PhilD
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Posts posted by PhilD
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As a category, brasseries are much more to be appreciated for their ambience than for their cuisine.
John, very good points. We always enjoyed Lipp, as it was our local, and we go skilled at getting a table in the front room.
However, I do think there are some that are to be avoided. Like John T. we also had a dire experience at Vaudeville - bad food and bad staff.
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Everyone keeps pushing New Tayyabs, but london eating reviews complain that it's crowded and the food really isn't what it used to be. Is there much truth in that?
Roger, I also noted Andy Hayler was less than ecstatic about it in his recent review here. Given the feedback you got from raising this I think his last sentence is quite prophetic.
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Actually, it's exactly because the Michelin guides are always very diligent about noting the existence of tasting "Menus" (as they're distinguished in the guide from the "Carte") and prices that I noticed the omission for Gordon Ramsay at RHR.
For example, I'm looking at the London Michelin profile of 1 Lombard Street (1 Michelin). It lists a "Menu 39/45GBP - Carte 54/62GBP."
I thought Michelin used "menu" in the French way i.e. simply a set menu of 3 courses - starter, main and dessert (table d'hôte). As they say in the guide the lowest price is usually the set lunch.
A tasting or degustation menu is usually a multi course extravaganza 7, 9, 11 or up-to 30 courses. I didn't think Michelin used these in the price categories because they are so variable (in terms of size and scope) and therefore you can't assess the relative value.
The ALC price is again for a three course meal and the range indicates the cost of a simple ALC choice to a more elaborate (expensive) choice.
Your example of 1 Lombard Street would tend to confirm this i.e. the set 3 course meal would usually be less expensive than a ALC choice and it is in the example. A degustation or tasting menu is usually more expensive than ALC.
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Lunch at all the big names is nearly always a good deal, you do have to watch the wine clawback tho!
S
....and coffee clawback. £5 a head at Claridges.
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We had a very nice holiday there couple of years ago. Good casual meal at Chez Hortense right at the end of the peninsular. It was very busy, with a full second sitting at 10:00ish. We stayed at La Maison du Bassin and ate in the rstaurant which we really enjoyed - great setting especially on a balmy night.
We also stayed in La Gueriniere in Gujan-Mestras and ate in their one star restaurant. Quite nice but a bit formal for the holiday. Good place for oysters (if there are any around) as it is the centre of the industry in the area.
Not certain if any of these are in reach of where you are staying.
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Unfortunately I think that Laundry bills in London add up to huge sums of money and you would find the food going up in price to compensate if you want tablecloths
I think the lack of them lends a nice casual feel to the room personally and that is what is so appealing about the place.There is a great restaurant in Sydney (Bistro Moncur) that solves this problem by using linen clothes and then covering them with a paper clot. Keeps the laundry bill down, maintains the casual atmosphere, but importantly deadens the sound.
It has been going for years with this approach and still sits at a similar (relative) price point to Arbutus - no booking, simply turn up, wait at the bar and eat. They turn the tables without compromising the ambiance. A lesson for London's low cost/high quality dining places?
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Aye John, nowt much to do down here 'til whippett racing is back on't telly....
I wonder if not naming the chefs restaurants is more subtle than we give the programme credit for. After all these are all junior chefs who probably have little influence on what goes out of the kitchen. They may be very talented but if they work in a dodgy restaurant with a poor head chef their talent will be hidden.
Agree with the cliches and fake tension....but still the best of a bad lot.
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By chance I caught the first episode in this new series. Gregg Wallace is joined by Michel Roux Jr as a judge.
First episode looks promising. One to watch?
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Great meal at Arbutus last night
Must agree with Mathew we had a really good meal at Arbutus on Saturday night. Really, really good food especially at this price in central London.
But I don't like the room that much - too bright, and needs softening with tablecloths - I feel it doesn't really frame the food well, and food like this deserves better. Is it designed to make diners uncomfortable and thus turn tables? However, it won't stop me returning.
