MaLO

The H&F getting 2* status was predicted by Anthony Demetre in the May 11 Food and Travel magazine. Asked about when he wants to escape London, part of the reply was the Hand and Flowers - I do think its probably going to be the first two-michelin starred pub in the UK.

I was having a bit of a dig to see if I could find anything last night and came accross this http://www.michelinonline.co.uk/travel/star-history.htm Just thought it may be of interest.

Deletion for la becasse. Bit of a surprise.

Any leakage/ news? I noticed the New York guide was on here early last night.

I would have a guess at a demotion for pied a terre, based on the change of chef - tends to have a negative impact on stars. Stars for John Campbell at Cowarth Park, Dinner, Koffmanns, Pollen St Social perhaps. Maybe a star for the vineyard at stockcross. Does The Star Harome win one back? Who knows. Judging by the past few years, nothing too radical... Only a few more days and all will be revealed

Apsleys Seven Park Place Galvin at Windows The Ledbury Hibiscus Or you could give dinner a try if it has re opened for when you are looking

Whispering, I hate whispering. Don’t whisper and mumble - no one has died, it is not a library. Talk normally, laughter is allowed. Restaurants that are filled with whisperers are very boring.

Had an interesting lunch here last Friday. I have eaten here once previously when it was Petrus. We had a good lunch back then and thought it was about time to go back. I did email Gordon Ramsay RHR about the lunch menu to see if the online version was a sample but the reply was that the online version was the menu. The starters seemed interesting but the mains sounded boring so we gave Gordon a miss. I also had a long look at the greenhouse. It was very wet in London last Friday. We had a poke around Borough Market. It’s quite a while since I was last there. Monmouth still makes a fine cup of coffee. We had some oysters from the oyster man and nibbled cheese samples. Eventually we headed across town towards the Berkeley. After much consideration we opted for the set lunch menu with wine. We very nearly took the bigger tasting menu considering the rain, but I wanted to pick up some cheese from Beillevaire and O’Sheas for some meat, so the lunch option won. I got my cheese and meat and also got very wet (again). Some canapés arrived, an aubergine 'pop tart' and another with tomato and intense homemade tomato ketchup. Gone in a blink. Bread came as a choice of four in slices. The bread was good. I really liked the brown butter it came with. Amuse was a very delicious fish and chips soup, it being Friday and all. It came with a tube of fried crumbed mushy peas, a richly flavoured fish soup and thick potato foam. I could have eaten a lot of this. A very good start. We ordered Starters Summer vegetables, goats curd, damson, elderflower. Much the same as in Sped’s image above although our lunch portion was a little larger. A burst of vibrant colours and flavours, really good. Mackerel, sweetcorn, parmesan, lime. I took this starter. It was a nice fillet of fish. The sweetcorn was served as a salsa; the garnish also included a very good lime puree and a little dice of lime and grated frozen parmesan. I ate the lot. I wouldn’t have minded the salsa not being on the plate though. Again the finished plate looks similar to Sped’s image with the inclusion of the sweetcorn salsa. Mains Lemon sole, rainbow chard, girolles, sea purslane, onion. All good stuff, very nice fish, good mushrooms, delicious onions and good presentation. I ate more of this than I expected. I chose the wood pigeon, chocolate, cherries, turnip, cabbage. The pigeon was a serving of two plump breasts sitting on a disc of crunchy turnip with bitter chocolate sauce, cherries and cooking juices made into a sauce. The first breast was quite nice; it was quite rare and contained a couple of pieces of shot. Not entirely unexpected but a little bit crunchy none the less. Once I had fished out the offending items it ate quite well. The second breast was borderline raw. It was not very enjoyable at all; the texture was possibly less enjoyable than how rare the meat was. All the other elements were good. I was really looking forward to the pigeon, it is not something I eat often but is something I enjoy. I wasn’t really too sure what to do with it at this point. Of course, my unease had been spotted by the staff. There was no fuss or tutting, I was to be given a replacement main of lemon sole and so I didn’t have to eat alone it would come with some pappardelle and a generous grating of summer truffle from Florence. The truffle had quite pronounced flavour and the pasta was really good. The plate was disappeared into the kitchen for inspection. The explanation was that it had been cooked sous vide but due to the skin being damaged the meat had not been pan finished hence the underdoneness. What could have been a very awkward moment was handled with great skill and discretion. There was also another glass of wine with the extra courses. The wine was very nice. Disaster averted we progressed happily onto desserts. Pre desert was pina colada, pineapple, coconut etc. Nice and fresh. Quite a lot of it too. The other time I ate here was not long after the great British menu custard tart started appearing on the menu. It came with rhubarb the first time. This time it came with greengage and crumble. It is delicious. The other dessert was strawberries, sweet cicely, hay, malt. This was described as a representation of the strawberry field. The hay was infused into custard and that was topped with quite a lot of strawberries, the malt sprinkled over the top and the cicely leaves taking the place of the strawberry plants. It was a good looking, tasty and thoughtful plateful. The hay infused custard was particularly interesting. Again, see Sped’s image. The lunch plate was larger but looked very similar. We passed on coffee but got a couple of little bags of chocolates to take with us. The paired wines were quite nice. I enjoyed the Australian Grenache that came with the pigeon, but the wines that came with the sole and the pasta, a New Zealand chardonnay (sole) and a French viognier (pasta) were really good. Service was very good, really excellent in fact. Pigeon aside the food was very good. Good ingredients with interesting flavour combinations and plated with real care. It was an enjoyable couple of hours.

