smoz

Cheers for the tips, I will look into them.

We will be going to Bristol this weekend, somewhere that I used to live many years ago but have not visited for twenty years, have been reading this thread for inspiration. Casamia sound good, as does the Albion Pub & Dining Rooms, has anyone visited recently? Has anyone got recommendations for seafood and/or tapas restaurants in the Bristol area?

Interesting to hear. I haven't been there before but was considering taking Mrs Smoz there this weekend as its her birthday, I ended up booking a table at Chapter One instead (not as a result of your post, but it sounds like it turned out to have been the better option).

By the way, how does this work exactly? I'll try to get a reservation at el Bulli for the first time, and I don't really care about the exact day I'll go, can I just send an email stating that any day is fine or does one have to specify an exact reservation day/time? ← I just emailed off my request for 2009. In my request I gave three preferred dates but also said that I would be happy to take any date that they offered. I was lucky enough to get a reservation in 2007 using this method (and got my first choice date), no joy in 2008 though.

Thanks for the update, I will be giving Le Cassoulet a try for lunch on Friday, hope it is good as I am taking my mother there for her birthday. Will report back here.

Does anyone have any up to date recommendations for Dresden restaurants? We will be visiting next weekend. Is Caroussel still a good bet? I have looked at their menu on line and it looks good. Any recommendations for mid-range places will also be gratefully received. Thanks in anticipation.

Eagerly awaiting an update........... how was it?

Lunch at the Guggenheim is (IMHO) one of the biggest bargains around, we had lunch there about ten days ago and it was a lot less 56 euro. I think the set menu was around 15 euro per person for three courses which included a bottle of wine between two of us, there is an option to 'upgrade' the wine for few euros more which we did. While the portions are not huge they are ample as part of a three course lunch, I opted for veal cheeks as a main course which were wonderfully rich, while Mrs Smoz went for bacalao. The set lunch is a few euros more expensive at weekends but I think it is still under 20 euros a head, in the evenings the set menu is considerably more expensive (probably the 56 euros that you referred to). As for San Sebastian (Donostia) I would suggest that on at least one of the two nights you are there you stick to pinxtos. An evening in the old town wandering from bar to bar having a few pinxtos in each is an experience not to be forgotten, there are too many places for me to recommend one over the others. A trip across the river to Gros is also worthwhile. I have also heard good reports about the restaurant in the Kursaal but our trip to San Sebastian coincided with the film festival, much of which took place in the Kursaal so we didn't get a chance to try it. Enjoy yourself out there, wherever you go in San Sebastian you are likely to find good food and have a happy birthday.

I will be eating there this Saturday lunchtime, reading the reports on here is making my mouth water, I can't wait.

When we visited El Bulli in April we asked to start off with a manzanilla which and a cava, we then asked the waiting staff to bring us their own suggestions for suitable wines to be paired with the food (the sherry & cava that we had were also the restaurant's own choices). The aforementioned were followed by two white wines, one red and a desert wine. I have just dug out the bill and this is what they gave us along with the prices charged (in Euros): Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana €20.00 Gran Claustro B.N. 04 €35.00 Pardas Xarel.LO 05 €35.00 Augustus Chardonay 05 €45.00 D.Valdepusa Cabernet 02 €45.00 MR 05 €35.00 We were also charged €3.00 per bottle for mineral water. We asked the restaurant to bring us their recommendations for two reasons, firstly I know little about Spanish wines and secondly as we had no idea what we were going to eat it would have made it difficult to decide what to order. I am glad that we decided to do it this way, the wines we were brought were all excellent pairings and reasonable priced.

We will be visiting Leeds next weekend, does anyone have any suggestions for a good tapas or seafood restaurant in the town centre (we will be staying at Quebecs)? Ideally looking for somewhere mid range price but will consider somewhere top end for somewhere special.

When we went one of the replacement dishes for the lambs brains was ham over a potato foam, could this be what your wife had?

I am enjoying your reports Docsconz, especially the way you are tantalising us by revealing them bit by bit, a few dishes at a time, looking forward to hearing about your savoury courses. From your picture it looks as if you had the same table that we did.

The texture of the raspberry fondant (as I remember it) was somewhere between a fondant and a jelly however I was discussing it with Mrs Smoz last night and she insists that it was more like a freeze dried raspberry, couldn't be a more different texture so take your pick as to whose memory you trust. And yes, we were told to eat the fondant first before following it up with the vinegar. I have no suggestions as to how best to replicate this, perhaps people more gifted than me will have an idea.

Parmesan frozen air with muesli: Flowers cotton: Eggs Que Bearn: Beetroot & yoghurt meringue, Pineapple frits, salty cantinas: Last but not least, my favourite, Rasberries fondant wasabi & vinegar

That appears to have worked, here goes with a few more: Peanut & Curry with tangerine bon bons, a dish that was so successful it made my friend chuckle out loud.

I now have some photos from our visit to El Bulli, my camera managed to disappear while we were away so these are courtesy of a friend of mine. I am not quite sure how to post pictures here but I am going to give it a try, I have managed to upload them to my Egullet user album. First up is the Won Ton with basil air:

Jimk's description sums it up. A combination of sweet and fruity (raspberry fondant) with hot (wasabi) followed by sweet and sharp (the raspberry vinegar). A good pallet cleanser and possibly my favourite dish of the night.

Maybe something to do with the French region, Béarn (béarnaise=from Béarn; the sauce=butter, egg and vinegar). ← That makes sense - we definitely interpreted this dish to be a deconstructed bearnaise. Another dish on the menu we had (asparagus cooked for four different times) was similarly along the lines of a deconstructed hollandaise. ← Aha, I see now, so the frozen cream would represent the butter. Thanks for solving the mystery.

