dharold

I rather liked this place too. Service is definitely restaurant level. A breezy day made us choose the narrow dining room (no more than 35 covers I'm guessing) rather than outside (maybe another 30 covers). Started with handmade pork pie with homemade piccalilli for £5.00 - not bad but could do with more jelly (mind you, what pork pie couldn't ; ) Then more pie: braised lamb neck and turnip pie with mash (£9.50). Not bad but quite a bit of the pastry top was immovably attached to the pot and inside there was a heck of lot more gravy than meat. Tasty though. Ended on a high note: marmalade pudding with custard (£4.00). Sounds prosaic. Tastes like something from Paddington Bear's heaven. A thick crust of marmalade on a light sponge with a foam of piquant custard. Not what I was expecting - and probably worthy of a return trip to give The Narrow another go.

Thanks! Looks like they're out of print in the UK, but I'll keep an eye open for them when I'm in the US again in a couple of weeks. D.

Sounds like you were at the same convention as me! Here's where we went: Filippi's Pizza Grotto - we hit this one on the off chance when we saw a bunch of people going in. The restaurant has an Italian deli out front - you walk through to get to the dark restaurant where wine bottles hang from the ceiling. We split a pepperoni and sausage pizza - thick crust, lots of cheese, not too oily. We ate two slices each and took two home. Good stuff. Dublin Square and Cafe Zucchero - we ate breakfast at each of these. Both served frankly awful food, though the coffee at Zucchero was good. An oily fry up at one, a breakfast burrito style dish literally swimming in liquid at the other. Enough said. Cafe Chloe for breakfast. Savoury custard was basically quiche without the pastry - an idea so good I'm going to rip if off at home. Gravlax was served with in a light tower of crepe with separate layers of egg white and yolk. Brunch: tartiflette-reblochon, a brie, bacon, and potato tart followed by 'eggs piperade with procuitto and potatoes'. The tart was fun, like something you might knock up yourself for brunch. Very tasty and not trying too hard. The piperade was the classic onion, pepper and tomato base served with a fried egg on top. Impressive. I wish I'd had time to try lunch or dinner there. I ordered a fish taco at The Tin Fish because that's what everyone else was doing. In fact I changed my order from an oyster po'boy to do so. "Shame," said the guy taking orders, "once you've had the fish taco, you'll be back for more, but you'll never taste that po'boy." He's probably right. I have no idea who Karen Krasne might be but she's not lying when she promises Extraordinary Desserts. We hit the Union St outpost at a little after 4.00pm and found it all but empty, save for probably 10 waiflike waitresses who didn't look like they'd ever eaten cake in their lives. A mix of rasberry and white chocolate mouse ('White Chocolate Berry Coupe') was, and I use this phrase for the first time, "to die for." Located in what might very possibly be The Most Boring Neighbourhood in America, Bertrand at Mister A's is perched on top of a 12 story financial building that affords impressive views of San Diego. The food was a little less accomplished than the view but very good - I think if I'd chosen a little better then perhaps I might have gotten a better appreciation for Chef Stephane Voitzwinkler’s obvious skills. Formerly the fine dining room at Georges at the Cove, an all-new "upscale contemporary restaurant" is declaring it's intentions with the name: Georges California Modern. I had Chorizo Crusted White Seabass with roasted peppers, shelling beans, cherry tomatoes, parsley puree for a main course. It looked odd - a huge bass with a few studs of chorizo on top. Big deal - it tasted fabulous. At 1500 Ocean 'Snake River farms Kurobuta pork loin rib chop' was very impressive indeed - I scraped the bone to get every scrap. Service was top of the class. At first I was unsure what we were going to get at Tapenade. At reception the noise was almost unbearable but overall this was probably the most impressive food of our trip to San Diego and straight on to my personal favourites. Just get seated away from the audio system! We also had breakfast a couple of days at Cafe 222 - the corned beef hash was great there and the tamales good too.