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not a writer i usually read (don't take the torygraph)
I think all her reviews eventualy end up on her site http://www.areyoureadytoorder.co.uk/review_search.php so you can avoid the torygraph.
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Let me just add that I've been in Paris the week between Christmas and New Year's for two decades and while it requires extra attention and more searching, one can survive for at least one meal out per day.
I agree with John. I found the period before Christmas to be really good in Paris. As others have said the shops and streets are really nicely decorated, festive but far from commercial. There is also a good feeling about the place far different from places like London where rampent commercialisation has taken over.
We found that quite a few restaurants do close for an extended holiday, but those that are open are far less crowded. We, for example, strolled into L'Atelier Joel Robuchon at 8:30 (with no reservation) in the week before Christmas and had a choice of places to sit. We had a very relaxed meal, a nice contrast to the usual rushed affair here.
With Christmas day on a Thursday this year you may find some places pack up around the 20th.
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PhilD: thanks a lot, I already knew the principle of that omelette but Mme Poulard wrote that letter in a typical chef manner, making sure she was not including any essential information. Omelette made in the way she describes is just like any omelette. The truth has to be sought elsewhere.
I read it slightly differently. My read was that the secret of the omlette is that there is no secret. Simple, fresh, high quality ingredients cooked well.
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but the dish "Omelette a la Mère Poularde" is nothing to have been tasted. I didn't like it and after the first bit I've sent it back to the kitchen.
Would you care to explain more precisely why you didn't like it and why, in your opinion, the dish was not good? This is a real question, I have never been there.
Ptipois - I noted your love of old recipes. Here is a copy of a letter from Annette Poulard to M. Robert Viel from 1922 (it is from my 1960 edition of Elizabet David's French Provincial Cooking - still in print), it explains the secret of the Omelette a la Mere Poularde:
Monsieur Viel,
Voici la recette de l'omelettte: je case bons oeufs dans une terrine, je les bats bien, je mets un bon morceau de beurre dans la poele, j'y jette les oeufs et je remue constamment . Je suis heureuse, monsieur, si cette recette vous fait plaisir.
Annette Poulard
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Bristol now has a restaurant specializing in Sichuan and Yuanan cooking. Called Zen, it's on Millennium Square more or less next to the Planetarium. (http://www.zenharbourside.co.uk/).
Anyone else been?
We tried it for dinner on Saturday night. Overall a good meal, as you say nice friendly service and good food. We tried:
Pickled Sichuan Vegtables - crunchy and spicy with good flavours.
Pan fried dumplings - tasty, and as they say on the menu they seem home made.
Aromatic Chilli Chicken - we have had this version in a very good restaurant in Hong Kong and this is slightly differnt, hee they are small battered pieces of chicken rather than larger pieces simply coated in a fiery spice mixture and fried. It is tasty but suffers in comparison.
Twice Cooked Pork - a very satisfying dishes with good flavours and a nice crunch to the vegetables in the dish.
Ma po Dofu - the flavour was fine, but it was a little too soupy.
Overall we enjoyed the meal, the staff warned us about the heat when we ordered, but apart from the crunchy vegetables all the dishes seemed underpowered. I suspect Sichuan cuisine is toned down for UK tastes as I felt the same about Bar Shu when we tried it a couple of years ago. My other comment is that the dishes are far too large, and are therefore quite expensive. It would be far better for them to halve the portion size and the price. I would have loved to have tried a broader range of dishes but at £12 to £18 pounds per dish we limited our ordering, we are glad we did because when they arrived they were enormous and we struggled with the mountain of food. The bill for two was £51.48 including tea, rice, and 10% service.
I hope it is a success, but I worry that it was only 30% full on a Saturday evening.
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Is the Comptoir any good sunday lunch or are we likely to have to wait ages for a table? My friend is likely to be jetlagged so standing in the rain will not go down well!!
They serve all afternoon on Sunday, if you are grtting there after the lunch rush you shouldn't have to wait very long. It is a long weekend in France this weekend - Friday (15th) was Assomption so Paris will be less busy - maybe why MP os closed.
