RDB

First Red Chilli, talk of Croma and now Sams Chop House. I think there must be a game of restaurant themed poker between Bapi and Gary versus Bertie and Thom. It seems the White Rose county is winning hands down, come on Thom and Bertie 'see their' Anthonys and raise them a Stock, Market Restaurant and Yang Sing

…………gosh seems like the River Café has been visited by a fair few egulleters over the past week…….. I must admit I always find Mathew G’s reviews and recommendation pretty spot on, and my visit to the River Café on Saturday further reinforces this. What a wonderful restaurant. The location is just bizarre, not somewhere you would stumble upon or just happen to be passing. Nonetheless it was absolutely filled to the rafters when we arrived, a sure sign of its popularity. The buzz and atmosphere from the moment we walked in until we left was so vibrant. I have never been in a restaurant with such a good feel about it. It was strange because it seemed to move at such a fast pace, with waiters gliding between tight spaces, but at the same time felt so relaxed and warm. Unfortunately it was raining as I imagine sitting outside would be equally as good. We sat at a table close to the pass, with a good view of what was going on. Bread was fantastic, soft white with a crunchy crust, served with some uber peppery olive oil, Tuscan I presume? For anti pasti I had ‘Salumi Misto’, which consisted of Bresaola della Val Malenco, Finocchiona, coppa di parma & speck div al d’aosta. Some of the best salumi I have ever had, the Finocchiona was just a melt in the mouth fennel delight. This came with a delightful marinated whole artichoke. My Father who was still on a high from visiting his old house in Ladbroke Grove 40 years on, chose a fantastic dish, Maiale Tonnato. Not sure of it’s origins but it was a beautiful dish of thinly sliced loin of roast pork with tuna mayonnaise, capers, anchovies, erbette & lemon. What he let me try was excellent, never thought tuna mayo and pork could taste so well together. He loved it and stated he never used to get food like this in The Elgin or Kensington Park . We skipped Primi and went straight to Secondi. I had seared calf’s liver with sage & prosciutto, baked borlotti di lamon, River Café spring leaves and mustard dressing. This is a dish I cook a great deal myself, albeit in varying formats, however I have to bow down to the superiority of this dish. Astounding cooking, my Father aptly described the liver like ‘eating silk’, he knows his food!! The beans were delicious and the leaves extremely fresh and well dressed. One of those dishes that you never wanted to end. The old man had chargrilled, marinated butterflied leg of new season Yorkshire spring lamb, with salsa Verde, roast date tomatoes and Castelluccio with herbs. Taste wise this dish was fantastic really full on flavours that made you glad to be alive, however the lamb was as tough as some of punters we seen in some of the aforementioned Ladbroke pubs. My Father only brought this to my attention half way through his meal; I brought it to the waiter’s attention right then. He explained it maybe because the lamb is so young that it may not have been at the right stage for cooking and hence its ‘sinewy texture’. I am not sure if this is the case, but he dealt with the complaint fantastically and said he would take it of the bill. I had to prompt my Father though that it may not be proper etiquette to then continue to finish of the remaining lamb on his plate. Next a lovely cheese selection with special mention to a very soft and creamy ‘Robiola delle Langhe’ My Father who is a diabetic decided to have the ‘Stracciatella Ice cream’ thus was the quality of the food he decided to risk the prospect of a diabetic coma or death, the things people do for ice-cream. This was a fine example of excellent ingredients making an excellent dish. Simply a scoop of fresh light ice-cream, spiked with shards of delicious dark chocolate, just superb. I wish I would have asked what chocolate they used. Thankfully the old man survived but even he said after eating that he would have died a happy man, The service in my opinion was faultless, we were treated extremely well, and in fact had a lot of fun with the delightful waitresses. Again special mention to the manager who dealt with the lamb scenario, a perfect way to deal with a complaint. I also noticed during service a table full of staff having a meal together, I thought that was a very inclusive thing to do. So all in all one of the best eating experiences I have had this year, thank you for the recommendation Mathew and my Father says thank you too.