I agree. The Ledbury is excellent.

I enjoyed my lunch here back in October so I decided as we were in the area to go again. The offer at the moment for lunch is one at £34 and one at £15. It remains good value. We ate Breads as mini loaves sliced. The bread is good. Canapés were bread sticks with taramasalata, A shot of clear tomato consommé with spherical tomato and a chicken liver parfait sandwich. Each was tiny and each was tasty. Amuse was smoked trout with salmon roe and yuzu, I think.. To start we ordered the Loire valley rabbit and veal sweetbread. The rabbit was very good; it came with a little crispy chicken. It looked and tasted good. The sweetbread came with long thin slices of tongue, almost bacon like in taste and texture. The egg yolk had a crisp coating and was just set – not hard but not runny. Nothing was left on either plate. There was a tiny intermediate course which I just can’t recall. I don’t make notes, didn’t photograph everything and ate so much last week that it has simply gone. Whatever it was, it too was nice. Mains Confit suckling pig, poached fillet of old spot, trompettes de la morte, pork popcorn, Hereford snails, coco beans. The pork dishes are something of a signature dish here. This was very tasty. Cooked sous vide the fillet might be a little rare for some people but hot /warm through. The confit came fried, a pork finger if you like. Really good. The rest of the garnish was equally good. Poached and roast quail, confit leg, Scottish girolles, braised turnips, celery salad, thyme and confit garlic cream. This also came with a tasty little black pudding croquette. I only tried a little of this. I enjoyed what I ate. There was another empty plate. We took one plate of cheese - some Wigmore, a bit of Morbier and something from Alsace with a washed rind. They came with a selection of biscuits – the cheese ones were very good and I gorged on them by themselves. The pre dessert was almond panna cotta with apple jelly. We also shared dessert; Apricots, fresh almonds, banana cake, apricot sorbet. It was all rather good. Service was fine. The dining room was half full on Thursday, about fifteen people or thereabouts. The hotel was full of England rugby players doing interviews and generally mooching about. Good value and very good food. I took a couple of photos that for some reason are at the end of this post. The pics are of the pork, the quail and the apricots - oh and the menu so you can see what we could have had.

