Andy Fenn

How many pence per click do you get for that link Matt?

Just picking up on this thread, I'll be in Yarmouth on Saturday night. Any tips? A good fish restaurant with atmosphere would be perfect, but open to all suggestions.

I really rate Locatelli. It's a very relaxing place - last time I went on a Sunday and grabbed one of the Sunday Times from the bar and lazed the afternoon away. The pasta is the highlight, in my opinion. That makes it a much cheaper option anyway - pasta is around £12 and mains are near the £30 mark. Excellent ice cream too. Very tough reservation for dinner - stick to lunch. Theo Randall was very disappointing to me. £30 veal chop left me underwhelmed. And the room is massive and rarely full. I have never been, but I am surprised nobody has mentioned Assaggi. From what I hear, it is traditional, old school and excellent. I believe it still has a michelin star too.

I stayed there at the end of June had two dinners, which were superb. I'll try to write it up fully. But staying there... wow. It's a magical magical place. We had a room right at the front, it felt like we were the only people there, with a view that stretched for miles.

You should have asked - they would have subbed it in for you. Sounds like a good meal though.

Thanks very much for the tips Augustine. Looking forward to it. I like the idea of a MASSIVE room too.

So I've booked Cambelong for the Saturday night. Does anyone have any experience of the restaurant? Augustine, do you have any further info on your meal? Thanks for the recommendation.

the Ledbury is one of the few michelin starred places open on a Sunday. I'm a big fan.

Wow, that looks insane. Thanks Matt.

Right, le vieux pont is fully booked the saturday night... So I will have to plump for Cambelong. Which looks great, by the way.

Thanks again Tupac. That echoes our meal there a year and a half ago. Some sublime stuff, and then some really poor stuff. I can't imagine how he could taste some of the things and send them out of the kitchen. Cool that you saw him. He's quite Gandalf-esque. I reckon he cooks with a wizard's staff.

Thanks for the report Tupac. I'll have to hit this place some time. Seems like you could share a main course and eat very cheaply indeed. Do you think ajnet has eaten himself? I look forward to your other reports. I have just wolfed two Krispy Kremes brought into the office for a colleague's birthday. I already feel dirty, but reading these reports just rubs salt into the wounds.

That looks absolutely delightful. Thanks for the tip. I'll try them tomorrow.

Hello all. I'm taking my girlfriend to Bras for two nights, Thurs/Fri 26th/27th June. Flying to Rodez. She has no idea, so I hope she doesn't take a sudden interest in eGullet. Question is, do I fly back Saturday, or do I drive somewhere else Saturday, stay an extra night and come back Sunday night? If the latter, where do I go? Any suggestions open. I really don't know the area at all, and what we should do for that extra day. Although it doesn't have to be food related, I suppose we could do the drive to Troisgros on Saturday (I did the reverse last year and it's a great drive)... but that might be crazy talk. Help!

"Generous" is one way of looking at it, and a big pile of morels it was. But... it was 120E for the dish. Ouch. And I have to say, I wasn't blown away. The sea bass with caviar sauce (pictured upthread) was the best dish of the meal for me.

Oops, we were there Saturday 10 May, not 10 April. My bad. That table by the toilets was absolutely extraordinary. We saw food and a cheese trolley heading round the side, thinking that's where the famed "third room" was, only to find that poor soul wedged in against the far door.

Wow. Nice trip. Very nice trip. You were at l'Ambroisie the same day as Ian T and me. Were you there for lunch? You weren't the lass shoved out to the table next to the toilet were you? You might remember Ian T as the bald noisy eater with crumbs all over his table? Crumbs which he later scraped up with Helene's business card. Bastard.

London is not quite so limiting, but some only open Mon-Fri (Gordon Ramsay, Tom Aikens) and a whole load open Mon-Fri and Saturday dinner only. So it's impossible to take advantage of well priced lunch menus. I can understand why they do it - mid-week lunchers are likely to be business and therefore spend higher on wine - but I do think it's a shame.

The portion sizes were perfect. I don't think I would have wanted a whole lobster, or a whole sweetbread. But as I said, I reckon the vegetables dish was a full portion. The tasting menu was 360E, and we had more food and more choice for around 300E each for food by doing half portions. And knock off the abalone (90E) and it's around 250E for food. Which is a big difference in price.