Is old BS seeing the whole thing as pretentious nonsense, and allluding to the Nashian poetic adage ' Here's a good rule of thumb. Too clever is dumb'???? Maybe Heston should take some solace that he liked his lamb chops, bread and butter and coffee

From what Corrina says above about them being 'in every sense of the word canapes', I would say Thorntons comments are spot on. L'atelier is small tasting dishes, not canapes, so will be more than one bite, albeit not always 'two'. I also think the urchin dish is the one that comes with carpaccio of scallop and avruga eggs, which is more than a bite?. Maybe KT has a dry sense of humour.

I have often wondered if chefs have any copyright* over photos being taken of their dishes and being published on food websites or blogs. For example could Heston ask for photos of his dishes on here to be removed? Could it get to that stage? * I am totally naive on copyright laws

It is the culinary equivalent of 'adolescent rebels', whereby a great deal of people are aspiring to be a molecular gastromonist. All you need to do is put a foam here or a savoury ice cream there and hey presto you to could be one. Mark my words Mc Donalds will be doing deconstructed Big Mac's with french fry foam pretty soon. So again its not much good for credibility to be associated with something that everyone wants to be part of. Or maybe feeling annoyed that your style of cooking has been so misunderstood, hence the need for a manifesto........

That manifesto to me is very similar to what a lot of the art movements in the 20th century did, e.g. Futurism, Dada, Surrealism etc. Whereby the leading protagonists got together to lay down the philosophy of the movement and what it was trying to create, usually set against global or political unrest. Maybe the aims and climate differ when the purpose or goal is creating food. Often as these movements got more famous and popular many of the key figures wanted to distance themselves from the movements name, what can be more frustrating to an artist than being 'labelled' or 'pigeon holed'. Unfortunately history shows us that labels stick.

......if Gwyneth finds out he has been eating fish and meat at the Fat Duck, she'll hit the roof

Cheers for that Jon, it seems to say on their website under lunch menu, that the 'Menu degustation' is available for £48, which seems a good price. Will take your advice and phone them though, especially if it being a Sunday makes any difference.

No, but I am going for Sunday lunch in a few weeks, were I hope to have the tasting menu (if they do it???). Will report back.

It is funny I thought the exact same thing about Gillies when I seen him on that dreadful, dreadful, dreadful, market kitchen. He is Ramsey's mini me. I have also lost sight of what the main aim of the show is, specifically around the whole 'regional' element. Why do the chefs have to cook something from their region, if they are cooking for the French. I doubt the French dignatries or chefs are going to comment on ' great examples of central England ingredients' or ' excellent sourcing from the South East'. I am sure what makes them 'great' British chefs in their respective restaurants is the food they cook there, which I doubt is all based on the terribly cliched 'local ingredients' nor is it particular recipes to that region. Is the regionality of dishes and ingredients still as important this time around?? I think the judges are not sure of the criteria, whereby one week they are praising Sat Bains forward thinking and modern cuisine as really what they are looking for, whereby the next week getting all excited about some other chefs crab cake and mayo. Sorry to ramble on, but I think I am missing the point?

Quite apt that on a foodie website I cannot help but bite... My point has always been that Manchester has serious failings in fine dining, but not necessarily in good places to eat per se. In addition, I must say RDB that if Paul and Katie don't have you on the payroll already then they should do so without further ado... Juniper can have some truly wonderful moments, but I think it's laying a bit much at it's door to state that it is the panacea (not Panacea) to all Manchester's dining ills. Cheers Thom ← Sorry Thom my comment was not aimed at 'making you bite', but the apology was more about me continually re-iterating the same point over and over. I am in total agreement about fine dining, and I think it is something a great deal of people on here and elsewhere feel. I am not on Juniper's payroll, but it is a restaurant to be proud of and celebrate, not just in the Northwest, but nationally. It is evident on this thread and elsewhere the amount of people who have tried to find something approaching fine dining in Manchester and have been dissapointed then vowing to do Juniper the next time. That says a number of things. I think Juniper did that all those years ago, and it has yet to be followed. You are right maybe I engage in too much Juniper related sychophancy, I just wish I had a few other places to pamper with similar grandiose obsequiousness

Sounds excellent Adam, and it is indeed without a doubt Manchesters best. Maybe more restaurants need to learn a lot from Juniper, as Manchester is simply imploding in terms of good places to eat (sorry Thom ). Having read Jay's reviews over the past two weeks and the lack of winners in the Northern hospitality awards, I think it really adds further weight to the argument.

