MaLO

Where are you based, where do you fancy going and when will you be on your travels?

The hillbark didnt close - Aiden left but as David mentioned the team he had cooking with him (for quite some time) remained. Very tallentedt they are too. I have eaten a few meals at the collingwood. Its not bad. The bar food is good - the fine dining side is pretty good too, and will probably get better when the kitchen team are all up to speed. One visit was not so good, possibly down to the absence of Aiden one evening. Perhaps the moderator can change the title to Stuart Warner at The Hillbark...

I went back for lunch last week. The food remains very good. £23 lunch bought starters of salomon with purple potatoes and a warm pork terrine. Mains of poached turbot with asparaugs or lamb with morels. We took one of each starter, a turbot each and split a lamb. Very nice too. Desserts were the lemon parfait with merangue and a little rice pudding I had previously and a rhubarb and panna cotta thing. Very nice. The ingredients and the cooking all very good. We were the only diners. A shame really as there is no where (with the exception of fraiche) for miles in any direction that you can eat this well. Still definatly worth a look if you are in the area. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29225248@N06/

How about Arbutus, Wild Honey or les deux salons. http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk/ There are a few Mark Hix restaurants that may be worth a look. http://www.restaurantsetcltd.co.uk/restaurants/ Or how about the Galvin restaurants. http://www.galvinrestaurants.com/

A return to Simon Radley. It is just over a year since our first visit to the Simon Radley restaurant at the Grosvenor Hotel in Chester. In the intervening period we have eaten a fair few lunches at Michael Cains restaurant in Abode. There are a few themed lunches (often themed as ladies who lunch) in the Simon Radley Restaurant but no daily service meaning Abode shines in terms of quality and especially value in Chester, at lunchtime anyway. Last time we ate here we had a slightly abridged, special offer A La Carte menu. It was very good. This time we took the Wednesday evening only tasting menu offer. The regular price is £90, on Wednesday £50, a bargain. So we ate: Breads The chariot of at least a dozen breads is excellent. Between us we sampled the sourdough, beer bread, cheese and onion and granary. The sourdough was extraordinary. The rest were also superb, but the sourdough was something else. A tiny dish of Earlyish Jersey Royals with foamy concoction of salmon and shrimp for amuse. It was very tasty although all a bit too well blended, no individual flavour shone, but as a whole it tasted good. First course proper was titled: Francaise. It was a single, large, steamed scallop, served in its shell. It came in a deep green pool of lettuce fondue, bacon foam and tiny peas. The lettuce sauce was deeper in flavour and had greater substance than I expected. It looked good and tasted good too. We took the sommeliers wine pairing option. With this course we were served a 2010 Vondeling Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa. Golden Egg: A low temperature poached egg topped with gold leaf came with a couple of tiny lobes of seared foie gras, some equally tiny artichoke, crunchy granola and artichoke milk. I don’t really see the point of gold leaf. No flavour of any real worth, looks nice though, gold that is. The artichoke milk and granola when mixed with the egg gave some nice texture. The foie was a tasty if indulgent flourish. The selected wine was 2009 Duc de Morny Picpoulde Pinet. A nice, zingy offering. Skate: Skate served as a tight twist of flesh with an accompanying langoustine, sweet garlic puree, wild garlic and a couple of fine slices of cornichon. It was delicate and gentle as a whole. No huge slap of garlic, just a refined, mild sauce to go with the fish and a dark, slightly chewy leaf for colour. This came with 1998 Comtes de Champagne, Tattinger. Top booze. Roe Deer: My favourite dish of the evening came with a garnish of Morels, some shaved white asparagus, hand rolled, stuffed macaroni and mushroom tea. The fillet of deer was very well cooked, seared but rare within. The vegetables although very few in quantity were excellent. Much more asparagus would have been better. A couple of trimmed whole spears at least would have fitted better than a couple of shaved slices for me. The morels, the pasta and the mushroom tea were all very good though. The wine was a 2006 Perrin, Reserve Cotes du Rhone and it was all very nice indeed. The cheese course was a sort of brioche cheese on toast, with the hollowed out bread getting a filling of liquid Beaufort. It came topped with a slice of truffle. It was ok. The truffle not exactly bursting with flavour, but the warm cheese and bread enjoyable enough. I would have rather had a go at the very impressive looking cheese trolley. The paired Eastgate ale, for me, was an interesting choice, as I got both glasses! Pre Dessert Blood orange carpaccio and sorbet with a single baby coriander leaf was adequately refreshing. The sorbet especially so. Gariguette The only full sized dish of the evening featured early season French strawberries with a play on cheesecake. So we got some sliced strawberry, strawberry sorbet, some jelly, a scattering of broken crumbly pastry and a ball of frozen cheesecakey type stuff. I enjoyed the strawberry elements more than the cheesecake part. Our final wine was 2008 Domaine Pieretti, Muscat de Cap Corse. It was a very good meal. The paired booze came in sharing sized 200ml carafes and was well chosen and good value. Service was good, friendly, in a quite hushed, formal way. Presentation was elegant; in fact elegant probably best describes the meal as a whole. The way the menu reads suggests a slightly more avant garde approach than is actually delivered. It would be interesting to see what was produced if there was a slightly bolder approach to the dishes. In the end I suppose they know the market they are serving and you have to give your customers what they want. There is nothing up with that. All in all it was good, and for the cost it was very enjoyable.