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For addresses try this fantastic site: Todos Pintxos
Matthew - thanks for the link to the site. We failed to do the tapas justice. First mistake was to think we could tour the bars after a long lunch at Mugaritz....even a palette cleaning ale was a struggle.
Second mistake: we chose the week of San Sebastians fiesta (culminates on the 15th Aug) which doubles up as an international fireworks competition. The town was packed with everyone trying to get into the bars...! However, the fireworks are superb, we saw the French display which was huge, lasting a full 15 minutes. They have a display every-night for a week, so worth timing a trip around this (I think it is an annual event), the displays start at 10:45 so plenty of time to do a tapas crawl and the atmosphere is really good.
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Well, it wasn't just the one excample, it was based on three different restaurants with one star, plus my visit to chez Loiseau. Loiseau and La Cabro D'or were very, very good.
I wouldn't make such a hasty judgment based on such a small sample size. In my experience Michelin is a useful source of comparative information about restaurants, however I also usually try to research by cross referencing other sources in order to get as broad a perspective as possible.
Does Michelin drive chefs in a certain direction or do trends in food, or other famed chefs, drive them? I suspect the main influences on chefs are their peers in the industry, Michelin reflects the change rather than drives it. From my experience these trends are geographically constrained, yet influences do cross borders (after all chefs have passports).
Having eaten Michelin starred meals in the UK, Spain, and France over the last year, and good meals in Australia (they don't have Michelin) I felt that they all showed national characteristics and differences. I have seen a lot more diversity across Michelin restaurants than uniformity. OK I have seen trends in certain styles/types of restaurants, but as I try and eat in a broad spectrum of restaurants, this has not become an issue for me.
My guess Michelin stars will never be a good guide for basic, homestyle cooking. The Bibs are more useful for this. If I am looking for a cheap/rustic meal I would head for a Bib restaurant more than a starred one. That said I can quite easily cook basic food like galettes and cheeseburgers at home so I am less focussed on searching this type of food when I visit restaurants. If I, or my friends (to Margaret's point), can produce the food why pay a premium to enjoy it in a restaurant?
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We return to Mugaritz nearly a year after our first visit in September ’07. Again, I have the same dilemma. Lots of good reviews mixed with some worryingly poor ones. We had an excellent meal on our last visit; will we be disappointed this time? Is it better to try something new and not chance tarnishing the memory? So this time I vacillate between Mathew Grant’s positive review and Aidan Brook's critical comments.
Luckily I persevere. It turns out to be glorious day, and the countryside around the restaurant looks great, on the way in we check out the restaurant’s herb garden. We took a taxi to the restaurant and again had no problems finding it, the fare is approx €22 each way and it took about 15 mins from hotel (and about 10 mins wait for it to arrive on the return). They are building a new motorway in the hills close to the restaurant so this could make driving confusing.
We sit in the courtyard for a Txakoli and the amuse bouche of potatoes coated in white clay served with aioli, and some pimentos de padron done in a tempura style. Both are fine, the potatoes need a good scoop of aioli to make them tasty but you get a good size bowl so this is obviously the idea, and the little peppers are very moreish. Even though this is the second time we have had the potato rocks they are still fun.
There is a choice of two set menus, we selected the more innovative menu Naturan which is €125 a head as opposed to the slightly cheaper, more traditional €95 menu. We also asked the sommelier to pair wines with the meal as we had done this last time and it worked well.
Once we were seated in the restaurant our first dish arrived which was an addition to the menu. This was very tender baby squid with tender white beans in a deep, fishy broth. It was very good.
On to the menu (the capitalization is from the menu):
FLOWERS, flowers, flowers is a mound of crispy fried artichoke slices, mixed with fresh and colourful flower petals. It was wonderful very fresh, and garlicky, with lots of interesting tastes mixing together. This was served with “Quinta Apolonia de Belondrade y Lurtron” 2006.