It is a little while now since my last visit to Da Piero. The new extended dining room is now open, meaning there are four more tables. We ate Farfalle with sausage and radicchio. A good quantity of crumbled sausage meat moistened with a little cream was well seasoned and very plentiful. The radicchio not as assertive as I had imagined, it was a very good bowl of pasta. Spaghetti with Clams. Another large dish of tasty pasta with more than a hint of chilli and a decent amount of clams. Good olive oil, a splash of lemon juice and a little parsley made for a simple, satisfying dish. We followed this with Sicilian style sausage with lentils was served up as a pair of large homemade spicy sausages well flavoured with spices and chilli over a healthy portion of lentils. The lentils are imported from Umbria and are cooked with pancetta and vegetables and packed plenty of savoury goodness. It was good. Black Gold T-bone steak. This and the fillet are sold by weight. This one weighed a little over half a kilo. It was good. The fillet side was excellent. It came cooked quite rare, possibly a bit more medium rare than rare. I suppose it will have cooked on while resting. Anyway, it was large, well seasoned and well flavoured - very enjoyable. The side salad of dressed mixed leaves it came with was ok, not great but ok. We shared some ice cream to end. The flavour of the ice cream was good, particularly the vanilla. The consistency was not so pleasing. We drank much more sensibly this time than our first visit. We took a bottle of sparkling pinot nero - Ca’ di Frara Damblé 2009 and a small carafe of House Sicillian Shiraz. Both were fine. Service was good. The restaurant was full on Friday evening and on the couple of occasions I have called at short notice it usually is. I am looking forward to going back. I was asking about the beef as we were paying and it transpires that it comes from the Italian butchers also in Irby. I don’t know exactly how this works in terms of ownership but the butchers will be selling goods from the restaurant and also selling deli items, cheeses etc sourced by the restaurant. I went on Saturday morning to have a look. They are still developing and expect to have more stock after the August holiday period. There was a selection of cured meats, Italian cheeses, and fresh porchetta. The raw meats and butchery was good too. I bought another t-bone, some oak baked ricotta and a couple of good sausages. There is room for improvement in terms of window dressing but it is worth a look if you are passing.

Sablé, not gougeres Now you mention sable, I do believe that is what they said too. Black currant powder as well I think. They tasted very good. I made up the goujeres bit, couldn't recall what they called them at the time. I should really pay more attention.

Saturday dinner. I just could not resist. As described above, the raw materials are top quality. The lobster was the best. The weird sounding ‘flan’ – I had a vision of something slightly awful and cloying, it was of course light, deeply flavourful and delicious. The only criticisms would be that the beef although really well flavoured, was quite chewy. The ice creams had ice crystals, although the flavours were fine indeed. For a restaurant about a month old it was rather good and will get even better over time. Service was very good and the dining room was more or less full. The bread was excellent too! I agree. It will be interesting to see how good the food becomes. We ate - Goujeres Umami flan, seaweed coulis Gazpacho, chilled dill flower cream Flame grilled Cornish mackerel, Japanese flavours Slow cooked hens egg, new seasons Scottish girolles, vine peach Steamed scallops, tender broccoli Dorset lobster, sea aster, cannellini beans, cocoa and red banylus vinegar dressing 45 days black angus rib eye, grelots onions, pear shaving We also had very good cheese. For dessert we took Raspberries, cinnamon ice cream, horseradish with aromatic vinegar and the Hedone chocolate bar.

The service charge for two, for food alone would pay for two lunches in a number of very nice restaurants. It would also buy one lunch with drinks in Le Gavroche, Sketch, Ducasse etc. The price is off the scale. The French Launderette sounds interesting.

Its less expensive than a trip to the Napa Valley... http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2011/08/01/339613/Thomas-Keller-confirms-1-October-opening-date-of-French-Laundry-pop-up-restaurant-at.htm

A long leisurely Sunday lunch at The Ledbury was excellent. We ate from the Sunday lunch menu, £40 for three courses. We ate Amuse of foie gras with gooseberry Starters Crisp chicken confit, risotto of new potato wild mushroom and summer truffle Cheviche of scallops with seaweed and herb oil, kohlrabi and frozen horseradish We got a mid course of Hampshire buffalo milk curd with a broth of grilled onions and Saint-Nectaire truffle toast Mains Short rib of beef cooked for eight hours with celeriac in ash, pickled walnuts and bone marrow Loin and shoulder of lamb with green tomato juice and aubergine glazed with black sugar and garlic We shared a selection of cheese Pre dessert was whipped ewes milk with strawberries One of the desserts we ordered had run out so the kitchen sent a selection of desserts for us Pavé of chocolate with milk purée and lovage ice cream Brown sugar tart with gooseberries and stem ginger ice cream Caramelised banana galette with salted caramel, passion fruit and peanut oil parfait We ended with a double espresso and petits fours This was a very fine meal. We arrived at about quarter past one and left around half four. We got a table on the terrace. Service was excellent and the food was equally good. Few places are this good.

