ElisG

Thanks for the info, because of the occasion we will ignore the price on the bill . Plus no-one in my family drinks thankfully, so we will save money on wine. Any other suggestions?

Yes but there is nothing stating how you would order. I mean is it A la carte? Set menu? etc. That's quite a snobby statement, because I don't understand a poorly laid out menu with no indication of pricing or how to order, I'm not entitled to visit the restaurant?

Best tasting food and overall experience. Obviously it will be very subjective. We like pretty much every cuisine. And as it is a special occasion we aren't worried about price. Thanks for the advice on Le Gavroche guys, the websites layout is a bit weird though. I don't understand how the menus are structured : . Thanks, ElisG.

Hi guys, I am going for a short trip to London in a few weeks and I am trying to decide on which restaurant to visit. We are staying in Central London and would like it to be near by. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks, ElisG.

I will never whisk a custard in a sink to make sure it doesn't splash over the bowl onto the worktop, then wash my hands afterwards before removing the custard.

Hi, I am going to Orlando on the 10th July, and would love to try the lobster there. I don't want to pay El Bulli prices, but I don't want it to be crap either. Preferably I'd like to spend about $25 a head. Cheers, ElisG.

It does. I'd missed that bit. J ← Yup, I've also just realised this only works if you assume the person who came 2nd overall came 2nd in the public vote. If he came 3rd he could still have finished second overall without drawing with with the person who came 1st.

I never thought of it like that. Maybe we've misunderstood the voting process.

Yeah, actually after today I take that back, I just thought he came across as cocky in his heat week. But then again so did Steven. Mind you he's a really nice guy in real life.

So guys, who do you think/want to win? Here's what I think: Starter- I'd like James Sommerin to win, being Welsh and adoring his restaurant. But I don't think he will, he hasn't come across as particularly likeable in this competition and he has completely ignored the brief. All bias aside out of the dishes my favourite is Danny Millar's, looks awesome. Too bad it's low down in the rankings. Fish- Glynn Purnell, he's a great guy and his dish looks stunning. Main- I personally liked Danny Millar's the best, but all of the top 3 dishes looked amazing. Desert- I liked Kenny's the best. I may be biased because I hate treacle tarts though. I also thought Tristan's dish wasn't a 'complete' dish and Kenny's looked the most 'fun'. What do you guys think?

I used to think that; however I am now starting to think they represent a very conservative, middle England view, with Peyton thrown in to add a little frission and colour. It would be good to see a judge with a slightly "younger" perspective (sorry couldn't think of a term that wasn't ageist). I assume Peyton is meant to play his role but why does it need to be so quirky? I know, good TV! I had been also thinking that a chef would add value to the panel. Maybe an opportunity for Ramsay to show a serious side and avoid the slide into a "tabloid" career? Although a really good bet would be Michel Roux Jr. he really shone on Masterchef. ← I doubt Ramsay would do it, he only really does primetime TV now. And 6.30 on a weekday isn't what I'd call primetime. I would like to see someone like Raymond Blanc do it, I think he's a good balance. He does modern cuisine but it's not pretentious.

Great review David! What did you think of the Goats Cheese tortellini, I went for the eel instead of that. But I heard that it was served with an avocado ice cream?

Thanks for that info, I will do that next time. I am in the midst of re-uploading the images to imageshack in smaller file sizes so I will edit them into my post in a short while.

Good to read the review, we are thinking of heading over the border to try it in the near future. It will be interesting to see what Stephen produces in GBM, IIRC last year he produced dishes that were a lot more involved that his menu at The Hardwick. With Stephen you need to remember he is a very good chef who chooses to cook rustic pub food; The Hardwick is meant to be very different and it sits at a different price point. A 3 course set dinner is £45 at the Crown vs. approx £35 for a starter, main, side order and pudding at The Hardwick (which I suspect would be twice the volume of the Crown). I think if I lived in Abergavenny I would love The Hardwick, but it is probably not worth a special trip; although in combination with The Walnut Tree it could be fine: Friday supper at The Hardwick, Saturday at The Walnut Tree, and Sunday lunch at the Crown on the way back to England would be fun. ElisG - on you next post it may be better to load the photos into the eGullet site rather than link out to them. I gave up on the first one as it took about 4 minutes to load. ← How would I load them through egullet? And I appreciate what you're saying about The Hardwick. I wasn't slating Stephen by any means, because he is a fantastic chef. I just think James Sommerin is a more 'special occasion' chef. However he might edge it on the 'taste of home' factor. From a price perspective, The Crown might be a fairly pricey restaurant, but their lunch menu is great value. When I went for lunch at the Hardwick I only payed about £15 a head less than at The Crown, and we had the 6 course taster menu at The Crown. Thanks.