CRUNCHY BITES OF TARO AND COCONUT over grilled sardine ice comes as a small mound of white crystals at the side of the plate, with thin shaving of taro/coconut stuck into it, to this they pour a fish broth. It is a very fishy dish; the white crystals are very cold fishy ice that slowly melts into the stock. It is an interesting dish; the flavours are good but maybe too intense for me. My partner loved it though. This was served with “Nikolaihof Hefealbzug Gruner Veltliner” 2007.
VEGTABLE CARPACCIO accompanied by a sweet and sour dressing, D.O. Idiazabel cheese chippings and vegetable splinters is an intriguing description and even more so when it arrives. The “vegetable” is sliced thinly, is translucent and red and looks just like a plate of bressola. It is scattered with toasted hazelnuts and pine nuts, and dressed with translucent slices of cheese, and herb leaves. The taste is amazing; really outstanding. Everything comes together really well, and it really stimulates discussion. What is the vegetable? Is it celeriac? No, it turns out to be watermelon that has been char grilled and then marinated, which really changes its flavour. From speaking to the waiters it seems the identity of the vegetable is a culinary joke, designed to challenge and amuse the diners. The joke worked for us, it is a really outstanding dish that takes a number of ingredients and takes then to a totally different place. Picking up on Aidan’s comment about it not tasting of watermelon: I think that was the point.
HEART OF BABY LEEKS roasted over vine cuttings and bathed in a stock infused with moluscs. Crushed citrus fruit had good crisp leeks with slices of razor clams in a clear broth with some small white flowers. These had a really interesting bitter taste that complemented the dish very nicely. A good clean tasting dish. This was served with “A. Mann Piniot Auxerrois Vieilles Vignes 2005” from Alsace.
HONEYED FISH STEW accompanied with roasted chicken livers and generous slices of truffle. Interesting textures and deep flavours contrast this dish nicely with the previous ones.
SAUTEED MULLET FILLETS seared over vegetables and liver stew is a piece of shiny, glistening mullet that looks like it has come straight from the sea. We are told this is achieved by cooking it with a thin layer of Jamon fat that dissolves during the cooking. The texture was really melting and moist, was it cooked sous-vide to achieve this? Unlike Aidan’s experience I thought it was well cooked, yes it was soft, but not over cooked and the explanation of the jamon treatment explains why it didn’t have a traditional crispy skin. This was one of my favourite dishes – I could have easily eaten another portion. It was served with “Bodegas Naia Naides 2006” and the previous white wine. The two wines were interesting because they changed the flavour of the dish.
A PIECE OF MILK VEAL, ROASTED AND PERFUMED WITH VINE CUTTING EMBERS and fragments of thyme, cinders, salts and crisp radishes seems to be becoming a Mugaritz classic, on my last visit this was a dish made with beef, it is now made with very pale veal. To me it is an improved dish with the flavour of the veal working very well with the charcoal flavours. Mathew’s description of the dish is very good and I won’t try to better it. The wine with this course was a “Nita de Meritxell Palleja 2006”.
Tradition, ocean and land: braised IBERIAN PORK TAILS and pan-fried LANGUOSTINES. Reduced braising juices infused with Iberian “jamon” was again on the menu on my first visit and I think I enjoyed it more this time. I agree with Aidan that the langoustine gets a little lost in the intense flavour of the pork and jambon, but I think it adds balance to the dish giving it a contrasting texture and a foil for the intense porky-ness of the dish. My partner summed it up – she is now hooked on pig’s tails.
We were offered an extra course of “Cheese and accompaniments” which worked well. A plate of six local cheeses and then a separate plate of six dots to pair with each cheese – including a macadamia nut, some intense orange marmalade, finely cubed apple, some cherry jam, and what looked like a dollop of vegemite (it wasn’t).
Evoking a spring morning: MILK ICE-CREAM, sun-ripened red fruits; mild textured aniseed herb buds was served without an accompanying wine, and the sommelier suggested we simply drank water to enhance the experience. The dish is a layer of ice cream, mixed berries, and light meringue. The flavours were spectacular, interspersed through the fruits were very intensely flavoured herb leaves – tarragon, basil and mint. The placement of the herbs meant you ate a leaf with each mouthful; the intensity of all the flavours was outstanding. Quite a revelation.
