sunbeam
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Posts posted by sunbeam
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Remember the great fuss when marmite abandoned the Marmite shape jars and went straight sided? The argument was that this made it easier to get every last bit out. This ignored the fact that fiddling about with a plastic spoon and knowing that the jar was never really 'empty' was part of the charm. They went back to the old shape soon after.
I miss the tin lids though, I expect some jobsworth at the EU deemed them a health hazard.
The squeezy version is an offence to God
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I wouldn't worry too much about the national critics, especially the Sundays. They write to entertain in the main and a bad restaurant is god-given copy while an average one is a pain as it is much harder to be entertaining about. A good one has to be unique to avoid limp praise and dull adjectives
I'm sure I am not alone in forgetting what I've read by Monday afternoon and by Thursday, should I want to have a re read, the paper is long gone to recycling.
The websites where punters write their own reviews are a minefield obviously but they do have a very strong influence. By scanning a few weeks worth of punter reviews, you get a pretty good impression of what the restaurant is really like, far more than from a critic's single snapshot of one evening which could have been unusually bad (or good).
And PR co's may be anathema to some, but every business needs word of mouth and PRs do achieve that to varying degrees.
Limpsfield may come out in hives at the mention of the Observer as Rayner says, but Islington faints at the Daily Telegraph. I would say both sides have a fair point!
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I enjoyed my meal there and Theo seemed a jolly nice chap, keen to show me his wood-burning oven he'd had installed. The room is the room, it's what you get in hotels, but it seemed buzzy to me with a lot of laughter bouncing off the walls and a pretty good atmosphere.
I wouldn't go as far as Rayner in my praise. but it was a fine antidote to the over fine dining offered elsewhere. The German red wine recommended was a bit of a treat, too.
I have never eaten in the River Cafe due to a deep antipathy towards the two women as seen on TV - one an appalling snob and one giving every impression of being permanently stoned - so I can't comment or compare.
I hope Randall does well, but historically the Hotel dining room is indeed a tough one to make successful. Let's not make it any harder for him eh?
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And does he use the Potato Ricer aka the Giant Garlic Press? I just bought one and it's great, some chemistry happens when you beat potatoes that makes them gluey. The ricer removes this problem and is rather fun too!
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those chequers have already given me a headache, christ knows what its like eating amongst it
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Who are the best food writers on the web?
It seems like most food criticism these days is happening on blogs and internet forums like this one, rather than in newspaper columns. But who do you guys think is the best of the best based in the UK?
I love Chez Pim. Eating at 23 Michelin stars in the space of about six weeks is unbelievable - I want that life! Are there others who deserve notice?
Thanks!
You have to remember most food writers in newspapers/magazines are just passing through or doing it in addition to writing a novel or other stuff for the paper. The bloggers are in it for love and unlike the press critics, aren't trying to be clever or get noticed.
As to the best? Blimey there are so many, how on earth can you be sure you've read em all?
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Sally Clarke is a member of the rather pseudy and snobby crowd of chef/owners, see also Rogers, Ruth and Gyngell, Skye. You are lucky to eat at their places, rather than they are lucky to have you paying through the nose to be there.
That's not to say that Clarkes wasn't once a good restaurant but times change even if the chef doesn't.
As you say, much of what she does is no longer either cool or trendy but no one in her immediate environment has the courage to criticise this rather matrician woman and put her back on the right course.
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[Cooks swear. Cooks yell. That's how it is, any show that depicts it otherwise is phony. And most kitchens I've worked in weren't "safe" places for children.]
Well I've been in a few kitchens when in journo mode and the good ones are surprisingly quiet. A good chef has a good team. If he/she has to raise his/her voice and swear a lot then something is wrong. Either the people arent as good as they claimed to be or chef has simply picked the wrong people.
My kitchen isnt a safe place for children. Hot things and sharp things. Obviously it depends on the child's age and how lax the parents are at supervision. Many parents today would probably try to sue Sabbatier if their child cut itself playing with a knife, rather than admit their own fault.
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In Edinburgh and called Finnegans Wake?
How odd
Sorry, not a lot of help was it? I hear the deep fried mars bars are cheap though.
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Hey if someone picked up the tab for me travelling 4hrs in a first class carriage to have lunch I'd go just about anywhere. Mind you 4hrs on a train can only get you about 4 miles these days.
Good to see a critic tackling the west country, far too many seem to either do London or luxury long haul.
Can't imagine why
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Pho is St John Street is fun but the short menu lacks the tripe and tendon based pho I frequently desire. I used to eat regularly at Song Que but got fed up of feeling ill afterwards - their no-smoking section is ridiculously small so I always end up feeding from a neighbours cigarette - and that does my asthma no good at all. The place gets terribly noisy too.
tripe and tendon? You are just showing off now innit, personally I would pay good money NOT to eat tripe and tendons, but each to his own.
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went to the opening party
70s, decor was not impressive
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YYeh well fatty rayner (doesn't he look more and more like his mum!) lives in south london, which is unusual for a journalist so he's well-placed to find a gem.