Lunched at Pollen St on Saturday. I have not been to London for a while and I had wanted to eat here since it opened. This was the first time I had been able to manage to go. I had wanted to try Jason Atherton’s cooking at Maze but never got around to going there so I was looking forward to lunch a lot. We decided that we would take the £23 three course lunch option as we had plans for dinner. In the end I am not really sure what to make of this place. The food was ok, perhaps not as good as I had expected but certainly not bad. The dining room was a bit noisy to say the least and a bit of a tight squeeze. A few less tables would make it more comfortable for everyone. I didn’t much care for the low backed chairs either. It was busy, not full but plenty of customers. It would be a good place to go with a group and it is not bad value at lunch time. My expectations were maybe too high. So for £23 we got breads, a baguette or sliced brown served with salt cod brandade and butter. Starters Cornish crab mayonnaise, nashi pear and cauliflower sweet and sour dressing. I like crab and liked this. Slow cooked egg, home smoked haddock, curry puffed rice and congee emulsion. The haddock was subtle, the rice not really so good as the frothy stuff on top made it all a bit soggy. Not bad. Mains West coast hake was switched to cod. It came with smoked mussels, cabbage and cod cheek. Not a bad piece of fish. It came piled on a tiny bit of mash, cabbage and mussels. It was served in a smallish bowl so it wasn’t so easy to separate out the elements but It was nice enough. Pork belly came with razor clams and Spanish bean and chorizo stew. This also had a little mashed potato. Not sure that there were any razor clams. The stew came in a lidded pan and there was quite a lot of it. The pig was a tad flabby but tasted good. The crackling was far too salty so mostly got left behind. Decent, but not as good as I had imagined. Desserts Chocolate 'black forest', fondant, liqueur sponge, cherry sorbet Pistachio financier, Pistachio ice cream, English strawberry salad Both were nice, not amazing but not bad. The chocolate was boozy and chocolaty and the pistachio was ok too. We washed this down with a couple of tasty glasses of albarino. As a whole it was not bad but I expected better, as I said earlier, my expectations were maybe too high.

I have only been once. La Becasse. Very good it was too. Possibly better than my previous visit to Hibiscus on the same site.

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2011/06/02/338532/Paul-Heathcote-appoints-new-head-chef-for-flagship-Longridge.htm