I would give consideration to sketch for afternoon tea or even dinner. Atelier Robouchon has a two course lunch / afternoon tea offer of sorts you can book on toptable or squaremeal. The newly refurbed Savoy may be worth a look too, some mixed reviews but they spent over £200 million on the job. Of the Dinners I would consider The Ledbury, if you like Italian Apsleys, or why not give Jason Athertons newly opend Pollen St Social a try. Smiths of Smithfield is not bad for breakfast, not quite as gritty as the pub mentioned above. More local business types than the market people. Lookout for a coffee shop called dose espresso nearby for some very good coffee. I wouldn't go to the trouble of traveling too far, unless you can get a fat duck reservation, or fancy a trip to the coast in kent to visit The Sportsman at Seasalter.

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2011/04/01/337728/Michelin-starred-Simon-Rogan-to-launch-London-restaurant.htm Interesting news.

There is a MPW pub - http://www.mpwtheswan.co.uk/ not too far away. This place used to get decent reviews http://www.warehousekitchenandbar.com/ Steven Gerrard of footbal fame is listed a co owner, I dont think he will be the pot wash though. The vincent hotel has a sushi bar or used to - http://www.thevincenthotel.com/restaurant-bar/ Not eaten in any of these places but they tend to get mentioned by people from that end. Away from southport - Liverpool the carriage works as listed recently can be nice. Mayur Indian. Hope St has a few ok options. You can also travel as far as Chester on Merseytravel it takes a while but Chester has some good eating. Abode and Simon Radley at the Grosvenor both have good offers at the moment. I will be giving the Grosvenors £50 tasting on Weds a go sometime soon. Manchester is also not too far and has an interesting thread with plenty of recs. Others - The Mulberry Tree Wrightington - http://www.themulberrytree.info/ Northcote - http://www.northcote.com/ Hastings Lytham - http://www.hastingslytham.com/eating-and-drinking/ Also mentioned on this forum the freemasons wiswell - http://www.freemasonswiswell.co.uk/ I will ask people from up that way about pubs and eating and post more if there is anything worth sharing.

I have a lunch booking in a few weeks. Quite looking forward to giving the place a go. Toptable are running 15% discount on the tasting if you book through them. I am thinking lunch menu with wine at the moment though.

