sunbeam

I would like to take some small issue with Jon's 'churnalism' comment. We did not put the release on site ourselves but this was down to the fact that everyone else was already tweeting and blogging it and we had no more information than they did. It is, it seems to me, perfectly legitimate to put PR releases out. One simply removes the superlatives and obvious hyping and reduces it to the facts. In this day and age no one working online has the luxury of a few hours, let alone a few days, to come up with 'think pieces' every time. In this case the facts were the facts and most online writers simply passed them on to the audience for them to make of what they would. Personally, unless invited, I shan't go. £195 is a big chunk out of our budget and in fact it will be 2x that of course. We can do more with that kind of money than eat it, pay an intern for example. I would rather eat Noma's food at Noma for most of the reasons others have put forward, but I can see that they will have no trouble selling seats at Claridges and will make a fair bit of money. No one suggests that Redzepi should turn down goodmoney do they, after all he went for enough years making very little and he is running a business Is he selling out? That's a question that can only be answered after the food has been served and not before. Who knows, it might turn out to be worth every penny.

Hot dogs and champagne ffs. How very recession ironic eh? Yeh it will be totally rammed with under 30 year old bloggers, who have a seemingly insatiable appetite for naff novelty and no cutlery. As a gimmick I'd give it a few months before they all move on to the next stamp to collect and Knappett goes back to business as usual. S

Oxo is off the map, there must be a reason. I'd say you'd get a better meal at Windows, the lunch time deals are great. If you don't get a window seat though then it's 'just' another restaurant view wise. Best to butter up Fred Sireix first to get him to favour you.

I cannot watch it anymore, surely it's time this program was consigned to history? It's repetitive and dull and the presenters are now just caricatures of themselves. I know it's cheap to make, even throwing in the cost of lugging everyone off to a foreign place in order to try and inject some entertainment value, but come on BBC! As for the spoon dragging, well these fashions come and go. I'm looking forward to the dollop!

I think all pictures on reviews are bad, they make the food look gigantic and horrible, they are rarely in focus, and the white balance is usually all over the shop. I also find it annoying and distracting to be near people constantly taking pics of their food. I want the staff to come over and call a halt or better still throw them out on their arse and chuck their camera after them. It's a form of trainspotting to my mind and I cannot understand the mentality of people who do it. I also feel sorry for their other halves having to put up with watching the husband (and it is a boy thing mostly) twiddling with his camera and bending about for a better angles. Dinner is not an occasion to take photos of plates nor tweet or text. It's supposed to be about conversation and enjoyment of the food.

Lunch is easier, I am going next week, not because Ayesha gave it 10 out of 10 but because it's there! n

Personally I do not trust Maschler's reviews any more. Between the ones she clearly scribbles off on the train home and the ones that regally patronise somewhere where she was feted and adored, they don't seem to offer much. And then there's her commercial operations which surely must make even the least cynical of us cock an enquiring eyebrow. But she clearly has no intention of leaving the Standard unless feet first, which is a shame for the readers even though they don't have to pay to read her.

Did you not think he looked a little unwell though? He has that wrinkled over sized skin that fat people get when they crash diet, Nigel Lawson had it as did Terry Durack. The weight comes off but the skin is not elastic enough and stays at the original size Meades certainly has an impressive collection of Raybans, and they arent cheap you know

I liked it there but it was always bloody expensive and some of the staff, no doubt taking their cue from Skye who is rather snotty, were casual to the point of rudeness and 'be grateful we let you in'. The price of wellies in the attached shop was insane too!

Some of those meatliquor girls have accents that suggest they did not grow up in poverty. Not saying they dont deserve a tip, but that they probably aren't on the breadline either!

Reminds us all what we lost when Meades stopped being a restaurant critic. Like all the genuinely good restaurant critics it wasn't the only thing he wrote about, just one of them. A writer first and a restaurant critic second. Apart from Gill who fits that description anymore? I still can't follow Meades on TV though, his writing does not work well when spoken and his habit of popping into frame from unexpected angles is a bit distracting!