I disgree Matt. The notion that someone who doesn't eat out much wouldn't tell the difference between a £50 meal and the Fat Duck sounds incredible to me. The difference is chasmic. My first such experience was at le Manoir when I was 16. It was a world apart from anything I had ever tasted. And I don't think I would be disappointed by that same meal now or enjoy it any less. I do agree however that greater experience at different levels, different types of cuisine, and different countries can only heighten your appreciation (like anything)but not necessarily your enjoyment. By way of example, I went to Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road a couple of years back. I had had two stunning meals there 4 years previously and was very excited about returning. I was very disappointed. In those 4 years, I had eaten at a lot more 3 star restaurants, and wondered whether my disappointment was due to greater experience. But my 3 fellow diners felt the same way, and they had a range of experiences from no michelin restaurants to stars a plenty. If you're having your first time at a super expensive restaurant, it's more important to read recent trusted reviews (michelin are often behind the times - the Waterside Inn is an example in my opinion) and choose a place that correlates with your own personal tastes ie perhaps the Fat Duck wouldn't be for everyone. To answer the original post, my most expensive food bill was at l'Arpege in Paris three weeks ago. It ended up at about 300E for the food... With the current exchange rate, that was super violation. BUT, it was possibly the best meal of my life.

I'm 24, 6 foot 3 and have a decent appetite... Ian's older, shorter and uglier, but otherwise not much different. BUT remember that this wasn't the tasting menu. We chose the courses we really wanted and split them in two. You could have half portions of the consomme, the vegetable dish, the lobster and the comte and have an absolutely incredible meal. Plus, I reckon they served us full portions of the vegetable dish and were generous with others, and we were comped the pigeon.

And I had such an embarrassing moment at RHR a couple of years ago. I booked a table for 4 - all lads. I arrived about ten minutes late for the table. The other three had already been given menus without prices, and I wasn't given one. Mine presumably would have included the prices. The whole table went for the tasting menu. The tasting menu allowed a choice between a first dessert or cheese. Two of us went for the cheese, and we only realised there was a supplement on the cheese when the bill arrived. After a little bit of a fight (I was rather rhetorically asked why I didn't also plead surprise or ignorance at the cost of the actual menu - £95) they reluctantly removed the supplements from the bill. Ridiculous.

Thanks for the comments guys. It was an enjoyable report to write. I forgot to post the tab - 420E each, of which around 300E was food. The wines we dranks were as follows: Billecart Salmon NV champagne (I think - Ian?)(this wasn't included in the 80E of matching wines!) Riesling, l'Agape, Rosacker Grand Cru 2005 Chateau Yvonne Samur Blanc 2004 Condrieu, "resurgence" 2006, domaine de Pierre Blanche Corps et ame de Ch Gasqui 2003, cuvee Eric Verdier Vin Jaune, Chateau Chalon 1988 I don't have the two dessert wines - sorry... I thought the wines were extremely well matched. The condrieu expecially was superb with the lobster, and then took on a completely different character with the sweetbread, before moving on to red. I think Kinch did us proud. Can't wait to hit that garden.

I'll dig out the list of wines at home. I'm not sure our experience would have been that different from other diners. We were very well treated, but I can't imagine those same staff being surly with other diners. And the food would have been the same. We just got lucky with an extra course and some extra desserts. In fact, perhaps it was the wine service that was the biggest bonus - going off the list would have been frighteningly expensive. As for the portions, it wasn't a whole lot different from your ordinary 7 course tasting menu with 3 starters, fish, meat, cheese, dessert. All the courses we had were half portions, so it roughly translated to a normal tasting menu. (the desserts were half portions too). We just had 4 starters. Having said that, I was bursting at the seams at the end of the sweetbread. But it's so funny what a walk can do for you, and a change in the type of food you're eating. So once we were on to the cheese, it felt like there was room. Same for the desserts. Bizarre.

All the dishes we had were half portions from the carte. There were one or two dishes particular to the tasting menu (T-bone of lamb I think) but most were from the carte anyway. Whether you can order half portions when you're on your own? Don't know. I'm sure for the starters you can. Might be tough with the lobster and sweetbread though. Yeah I had the egg. I have had it at Manresa before, and preferred that version. The Arpege egg on the night was a little too sweet for my taste, and the egg yolk could have done with a touch more cooking, so it was more like a custard than a thin liquid. Still a great dish though. I'll get round to l'Ambroisie at some stage. Think Ian might have to take responsibility for that though.