PhilD

Wow, it seems the kitchen is inconsistent. We did have a really good meal there earlier in the year. We didn't leave hungry but have vowed to avoid tasting menu's in the future as the portion size irritates. Was Nathan in the kitchen? Now he has two places to look after and slots on TV (Saturday Kitchen?) there is a distinct danger he over stretches himself. Good to hear the FOH staff are still good.

Tony, if you are still in Fowey try the following: The Other Place - head upstairs from the fish bar to quite a good (cheap) restaurant The Rashleigh Inn at Polkarris - it is almost on the beach with a little beer deck. The fish and chips was really fresh and well cooked, and the crab sanwiches great. A few pints of Otter washed it down very well.

The new openings were in large hotels i.e. Crowne Casino in Melbourne and One & Only in Cape Town, this funded by the hotels. I also understood he changed his model from a capital investment in the restaurants to a management/consultancy deal. So GRH doesn't need to "invest" in the new openings, instead they get a revenue stream from ongoing operations. If I am correct this is the model most other international chefs use; he is simply consolidating back to the normal/accepted model, less exposure, probably lower returns, but predictable positive cash flow.

Lipp won't let you do that without ordering a meal, and they specify that a "salad is not a meal" (a point I agree with but for different reasons). Not certain about other brasseries I think they are generally more flexible.

There is also "Terroirs" a very French inspired wine bar, with great food, near Charing cross. It is one of the hot tables in town at the moment. Their bar is set up for eating and people watching.

So, in the rejection e-mails and on the web site it says there won't be info about 2010 until the end of December. But I notice everyone who sent in a request for 2009 did so in October. Have they changed their policy on when to accept requests? If I want to try for 2010 do I need to do so in October, despite what the e-mail and web site say? Finally, I'm new here. Should I be asking this in a new thread, e.g. El Bulli 2010 reservations? Thanks, Denny ← In previous years the restaurant was open April to October, this year it is June to December. I assume they don't do the next years reservations until the end of the season and this year it is a couple of months later.

Well this should be interesting we are hoping to go tomorrow. We went to The Sportsman last week and the service was terrible! See my post on The Sportsman. ← Pam - it won't be that bad. Interested in your comments on the food. Do get the family to save space for Brittany's desserts: although the deconstructed Tiramasu my partner tried on our last visit tasted better smoosched together (re-constructed).

An excellent choice. A traditional sw bistro. I had one of my first meals in Paris at La Fontaine du Mars in 1983 and have most recently eaten there in September, 2007. Great food, nice location, excellent service. I am happy I made reservations there for the end of June before Obama ate there. I bet the restaurant will be seeing alot of American diners this summer. ← I guess I am in the minority (see related thread) but I don't think it is a good choice for those looking for great food. To me it is a "Disney land" version of a Parisian bistro, the food is OK, the service is fine, but you could be in Brasserie Balzar NYC given the number of US tourists (and that was prior to the Obama visit). Maybe we were put off by being surrounded by tables of whinging teenagers not enjoying the foreign food, maybe it was a bad night and it is genuinely a local haunt; whatever the reason we never returned and it was relatively local, a 15 minute walk, from where we lived. Although interestingly it was where my French colleagues felt safe in taking overseas visitors.

A good meal here on Saturday night. Is it a restaurant, is it a wine bar? I am not certain it really matters. The menu is structured so that you can have a few snacks with your wine, or you can graze across the options to build a solid meal. We started with duck scratchings, then rillettes and terrine, moved through anchovies on toast, clams in wine, and chorizo with piperade and finished with cheese. Every dish was tasty and enjoyable, the only slight disappointment were the much lauded duck scratchings, OK they are tasty but ours were like "duck dust". Novelty over substance? The wine list is very strong, and not that badly priced. Yes it is biodynamic, but to me that simply means small producers who take extra care. As long as I don't have to pay a premium I find I prefer the alternatives to the big communes and MNC's in the wine business. My only concern is that it is too popular, we had a two hour limit on our table, but they moved us around to accommodate an order for extra wine. I suspect its popularity has more to do with the price/quality ratio in the rest of London rather than Terrois being exceptional. It s good, and it would stand its ground in Paris. I just wish this was the average standard in the UK, rather than the delusional hype we get that the renaissance of UK restaurants means we have world beaters on each corner (before I get beaten up, yes there are great restaurants in the UK, just far too few of them).

