MaLO

Lunched at The Feathered Nest in Nether Westcote last Thursday. It’s not far from Stow on the Wold or Burford in the Cotswolds. It’s an award winning pub with good dinning and four bedrooms; there is also a very nice garden with good views for warmer days. You could argue that it is a restaurant that sells beer. There are a few dining areas; the bar for more casual eating, and two more traditional dining areas and outdoors. There were two menus available and I think other items available in the bar. Lunch offered two courses at £17.50 and the alc with starters from about £7.50 and mains from £12.50. We ordered two courses from the lunch menu and two alc. We were served a pair of canapés while deciding our order. Firstly a square of glossy puff pastry topped with foie gras mousse and a crispy breaded chicken nugget with lemon curd. Both were good. First from the set menu was grilled mackerel on toast. The toast came with fruity beetroot chutney and a tasty fillet of fish, some salad leaves and lemon puree. I only tried a little bit, it was nice. Looked nice tasted nice. Not massively complex but enjoyable. The other starter was a crisp potato nest with a salad of cooked vegetables; parsnips, beetroot, potatoes, leeks and salad leaves with truffle mayonnaise and a poached egg. This was my selection; it was enjoyable and quite filling. The egg was semi set, not so runny to become a sauce but not solid. The crisp potato nest was grease free. I was not so sure about a lump of roast parsnip; it was a bit big and looked a bit clumsy compared to the other ingredients but hardly a problem. Main course from the set menu was venison faggots with mashed potato, cabbage and bacon, pickled russet apple and parsnip crisps. A big plateful of tasty wintry goodness. From the alc came cod with roasted cauliflower, spinach, bacon lardons, capers and raisin puree, a slash of cauliflower and a jug of sauce on the side. It was a nice bit of fish. The raisin puree was also good. The capers had been fried crisp so they offered a crunchy saltiness. There was also a tempura battered cod chunk, possibly a cheek although I didn't ask. We did not order desserts. Coffee for one came with petits fours. I had another pint as I wasn’t driving. It didn’t come with petits fours, but was a tasty pint. Service was good. There were about 20 other people in for lunch so there was a comfortable noise. There was a tasting menu available for £63 or £83 with wine. I would go back. It would be quite a nice place for a weekend or night away although I am not sure what the room rates are or if they have DB&B packages. Well worth a look.

Any ideas for dinner? I was thinking along the lines of zucca or jose. Interesting to see this turn up when I searched Waterloo - a long time ago thread, almost 10!!

That all looks good. Very good. I might have to give it a go sometime

We had a reservation with friends for The Hastings in Lytham on Saturday night. It was shut. A couple passing by said it was closed on Friday too. A shame as we had been meaning to go for some time.

for those with a apple. GFG 2012 is 69p at the moment. I got mine today.

Lunched here yesterday. There have been changes of head chef in a number of Abode kitchens recently. The chef in Chester is now Chris Cleghorn. He has Abode Exeter, Gidleigh Park, Danesfield House and the Fat Duck on his CV. The old chef was good. So we ate from the amazing graze menu. Three courses with matched wine is pennies over £20. We added one extra plate from the more expensive grazing menu just because. We ordered the same first two savory plates based on the wine pairing. First up - poached chicken terrine, mustard vinaigrette and pickled mushrooms. It came with pinot noir. It was light and fresh. The chicken remained moist and the jellied stock was just set, sometimes these things can become a bit vulcanised but this was nice. I ate something similar at Gidleigh Park in the early summer. Next braised lamb neck with glazed carrot, cauliflower came as a spiced puree and a roasted floret. The lamb was very tender; the cauliflower was good too. The carrot, it was a carrot and there is nothing wrong with that. This came with a glass of Malbec. When I was in London the other week I picked up a (hopefully) interesting bottle of Malbec from Gaucho. The extra plates came in at about £13. The first was Goosnargh partridge, braised chicory, quince, caramelised walnuts and gewürztraminer sauce. I quite like partridge and enjoyed this. A single breast and leg, a fruity wine sauce, sweet and sour from the quince and chicory. Decent. The other was Braised halibut, squash and cumin purée, pickled baby onions with a yoghurt and pumpkin seed cracker. I only tried a little and it was good. There was none left. The fish was quite a lump for the money. Puddings. We took one Chocolate fondant with coffee ice cream and one poached pear with chocolate ice cream and a panna cotta type thing. We made a chocolate fondant with coffee ice cream last weekend at home. Ours was quite good, theirs was a little better. Only a little though. It’s still good. You wouldn’t know there was a new chef. Although that is a compliment it is also a criticism. I understand that Michael Caines is the boss but perhaps giving the chef more licence to stamp their personality and style on the menu and cooking would make for a slightly more interesting experience. That said, the cooking is good and the value is hard to fault. I will go back sometime in the not too distant future, perhaps to one of the wine events.