Lunch at The Elephant is fun too - though I'd recommend dinner first of course! I hadn't exactly planned to go to The Elephant twice in two days, but we were leaving the next day so what other chance whoud I have, and I had left my umbrella the night before so I needed to drop in... and that being the case surely there was time for the Set Menu at just £17.50 for three courses? I started with the soup of the day, a sharp citrus foam sat on a carrot base, while Kate decided to skip the starters - avoiding the tasty looking mussels because she once had a bad experience with Pernod, which which they were flavoured. We both had the Guinness battered fish & chips for main. Excellent fish, crisp batter and a tower built of chunky, perfectly shaped, chips. Dessert was Sticky Toffee Pudding for me, served with a scoop of ice cream, and more of the Elephant's fine cheese selection for Kate. I got a running commentary on the status of the espresso machine (unwell) from our charming waitress while my coffee was prepared and when it came it was very good with a thick crema and just the right amount of bitter, biscuity flavour. While I was enjoying the coffee chef Simon Hulstone appeared from the kitchen, evidently to check on deliveries being made at the front, and stopped by to chat about the effect of the weather on trade ("at least we don't have tables outside"), the whereabouts of Darron Bunn from Orestone Manor (Chasers Restaurant in Stokeinteignhead) and the changes he'd made to the place since we dropped in the previous summer (splitting the place into brasserie and fine dining). Hulstone was charming and self-effacing, particularly on the subject of the excellent PR the place had been getting lately (he'd not seen the Conde Nast Traveller item I mentioned). I forgot to ask about his collection of menus. Doh! Hulstone, who grew up locally and was Roux Scholar in 2003, is the only British chef to win gold at the World Chef Championships in France, and was a head chef at just 22. He seems to be enjoying being in Torquay. "When I first started here", he told us, "I asked why I got my fish deliveries at lunchtime, when at my old place they'd be there at 6.30 in the morning. Ah well, they told me - you get today's fish."

http://www.lcblondon.com/ http://www.leiths.com/

I mentioned them because my mother ate there last week, in the private dining room, a group of about 10 I think and said the food was very good. Indeed I think they've now booked the same room for New Year's Eve so it must have impressed. BTW, I've posted my full review of The Elephant to my blog today. Here's the heavily edited highlights, since I think the whole thing is a bit long to post... The dining room is well appointed and has views of the bay from most of the tables. Amuse bouche consisted of truffle-flavoured popcorn, chickpea hummus with bread sticks, and fat stuffed olives, served just after we ordered. Fun, summery fare. To start Kate had Paignton crab 'martini' with creamed avocado, mango and mint salsa and warm crab beignet. My mother went for open ravioli of beetroot and Vulscombe goats' cheese with Somerset cider syrup and I took the ballotine of foie gras with peach chutney and granny smith jelly. I tried all three, and they were each as delicious as they were beautifully presented. My mother in particular was very excited by the presentation of her sensitively deconstructed dish, but we all thought the plates looked great. For main I tried the rump of Cornish lamb on celeriac puree with braised neck croquette. The lamb was perfectly-pink and the puree made it into a splendid dish. The neck croquette was rich, dark, and of mouth-pleasing crispness, I could happily have had four of those as a dish in itself. Kate and my mother both went for pan roasted day boat John Dory on parsnip puree with a verjus and spring onion butter which we'd read was a speciality of the house. The bit I tried was delicious. Dessert for me was dark chocolate truffle with olive oil, hibiscus jelly and served with a huge glassy piece of moreish sea salt caramel. Kate's was rose and almond tansy pudding with lemon verbena ice cream which she was so enamoured of I didn't even get any of the pudding. My mother took a selection of Westcountry Artisan cheeses which was so substantial we all got to share. Cafetiere coffee or tea and petit fours are complementary and consisted of a good, lightly flavoured medium strength coffee with a soft chocolate ganache, a fruit jelly and creamy biscuit each. Service was nicely pitched. The maitre'd showed up a couple of times and the two young ladies serving were good humoured. The meal was £39.50 a head for three courses; rather embarrassingly I've forgotten what wine we had, a Pinot Grigio, but there was a good choice in the ~£20 range. Overall excellent value and a jewel in dining not just for Torquay, but Devon as a whole.

Beat me to it! Absolutely Hanbury's - there's a good reason it keeps getting in chip-shop top 10 lists. But they will need to book for the restaurant, or they can go to their take away next door and eat it on the sea front (cliff) at the end of the road. Anyone who's going, there's a large car park next door, cheaper to park after 7pm. I recommend the mushy pea fritters too! d.

If you really want to spend it all: Gordon Ramsay RHR Sketch Or with some change: Bacchus (you could have the £60 tasting menu and £45 matched wine). Locanda Locatelli D.

The Elephant is pretty clearly the best I've eaten at in Torquay, but since they only have 80-odd covers in total (24 fine dining and 60 brasserie) you could extend to The Orchid at Corbyn Head Hotel and maybe No 7, which is almost next door to The Elephant. Or if you want to try and get large groups together the Grand Hotel and the downstairs restaurant at Corbyn Head Hotel are decent. Sadly most of the places in downtown Torquay are Brewers Fayre/Hogshead-style dives. There are one or two mainstream places that are ok, Prezzo for example is fine and Pier Point is acceptable.