Last Tuesday night saw us dining in Padstow at Paul Ainsworth at number 6. We took the night river taxi from Rock to Padstow then headed to bin two for a glass or two prior to eating. Bin two is a wine shop / wine bar with a few outside seats. They sell Monmouth coffee and a selection of wine by the glass or bottle. I think you can pick any bottle in the store with £7.50 corkage, something along those lines anyway. It’s quite a nice place to sit on a warm evening. We headed to the restaurant a little early for our reservation at eight. The Restaurant is split into a number of different areas, a small garden, larger main dining area, upstairs dining room and the library. We were in the library. It is a small room. There were two other tables of two, subtle lighting and a few candles flickering. It was probably not the best place to be sat. Comfortable enough but missing the atmosphere of the larger room. We ate Baskets of fresh and hot small bread rolls, including an interesting Moroccan spiced roll. Starters “Jimmy Butler” crispy pig’s head, crackling, salad cream, smoked eel. Cornish rock oysters, fennel & apple salad, salami, fried oysters. Mains Slow cooked veal chop, boiled egg béarnaise, asparagus, chips in dripping. Wings “land & sea”, peas, lettuce, brown butter, chicken jus gras. We passed on dessert. The pigs head came as breaded fried cubes, served hot on leaves of little gem, flakes of cold eel, a couple of spirals of crackling and some salad cream. It was tasty enough. Not particularly pretty to look at, or that refined, but it was what it claimed to be, I ate the lot. The other starter was more impressive. Three large oysters also came breaded and fried, crisp and hot. They came served on the fennel apple salad in the shells, which in turn were sat on a mound of sand and seaweed. It looked impressive and the one I ate tasted good. The fennel and apple was good, crisp and cool. It all went well together. It was £1 more expensive than the pig head I chose, but was a lot better to eat, in my opinion. One of the people sat at another table did eat some of the sand; they described it as “gritty”, an accurate description I should think. I chose the veal chop. It was the most expensive item on the menu. It was described as being cooked in a water bath and medium rare. I think it must have had some proper heat as it looked browned and was cooked more than medium rare. It was a little too small for cooking medium rare and a little too little for the price. The boiled egg béarnaise was good, rich and unsurprisingly eggy. The asparagus was done simply; the chips were ok although not super crispy. The chop was finished with a drizzle of reduced sauce. It was ok but a bit underwhelming. I had images of a thick juicy chop but it was just too small. Wings “land and sea”. Everyone asked what it was, well both other tables did and so did we. As it turns out we had guessed correctly, it was a skate wing, the flesh remove from the cartilage, rolled into a cylinder and cooked in a water bath, served with boneless chicken wings. It was a good looking plateful. It was a little cool temperature wise, but tasty. I almost opted for the other fish main course; Pollock, Seashore vegetables, brown crab and shrimps. Everything except the Pollock sounded perfect. Why Pollock, there has to be a better option, even allowing for sustainability and all the other right reasons, all of which I agree with, there must be something nicer than pollock. I hate poxy Pollock. We washed the food down with a glass of camel valley pinot noir rose, a bottle of Cornish orchards organic cider and a couple of glasses of wildflower valdigué from California, an interesting drop of wine. It was mostly good; nothing was bad, just some things were better than others. The restaurant was full as far as I could tell. I don’t know how seasonal Padstow is, there were quite a lot of people about but probably a lot less than there will be in July and August. I would go back. I did upload some pics but it went a bit wrong and they vanished.... They were dark and a bit grainy anyway so no great loss.

We had considered eating at Nathan Outlaw’s restaurant for a few years now, but the distance involved and the additional price of a hotel was always prohibitive. A few months ago a newspaper was running a promotion, collect tokens and get a discount at hotels. Among the hotels listed was the St Moritz, in Polzeath about two miles from Rock, so I collected tokens, booked the hotel and made a reservation at Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in the St Enodoc Hotel and off we went. The restaurant offers one tasting menu and is based exclusively on seafood. We ate Amuse Mackerel with pickled vegetables and horseradish mayonaise. Breads were freshly baked slices of minature white and brown loaves. First plate was John Dory. It was accompanied by a plump crisp fried oyster. There were brown shrimps lurking in the sauce which was lightly flavoured with horseradish and a hint of dill and a little additional texture from a tiny dice of cucumber. Cod, “BLT”, Basil & Pine Nut came next. The BLT elements making up the sauce and the basil and pine nut forming the grilled topping. Next came Bream with Saffron & Squid with Olive and Pepper Sauce. Turbot was the final savoury course. It was served sat on a meaty bed of ham hock, asparagus, broccoli, peas and spring piccalilli. We shared a small plate of local cheese. It came with fresh bread flavoured with stem ginger and equally tasty freshly baked crackers. There was a little chutney and some pickled celery. The first of two desserts was a Vanilla Cream with Strawberry Sorbet and Jelly. The final dessert was Lime and Elderflower Tart with Yoghurt Sorbet and Meringue. The food was very good. As you would expect, the fish was fine and fresh. Sauces were well made, with rich flavours punctuated by subtle acidic elements. Interestingly the sauces were proper sauces, not foams or sticky reductions. I don’t have anything against a frothy sauce, it was, however, interesting than none of Nathans were. Each dish was well composed with elements like the fried oyster or the squid proving excellent additions to the main component, complementing the main ingredient, adding flavour and texture. There were also vegetables. Real vegetables; not blobs of puree artfully splashed about the plate, real vegetables. There was spinach with the bream and the turbot had sweet peas, asparagus and broccoli. The cheeses came from a list of nine; you could either have six, as we did, or nine. The cheese plate pictured was for one. The cheese order is taken and arrives plated. I personally prefer the spectacle of the cheese chariot getting wheeled around the dining room and seeing what looks good. That said the cheese was very good. The vanilla and strawberry dessert would have been something I would have picked above more or less any other option. It was very tasty. Dessert two, the lime and elderflower tart was also good. Good pastry, good meringue, good sorbet. Sweet and sharp. What’s not to like. Service was performed by a team of three and was really good. They were attentive, friendly and kept everything ticking along nicely. There was a happy noise in the dining room, laughter and conversation. It was almost noisy at times. Much better than everyone sitting whispering. Each table was presented with a signed copy of the evening’s menu, and if you ordered cheese, a menu of which cheese you ordered was printed too. The wine list has plenty of decent stuff. Wine by the glass starts at £9. We chose two half bottles; a Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee St Anne and a Pinot Noir from New Zeland. We also took a glass of Poire Granit and Banyulus to share with cheese and desserts. It was very good. I would go back, and maybe one day I will. It is however a long way from home, most people’s home. That said there was only one table not taken and I would guess getting a reservation in the coming peak months would be far from easy. If you are holidaying in the area or live nearby, it’s well worth a look. If you are planning a visit, then staying on site at St Enodoc would obviously be the best bet. There are also countless rental properties in the area. The St Moritz is also an excellent option. It’s a couple of miles from Rock. Not really walkable but they can fix lifts or a taxi. It is a very nice hotel and they are really helpful. Alternatively, you could stay in Padstow, there is a night river taxi between Padstow and Rock that runs from seven pm until midnight. We also ate in the Seafood and gril. I will add more about this elsewhere.