Obviously Matthew we don't have the same understanding, knowledege or have our finger on the pulse of contemporary British food as the esteemed judges How many times have we heard Oliver P say ' this is the worst dessert I have ever tasted in my life...'? Ok it has been twice but it does lose its punch after the first time. It is a bad joke......

As I have actually mentioned recently , I included Fraiche on my list of restaurants North of Watford. To keep the topic relevant, if you look on Sat Bains website, under 'Great Places', he highlights some of his restaurant reccomendations with the more cutting edge and innovative being North of Watford e.g Midsummer, Juniper, Champignon, Jessicas, Anthonys, Northcote, Hibiscus. He does ( Sat Bains) however exclude the excellent L'enclume and Fraiche. Fraiche better than Anthonys or Juniper, maybe another thread. I have chanced my arm with this one already

Glad you enjoyed Rafas Tom, I love the down a side street ,in a basement, dark and intrigueing old world feel about it. This is what I associate with good tapas bars in Spain, where as Barrafina to me is a bit too modern, with the feel of an American diner about it. I think your experience and views on Stock are pretty spot on

His end dish looked like some of the worst examples you see on MasterChef goes large, as did his crabcakes. I have a sneaky feeling that Nick Nairn is actually being overly kind to Mr Lee, as he realises the man is maybe out of his depth, namely being able to cook. Obviously chosen for his personality as opposed to being the cream of Scottish cooking.

I am a little sketchy on all the details of the dishes, as I visited restaurant Sat Bains at the end of July 2006, but I do remember it being an excellent dining experience. We had the tasting menu. I hadn’t heard much of restaurant Sat Bain’s prior to my visit, it was one of a few recommended to me by Katie at Juniper. A further trawl on the internet did not reveal anything of great significance, and with no reviews from the usual suspects I had little to go on. Getting to the restaurant is a tricky business. Our taxi driver in the city centre had not heard of it or did not know the whereabouts of the address, nor did the controller at the taxi rank. A quick call to directory enquiries to locate the postcode and with the help of a ‘sat’ nav (pun intended); we eventually found the place which was at the end of a motorway flyover. Don’t let this put you off, as the actual restaurant and its grounds are very secluded and quite serene. As it was a balmy summer’s night we had drinks in the beautiful gardens and chatted with Sat’s wife and front of house Amanda. Whilst we were having our drinks she suggested our daughter who is nine come talk with the chef about what she wanted in her tasting menu. I was a little jealous as I did not get an invite (albeit spoke at length after the meal) After drinks we were seated in the conservatory part of the restaurant, which was perfect for a summers evening. We started the meal with two ‘tonics’, firstly carrot, ginger and apple, followed by rocket, lemon and ginger. Both of these I found to be very refreshing and got the taste buds moving. I found the ginger in both ‘tonics’ provided a good cleansing quality. Then came an amuse named, ‘crab and sweet corn’, which was a miniature crisp crab cake served alongside a tiny sweet corn soup. The crab cake was flaky with a delightful crunch which went well with the creamy sweet corn soup. I thought this was a great way of playing two classic ingredients. We had another amuse of chicken liver parfait with popcorn which was also excellent but I cannot remember the dishes structure, my memory only remembers a great taste combination. Then we had the 62 degree egg, with pea sorbet, pea shoots, and jabugo ham (as seen on GBM), excellent summer dish, as the yolk explodes and the sorbet melts, you end up with a classy pea and ham soup. May have had a foie gras dish with ginger bread next, not sure??? Then the fantastic salmon with fennel vanilla, passion fruit and liquorice. As I have mentioned on here before I found better than the Fat Duck’s version. May have had a lamb dish with tomato? Again not sure. Then instead of a cheese course, we had a dish called ‘cheese on toast’, now I remember this as it was divine. Melted Brie de Meaux on Polaine bread with grated summer truffle, absolutely sublime. Pre dessert, a miniature lemon meringue pie, which was good. Sorry cannot remember the dessert, except there were strawberries and manni olive oil. Coffee and good PF’s. As I mentioned on the restaurant of the year thread I thought Sat’s was on one the best restaurants I visited , in a list that included Fat Duck, Hibiscus, Anthony’s, l’enclume etc etc. Part of the reason being there was no hype and I did not know much about his food, so it totally took me by surprise. Again it is great to see the GBM has brought him some welcomed attention and hopefully endless punters and positive reviews. I must admit at the same time I have a warm glow that I visited the restaurant before some of the big guns on here, as it is usually via this board whereby I get to hear about great restaurants. Again sorry about the sketchy review, but part of the reason is down to the exquisite beer menu they have…………