Oderquelle on Oderberger Strasse is a favourite of mine. The place is best called funky - I don't think it's seen more that a little lick of paint since the wall came down, but the food is great and they're rightly proud of it. The menu, which last time I went included a blackpudding ravioli as well as more traditional German dishes, is changed daily and the food is all prepared market-fresh each day. Last time I had: Uckermärker Reh- und Hirschkalbrücken auf sautierten Steinpilzen dazu gestofter Wirsing und Schupfnudeln. Basically deer shoulder with sauteed vegetables and a potato noodle side dish. It was hearty, but not heavy. Dinner for three including a couple of drinks each was just over 60 euros. Cheap by UK standards - you can barely eat at Pizza Express for that - but there was nothing cheap about the food or the standard with which it was cooked. Service was great with the waiter taking time to explain what was on the menu and how it was prepared. I plan to dine there again in September, 3rd year running... www.oderquelle.de - the daily menu is always online (click the plate).

At the risk of lowering the tone, I've found Tokyu Hands rather useful for knives at decent prices, especially Kyocera's ceramic ones, though they carry several other big brands. Of course it's not as upmarket as going to a specialist and my needs are quite mainstream. Anyway, it's worth a trip to the store to check out the cookery section for bargains and oddments.

So I tried Rumour last week thanks to CaptainJack's recomedation. The printed menus just contain a selection of pizzas and sides -- the real action is on the boards, where the daily menu is updated. All the produce is local and I could have happily chosen any one of the half dozen options for main course. The vegetable tempura was excellent. A pork rillette could have done with rather more fat for my taste but was probably right on the money for the rather more health conscious locals. My main course was a flavoursome steak with fries; Kate had a sea bream curry, which had great feel and taste. I had a jelly of strawberries and balsamic vinegar with basil ice-cream served on the side in a filo shell - very special indeed. I had half a mind to immediately order peach melba as well, but the afternoon was wearing on. The meal (two starters, three main and one dessert), including two bottles of Devonshire water, was ~£45. Good value from a place I'll be revisiting.

Ones I enjoyed: B&G Oysters No 9 Park Pigalle L at Louis Boston

Inspired by the section in Jeffrey Steingarten's It Must've Been Something I Ate I found myself preparing two different gratin recipes on Monday night. I'm loving Steingarten's book - his enthusiasm for pushing the envelope of testing is infectious. There's no way to look at one of the infrequent recipes in the book and not want to give it a go, but they are indeed infrequent - maybe a couple of dozen in total. In parallel I'm reading Hugh Fearlessly Eats It All, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, another book that contains perhaps 20 or 30 recipes in total. However while these books have few recipes compared to their overall page counts every single one is worth a try, and frequently the preceding text gives one more impetus to try them. So my question is: what other books are out there like these two? D.

Yep, one of surprising things about reading two Ramsay biogs back to back is seeing just how loyal he really is and how many of the people working for him have been in his circle since even before Aubergine (at least one key Ramsay player followed him from a ski lodge where Ramsay was doing a brief stint well before fame set in; and as well as promoting from within wherever possible he's even been known to rescue the better chefs from the Kitchen Nightmare's series). D.

According to the Neil Simpson biog of Ramsay (this is not a recommendation for that book BTW) it was the US producers who vetoed the higher levels of instruction and actually looking for people who could cook that were featured in the UK (celeb lead) first season. I know Ramsay deserves some stick for doing this show, but Simpson also says that most of the money goes into the restaurant biz not GR's personal coffers and at $1m for a month's work, more or less, who can blame him. I'd expect the show's paid for his NY launch. Apparently the upcoming UK 3rd season with Marco Pierre-White will again have a strong focus on teaching and encouraging cooking skills. Both types of show are fascinating in their own way IMHO. d.

I ate at a great place there a few weeks ago, by the fishmarket, on the corner. I took a photo of the outside so I'd remember what it was called... and it came out blurred! So, that's my vague recommendation. Edit: Google tells me it's called Mozarthuis. They served food to be cooked on hot stones at the table (no idea if that's a traditional Brugges thing) as well as the staples: Flemish stew, mussles etc. I'd have considered it child friendly. Of course the main thing to do is check out the chocolate: Galler, Neuhaus etc.

Thanks, I rather like the Three Fishes, so if it's better I'll be sure to detour next time I'm up. D.

Interesting to read these reports. It's not really in my neck of the woods anymore but I'm thinking of another visit to Northcote Manor for this simple reason that this is where, at the tender age of 16 (now 20 years ago), my interest in fine food was born. A family friend took us there for dinner and I remember being astonished that anything could taste so good (I grew up on hotpot, sausages and colcannon) and by the silver service, the likes of which I had no idea might be practiced in the modern world ; )

What about the CIA? http://www.ciachef.edu/restaurants/wsgr/ I know it takes a bit of faith to eat at a catering college -but I really liked the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant. The waiters are career professionals so it was no surprise that service was attentive and informed but right up to the first dish arriving (Today's Temptations, a taster of artful appetisers,) I wasn't sure if the food was going to be ok or not. But everything about this meal was of a class to match top kitchens back in the city. Indeed so good was it that the meal we had the night before at Puck's Postrio looked rather anemic in comparison. Nothing about the dishes suggested anything other than absolute professionalism, though I did suffer from food envy - the Greystone French Onion Soup one of our group had was amazing. D.