WARM PUMKIN BITES with sweet and bitter accents is an intriguing dish, a big cube of roasted pumpkin with a vanilla infused sweet potato puree on one side, and a bitter chocolate a cream combination on the other. It was a very interesting dish, with contrasting flavours. Interestingly we may have experienced a slightly different dish to a similar one that Aidan had. Ours was definitely sweet potato rather than pumpkin puree and chocolate not coffee. Served with “Jimenez-Landi Bodegas Jime Nez-Landi 2005”.
Interpretation of vanity: MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE, cold almonds cream and cocoa bubbles another dish I have had before, a moist chocolate mouse rather than cake with big chocolate bubbles, if these were smoke filled we missed them, so again I suspect the dish has been tweaked since Aidan was there. The bubbles add interest to the presentation but overall it was quite a boring chocolate dessert, even though it was very tasty. Served with “Bodegas Alvear PX De Anada 2004”.
Aidan, in his review makes a number of comments about the service, and I must agree with some of them. From what I could see the FOH team splits into two, a very experience female sommelier and an equally experienced maitre’d. When they served us it was faultless. Other staff seemed a lot less experienced, almost like trainees, and it was here we saw some errors. We nearly had seconds of the amuse bouche; a plate was nearly cleared whilst my partner was still eating, and some plates were presented the wrong way round (corrected by the maitre’d). The wine service was a little patchy, the senior sommelier was pouring our wine selection occasionally helped by a younger sommelier, they never missed a wine/dish pairing but at times they cut it fine. However, unlike Aidan there were no half drunk glasses – every drop was drunk. We speak no Spanish and it was evident that whilst the more experienced staff were able to explain dishes in the detail the less experienced didn’t have the English skills to do so – maybe this is why some of the staff spoke to Aidan in English – even though we don’t speak Spanish is wasn’t really a problem to us, and we had fun with the staff as they tried to help us.
Overall it was a really good meal, the food was better than my first visit, which I think is down to the ingredients that are available in early August i.e. more flowers. In the last year I have been lucky enough to try Feran Adria’s and Heston Blumenthal’s restaurants and both were equally superb. Three restaurants all pushing the boundaries of modern food in quite different ways, from our experience Mugaritz deserves to be in this league.
Total bill for two was €464, the two menus are €250, cheese was €12, wine €160 for two, with water and Txakoli adding €12.50, and tax €30.42. The food is good value (even with the poor euro/pound exchange rate) but I found the wine was a little overpriced. Whilst they were all good wines I found the pouring lacked generosity and I often sat with an empty glass. On our previous visit it had been far more generous and so this was slightly disappointing.
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I have just been reading Giles latest article about Jamie's Italian in Oxford. He spends most of the article talking about the anonymity of restaurant critics; takes time to continue to berate Feargus O'Sullivan (although doesn't name him - http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/mediamonkey/20...od_fight.html); and then explains how he had to ring the restaurant PR company to book a table for his large party thus blowing his anonymity. In his words "and was, simply, buggered if I was going to queue down George Street in the height of summer, jostled and barged by fat Americans looking for Tower Bridge, and possibly not get fed."
The best bit is his comment on Fergus: "Oops. Carefully reading the menu is really all you have to do in this job. And yet he failed to do it. And thus failed to test the restaurant’s wares properly, and founded his whole article on a misconception"
I wonder if Fergus will now return the complement and let Giles know that large parties are able to book tables - you don't need to break cover, simple do some reasearch. As the restaurants website clearly states "If you are a party of between 8 and 10, please give us a call beforehand and we'll do our best to reserve you a table. As we aim to ensure all our customers have a fantastic time, we are only be able to fit in a certain number of larger parties each lunchtime or evening.."
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Reporting back after our trip. For those that have not been it is a small lively beach town, on the Atlantic coast, and therefore can get some good waves, and thus has a little bit of a surf culture.
