Patrick_O

What a great reaction!! Sorry to disappoint but the beef pie and chasseur were specials on the Sunday lunch menu just gone. The evening menu is due to change on Thursday. It won't be a radical change - just four or five dishes that we're not entirely happy with. By way Hanna, apologies about the veal - I'll stick my hands in the air for that one!

I've always been a huge fan of Troy Maguire's cooking at l'Gueleton and I went along to Locks a couple of weeks ago with eagar anticipation. I really like the bright and airy room and found the service to be very efficient and friendly. I was a tad disappointed with the food however. A confit chicken and foie gras terrine lacked umph and my mullard duck for main course was just the wrong side of medium. My companion had a couple of old l'Gueleton favourites - the black pudding tarte tatin and the pork belly. The comment was that both portions were too big and indeed much of both dishes went uneaten. I tasted both dishes and found the tatin to be too heavy but the pork had very good flavour. The classic reduced sauce featured in all but one of the dishes we ate and I can see how this could be a problem for some people-not for me however! It's very early days for Locks and Troy is a very talented chef so I will definitely be back and I've no doubt that the restaurant will go from strength to strength.

I'll second Chez Hans ( and also their less formal venture, Cafe Hans). I can also recommend Lilly May's in Golden.

If I may interject on the subject of reservation times, a situation which can often arise is that a restaurant will become fully booked on a first come-first served basis and give people a reservation for their preferred time. After that, rather than turn away business and disappoint people, they may re-book the tables that were previously reserved for say 9pm and inform people that they need the table back. If there is strong demand for reservations, it is very difficult to accommodate everyone so I think a system of accomodating those who reserve first and then offering early or late tables to diners who book nearer to the day, is about as fair as one can be.

Thanks for support guys. Very kind words from Mr. Doorley. The response to the review has been overwhelming. We're still at the development satge of the business and we're trying to improve all the time but a review like that is certainly a major shot in the arm.

Corinna, The experience overall was stressful but enjoyable. The biggest challenge was to deliver the project on time and on budget. We just about managed to make it on budget but ran over by two weeks from our planned start date. We found the smaller day to day issues the most stressful such as tradesmen or suppliers letting us down and many tardy bureaucrats we encountered when setting up the business side. We also found that we had to come up with solutions to lots of small problems which we hadn't anticipated. Alan had been through the process many times before but I found the whole experience to be hugely educational.

Thanks Corinna. The venture is co-owned by my brother and I. Alan is cooking and I manage the business..we're still talking to each other after 5 weeks so that's something!!

Simon, Many thanks for the kind words, the feedback we've received to date, both positive and negative, has been invaluable in helping us to improve. Big congrats to yourself and Hazel! Have a great night. Patrick