It's bloggertastic. Ideal blogger food, no cutlery etc and no nasty waiters to make you feel small, no wonder the circle jerk has formed around it. The lack of light hasn't put 'em off, they just post even shittier photos than usual I work around the corner and went in mid afternoon Its okay, rather nice in fact. Not really a restaurant, more a pit stop than pitt cue, but good for a decent bite before the cinema etc and not too pricey either. No doubt like Meatliquor, it will expand while the expanding's good and we will see more around town soon. The london food scene is being driven by bloggers' tastes and their 25-30 demographic love this kind of hand held food inordinately.

Personally I regard Sushi and Sashimi as too complicated a subject for anyone who has not had many many years of experience eating it to really pass judgement on. I mean for an expert all kinds of subleties seem to come into play when grading the quality, most of which the casual eater will have no knowledge of. Angle of rice grains, number of slices, day on which the boat went out, fisherman's star sign etc Me, I just go on taste and whether or not the fish smells like a docker's armpit. I do know that I'd only ever eat sashimi in a high turnover place because the odds on the fish being fresh are much higher. In London that means somewhere like Yashin or somewhere equally central and expensive. The charmlessness may have been that the camera antics meant that they pegged you as a blogger who probably wouldn't be coming back. I imagine their wealthy regulars don't take snaps of their food or indeed argue about £1.50!

Obviously this lot have never heard of cockney rhyming slang and had best hope no London reviewer ever goes to visit. A gift impossible to turn down I'd have thought. Pictures are ANNOYING. S

always liked maurizios cooking, fish ravioli! i didnt know about this, will try and go

A bit like Bloominghell's Dinner then? I don't suppose it really matters, in both cases it's all about theatre. Macdonalds also has an open kitchen in as much as you can see a fair bit of what's going on, if you care to look. I didn't notice any people of diminished stature behind the bar when I went to JR's.

Well there you go David, lots of opinion. Of course restaurants vary greatly depending on the mood one is in and the company. On my visit mood and company were both great, had I been in a sour mood and stuck with a bore I may have felt differently. Such are the perils of reviewing as far as restaurants are concerned. But at the time I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere enormously and felt I had got what I paid for, possibly more. I've eaten in many a mich starred place where I couldn't say the same.

I refuse to photograph my food in a restaurant David, but if words are any help :-) http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/restaurant-reviews/2010/aug/ateleier_de_joel_robuchon.htm 2010 I stress

The tongue was served cut horizontally so it still looked like a tongue! So now there are 2 things I'll never willingly eat again, that and andouillette

Here's something I wrote, not exactly representative as it was a one off night. The stools are a bit of a pain, but the food should take your mind of them http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/food-breaks/2011/oct/south_lodge_hotel.htm S

My point is that if one doesn't like a particular blog or is bored by it, then the thing to do is surely not to read it? That's what I do anyway. To instead read again and again and then hound and abuse the blogger, via twitter and other social media, is adolescent behaviour and rather perverse too. The main complaints against CC seemed to be that: a) they were wealthy b) they weren't running with the pack c) they weren't Guardian readers Hardly justification for what they received. Although it's unlikely I will ever read them, too many blogs too little time, I hope the cyber bullies don't put them off trying again. Censorship by baying mob is not pretty. S

Indifferent as it was just another blog, I read it once and never went back. What does concern me is how they were abused and hounded through social media by people who one would have thought were old enough to know better. We all recall stories of how adolescents have been cyber bullied to the point of suicide, and we all tut tutted, but here were so-called liberals forming fascist groups to destroy some people they didn't like, just because they were different and didn't play with the popular kids. Even more alarming was the fact, if I recall correctly, that some professional food writers joined the witchhunt! This is the dark side of social media, adults behaving as if it were a school playground and no dinner lady to step in.

This may sound a little crazy but I found the german tourist areas had better restaurants, not german food, gott forbit, but better in general the germans being a little more demanding than the brits

Joses the man, I've been in a few times, as the yin to somewhere like Copita's yang its perfect.

dunno about leniency, it's just too much hassle to prosecute I expect. After all, unlike our hooded friends he would have a decent lawyer. His last book I bought was 'Antony makes it easy', I guess the new one could be 'Antony takes it easy'