We started with drinks in a small bar overlooking the beach at Port Vieux, great for a sundowner in your bordies and thongs, as it sits on a rock jutting out into the sea. There is another fashionable bar at the top of the beach, but we had left the linen suit and panama at home. On the way back to the hotel we stumbled across a little bar outside a foie gras shop (Maison Pujol) on a corner right next to the indoor market. This was a perfect stop for a plate of local charcuterie and a couple of glasses of rose - lots of locals standing at wine barrels being used as makeshift tables.
That night we ate at La Baleak a small Bistro near the market and it was a very poor choice. We had booked and were led straight to our table in the “English speakers” corner to a table already complete with an English menu, as the meal progressed the lights dimmed and the Jack Johnson/Red Hot Chili Peppers soundtrack got louder. The food was an anti climax after these highs. Opposite is the Bistro du Marche which looked far better.
Lunch the next day was potluck in the Port Des Pecheurs, there are a number of restaurants to choose from, the one we chose (the cheapest?) was OK for a snack but not really worth searching out. We headed for the Grande Plage for coffee and deserts and chose the terrace towards the right hand side (as you look out to sea) of the Casino Municipal. We wished we had lunched here, as they seemed to be serving good-looking salads and open sandwiches.
On the way back from the beach we stop at Bar Basque (rue du Port-Vieux) for an aperitif, a busy open-air bar with some good tapas, which are reminiscent of those in San Sebastian. A good place for a pre dinner drink after you have changed for dinner.
For dinner we head for head for Le Sissinou a restaurant that lost its Michelin star this year – should we have been worried? The restaurant is close to the centre; it is quite small and nicely decorated in a modern yet warm manner – lots of local customers. A great welcome from the host, who gave us a choice of tables, they appeared to turn the tables at least twice a night but at no time did we feel rushed. A good short menu with 5 or 6 choices per course. Wild mushroom ravioli with girolles and a creamy sauce was very, well very mushroomy, and totally moreish. The millefeulle of rabbit and vegetables was interestingly different, great flavours including one of the best roast peppers I have tasted. For mains my partner’s beef tartare was spot on, with chopped beef rather than minced (as it should be), and chips fried in duck fat. My lamb sweetbreads were served on mashed potato accompanied by plenty of girolles, and a pea sauce (?), all perfectly coked with great flavours. We followed with a fine dessert of roast apricots. Total bill with a €38 bottle of the local Madrian wine was €135, with water but no coffee. We felt this was very good value for a very enjoyable meal, good service, good food and a good atmosphere. Highly recommended. Who knows what caused it to lose the star, based on this experience it deserves to win it back soon.
We also took a look around the Hotel du Palais which has two very formal restaurants – uncertain as to which one has the star, the menus look very classical and the rooms have a fantastic view down the coast, looking across the beaches.
We were only in Biarritz for two nights and really enjoyed ourselves, like all beach towns there are lots of restaurants, cafes and bars and we only scratched the surface.
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I've told my tale before but Pierre's post prompted an addition to it: while Phyllis/Felice and I had a terrific dinner there just after it opened and I had one OK lunch the following week and one disasterous lunch soon after - I have not gone back, despite my many meals at the old Regalade . (I also have recounted my declining experiences at Bruno Doucet's Regalade).As far as i am concerned he is a has been.John/Pierre - I agree it has declined since it opened. However, I did enjoy a very fine lunch there in late May. Always tricky to compare and contrast but I thought is was worth the money and the cooking and service were appropriate for the price. I also enjoyed a very fine lunch at La Regalade last month, I haven't been there very often so can't comment on the comparative standard, but again it was on the money for cooking etc. More than happy to eat at both again
My guess is that these are two restaurants (amongst others like Spring) where the hype gets out of synch with the concept and delivery. I find all of them deliver good food, are good value for money, and do what they set out to do (deliver honest straightforward cooking). I enjoy them all, but I don't think any of them are exceptional restaurants that I would travel for, or be disappointed if I went to an alternative.
