Emma M

Wasn't that called 'the small and beautiful cookbook' ? or similar? It's a damn hard book to find nowadays and AWT hates people referring to him ever having written it.

There's a lot of info on it in this.

There's a Bloomburg Street and a Bloomberg Street in Westminster, but I have never actually heard of South Bloomburg. New to me.

Where's that, then? It ain't here!

Yikes! Belfast's Malmaison? Shoddy service, condescending and patronising staff and pretty awful food.

Try here. My hubby takes anyone who's visiting us there as he says the Guinness AND the stew's mighty fine. A guy was killed right outside their front door last week, but I wouldn't let it bother you, as they caught him.

When those who should know better on eGullet decide to create a whole thread dedicated to its potential demise? Good God, get out more.

Jury's in Ireland is a hellish hotel chain. Not quite sure where Edinborough[sic] is, but if it's Scotland's capital you're referring to (and if they have a Jury's there) it'll undoubtedly be just as bad.

I had high hopes for Molly's Yard in Belfast, as it's run by Barry Smith and his wife (Ex Oriel in Gilford) but after three visits in as many weeks, I won't be returning as it was far from what we were all expecting after some lovely food in the past at Oriel. Pretty terrible stuff.

Very good and very true! David and I ate there just before Xmas last year and it was a truly memorable meal. No recollection of details, other than excellent food and service. Shame about it closing.

If you can, as to see the kitchens. They're state of the art and no expense has been spared.

Oh, don't be silly Olive oil works for us and hasn't gone 'rancid' as you claim after some 5 years of using it on a chopping board.

My hubby just uses olive oil when he oils up his wooden boards. Oil's oil, at the end of the day!

And you'd need to put one of the aforementioned guns to my head to get me to even consider going to Nottingham.

That too, but it's the way the guide is put together, the contributors and the underhand way the entries are decided upon. It's not how good, but how much you wish to contribute to your inclusion that makes a mockery of it and why it's far from classed as a credible guide in Ireland by its peers.

Metro, perchance?

Surely the newspaper critics are solely out to flex their journalistic muscles and the content's irrelevant, as long as newspapers are sold. Without a readership, they aint got jobs.

How very English.

If dinning in is the new dinning out, is dinning the new dining?

Some of us work for a living and don't have the time?

We're staying in! Who in their right minds goes out on Valentines' night and pays over the odds and through the nose for a product that was at least 50% cheaper the night before? Madness, I tell ye, pure madness.

Not being in London as often as I used to be, my last few visits have included the following for a 'nibble in the afternoon' Tea and cakes (and a selction of pretentious people to watch) Dress up and bring wealthy elderly relatives

Congrats on the award. I was just sitting in the dentist's waiting room yesterday reading all about you. Well done! Emma

As Oriel's still for sale, and it's advertised as 'due to relocation of vendor' I'm presuming that this Molly's Yard place is all that he'll be involved in? Is he aiming at regaining his Michelin star from Gilford?

And I don't blame them for staying away! They'll undoubtedly learn more away from home than they'll learn here. And they'll earn a heap more cash doing so. As for Barry, has Oriel now closed as it was on the market? Where exactly is Molly's Yard?