Stopped for lunch at Gidleigh Park on the way to a few days in Cornwall. Having eaten in Michael Caines restaurants in Abode Chester and Manchester and been impressed, we decided, as we were almost passing, to give Gidleigh Park a try. We ate from the lunch menu: Canapés were Foie gras with apricot and almond and a dish of tiny mushrooms as a fricassee. A trio of good breads and butter. Amuse was a generous dish of asparagus soup with sweetbreads and asparagus. Starters we ordered Chicken terrine with truffle mayonnaise, hazelnuts and salad leaves. Salmon rillette with soy honey dressing, wasabi and a scattering of baby leaves. For mains we opted for new season Devon lamb crusted with olives and served with fondant potato stuffed with tiny diced vegetables, roast garlic and baby onion. The second main course was Cornish cod with roasted cauliflower, spinach, lemon thyme puree and cumin in the form of powder and a frothy sauce. We passed on dessert, opting instead for coffee and petit fours. Petit fours comprised of a mixed fruit donut with a little custard, a pyramid of apricot parfait and a chocolate brownie with a little chocolate ice cream. It was more or less exactly what we expected. Everything from the tiny mushrooms to the custardy donut was done well. Service was very good, lots of staff but not too stiff. Pricewise it is a little expensive; two courses come in at £37, the signature menu is £120. Wines range from £9 a glass upwards, bottles from about £25; we took a half bottle of Californian Viognier at £19.

It may not be that recent but it is the same proprietor in the same premises. It was much more recently a one star restaurant. It is a shame that a restaurant was obviously good seems to be a bit lost. I have never eaten at Longridge. I tend to head towards Northcote if I am in the area. I did enjoy a few nice meals in simply Heathcotes in Liverpool in the early days but that became very much hit and miss towards the end. I do occasionally have a little nose through Rhubarb & black pudding. Its quite a nice book.

Its not that long ago this place had two michelin stars.

I was there in February. The places we ate in order of preference Commonwealth. Tasting with wine. A bargain. Cotogna. Good ingredients done well. Interesting wood grill / range in the dining room too. The pasta was especially good. Frances. Had an enjoyable dinner. Good value for money. Very busy, there were quite a number of people waiting for the place to open. They blend their own house wine and serve it by the ounce. Boulevard. Had lunch. Not too bad pricewise. Better value than dinner. Very nice scallop starter and kobe bavette to follow was decent. Coi. Dinner in the lounge. We ordered from the lounge and tasting menu (4 plates from each). It was a bit of a letdown really and too costly to miss the mark. Ok but I did expect more.