, and Richard admitted business was very slow as the denizens of Hoxton are not prepared to pay £16 for a steak, no matter how chunky and hand cut the accompanying chips may be. So, as yesterday we had to meet a friend who (for reasons best known to himself) lives in Stoke Newington, we suggested meeting up at BP&K. How disappointed we were, on arrival, to see the kitchen dark and a new face behind the bar. Nuno and Philip have sold on to some new people, who thus far have stocked the wine fridge with just one white, one rose and one sparkling, all at West End prices. It's still called Bacchus, for the time being, and the new bloke said they were trying to find a chef to do similar things as Richard, at the same price points. I said I thought this probably wouldn't work. So, a warning to any chef looking for a gastropub stint in London. Don't go to Bacchus, even if they offer you the flat above the pub. And if anyone knows the whereabouts of Richard T, please let me know as I think he has a knack of turning out simple but deeply pleasing dishes and I'd like to eat his potted shrimp again. Sarah

Hurrah! Have booked already for an up-coming Saturday, on the strength of Jan Moir's review here.

Wow that sounds PERFECT for a quick snack after I've waved him off on Sunday morning! Have been digging around on chowhound (I know, I know) - does anyone have an opinion on Loup, Wolvenstraat? Menu looks good. Sarah

Hello all. We will be in Amsterdam weekend after next, 18th - 20th, so my crazy husband can run the Marathon. We're staying somewhere nondescript out by the Olympic Stadium, and for Saturday dinner will probably go to the 4 Stagioni nearby so he can load up on carbs. My problem is Sunday dinner. All the recommended modern Dutch places close (sensibly) on Sunday and the only places which seem to be open are tourist-y. I can't find anywhere that an e-gulletter would rate and which is also prepared to open its kitchens on a Sunday evening. Any suggestions? Failing that, anywhere less high end but reliable we can relax in on Sunday, and then go for an interesting lunch on Monday? Again, seems like lunch isn't something Amsterdam chefs do very much of and certainly not on Mondays. Heeeelp! I don't want to end up munching scalding bitter ballen in a grungy bar like we did last time we were in town and our plane arrived late. Sarah