I had a look at a food and travel issue from last year. They had a feature on the Isle of Man. The places they suggested were 14 North Harbour Lights Tanroagan The Abbey Velvet Lobster I haven't been since I was about five so have no clue if these places are any good though.

The irby mill does decent pub food. Big burgers, fish and chips, pies. Occasionally rabbit or pigeon show up. I had an ok lunch in a place called nova in heswall prior to Christmas. It is a restaurant though. For the money it was better than ok but was empty beside us, so a bit flat for atmosphere. It was a Saturday after the big Christmas Friday night's though.

Last Friday night we were wondering what we should do with the weekend, on the spur of the moment, we decided a trip to London was in order. So we booked a hotel, had a quick trawl of where we would like to go to eat, we settled on Alyn Williams, made reservations got packed, had a kip, then hit the road early. It was a nice day in London last Saturday. We did a bit of shopping, had lunch (more of this another time) some drinks, the usual stuff, killing time before we could go and eat. Mooching about done, we arrived a little early. The hotel is quite nice. Door man greeting guests and a couple of staff in the lobby directing people to bars, parties and restaurants. The restaurant is newly opened and renovated and by the look of it at some expense. It is quite a large space, comfortable. It’s a nice place to spend a few hours. Seated and greeted, the menus arrived. There is an alc at £45. A tasting at £55 and vegetarian tasting also at £55. Add a wine pairing and it works out at £115. So we took the tasting menu. It was explained that we could more or less swap and add items as we saw fit. So we did. We added an extra course from the vegetarian menu and swapped a cod dish for a langoustine plate. First of the food to arrive was a little smoked haddock and spinach pasty. It may not have been called a pasty at the time, I cant remember, but that is what it was. It was good. With this came a dish of Fourme d'Ambert gougeres. These were very delicious. First course was French onion consommé / Crab / Gruyere / Potato wafer. Served in a cocktail glass the crab was topped with fine sliced beef cheek (I think) with the consommé added at the table. The potato wafers with came separately. It was perhaps a bit tiny but was very enjoyable. I really like crab and would have happily eaten double or more. Next course was Orkney /Mersea / Aquitaine. In a glass bowl came oyster, there was a lightly seared, sliced scallop the scallop was topped with a little caviar. It being so expensive the caviar was not plentiful. There was enough to add its flavour, but not enough to be as luxurious as it might have been. It was a nice little concoction none the less. Smoked egg / Celeriac / Apple / Truffle soldiers came next. This was an additional course taken from the vegetarian menu. This was really very good. Good flavours, looked nice on the plate, ate very well. Foie Gras semi fredo / Lime /Frozen yoghurt / Liquorice was also good. The citrusy sourness of the yoghurt offset the cool, rich liver. There was also some gooseberry to add another sweet sour note. The next course on the menu was Cod / Seaweed butter / Beach vegetables / Cockles. We subbed this for Langoustines / Morcilla / Cider apple / Chestnut. A pair of langoustines came with a slash of morcilla and a couple of fried breaded morcilla nuggets. I like black pudding and I like langoustines. I think I enjoyed this more than I would have liked the cod. I am not that keen on seaweed, samphire etc so it was a good choice. The final savoury course was a choice between Cotswold white chicken / Girolles / Smoked egg / Charred leek or Devon red beef sirloin / Red wine / Turnip / Oxtail Croutons. We both went for the beef. Another good choice. Nicely rare meat. A well flavoured sauce. Oxtail adding an extra beefy hit and a little vegetable garnish. Quite simple, but done well and very tasty. We did contemplate cheese but on this occasion passed. It did look like a decent selection though. It was quite amusing watching the staff trying to heave the chariot across the deep carpet. A keep fit cheese trolley! First dessert was Crème Catalan / Pear granite / Pine sugar. Another quite simple preparation. Another empty dish. The final course was Chocolate mousse / Caramel / Peanut butter. The chocolate part was something like a Twix, only better. Peanut butter ice cream went down nicely too. I enjoyed it. The food was good. Service was very good. The booze was quite reasonably priced. The front page of the list was called something like “this month’s highlights” and had options from £20 a bottle. We didn’t have coffee as we had wine to polish off but we were given a box of nice chocolates to take with us. The prices are very reasonable for the quality of the food. There are restaurants nearby charging twice as much so I presume the prices will eventually increase. The restaurant was busy; I only noticed one empty table. Not bad business for the middle of January.