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2011/03/04/337344/shane-osborn-to-leave-pied-terre.htm

So, we have been. It was wet, very wet. Favourite was Commonwealth. Tasting menu and wine pairing was really good. The foie chocolate bon-bon was really remarkable, but the whole meal was excellent. I also like the $10 donation idea. We also got a couple of additional items and a glass of cava. The place was packed on a Tuesday night and it is easy to see why. If I was in town this is where I would go back to first. Cotogna - very nice lunch on valentine’s day. No half baked special menu or odd valentine’s themes. Great pasta, fine Halibut tartare and a nicely charred, rare, hanger steak. Nice wine too at good prices. We went to Prospect for nibbles and cocktails - happy hour. Barrique. We stopped by for some wine a couple of times. We had a couple of good flights. Nice place and friendly people. Other places we went to and enjoyed - some less than others: Mo's burgers - north beach. Very good. Frances. Nice early dinner. Service was good and the food was tasty. Ate a bit too much. Good food but I expected a little more. Good value though. Boulevard. Lunched on very good scallops, Kobe cheese burger, crab stuffed artichokes and a Kobe bavette. Very busy, not too expensive at lunchtime. Enjoyable enough. Excellent Blue bottle Coffee and Miette macaroons in the ferry building to follow. Jai Yun. Spicy, multi-course Chinese lunch - $19. Good. Casual / happy hour food and drink at il cane rosso and delicia in the ferry building. Not bad quality and fair prices at happy hour. Bar Fly on Sutter. Near our Hotel – not a bad bar. Some good value drinks. Food was ok if not amazing. As is usual for us, we spent quite a lot of time in the ferry building, especially the wine merchants! Breakfast varied from sausage on a stick, in the ferry building butchers to chupacabra in canteen. Other breakfasts included il cane rosso, Bluebottle. A Vietnamese (Golden orchid) in China town and had a couple of bowls of breakfast pho. It was quite busy, cheap and enjoyable. We also breakfasted in Kuletos to avoid another soaking. It was not bad, probably better than I expected. Saturday we brunched in Canteen. All good tasty stuff. We finished off with dinner in Coi. I had very high expectations. The food did not quite hit the mark for me. Some things were quite good, some less so. Nothing really stood our as excellent. The buttermilk poached chicken was particularly unimpressive, overdone chicken and mushy squash. We ordered four courses from the tasting menu and four from the lounge. We ate mostly everything. Nothing was terrible, just no wow factor, all in all too expensive to miss the target. Coi not for moi. There are other bits to add, but in the main, that’s how it went. Some plans changed. Still never hired that car. The rain was quite a dominant factor. Weather aside we had a great trip. Thanks all for advice and recs.

A few places that spring to mind. The Crown at Whitebrook Kingham Plough The Walnut Tree Simpsons in Birmingham got a nice write up Sat Bains Whatley Manor Lords of the manor Lucknam park Le Manoir

It is probably one of those places (ditirambo) that can be good - it just wasn't when we went. It was also mostly tourists. Most places will have tourists but this was almost everyone. The plate restaurants are generally decent and often better. Besides La pergola the other places I have looked at - but not got to are - il pagliacco - glass hostaria among others.

Hello John. The best meal on my last trip was lunch at La Rosetta. Near to the Pantheon. The last couple of visits I have stayed in Frascati - Cacciani is nice. This links to places involved in the same "union". http://www.piattidelbuonricordo.it/piatti_italiani_Lazio.htm I didn't enjoy Ditirambo. It is well placed for campo de fiore but we were not impressed. It is quite esay to get around on public transport (metro) so most places are only ten mins away. Other places we have enjoyed - Al 34, Gusto, l'altro mastai, cafe universal, news bar (free wi-fi) - aristocampo - vineria il chianti - too many to mention all. We also found a really good looking fish restaurant I think on salita del grillo - not far from the colosseum. Didn't eat there but the fish on the counter looked amazing. It was not cheap though. You should have a great time.

So, I had a think. Changed campton place dinmer for cotogna lunch, got a reservation at the cafe at chez panisse (last try ended up in oscars - good fortune - good burger!). Looking forward to the beer festival week too (does anyone have any idea what is going on). I also have a reservation for coi lounge - what are the best menu options from the choices availabe? It seems quite a strange blend. Not long now - cant wait! Thanks

I had a good dinner here just over a year ago. We ate and drank quite a bit. Booze prices are great. You can also buy the olive oil (and wine) - if you ask - it is good. Favourites would be the venison ragu, tuna tartare, Fagioli del Purgatorio, and house made sausages and lentils. Ice creams were really good too, very rich in a good way. We ate a lot. The fish mixed gril was not so great (a bit over cooked) but most plates were good. The bread could have been better too, but this is a really small place. They may have another supplier or make thier own by now. I have called for a short notice reservation a couple of times with no luck. A couple of weeks for reservations at weekends needed so the additional space should be a bonus, if they can get staff. I must go again.