I believe the week is called "Semana Grande" (Big Week?) and not only has the International Fireworks competition but lots of other cultural events. The city is very busy and the restaurants do a great trade. Here is a URL that has some info: http://www.donostia.org/info/ciudadano/fes...cat=Otros&doc=D. It is the " 45 CONCURSO-FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE FUEGOS ARTIFICIALES" which kicks off on 9th August at 22:45, and finishes on the 16th August with the final display at 22:45. The site lists all the events each day. The city is very busy and the restaurants do a great trade, this may make it more difficult to get into some of the tapas bars, and I assume opening hours will be more variable. Have fun.

For me it is simply good politics. It is an average restaurant that delivers reasonable "traditional" (or guidebook) French food to hordes of tourists, the majority coming from the US. It won't cause any controversy by being an elitist, expensive or overpriced restaurant, and it will be familiar to many US visitors to Paris who have eaten there. It will also be well within the price range of many future visitors. IMO there are lots of restaurants that deliver similar food (many of which aren't overrun by tourists) and of course there are lots that deliver better food at a similar or lower price point. If you go, you probably won't be disappointed; you may even meet neighbors from home! So a choice as well judged as Barack visiting a local burger bar and placing the order himself. PS - It is spelt "La Fontaine de Mars"

A second visit to The Red Lion. The food is still excellent; I started with a superb pate and brioche; the pate had a really soft melting texture, which almost liquefied in the mouth releasing great flavours. Very moreish. I followed this with pig cheeks, wonderfully flavoured, soft and melting, contrasted with a good sauce and very precisely cooked small vegtables. To finish a creme brulee, which hit the spot perfectly. So fantastic food, but the service does let it down, and as a result I fear for the place. On our first visit I didn't think it deserved the critism it got from Jay Rayner or Jasper Gerard in the national press. On this visit I understand their comments. The food gets to the table, but the two servers (sisters?) clearly feel that serving is beneath their station in life, if feels as if they are bringing dishes to you during gaps in their social lives. There are too many FOH staff which causes them to get in each others way, even though there seems to be some sort of division of responsibility, this gets debated at every turn (you don't need to divide up roles in a small country pub). Brittany, one of the chefs and co-owner from the US, is hyper, and rushes around FOH and exuding a worried air, maybe business isn't great but it won't get better if the atmosphers feels so tense. I really want them to succeed. The food is really, really good, and people with this much talent shouldn't fail. Hopefully, the service will rectify itself (should I write to them?) and they will find their feet. My fingers are crossed.

One contributor pointed out that it is less than three weeks until the proposed opening day: hardly enough time for any ideas to be utilised. However, not bad PR for a new place. I do have quite a morbid fascination for the thread; it is a really interesting insight into what people want in a restaurant. If I assume the WoM site represents a fair slice of the dining public, it is clear the British public get the restaurants they deserve. Which is quite sad. We don't live far away so may take a trip and report back. The menu seems limited and affected i.e. the water buffalo steak. Today Matthew Norman (in The Guardian) gives a rave review to "At the Chapel" in Bruton small village 30 miles from Mat's Beaminster restaurant: it will be interesting to see the restaurants compare, one already successfully catering for village locals the other aspiring too.

Glad to hear Lumiere is still good. I really liked it under the previous team: I enjoyed it more than LCS - food not as good, but all the other bits were better.

You're being ironic, right? ← Of course not. Restaurant PR's are vital. How would we know where to go, and what to eat without them? How would I know which were the new openings worth visiting? How would all these bloggers be able to sample lots of restaurants without the largesse of the PR's? Actually the last point does have a serious undertone. Lots of great bloggers retain an independent spirit and write about their personal food journey. But have the PR people now hooked into the blog world? Maybe I didn't notice it before but it is becoming increasingly prevelant. Two examples: I used to enjoy "World Foodie Guide", or "Gourmet Chick", quite fun, low key blogs written by passionate people finding their way around the food of London. But recently there are increasing numbers of posts about blogger gatherings arranged by restaurants, or books sent out for review. They strive to remain independent, but the sense of reality has been lost. I understand readers will vote with their mice. For me the attraction of the blog world is that it was independent. The influx of PR's will change this. Hopefully, there is enough quality out there for discriminating readers to still find independent thought.

