Man

We had an all seafood lunch today (mackerel, scallop, lobster and salmon, + desserts), and they were very kind to split everything into two portions for us so it felt a bit like a seafood tasting menu. It was the best so far in my short history at the Ledbury. Everything was conceived and executed very well, it was a lovely, lovely lunch in all dimensions with some interesting combinations (e.g. fennel 'three ways' with the lobster), yet I can also see Sheepish's point above. We were sufficiently happy that we booked there and then another lunch for next week, to try the non-seafood items. We really would like to understand the cuisine of this chef that most people (including other chefs we know and respect) praise so so highly - we still fail to be as utterly blown away as others seem to be. It may be a matter of produce as Matthew suggests (our salmon was overwhelmed by the accompanying vegetables in intensity of flavour, but on the other hand the scallops were top notch), but maybe also the style of cuisine. Or maybe it's just us.

I've been a couple of times to the Ledbury and while both times I had some fantastic dishes neither time I had a perfect meal (I'm going again just today in search of that elusive perfection). For a special occasion to celebrate in style, for me the combination of grand ambiance, cuisine and service at Apsleys are unbeatable

I don't know, I feel there is a double 'conceptual' mistake at the heart of all this. First, the belief, in my view a little immature, that there is a single 'best' produce in each category: 'the best scallops', 'the best turbot', etc. There are many ways to be great for a piece of seafood or meat, and it is preposterous to believe to have identified the unique best. I come from a country where cuisine is strongly ingredient-based, and where many people, people like us I mean, are obsessed by quality of produce, and I honestly believe that I have eaten stuff to which nothing can be declared superior (just caugtht Mediterranean fish that brings tear to your eyes so good it is, rare breeds of pork or lamb or cows you've never heard of, unbelievable vegetables, bread and pasta from superselected flours, etc.), yet I wouldn't for one moment say I have eaten the unique best. Another farmer in the next valley may be raising equally, yet differently, flavoursome lambs; another restaurant may know a different fisherman who procures equally marvelous seabass. In the two times I was at Hedone I found the produce truly excellent, but hand on heart I could not say that the scallops or the pork or the turbot I had there were uniquely the best: I've had equally marvellous scallops, pork or turbot in Italy, France, Spain and yes, even the UK - here in Scotland in particular, and, I should notice, without all the strained obsession and fanfare and worshipping choruses that seems to accompany Jonsson's searches. (To be fair, I'll make an exception for the pigeon). The fact that Jonsson is deeply obsessed does not mean that he will in the end find a pork that is definitely superior to that served by every single other chef in the UK: does there exist a uniquely best farmer that raises pigs, cows, lambs just for Jonsson, or a special fisherman who knows a special race of turbot caught in a special spot of water nobody else knows just for Jonsson? Come on. Rest assured that Ducasse and his suppliers, and others, will find equally good turbots. The second point I would make is this. Even assuming Jonsson's produce had a slight edge on everybody else's, we are really talking nuances here, subtle nuances that can be undone by many other factors. Notably, cooking. Now, Jonsson's feat of opening a restaurant at this level given his background is nothing short of amazing and I admire him enormously for this - but the fact remains that being a top chef, in particular a 2* level chef as many say, is setting the bar very high, a bar that in my visits he was very, very, very far from passing, and thus a bar that is set ridiculously high for what Hedone is. This is my opinion of course, but while the cooking was good, there was some coarseness and some inconsistency of execution that makes it almost offensive for other very hard working professionals, who've perhaps sacrificed their youth undergoing terribly tough and long and disciplined training, to be compared to what can olny be described as a (very) talented amateur. Yes Andy Hayler and Matthew, we have understood that at Hedone we find scallops that are still wriggling so fresh they are, and that therefore they are very sweet: yet a great dish of scallops is not the winner in a competition for the sweetest scallops in the world. It is the winner in a competition for the best and most originally prepared scallops in the world. And in this competition the Hedone dish did not even make it to the podium.

Very much my view. I am not a serious food blogger. I find the action of people taking photos of their dinner quite annoying. In fact, the next time I see it happening in a restaurant, I am quite tempted to curl one out on a side plate and present it to the photographer. Cuts out the middleman. I also wrote

Sounds good. Obviously the carte. Not the set lunch with those luxury ingredients? How did it compare up against Martin Wishart or Castle Terrace? Yes the a la carte - the set lunch by the way, while not featuring luxury ingredients, is great value, and if there is one who knows how to treat the less noble parts of the animal or 'lesser' ingredients, that is Kitchin. Castle Terrace, they laughed at me when I tried to book with just a few days notice . We cannot plan in advance and so probably we'll never set a foot in - we were lucky with The Kitchin to get a rare cancellation for a Saturday lunch at short notice. Martin Wishart is the opposite of Kitchin. The dishes are far more elaborate and 'clever', the environment is more formal, less 'young' (Oh dear, that would be for me then...). Still immaculate ingredients, still a great chef.