Sketch Lecture Room and Library in London is worth a visit. Lunch is a bargain if you want to get an idea of whether or not to splash out on dinner. £35 for three courses (4 if you count the complimentary canapes). The starter is a taster of multiple dishes; the main course choices a bit limited (but frequently changed); and either a taster of three sweet deserts or selection of cheeses. Honestly I think the French side of the MPW empire is still worth a look-see. When Marco Pierre White walked away from cooking I too walked away from his restaurants. It wasn't a big thing, but they'd diminished in some way in my mind and there were way more restaurants than I had time to eat in. Anyway, I tried L'Escargot last week. Having just been reading The Soul of A Chef by Michael Ruhlman there was no way I could pass on a ballotine of ham hock and foie gras. The foie gras just lightly shined with melted fat where it had been heated. It was utterly delicious, the coarse ham the perfect contrast to the buttery smooth foie. A chop of lamb served with petit pois puree and roast potato cubes followed; sweet, tender and perfectly cooked. Desert of chocolate tart was perfect. Perhaps because it was early in service the torte had a light, just out of the oven consistency and deep flavourful tastes that perfectly balance bitter and sweet over a dark chocolate biscuit base. According to the 2007 edition of The Good Food Guide the place to check out in central London are Arbutus (newcomer of the year), Galvin at Windows, and Latium. I can agree with the first two. I have no idea about Latium, I'd never heard of it until I just looked up their choices. D.

Well if you're going to check out Totnes for Rumour there's also Effings - which rather rubbed me the wrong way but is well regarded (and a favourite of my mother) and Willow, a rather fine vegetarian restaurant. Effings is a tiny restaurant in a deli on the main street, the kind of place you could easily pass over if it weren't for the excellent reviews from both local and national press posted in the window. Unfortunately I found the service to be rather off-hand, perhaps because we arrived just before the switch from lunch to the afternoon menu, but the food was good. I went for an antipasto plate at ~£15 which was loaded with more quality meats than I could manage, and a small selection of cheese and artichokes too. Aparrently the goat cheese and potato tart was good too. Overall, the prices were perhaps somewhat higher than the service and ambience deserved but I really enjoyed getting a good look at the tiny kitchen when I went to the bathroom. I'm pretty nosey when you get a chance to look at restaurant kitchens! A bit further out of the way is the excellent Orestone Manor, where I'm going again in a couple of weeks. It was changing owners around the time I last went there and I'm not sure what new imprint might be on it now. I had fishcakes with poached eggs to start - the lightly bound fish reminding me of a more rustic version of Thai fishcakes. Confit of duck leg followed and was as perfect as the dish can be. I went for a cheese plate rather than a sweet dessert but tried the strawberry gazpacho, which was delicious too. The cheese plate was remarkably substantial, particularly bearing in mind that we were eating the set lunch menu at ~£20 a head. Overall Orestone Manor really hit all my buttons - a setting with lots of character, charming service, a good bar and excellent food. Worth a detour for.

One really interesting thing to try is chanko-nabe, a hot pot that's cooked at your table and is favoured by sumo wrestlers bulking up. It's far more delicious and interesting than that sounds and a Japanese culinary experience that's not travelled as widely as sushi. The one I went to is: http://www.dreamark.co.jp/waka/e_index.html I tried the Yokohama one, which was excellent, but they have outlets in Tokyo proper too. I know, it's a chain, but it really doesn't feel like one...

I'd been pretty disappointed with the baby store in Soho (which used to be a Fresh & Wild). I'd pretty much written it off as having, for the most part, the same smug range of chocolate from South America and nicely labeled but blah-quality produce as the average aisle of Waitrose. I still got caught in the hype for the mega-store and made a special trip to check it out. ***I'm an idiot***. For those American's reading, what we've got is a glossy, flabby, (even more) pompous version of the US version where the shelves have been stocked with shotgun disregard for logic and the products are going to turn a generation off the funkier end of the food supply market once they've been tarred with the same brush as this folly. What did I try? Well, a decent enough but overpriced espresso, some vinegary olives and a slice of self destructing pizza. I looked at the butcher and the fish but it was all depressingly "supermarket." I really did want this to be better than it is... pah. Mind you, if you really felt your life was empty without the option of buying a tofu sandwich for nearly £4, then maybe you should still give it a go. ***takes deep breath***

Thanks! Interestingly he seems to be having a bit of renaissance. Both in rather undesirable tabloid newspaper coverage and in his cooking (even if the cooking is only on TV, not in the restaurant kitchen). With Hell's Kitchen gearing up, a new, more mainstream cookery book out in the late summer, and some more off-the-wall launches (The White Room, which is going to be on a cruise ship) I'm hoping that a future edition of the book will need 100 more pages, not just 10....