But this is not the same as restaurants that are hyped up, and don't deliver. They are simply triumphs of marketing over substance and should be vilified at any, and every, opportunity - my experience at Les Ombres for example.
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There seems to be a new approach now. No reservations taken. Instead show up at a time of your choosing and wait to be seated.
They have never taken reservations for the daily lunch service or for dinner on Saturday or Sunday. At these times they run a simple brasserie concept with quite a different menu to the evenings.
For dinner Monday to Friday you still need to reserve, and this is what the long wait of many months is for. It is a bistro format with a set menu and IMO far better cooking than the brasserie format. If you only judge Le Comptoir on the "no booking" brasserie format then I am afraid you have missed the part that can be very special.
We lived around the corner from the restaurant for a couple of years and we were recognised/welcomed by the staff. We probably only managed to get a table for dinner 20% of the time we tried without a reservation. So no I don't think it was a gimmick.
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Hello,
what's the latest on Le Comptoir? Is it still being renovated? And I've noticed the adjacent hotel does not mention the restaurant, although the owners are the same and share the same receptionists. Strange... also, does anyone know if the restaurant has a website? Tried finding it through Google, to no avail...
thanks!
A.
Yes the receptionist handles both the hotel and restaurant bookings, as far as I know it is the same business. I have never come across a website for the restaurant probably, I suspect it is because Yves Camdeborde wants to stay true to the simple bisto concept. One of the few ways of eating in the bistro (Monday to Friday evenings only) rather than the brasserie (lunch and Saturday and Sunday dinner) is to stay in the hotel as they keep a few tables for guests, otherwise it can be a wait of many months.
I have eaten at both regularly and enjoyed both formats. The bistro format is far better, with linen tablecloth, better glassware and only half the covers. The bistro has a set menu with 5 courses for approx. $50 (last went 18 months ago) with a good cheeseboard, and overall the cooking slightly better than the brasserie format although some dishes are on both menus.
On balance though I would head for Le Regalade, similar concept but I think the cooking is better.
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We ate at the Albion Pub and Dining Rooms in Clifton Village on Saturday night. It is a popular pub which is updated in the modern gastro-pub style. The food is towards the top end of the gasto-pub genre. Bread seemed homemade and was excellent, served with good butter.
We tried the charcuterie sharing plate which was more than enough for two, three generous slices of different homemade terrine with pickles, bread and a celeriac coleslaw. Gutsy, full of flavour, and hits the spot. For mains a whole Salcombe crab with chips and mayonnaise, plaice with girolles and a swiss chard gratin. All polished off and much enjoyed. The dishes on other tables also looked good, especially the platter of rib of beef, oxtail etc. and a salad garnished with lots of flowers.
Bill for two, including a £29 bottle of Aussie Cab Sav, was £96.25 including 10% service but with no dessert and coffee. Not inexpensive but fair value for what was delivered. Service is fine, a little chaotic (it was very busy) but with quite a lot of character - we liked it.
We would return.
What FR chef would you want to learn cooking from?
in France: Dining
Posted
I would agree with Passard for similar reasons. Adria or Blumenthal to understand that it is like at the cutting edge of modern gastronomy. Then maybe Ducasse or Sayoy to experience the very big, almost industrial, scale of their operations. Three contrasting experiences to hopefully allow someone to develop their own style.
However, what about Ramsay? Not simply for the technical cooking (which I am certain is equal to others) but because he seems to be one of the few chefs who encourages his protégées to create names for themselves as he appears to let allow them to develop their own style in their "own" restaurants. OK they are owned by GRH but he seems to allow the chefs with personality to come through (within reason). Thus we know of: Marcus Wareing (Petrus), Jason Atherton (Maze), Mark Sargeant (Claridges), Angela Harnett (Murano), Clare Smyth and Mark Askew (RHR), and of course Simone Zanoni and Jerome Legras (Versailles). OK it isn't perfect (i.e. the Wareing/Ramsay spat over Petrus) but are there any other top chefs who are as generous?
So is it better to have a mentor who helps your technique or one who can further your personal ambition?