Annual pilgrimage to the Kitchin. Just to report that they are firing on all cylinders and if you are in Edinburgh in the Summer and have just one choice, choose this one. Best lunch of the year so far, in a city that has no shortage of good restaurants. Had the signature pig's head and langoustine (including a cripy pig's ear) that was, quite simply, stunning for flavour and texture. A special of lobster a la plancha made me think it would be hard to have a better lobster. In a dish of scallops and asparagus, what lovely, lovely ingredients. And a stuffed rabbit with crispy legs and the kidneys on the side, again, featured flavours and textures playing together beautifully. Previously weak points have been improved: desserts are now excellent (especially a cherry and oat souffle'), and the uncomfortable chairs have been replaced by comfortable upholstered ones, with other improvements to the furnishing: larger tables, new curtains etc.). Gone has the bread trolley (last year's innovation, but apparently they decided they have too many trolleys in the room); I think making bread in-house may be the next improving step. Kitchin is a force of nature in the kitchen.

I too appreciated The Greek's answer, which was admirably more gracious and measured than that of other chefs when criticised (David is right that for many chefs customer is king and competent till he praises, and only becomes an incompetent ignoramus when he turns critical: which is it? Do customers understand or do only professionals understand?). I especially liked The Greek's opening "I generally don`t like to interfere with people`s opinions of my restaurant as it is all a subjective opinion." His was a response that somehow made me want to try his restaurant, while the responses of others in the past had definitely put me off. If I had to guess what happened...it is possible that, like at many restaurants with husband&wife at their core (I have especially in mind a starred one near home here in Fife, but I've seen several), service while generally charming is just a little less supple and professional, and a bit more 'emotional', than in, say, a well-oiled and hard-nosed metropolitan operation. Just possible. So that they react to unusal requests and customers' quirks with less panache than others. That said, I really think (I've always shown sympathy to David on this forum so I say this without malice) it tarnishes the reputation of bloggers and of picture-taking food lovers in general to let our 'reviewing' (the use of the word 'review' for a few mangled comments seems excessive to me) activities interfere with service, be it by asking people to hold still with trays, bottles, etc. in their hands for more than the briefest of instants or recording their descriptions or moving around holding a camera. I find that intrusive and impolite. The civilised thing to do is to be as discreet as possible, and just photograph what happens in 'real time' with no fuss at all, having as a firm priority the avoidance of any disturbance to other (reasonable) people, customers or staff, rather than the quality or quantity of the pictures. While I'm at it, I also think one should not take recognisable pictures of other customers. The moral of this interesting story for me is that reasonable people will always live well together. As Chef The Greek says, he's not bothered by the act of taking pictures in itself (he's even flattered): that's a positive, reasonable attitude. A fight signals unreasonable behaviour somewhere. It's only when you have unreasonable intrusiveness on one side or unreasonable intolerance on the side of customers or staff, or both, that tthings go awry.

Fay M has been there twice and intends to go a third time... Praises value for money more than absolute quality.

Followed by culatello and champagne at lunch?

Thanks for your admirably detailed report, you should write more! Re. your comment on the arancini di riso, I was reminded of a review Giles Coren wrote about Apsleys, where, among other problems, he found the arancini 'dull'. I remember thinking at the time that, since I refused to believe that the 3* Heinz Beck could get the recipe for arancini wrong or super-meticulous Max Blasone fail to have it executed to perfection, it must be a 'cultural thing'. Or maybe not. Have you had arancini that you like in London (Bocca di L., Polpo, etc.)? The main way an arancino can be dull, I guess, is a wrong balance rice/filling - was this the problem? I see what you mean about service at Briciole. Those girls are lovely but often a bit clueless, especially with English speakers, dealing with whom may from time to time happen even in London PS: you're right they haven't 'launched' officially yet, no proper PR has been done.

These dishes look gorgeous and supremely edible. And 'Burrata (Italian creamed cheese) sat atop and started to melt into the hot pasta' was pure poetry to me These days this type of food is the only one that excites me besides proper fine dining - what irritates me are the ever more numerous middling places that instead of offering honest cooking like this (or say Medlar) go for minuscule portions that are just a mockery of high end cuisine, which needs super produce or monster technique or stunning culinary ideas or mega comfort & pampering (and hopefully more than one of these).

I must say I always hope that the chef doesn't come out - I mostly find it an awkward situation: I cannot criticise as s/he will think I am an incompetent old fart (and quite right too!), and praise is tiring after a while, especially faint one. So we end up asking boring technical questions. It's quite rare that we end up having a meaningful, relaxed conversation, and then for obvious reasons only when the restaurant is close to empty. After we write our blog posts we remain anonymous (except for a couple of special circumstances, that both led anyway to unpleasant experiences) but we alert the restaurant to the post so that they can correct any factual mistake. Occasionally we get torrents of abuse and we wonder what would have happened had we made the criticism on the spot... This is a long-winded way to say that in general, I like the idea that the communication between chef and customers should occur mainly through the dishes (and the f.o.h staff).