Aiden Byrnes new venture opened just before Christmas. I have been a few times now. A couple of lunches, a casual unplanned dinner after a few drinks and another dinner, this time planned. Aiden has been present each time. http://www.thecollingwood.co.uk/ There are a few menu options. We have sampled the burger, scampi, pumpkin risotto with queenies and the fish and chips from the lounge menu. All were very good. The burger is really nice, maybe better than nice – good fries too. Crispy, skinny and spruced up with fresh rosemary, garlic and salt. A treat. The big, beef dripping chips that come with the fried fish are also good, as was the fish. On the finer dining side of things we have had white chocolate risotto with scallops and truffles. It does sound a bit odd, but tasted good. We followed that with a shared, excellent, wing rib of Dexter beef with potato galette, béarnaise, bourguignonne dressing and beef shin with fried marrow in little pots. We also have had more scallops. Scallops seem to feature regularly here and have been good each time. A foie ravioli starter was also decent. This was followed by mains of cod with chorizo and chick peas and a lamb dish in two parts. A risotto topped shepherd’s pie and lamb fillet with other bits and bobs, plated separately, each tasty, but in my view two separate dishes (no complaints over quantity though). The only item that has not been good was a dessert. There is also a tasting option now. It is early days yet and when we visited they were not at capacity. The food is good though and with a bit of time to develop the kitchen team, it will remain at this level and hopefully improve. Service is good, friendly and relaxed. The dining room and bar area are comfortable enough in a quite modern-pub way. The dining area more so. Pricewise it ranges from slightly expensive pub to £70ish for the tasting. This is expensive, as much as Fraiche or Simon Radley at the Grosvenor – more or less. Not to say Aiden's cooking is not excellent, although different to Fraiche or Simon Radley, the casual environment does not suggest such cost. Booze costs are fair enough, not cheap but manageable and the quality is decent. I don’t know how much demand there will be for the more expensive menu options but I suppose something similar to the Church Green model will apply. Time will tell. It is one of the better places to eat locally and stands up well to many local and regional options. The pub side of business seems to still cater to people having a pint and table service is offered too. The addition of some proper beer would be a bonus though. All in all I like it. Well worth a look for anyone nearby or in the area.

So far I have reservations in Campton Place, Commonwealth, Frances and the bar at Coi. I have cancelled Michael Mina. I am also hoping to do a couple happy hours - snacking and drinking (Prospect and the fifth floor possibly). Any thoughts? Some casual, long breakfasts / lunches too, depending on the weather and what we fancy doing. Still considering a day / overnight trip but nothing certain yet. Thanks for the information.

I stayed in the area a quite few years ago. The sandpiper in Leyburn was good. Also - Chris Staines is working at the faversham arms in helmsley at the moment. There was also a place in Harrogate that got a few mentions on here a year or so ago - van zeller.

Campton Place seem to have a good offer on Sunday / Monday nights. Has anyone got any thoughts / been recently?

I saw these pics earlier today on flickr (michelin * group) looks nice.

$22 for coffee!!!! I once paid 7 euros in France for an espresso with some goodies and almost had a fit when I got the bill. $22 - Stunning!! Il Cane Rosso is on the list for a walk in / casual thing.

Very interesting MRE. Thanks. I did intend to drive the coast road but I have no real idea how long it takes to get around. There seems to be a motor inn or similar that is low cost in Los Gatos - I may give a try.

I am considering hiring a car. I was thinking a drive down the coast towards Carmel, perhaps. I could possibly head back to Manresa and stop ovrnight nearby. It all a little expensive up in wine country for B&B. I like the look of happy hour in Prospect too.

Thanks for the info. I think it is a little too difficult to organise a trip out of town. I will give it some thought. While I am thinking of out of town places, is Murray Circle worth the trip?