Please don't tell me you eat that pot of steaming moss, no infact tell me you do I agree Simon the new appearance of the bacon and egg looks better, more like how I would normally eat my baon, egg and toast; all on top of each other.

Paul Kitching at Juniper uses Branston in a few of his dishes, I think I remember having a cheese risotto, hollandaise and branston............

Interestingly, Marmite is also an old army remedy for crabs. ← Hahaha... awesome! ← lol... can't say i'll look forward to the opportunity to try that. I've lived between Aus and the UK and i have to say i like both vegemite and marmite. I've never actually tried Bovril, but last time i had a look (pre-ban-lift) the ingredients were exactly the same as marmite. I'll have to try it now its gone back to having cow in it. Anyone actually drink the stuff? That's something i find less appealing. ← I drink it every winter whilst sitting in the freezing cold terraces of Wigan Athletic. Nothing warms you up better from toe to head than a steaming cup of bovril, absolutely magical.

i seem to remember if we could have done lunch he'd have got a bonus national reviewer also, unfortunately he'd also have had to put up with bapi, thom and myself for an afternoon. Probably best they stick to evening service. ← Oh, I was unaware you were friends with Michael Winner

They stepped up the originality for the next course: one did Welsh Black Beef with ceps and the other one did Welsh Black Beef with snails. ← So things have got better, can' wait to see the desserts!!!!

Gary from chatting to Sat in the past his opinion of a certain leeds restauranteur is well reciprocated. It is great to see his restaurant now getting some attention, and as I have mentioned previously maybe some of the national critics may pay a visit. Prior to visiting I could not find any major reviews on his restaurant and after visiting could not understand why. I remember drunkenly telling him (great beer list by the way) '...the world needs to know about this place.....' It was Katie at Juniper who actually reccomended it to me, and she has never failed me on good restaurant tips!!! In relation to the show, it is so boring this week, both in the chef's character and the food they are preparing. Does saying things like, 'striping a dish down to its basic elements' or ' letting the flavours speak for themselves', equate to lack of imagination, talent and creativity?? One doing salmon and mussels, the other doing trout and cockles. The French will be quaking in their boots................

I have taken my daughter to a great number of restaurants I have visited, for both lunch and dinner. Because she has grown up eating out, experimenting and learning the etiquette of good restaurant behaviour, she has never been a problem. Most of the restaurants have been very accomodating and welcoming, some examples: Juniper: When I asked Paul Kitching is it Ok to bring my daughter, his reply was ' Well why should the adults have all the fun...'. When we arrived he had prepared a separate gourmet menu (10 Courses) for her, with dishes such as 'posh chicken and chips, tomato sauce' and ' Snickers Creme Brulee'. He didn't charge us either. Restaurant Sat Bains: Amanda Bains took my daughter in to meet Sat and together they designed a tasting menu, based on things she did and did not like. She still gloats to this day how she has been in a michelin kitchen. Excellent touch. Hibiscus: Gave her three courses, and did not charge. Made to feel very welcome. Anthony's: She had the risotto, but that did not stop the kitchen sending out amuse's,a box of homemade buttons and a chocolate and ice-cream lolly. Olga made a big fuss of her also. Stagg Inn Titley: Again made feel very welcome and waiting staff having fun with her all night. L'enclume: Treated really well, (although strictly underage) again given complimentary amuse and desserts. Northcote, Heatcotes, The Star Inn....................... I tend to think this experience creates a positive reinforcement both ways, a child gets treated well, it's parents are relaxed and the child behaves well. We are continually told by fellow diners how well behaved and adventerous she is, and I tell that is not all down to good parenting, but also good restaurant management and policy