Elephant & Castle though, what a teribble, terrible **** hole and I say that as a sarf lundoner born and bred.
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Dear boy, I can always lose weight, but you will forever be cursed with that filthy mouth of yours.
You're right about Elephant and Castle, though. And I was wrong about nobody writing to defend the place. Couldn't move for emails from embittered E&Cers. Love, as they say, is blind.
Well I did use asterisks to keep the filth content low, but really old chap how else can you describe the place?
I imagine your emails defending the excrescence were from people who have bought flats in the grey stalinist converted office buildings and were worried about the property prices being undermined. It may be close to central London but it's a dangerous place still, why else would local restaurants need entryphones?
I recall Eddy Hitler saying to Richie Rich. 'elephant & castle? stick it up yer ****hole'. which seems about right.
Sorry about the weight comment but I had to squeeze past you on the stairs at the reopening party at pied a terre. For a minute I thought I was goner, it all went dark.
Full marks for using your real name though unlike the sugar plum fairy... and me.
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Pho in St John st
Give em a go, a nice non asian couple who have created a very smart place and a chef who knows his phos
(btw that doesnt rhyme as pho is pronounced as 'feu', a legacy of French colonialism in Vietnam
See what an o level gets you? Mind that was when o-levels meant something .. (burbles on for hours)
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YYeh well fatty rayner (doesn't he look more and more like his mum!) lives in south london, which is unusual for a journalist so he's well-placed to find a gem.
Elephant & Castle though, what a teribble, terrible **** hole and I say that as a sarf lundoner born and bred.
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Isn't Mathew Norman the man who is regularly described by his wife in her Polly Filla column as a fat slob who eats curries all the time? A man who spends his days watching Sky Sports + on the 45" plasma in the playroom of their rather agreeable sounding house in West London?
One of them must be lying.
He comes across as a bit of a lefty too, but then with the couple's large incomes rolling in he can probably afford to be.
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Sorry about the England/Portugese game
Helen and I watched the game early in the morning in Vancouver and I was wondering if any of you watched the game at the new Brew Wharf near the Borough Market?The menu does not look all that interesting in the gastro pub sense but how are the beers? It's nice to see the addition of a brew pub along with the wine wharf and the Cantina.
Cheers,
Stephen Bonner
Borough Market is a broiling hell hole on Saturdays with tourists blocking the aisles and gawping. I think most sane Brits watched the inevitable debacle from home.
It's sad that we have to have a 'Brew' anything. Outside London it's possible to drink a variety of beers at most pubs. London meanwhile seems unable to stop the march of the one style fizzy fight starter erroneously called lager by its swillers.
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on cheese on toast and on cauliflower cheese - has to be malt, of course
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If you wanted Ramsay at RHR you would have to book July 1st anyway, and it's a nightmare process. Easier to get tickets for a Beatles reunion concert featuring Frank Sinatra as guest vocalist.
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Plus, the tables are about 2" too low and quite small; it's rather like eating off a coffee table.
Yes they actually are brasserie tables I think, not dining tables, at Comptoir. Adds to the charm? Mind you at galvin at windows I had the sensation that the tables were just a bit too high, but there it was the fault of the chairs which were like mini armchairs.
Gascon cooking not Bordelaise? Oooh I suppose so, but all that duck fat reminds me of blowouts in Bordeaux. Those mecs on stilts in the picture on the wall must have to use strong wood to support them, especially after a cassoulet
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I have to say it, the Comptoir Gascon is one of the best foody restaurants in London. Presentation and decor is basic, straightforward, simple even but the cooking is superb. Classic Bordeaux cuisine and every day the specials astound and delight. Once again today at lunch I was more than impressed, I was delighted and so were my guests.
I eat out an awful lot, and I don't have to pay (advertising agency w***ker) so I have no axe to grind or logs to roll.
Comptoir is fabulous for all those who know their food and aren't easily impressed by surface over substance.
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Somewhat underwhelming, although the view is nice the food is rather dull.
Staff a mixed bag of pros and people I reckon have been hastily seconded from other parts of the hotel. Annoying to be given wife's dish and vice versa followed by a load of faffing about passing them back and forth like a bad farce. Some amateur kept trying to fill our glasses while they were still pretty much untouched, again I suspect he wasn't one of Windows main staff.
Decor is too retro 70's for me and there are, I think, still rather a lot of oldish men dining with young fleshy female companions who I suspect may not be their daughters.
Strangely Buck House seems to have no lights on at all at night, not a one and I never knew Liz had such a nice garden. So I learned someting.
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Yes he married a girl from Ramsay's posh PR firm. He'll have to learn to call his evening meal 'supper' from now on!
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Restaurant Rage
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Posted
*This is an extract from the booking confirmation email I received from the River Cafe....
This is what you get when the self-appointed upper classes get to run restaurants. Maybe now they haven't got Theo, they can come back down to earth and deign to feed us rabble as we want rather than how they prefer.