camdan

Sushi Kaji or Hashimoto, although I believe Hashimoto requires booking at least a week in advance, and I haven't been there yet (going on Friday). Otherwise Splendido, Scaramouche or as you say, Canoe, might be good bets. I haven't been to Splendido or Scaramouche but Canoe was pretty good, and the view is lovely. Perigee seems to get very mixed reviews though. As for hotels, I have only been in the Royal York and to be honest I didn't think it was very nice. Maybe the Park Hyatt, Four Seasons (look hideous from the outside though) or Intercontinental would be preferable, if a little less historic.

Current thoughts? Have a table booked for my birthday on Monday as it looked about the most interesting place that's open.

Ideas for a good lunch, not too pricey, easily accessible (by foot preferably) from the centre of Durham or Newcastle? Should be fairly relaxed, cuisine type not important so long as it's good. Am thinking it's probably best to go with good old Cafe 21.

In a month or so I'll be beginning a stint in Toronto, but mine will be more like five years. I've spent a few weeks there up until now, although I haven't had much chance to sample the cuisine. The only places worth mentioning that I've been to are Sushi Kaji - brilliant, one of the finest meals I've ever had, if a little out of the way and occasionally a little overly wasabi happy, and Canoe - sensational view, a little hit and miss with the food; some (the caribou stands out) was great, some (the tartare) was not.

Any recent experiences? Possibility of a lunch here in a couple of weeks if The Fat Duck is unobtainable.

Took 20 minutes to get on the waiting list for lunch, 25th or 26th of June, so that's not too bad. What's the general experience of being on the waiting list - rough odds of getting a table?

Battered and deep fried pizza. Distinct from the unbattered deep fried pizza and extra healthful.

HP sauce is definitely necessary, and for a traditional Scottish angle you might want to throw in a deep fried Mars bar. For a continental twist, a slice of pizza crunch may be in order.

ROAST FOIE GRAS "BENZALDEHYDE" What the fuck?

Is that really a piece of chicken shaped like an aileron?! ← Way to show off your engineering skills, Frenchman. It's a piece of chicken shaped like a square.

The first amuse; 'Rosewater Nitro', was very refreshing and novel. The second, however, a cheesy porridge-mushroom dish was not to my liking at all. The bread very nice although I would have liked their cinnamon filo to have had some sort of sweet accompaniment, possibly a tub of nutella. The first course was for me the worst of the lot. The kingfish sashimi was very nice but I didn't feel the combination with strawberries worked well and it appeared to be resting on a crumbled up Mini-Cheddar. Also there was foie gras, I think I've only ever enjoyed foie once (at Sat Bains) and this didn't change my mind. The next few were all very nice, although the 'Umami' course could have done with a bit less salt. The lamb, as my esteemed friend Mr Legoland said, was tough, the dish would have worked better with venison. I thought Chawanmushi was the best course - a Japanese egg custard dish, 'deconstructed' - and the red mullet was delicious. Dessert was fine too, although the white chocolate 'mouse' didn't taste of white chocolate, a good thing really as I don't like the stuff at all. The wine, well, it was seven glasses of wine for £35. They did very well considering what they were charging, but I wouldn't have objected to paying 50 for something a bit of special in at least a couple of glasses. Overall it was a very nice and enjoyable meal with some really interesting dishes. I think the main criticism I can level at them is a tendency to put too much on the plate: kingfish sashimi could have lost the crumbled up biscuity thing, and the foie gras (although I know to be taken seriously as a fine-dining restaurant in the western hemisphere you've got to find a way to put some foie gras on the plate). I'd also consider replacing the strawberry with something like mango. The red mullet was wonderful (although as mentioned by the Frenchman, one of them was somewhat undercooked), but the 'toast' it came with didn't work and I thought the crab was unecessary. The coconut tofu, however, was excellent and went brilliantly with the fish. Umami was very nice and could have been superb if he'd held off a little on the salt, I could provide more examples but you get the point. We were very pleased for a chance to meet the chef - the first time I've been at a restaurant and the chef has come out for a chat - he seems like a very nice guy, with a pretty impressive resume. And his favourite restaurant is Mugaritz. Overall I think it's worth 7/10, which is pretty good going by my standards. There are some great ideas, they have a good staff and are obviously very able cook but there's a tendency to over-complicate things and a bit too much of a 'look at all these things we can do!' attitude that detracts a little from the real point of the dishes.

St John at 16 is a bit of a joke. I love St John, but food-wise it isn't that good. Nice to see L'enclume taking the readers' award though, that's a restaurant that seems to be shockingly underrated; I preferred it to the Fat Duck, although I should probably go to them both another 10 or 20 times before arriving at any kind of definite conclusion.

Must try eating meat.

Well foie gras is pretty nasty stuff in general, I'd be all for kicking it off the menu to make way for a nice bit of unfoie gras. Having said that I think the people who did this should all be shot.

Great, thanks for the help. Any more takers?

I'm going to Germany for a few days in April with a couple of non-foodie friends. I've persuaded them of the need for one good dinner which due to time constraints looks like it has to be in Berlin. The criteria are: - max 80 euros/head NOT including wine - decent sized portions (they're not the nouvelle cuisine type...) - preferably fairly casual (ie preferably somewhere that will accept shirt and jeans; we don't want to have to pack suits) So, where should I take these two heathens to make them see the light? (These guys are Scottish and their idea of a perfect meal would probably be a raw steak pickled in whisky. Which sounds pretty damn good to me too.)

Wish I were rich and stupid enough to try that. Pretty ropey looking espresso...

Well that's a bit shit...

Is 'rising star' like they might award one some time but don't feel like it right now?

In my (one dinner at each) experience Juniper and Sat Bains are not deserving of two stars. Definitely one, but let's not go crazy. My meal at L'enclume was amazing though and I'd happily see them take another star (preferably another two). Have you been to the new Hibiscus? I'd say a generous inspector might give them a solitary star but you must be stoned if you think it deserves three. I guess I went to RHR on a good day because I thought it was fabulous.

Three.

http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/product.a...d=0390000001634 Does anyone know anything about this producer (Carrere)? Is buying this as good an idea as it seems? It's very hard to find any armagmac reviews on the net... I might go for a bottle of Ferrand 'Selection des Anges' cognac at some point, although given my preference for scotch with a bit of punch I suspect I'm going to be more of an armagnac man. Also, do vintage brandies show anything like the variation from year to year that wines do? Or will the production from one distiller at a given age be the same as all other vintages from that producer were/are/will be when at that age?

I went to Hiro yesterday, and having spent the day wandering around London fuelled only by a couple of sandwiches seized the opportunity to pig out. I ate a fairly large selection of sushi and sashimi and washed it down with three cups of green tea and a glass of dry sake, and very nice it was too. The sashimi especially was delicious, most notably the toro (I think it was o-toro - pale pink and wonderfully marbled, the fatty tuna served as nigiri was chu-toro; pink with alternating thick bands of meat and fat) and scallop. Definitely the best sushi I've had in England.

Have any of you tasted the Bruchladdich 15 that did time in d'Yquem casks? It sounds like a ridiculous gimmick to me, but one that's really bloody tempting.

L'Enclume.