Bapi. Having never reared pigs. How could you.

Dined here last week. It was very good. We took the excellent value tasting menu, adding an extra course and substituting one tasting menu plate for langoustine from the alc. Highlights for me were the Devon beef and the truffle / egg / celeriac. Service was excellent. The booze was decent value too. I will add more soon.

Does Savoy still do the book online €100 ish for three courses from the alc at lunchtime?

I ate this for lunch on Saturday. Steamed Bass, Candied Peel, Cirtus (grapefruit & orange), Endive - at The Orrery, London. It was quite good. I thought the candied peel a little odd, although it did work better with the other elements.

I will be going back soon. I almost rang to see if lunch was available today but ran out of time. Another time, but soon.

I always liked Terry Durack.

Commonwealth - San Francisco The Ledbury - Sunday Lunch Nathan Outlaw In no order It's not ten but these were the standouts

I had the tasting with wine a couple of Saturdays ago. Possibly the day after sped. The oyster chantilly is very good. You get the cold, raw, briney flavours contrasted by the crisp fried oyster; very fresh and very tasty. Oysters don't feature often enough for my liking. The scallops with orangey flavours offset by quite firey ginger was also good and I also enjoyed the sika deer. The pre dessert of pina colada flavours although served differently, was similar to the pina colada from MW at the Berkeley. I dont know if James Knappett is in the Ledbury kitchen yet. We had tried most of the other items we ate this time on previous visits. I do silghtly regret not asking to vary a couple of plates. Not that what we got wasn't excellent, it just would have been good to try some new things. Another very good lunch.

I lunched here towards the end of August. I had been looking at the deal they do for dinner with wine and b&b, it used to be £200 but is more now (I think). I thought it was quite good, although not so good that I would take up the offer.

The list for obsession in January landed in my inbox today Start's with Claude Bosi on the 23rd, Bryn Williams, Madalene Bonvini-Hamel & Lisa Allen, Simon Rimmer, Hans Neuner, Michael Smith, Aktar Islam, Tom Kerridge, Antonin Bonnett and finally Nigel Haworth. More info on the northcote website

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/07/11/2011/340974/John-Campbell-and-Coworth-Park-announce-end-of-consultancy.htm

Canele. Here it is moments away from it's end. And the menu.

Lunched here on Friday. We had barely sat down before the champagne trolley arrived. Not today thanks. I asked for the wine list instead. We were served, while perusing the various menus, a consommé of John Dory with a little red pepper foam. Good, strong, clear flavours. It was surprisingly nice. This came with a lightly spiced, fish pakora, or something similar anyway. We opted for the set lunch with wine option. £42. The menu comprised three choices per course, with a £5 supplement added for a starter of white beans, pimientos, calamari and clams. Breads were decent, I tried the baguette and another I can’t recall. It came with salted and unsalted butter carved from huge wheels from the station in centre of the dining room. The bread both here and Coworth Park was served cold. A shame really, hot fresh bread is a real treat. The baguette here was nicer than the one at Coworth Park, to my taste anyway. We both took the Sangria poached duck foie gras from Les Landes as starter with figs, both fresh and confit. This came with some warm from the griddle, thick, granary style bread. It was a very decent slice of cool, rich foie. Nice fresh fruit too. Very enjoyable and seldom seen in such quantity on a lunchtime menu. The wine was a 2001 Riesling, although the sommelier said it was a 2009, I didn’t argue. It was a good match whatever the year. This was not on the list of selected wines for lunch so can’t add more. For mains, I opted for Halibut on the bone with cauliflower and hazelnut couscous, parsley jus and garlic emulsion. Halibut on the lunch menu. Again, not a regular item on the set menu of many restaurants. It was not the hugest piece of fish but was big enough. It was a nice piece of fish, seasoned and cooked well too. The crisp skin with a tiny sliver of fishy fat was also tasty. I was not overly impressed with the couscous; it was a bit bitty as couscous can be. The garlic emulsion was added at the table as a couple of spoons of lightly garlicky froth. This came with a glass of 2010 Chateau Clement Termes, Gaillac. The other main was venison civet parmentier with celeriac puree, glazed onions, champignons de Paris and lardons. I only tried a little of this but it too was fine and disappeared without trace. The wine served was 2009 Chateau de Corneilla, Cotes du Roussillon. We then shared cheese. This came plated with no choice offered. We got a goats cheese, some stilton and a nicer cheese but I have no idea what it was. Personally I am not that fond of stilton and although the goats cheese was ok, it is not something I would have picked. One out of three, oh and we were give a couple of biscuits, both the same, although there was a variety available. Not the best cheese experience. There was no supplement for cheese, if taken as one of the three courses, but an additional £8 as an extra course. Glad we didn’t go for the extra course option. For dessert we shared Carupano chocolate cream from Venezuela, Tahitian vanilla parfait with a chocolate sponge biscuit. Too many words. It all tasted and looked fine. I was probably expecting more after such an introduction but it was fine if not as amazing as it's title. The petit fours were very good. We got a nice selection and they were all really rather nice. There was also a little boxed cake to take away too. We had that for breakfast on Saturday and it was delicious. The good bits, the foie gras and its wine, halibut and venison were very good, the less good bits, were still not bad and were mainly down to personal preference. Service was professional, although not as relaxed as I would have liked. All in all, not bad value. I never did see the wine list.