I can't help thinking these are basic cooking textbooks, without the personality, or individual style that you would expect from a chefs cookbook. I suspect the "The Cooks Companion" is on most serious cooks bookshelf, alongside the UK classic "Leith's Techniques Bible". The Cooks Companion, seems to be an international standard with any serious cookery bookshop in the UK stocking it. I agree with Shinboners about Perry's books, I have a couple of his older ones including "Rockpool" and the recipes work well and are easy to follow. His, and Bills books (great for the simplicity of basic Aussie food), help bring a little bit of "home" to our UK kitchen.

I echo the comment. Good to see some action on this board. We ate at Becasse a couple of years ago and it is very good. If Michelin was in Australia we thought it would have earned two stars, as it was far better than a lot of two stars we had eaten in in Europe (and a lot better value).

A very positive story dressed up with the usual swipes at Ramsay. He hit problems; he (and the team) analysed the issues; he decided not to do a Aitkins or Worrall Thompson but put his hand in his pocket to keep the business going; he restructured the business (as Jon explained); and he is still in business. Good for him (and all his staff who still have jobs). Despite the imperfections in his empire the dining scene in London (and some other cities) would be far poorer without GR than with him. I, for one, congratulate him on tackling the issues and hope it succeeds. P.S. I assume this "positive" story has no link to him deciding to employ a PR person. He seemed to suffer a lot in the period after his previous PR left.

Is that a correct statement? I know Paris closes for August as everyone heads out of town, but the out of town restaurants are open in order to receive all those Parisians. I can recall this being the same issue in other European countries. I was in SS last August and it was open for business, in-fact a week in early August is the International Fireworks festival (which is spectacular) and the place is packed, and all restaurants doing great business (including Mugaritz)

How is the "UB Chip" these days? I remember it's heyday 20 years ago, but was interested to see it was on the Good Food Guide's shortlist for restaurants if the year this week. Does it deserve its place on the list?

I never thought of it like that. Maybe we've misunderstood the voting process. ← I believe it says on the "rules" that in the case of a tie the public vote takes precedence. I also think top chef gets 8 points, down to last chef with 1. Obviously if chef with 8 points only gets 6 in the public vote then one with 7 who then gets 8 wins. After finding out that Glynn's dish took so long I thought we could try another, but given the weather I really couldn't face a hotpot or a beef wellington, both far too wintery for the summer. My fishmonger was out of monkfish at 10:00am this morning; the GBM effect? We are improvising with cheeks.

I see Andy Hayler has reviewed a couple of Tristans's dishes in his review of Launceston Place; interesting reading. We liked the look of the ice-cream cornet but thought it would be best as a pre-desssert; a bit like Heston's serves his version (Mrs Marshall's Margaret Cone). That followed by the treacle tart would be great. I planned to cook Glynn's fish dish today, but I now realise I should have started the pickled carrots a couple of weeks ago, and the monkfish needs to rest overnight in the fridge...! Looks like improvisation is required.

I found the camaraderie and generally fun attitude they all had this week to be far better TV than the staged rivalry we had in the heats. It is so much better to see people work together and help each other out, IMO you get more insight and genuine comment than you get in the false confrontational approach they try to foster. Have all TV producers had a creativity bypass; they must have given the formulaic approach. In contrast I caught David Pritchard on Radio 4 this week talking about his book "Shooting the Cook", he was behind Keith Floyd and Rick Stein TV shows. We don't need a reprise of them but we could do with another producer that is as creative. I would go for James - Glynn - Nigel - Tristan: although Tom's beef wellington wouldn't disappoint.

I agree - worth its own thread. I will try and post some photo's tomorrow.

Good to read a recent report. On my visit it was the full 32 course El Bulli classics menu, which was faultless. I had thought I had written it up on the board back in Oct '07 (probably on a Seville report). I remember a couple of tables did go ALC; they seemed to be locals having a business meal. In some ways it is good to see it is getting its own character, but also sad that the "short cut" into an El Bulli experience seems to be closed.