chrisp

This place is either great or awful. I have a feeling it depends on the presence of Paul Askew in the kitchen. When he's there, it's good, I mean

Well, I'm back, and we managed to visit both of your excellent recommendations. It wasn't as cold as we'd feared and we had a lovely long weekend pottering around such a beautiful city. In fact the only disappointment was the Botanic Gardens, which was a bit decrepit. Anyway, reports on the food are here: Trattoria Meloncello: http://cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.com/2009/0...-trattoria.html Drogheria della Rosa: http://cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.com/2009/0...-drogheria.html Other Bologna: http://cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.com/2009/0...ur-best-of.html Many thanks again for your suggestions, and if you're ever in Liverpool maybe I can return the favour

I don't know if this is going to sound a bit pretentious, in fact I know it probably is, but I've always considered MPW as the Van Morrison of cooking. Both genuises in their own fields, their best work created at a precociously young age (Van Morrison wrote Astral Weeks when he was 22) and paid for with massive personal sacrifice. Also both seem to now regard their earlier (best) work with an outward disdain, but which is probably something more like fear. Fear that they'll probably never be that good again, but also that they'll be reminded of the terrible pain it took to achieve. MPW on his more recent TV show kept saying how simple everything he did was, using stock cubes etc. which I'm sure is just a coping mechanism. And similarly Van Morrison has never revisited the dark personal themes of Astral Weeks, retreating instead into either MOR pop or Jazz-lite. I suppose if you don't like Van Morrison then none of the above will make any sense at all, it's just something I've been thinking about.

Maybe we're all still struck speechless by the rising 3* for that bloody Ducasse place....

no i didnt know to be honest i thought it wouldnt happen here ← Congratulations! ← many thanks ← Many many congrats Mark - long overdue. I'll be making a booking next time I'm up in Liverpool, hopefully March-ish. Chris

I sound like a proper old fuddy-duddy, but they really do not make them like this any more.

Ducasse are now doing a 20% off the food bill deal with Toptable. Including Saturday, and in the evening ALC. Either a reality check or a sign of quiet desperation... or even both... http://www.toptable.co.uk/venues/restauran.../21862663/false

Andy Hayler (Michelin-bagger extraordinaire) has a useful analogy - that Michelin stars are "sticky". Very difficult to get, and almost as difficult to lose. RHR has been running at 2* level MAX for a number of years now as far as I can tell, but the outcry and controversy involved in stripping them away has meant they've long outstayed their welcome. Same can be said of the Waterside Inn apparently, though I've never been myself.

Oh, and according to Via Michelin, the Meloncello place is closed from 14th-22nd January: http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/g...41102&id=127016 So looks like that one's off the list. EDIT: Michelin was wrong! I'm booked in on Friday 16th at Meloncello and the 17th at Della Rosa. Will write back here of my experiences at both! Thanks again for the tips, Chris

Brilliant - thanks all for your help. I can't find anything called Trattoria Della Rosa exactly from Google, but is this it: http://www.drogheriadellarosa.it/ ?

I'm off to Bologna on the 16th and some of these recommendations sounds great. I'm much more in favour of turning up at a little Trattoria than booking a Michelin star place for Saturday night. How busy are these places and how likely would we be to be able to just turn up and get a table - there are 5 of us?

That's what happened to me Sister's boyfriend received an acceptance but kept it secret until today - we're in (table of 4) for 23rd September 2009! Hooray!!

Is anyone still getting acceptances? I'm afraid my hopes of getting any reply are dwindling the closer we get to Christmas...

You think that's bad? There are a few hotels in London (Connaught for one) which not put a service charge on drinks in the bar (fine by me due to the excellent staff) but then the credit card machine makes you add an extra gratuity before you can process the payment!! Obviously each time I have just added a penny but still... I haven't made a fuss because of the type of place it is and I'm always with guests or the good lady and obviously don't want to make a tit of myself. Also The Connaught Bar at the moment is the nicest bar and the nicest room in the whole of London. Anyhow would be interested if anyone knows of any laws against this as am planning an e-mail to the manager regarding this. ← Paul - is it that the staff are pressing the "yes" for gratuity button before they give the machine to you? Because surely that is illegal.

I still haven't had a reply, positive or negative. I imagine the email has probably just been lost somewhere, but it would be nice to hear something...