Clerkenwellian

The top floor at Smith's is really just an uber-upmarket steakhouse: excellent but expensive rare breed steaks, a lovely view, lots of suits, not much else. Probably nothing you can't get at home. The rest of Smith's can only be recommended if you're a 20-something trader on the pull (although the ground floor's pretty good for breakfast). St John is much more interesting: see threads and reviews here, here, here, and here.

Sounds interesting - I didn't know there was any Sushi in Clerkenwell (unless you count Pham in Whitecross Street). Where is Aki?

The Capital has re-opened after the refurbishment. It's very, very disappointing. I'd always thought the place was charming in a faded sort of way, but they've gone completely in the other direction and ended up with something utterly charmless. The light wood veneer walls and green/purple curtains look like someone's borrowed them from the local Holiday Inn.. I can't imagine who thought this was a good idea. It's so bad, in fact, that it would put me off going again. Pity, when the food's as good as ever.

It's also rather good value, particularly the wine list.

Reviving this old thread about rice cookers, I wondered if anybody had advice on buying rice cookers in the UK. There's a Zojirushi rice cooker here - is this the natty one Fat Guy described? It doesn't look much like any of the rice cookers on the Zojirushi website...

I thought Seraphin was very odd indeed when I went a few weeks back. The menu's trying-too-hard wannabe-fusion (pork belly with white chocolate sauce). The waitress rather haughtily announced that they were presenting a "fine dining experience", but the cooking was amateur at best. Nice chandelier, though. Anybody know the story with this place?

St John Bread & Wine and the Capital are great bets for Sunday lunch.

Really? Why?

The Capital?

Brick Lane is a culinary disaster area. The only decent meal I've had there was in the Shampan (the gaudily neon-lit one), and it wasn't a patch on the New Tayyab.

I think you mean Pham Sushi - a small undiscovered gem.

That looks really good - what weight of asparagus do you allow for per person?

Does "Shopped" have anything to say about whether the food industry makes use of intellectual property protection (patents) to guard against this situation? I'd be surprised if whoever owns Utterly Butterly hadn't taken out a patent application -- assuming it really is a novel and inventive product that is. Elements of "Utterly Butterly" might be patentable, e.g. its chemical composition and/or the manufacturing process. However a patent can't cover the concept of a margarine that tastes like butter (or whatever the hell the thing is). So if someone uses an entirely different recipe to produce a similar looking/tasting product, patent law won't help Utterly Butterly. They might, however, have a claim for "passing off", the tort of misrepresenting your product as somebody else's. They'd have to argue that the new product was so similar that consumers would think the new product was made by the manufacturers of Utterly Butterly. Packaging, name and advertising would be key here. NB it wouldn't be enough for the concept to be similar (or the same): there was a long running dispute over whether the makers of Jiff lemon could sue someone who manufactured a rival lemon-shaped squeezy thing full of lemon juice. The House of Lords held that (very broadly) the law of passing off can't be used to give manufacturers a monopoly over a particular concept; there has to be a misrepresentation.

RSJ has reliably good food and one of the best affordable winelists in town. Not remotely as trendy as Baltic, but the staff are a lot nicer.

Bingo!

Finally ate at the Zetter last week; risotto starter was forgettable but sea bass main course was really good. Thank you all for the recomendation. As I came out onto St John's Square I saw yet another new place has opened, but without any fanfare (or, apparently, customers). Called "The Priory", it's kind of tucked away at the side of the Square and invisible from Clerkenwell Road. it's a big, warehousey space with plenty of exposed metal ducts; my rather catty date said it was terribly 1998. Looking at the rather uninspiring menu, I'm not quite sure if it's supposed to be a restaurant with a bar or a bar that does food. Suspect I'll try Malmaison before this one.

Sort of: not Sam and Sam Clark but another chap who's apparently their partner plus someone else who helped establishing Moro. The chef is also ex-Moro.

Has anyone been to either of the two newish hotel restaurants in Clerkenwell, the Zetter (on Clerkenwell Road by Clerkenwell Green) or Malmaison (on Charterhouse Square)? Zetter has picked up a couple of pretty good reviews; Malmaison, so far as I can see, hasn't had any. Any views? The brunch menu at Zetter looked interesting...

noted!

what do you normally do with the glaze? De-glaze with mirin?

Was planning to go to the Anchor & Hope for Saturday lunch, but am slightly put off by the thought that we might have to hang around for ages to get a table. Does anybody know what the wait's like at weekends?

St John Bread & Wine is open for Saturday lunch, and great for a slow "grazing" lunch.

hopefully the moderators will put them in their plaice.

so do tell: what's the green gloop made of?

times have indeed changed: managers of hedge funds and venture capital funds now make a significantly higher return than this! It's not uncommon for them to receive a majority of the return once a certain threshold is reached.