Another informative report, thanks David. Yet, that an egg with mushroom bits threatens to become a signature dish is a testament to the bullshit that some contemporary eating has become. No, really, what's the 'concept' there, can somebody explain to troglodyte me? Please, 'the best scrambled egg you can imagine' and suchlike refrain from applying (I've just had the best crispy haggis in my life and that, for how good it was, won't make the place the Scotland opening of the year, just a lovely inn). And the scrambled egg in the broken shell is such an old presentation idea (e.g. I liked one served as an amuse bouche in an otherwise mediocre Mayfair place). Anyway, I agree that a moussaka plus the amuse bouches in the pictures sounds like a light and reasonable value eating experience at £49. But I was wondering, given that the room looks so spectacularly ugly (again, can anyone explain 'the concept'? Does looking at exposed pipes make one quiver with excitement?) and the tables so tiny and uncomfortable, does somebody also come round with a whip to increase even further the clientele's enjoyment?

If you get the chance David try the a la carte - from your report (and especially the comments about truffles, fish etc.) it looks like it's a different kind of experience and the produce is on a different level. Mind you, I'm not saying the produce is Mikael Jonsson's standard...hard to beat that. Still, it's among the best seafood I've had in London (and definitely prepared better and more precisely than on my two visits at Hedone).

Well, finally I closed my eyes and ignored all the competition and managed to cross the one-o-one entrance for dinner. We tried the Wild Norwegian Red King Crab, delicious in both of the versions we chose. Woman went for the cold version, simply accompanied by a mayonnaise sauce (good). I must admit this was the best way to appreciate the marvellous flavour of the enormous legs of this beast. It was fun to eat, too, even if not very conducive to conversation. I opted for the more elaborate version with sweet chilli and ginger sauce. It was a very classy sauce with a pleasant, far from overpowering kick. These are not cheap items but they would have been worth the full price (£27 apiece) that we didn't pay (the usual toptable offer). Then the seabass (also from the Barents Sea like the crab, according to the waiter) in salt crust, the preparation of it a piece of theatre seen one thousand times but endlessly fascinating. We had had one just a few days before in Seville and we must say this London one was much better cooked: absolutely stunning cooking in fact, the flesh so moist (however, the flavour of these Northern basses of course never matching that of their best Mediterranean cousins). Accompanied by various molluscs in a razor-clam shell, a tiny cylinder of potato puree, and a lovely shellfish champagne butter sauce with a sea lettuce mash, the protagonist of this dish really had the space to shine, and at the same time the chef had the opportunity to show his finesse. A very very well-judged creation. Again not cheap (£60 for entire fish), but also very much worth it. Skipped desserts, skipped wine (the next day a rustic mega eat and drink at Briciole was on the cards...), but had the chance to verify that they belong to the 'cannot make espresso' club of fine dining restaurants. Service is super and sweet once you manage to get their attention, which is not always easy with a rather full room. Verdict: I feel a la carte you get the most sumptuous dishes (at the nearby table a Dover sole also looked very enticing), but we also want to try the lunchtime smaller dish sequence highlighted by David, which is very good value. And then again for dinner, possibly many times...if only Koffman's wasn't so close (I' like a pat on the back from Sunbeam for confining the photos to my place, in due course).

Spot on.

I photograph about half of my meals out, but I obviously go to the wrong places as I've never once come across a celebrity! (Or maybe I just don't watch enough TV to recognise them - luckily I've also never been subjected to the terrifying treatment Subeam suggests above ). From the point of view of the customers, in a public and crowded place one can always find one zillion motives of irritation in the behaviour of one's fellow human beings. This one talks too loud, that one has uncouth table manners, that other one wears a silly dress...So either one learns to tolerate such minor irritants, or quite a stressed life is on the cards. From the point of view of the restaurateur, I have more understanding of their desire to have control of the images of what they produce (I agree with Sunbeam and others that the quality is sometimes poor, even grotesque - definitely so in my case) and they certainly have a right to impose a no photo rule. On balance, though, I am not sure it is in their commercial interest to do so. Perhaps this is why such a rule is quite rarely seen.

No.

Uhm, maybe he has calmed down, but not enough to avoid serving espresso in paper cups, one of the dumbest ideas I've ever come across. Ah no, that would be having forks with only two prongs.

As I said:

We've now put up a full set of pictures at our place in case you're interested. I apologise to those of you who find food photos offensive but hope he (oops) will appreciate my restraint on egullet...

At this stage I'm getting curious, next time I'm London I'll go check myself and see what exactly they have (my friend is in the restaurant business, has a private club, so normally I'd trust him, on the other if you two guys say you've never seen guanciale in GP I wonder...maybe it's just some branch?)

Ask for 'Smoked Chicks' (or something that sounds like that...) that is the guanciale they produce (also non-smoked)

Haven't bought it myself but a (very) knowledgeable friend tells me that you can find it in all Italian delies that sell the products of C. Carnevale, as well as The Ginger Pig (various outlets in LOndon (Shepherds Bush, Hackney, Marylebone, Borough Market e Waterloo).

And more reliably, also by egullet fave (well, at least for some of us ) Jay Rayner