I agree, the markets in Madrid and Barcelona are marvelous but the best that I have come across so far is the one in Valencia. Some good suggestions in the initial post too, given me some good ideas for my next trip to Spain, thanks.

Hi smoz, thanks so much for the report. Were the tangerine bon-bons frozen and were they filled with liquid? Judging by your friend's reaction they sound a bit like a pre-dessert I had there last year (although there was no peanut and curry element). Also, how were the wontons served? Were they in a bowl of soup and do you remember what was in the filling? ← Re the Bon-bons, yes they were liquid filled, I imagine that they were frozen, though I think that we didn't eat them quickly enough to appreciate them at their best. This was not the waiting staff's fault, some of our party disappeared to powder their noses and the rest of us waited for them to return, by the time they did the waiters were anxiously urging us to eat them quickly. We were told to eat the peanut curry cookie first followed by the bon-bon, on doing so the tangerine liquid exploded in our mouths. The wontons were brought to the table in a ham broth (cheese sauce for the veggie) along with a bowl of basil foam, we were urged to transfer the wonton to the bowl that contained the foam then to eat it is one. I cannot recall what the wontons were stuffed with. I have a couple of questions for the old hands here on egullet: Which of the dishes that I mentioned are new to you? From lurking here and elsewhere I think i recognised about a third of them. One of the dishes we had was Quebearn Egg, this was a raw egg yolk served with frozen cream and a honey/vinegar dressing, I imagine that this was supposed to be a deconstructed ice cream or custard. Can anyone tell me what Quebearn means? I have googled the word but but all the results seem to refer back to El Bulli.

Lovely stuff. We had lamb brains when we were there too and I enjoyed it very much. My wife declined her portion so I finished it up. The ham and marrow sounds fantastic too. Can you elaborate at all? Thanks for sharing your experience. ← It is a difficult dish to describe, it was a lot more doughy than you would expect from something that was described as pitta bread, very rich, very much comfort food (beautifully soft, warm and greasy in a good way). This along with the lambs brains was one of the dishes that we were given the option to opt out of, the alternative was made with shitake mushrooms instead of marrow bone.

In that case it's just as well that I didn't mention what they brought out a a surprise for my birthday

I forgot to mention that the total bill for food, drinks coffee etc for pur party of 6 came to 1468 euros including IVA, not including service.

Hello, new member here although I have been a long time browser. I managed to get a reservation at El Bulli thanks in part to advice that I gained from these pages so firstly I would like to say thank you to everyone. The big day finally came on Wednesday of last week (4th April), I, my wife and four good friends had a wonderful meal, the reservation coincided with my birthday). I am unable to post any pictures as my camera managed to 'disappear' somewhere on the journey between Cadaques where we stayed for the week and home (London). One of my friends took also took pictures so I will try and get hold of them and post them at a later date. Our taxi driver arrived at our apartment late but we still arrived at El Bulli with plenty of time to spare. Cadaques apparently only has two regular taxi drivers and only one of them has a people carrier type vehicle. We had already asked to driver to come and collect us after the meal and asked him if he had any idea what time we were likely to finish, he told us not to worry, he would go and visit his friend in Rosas then go to the cinema and would then return and wait for us. On arrival we were given a tour of the kitchens which were very different from ant restaurant kitchens that I have ever been in before, considerably larger, brighter and much quieter than any others. We were then lead to our tables and asked a few questions in order to confirm our eating preferences, when I received the initially good news that our booking request had been successful Luis had already asked us about these (six people, one vegetarian who eats fish one omnivore who doesn't eat chocolate or mushrooms, four who will eat anything). We were then advised that there were a couple of dishes which contained ingredients that may not appeal to the more squeamish (more details later) and were given the opportunity to have alternatives. While this was going on we were brought a welcome drink of Gin Fizz which managed to be both hot and cold at the same time. What followed was, from what I have gleaned from reading previous reports, a mixture of greatest hits from menus of the last few years along with a number of dishes which I hadn't previously seen reported. In order not to spoil too many surprises I will just list the dishes from the menu I had without too much in the way of descriptions: Spherical olives Mango leaf with tagete flower Pineapple frits Beetroot and yoghurt meringue Salty catanias Rice and parmesan cookies "Tile" - curing cheese Flowers cotton Tangerine bon-bons, peanut and curry (a dish which delighted one of my friends so much that he chuckled out loud, probably the truest spontaneous sign of appreciation of a dish that I have ever come across) Raspberries fondant with wasabi and raspberries vinegar (my personal highlight) Liquid croquette 2006 Horchata truffle Won-ton Fried brioche Shanghai (everyone else's highlight) Parmesan frozen air with muesli "Quebearn" egg Raisins of PX with anchovy and cardamon brioche Tomato soup with virtual iberian ham Asparagus in different cooking times Zucchini risotto with curry Razor clams in vinegar sauce The sea Crab Marrakech Pita of Iberian ham fat and veal bone marrow Lamb Brains with their own juice Sheep - the cheese and the wool Piquillo peppers and banana tatin Apple Morphings ....... To drink (between 6) we had a bottle of Manzanilla (Pasada Pastrana), a bottle of Cava (Gran Claustro B.N. 04) then asked to be brought a section of spanish wines which would be suitable for the dishes that were to be served. We were brought two further whites, a red and a desert wine, I know very little about Spanish wines but according to the bill they were: Pardas Xarel LO 05, Augustus Chardonay 05, D. Valdepusa Cabernet 02 and MR 05. All delicious, all paired well with the dishes ther accompanied and all reasonable value (between 20 and 45 euros a bottle). In summary the meal was exceptional (although that is to be expected) as was the service. This was our first visit and we were not disappointed.