We lunched there on Saturday. First time. One set lunch, same selection as man. One alc, veal with pasta and olive oil to start. Rabbit loin with shoulder cottage pie for main. That washed down with a couple of caraffes of wine made for a good lunch. They were full on Saturday.

It was more or less a year ago I first planned on eating here. It was newly opened then and the days I hoped to get a table were fully booked. I went to the reasonably nearby Pennyhill Park and less nearby Harrow at Little Bedwin instead. This time I had no problems with getting a table. I have eaten John Campbell’s food a couple of times before, lunches at the Vineyard and enjoyed some good food. Lunch at Coworth Park is currently priced at £25 and offers two choices over three courses. We ate: Two types of crisp flatbread came with foamy dips, one hummus and one of light garlic. These were quite good. Light and fresh flavours. Next came a bowl of parmesan crisps. Almost poppadom like in appearance and robustly cheesy; they did not last long. Amuse of artichoke soup featured a dice of apple, quenelle of iced artichoke to which the waiter added a hot creamy artichoke soup. It was good. Hot and cold with some crisp bittersweet apple for texture. Not the greatest soupy thing I have ever eaten but enjoyable. Starters: I ordered wild mushroom, crispy egg and beetroot. I enjoyed this. I like eggs, beetroot and mushrooms. These particular items, some crunchy, some cooked came neatly arranged either side of a nicely cooked egg. The earthy vegetables lightened with a delicate use of pickle, along the lines of a la Grecque if you like. The other starter was ham hock, smoked eel and macaroni. This came as two slabs of terrine featuring and brightened up with the inclusion of some vegetables amid the porky goodness, this came with some very good crackling, a little pasta with the smoky eel, a couple of salad leaves and a tasty blob of something sweet and fruity. Mains were a choice of beef cheeks or Plaice. I took the beef. It came with good smoked mashed potato, bacon and shallots in the form of a puree and entire and a meaty rich sauce. It was more or less beef bourguignon. The beef was tender and the flavours of the accompaniments well established. The richness was cut by some ribbons of pickled carrot and parsnip; it fitted the autumn day well. The plaice was a much lighter plateful coming with fresh pappardelle, a thick, herb crusted fillet of fish, a vivid slash of beetroot and some sweet potato. The addition of some tiny cauliflower, again pickled, added some extra zip. To finish was the choice of a plate of cheese, in this instance Barkham blue and Berkswell coming garnished with apple, perry and elderberry and the dessert option was Apple, cobnut and vanilla. We took one of each. Both were good. The cheeses were good, and the assorted garnishes tasted and looked fine too. The apple came with cobnut crumble, apples roasted and iced and other bits and bobs. None of either remained. Coffee and petit fours were included. The hotel apparently has a chocolatier on site and they make some very fine chocolates. We finished with a couple of double espressos, a selection of said chocolates and a pair of fine macaroons. Also included was a cocktail. Gin and grapefruit; it was nice. This came at the end of the meal. I am not sure why it came then. I don’t suppose it goes so well with the food and I suppose it was best at either end of the meal. A glass of wine or champagne would probably have been more appropriate. Service was good. There were only three tables taken. For £25 it is decent value. The wine is not cheap. I think the least expensive glass was £10 and champagne was from £14. You could obviously spend significantly more money on a few glasses of wine than on lunch. I was driving so I drank water and a little of my cocktail but we did order a glass of champagne. I would go back.

I ate there today. The shire menu, 25 quid. It was quite nice. We got a couple of canapes, a nice amuse, starters were a ham terrine and wild mushrooms with crisp egg. Mains, a beef cheek with smoked mashed potato and palace with herb crust. We also took one cheese plate and one apple dessert. There was also a gin cocktail included, and coffee and p/f's. I will add more another time.