I completely agree. I have eaten at many top London restaurants and I must say that The Crown tops them all. I would expect that James will beat Stephen in GBM (The Crown is head an shoulders above The Hardwick), but who knows. I ate at The Crown 2 days ago and also back on October 27th, and had the taster menu both times. So here’s a quick report of The Crown. The Crown is a small, almost cottage-like building located just outside the lovely area of Monmouth. The drive to The Crown is very beautiful which is lucky, because it’s so difficult to find! The interior is simple but classy, and feels very fine dining. The service is brilliant. Sometimes I feel awkward when the waiters are too helpful. But The Crown gets the balance between attentiveness and annoying perfectly. Here is what I ate on the two visits to The Crown: Visit 1 Starter 1- Scallop, Pork Belly and sweet corn The first thing I thought when this came out was how great it looked, the contrast between the Welsh Slate and the food looked brilliant, and the small rasher of crispy bacon was neat. It tasted amazing. The pork belly was beautifully tender and had a tasty thick layer of fat on it. Sitting next to this was a single perfectly seared scallop. Both elements were well seasoned and tasted great with the sweet corn puree and foam. Normally I don’t particularly like foams but this added a nice light element to the dish. The only problem with this dish was that the sweet corn puree had set on the slate. However it was extremely good. Starter 2 – Wood Pigeon Foie Gras, five spice and garlic cream This was my favourite savoury dish out of both visits. I liked how James took styles from various areas in the world, on this occasion China. The pigeon was delicious, and the five spice sauce was extremely flavourful and was a nice contrast to the light garlic foam. The foie gras was also tasty, but I must confess, because it was covered in sauce, I ate it all in one bite thinking that it was a piece of pigeon. Another delicious dish. Main Course 1 – Sea Bass, artichoke and chickpea This dish was another example of James using different cuisines in his cooking. This time it was Indian. The Sea Bass was perfectly cooked, slightly crispy on the outside and it was topped with a delicious vegetable bhaji. The chickpeas complemented the dish well and there was a curry mix at the bottom of the dish. Unfortunately I don’t like artichokes, so I left the artichoke. But apart from that I greatly enjoyed this dish. Main Course 2 – Venison, chocolate, espresso and celeriac This dish was one of my least favourite of the day. The espresso sauce was too strong and over powering for my liking. It came with a very rich chestnut risotto which I enjoyed and celeriac chips which I thought were under cooked. However the venison was perfectly cooked and was one of the nicest pieces of meats I have ever tasted. But the other flavours overpowered it when they were mixed. Dessert 1 – Toffee Soufflé, white chocolate and pistachio ice cream This was my favourite desert out of both my trips to The Crown. The waiter finished this dish by poking a small hole in the soufflé and filling it with toffee sauce, then adding a scoop of ice cream. The soufflé was so light, but extremely flavourful, and the ice cream had a brilliant texture and flavour. Desert 2 – Dark Chocolate sponge and bitter orange I don’t know if I found this course average because of the brilliant course preceding it or whether it just wasn’t particularly outstanding. But either way that was my thought. The sponge was quite hard and drowned in crème anglaise. The sorbet had a delicious flavour but a bad texture with chunks of icy lumps inside it. A pleasant but fairly average end to the meal. Petit Fours (from left to right) http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/2882/dscf2255h.jpg Raspberry Jelly – This had an extremely intense flavour of raspberry and was coated in sour apple (I think) sugar. Coconut Truffle – I love the flavour of coconut and I loved this petit four, it had grated coconut on the outside with white chocolate truffle on the inside. Very tasty. Chocolate Coated Ice Cream – This was like a mini magnum. Nice. Lemon Biscuit thingy (don’t know the proper name for this, I’m sure someone can correct me) – Very tasty lemon flavoured chewy biscuit. Popcorn Panacotta – This was a great panacotta, but I couldn’t really taste the popcorn. Visit 2 Amuse Bouche – Celeriac Veloute finished with Mushroom This came out as a shot glass, filled with chunks of ceps and celeriac with a rasher of crispy bacon. The waitress then finished it with a celeriac veloute. I didn’t really know how to eat it, but I assumed that we were supposed to drink it because the rim of the glass was finished with mushroom powder. So I opted to eat the vegetables and bacon from the glass with a spoon, and then drink it. The vegetables were perfectly al dente and the bacon added a nice salty contrast to the extremely creamy veloute. The veloute was like a more flavourful potato soup and was as thin as milk, which I preferred because I hate drinking thick soup. It was overall a good start to the meal. Starter 1 – Smoked eel, sweetcorn, chilli and basil This dish came out in a rather peculiar looking jar. The jar was opened by the waitress and thick smoke came out. It was a very Blumenthal-esque start to the meal. Some people think that things like that are pretentious but I like theatre in dining. The waitress then finished the dish with a sweetcorn veloute. The structure of the dish was similar to the amuse bouche. Under the veloute was crunchy sweet corn and baby corn, as well as pigs trotters, salad leaves, and a small cube of deep-fried smoked eel. The dish tasted great, but I didn’t pick up any chilli or basil from it. Starter 2 – Ham Hock, Langoustine, Celery and Mustard This was one of the weaker dishes, it was pleasant but it didn’t have any wow factor. The ham hock was ok and the dressing was fairly lacking in flavour. However the langoustine was completely different to what I expected. It was so tender it almost tasted like a prawn pate (would’ve tasted delicious spread on toast). Another positive from this dish is I normally hate celery, but I quite enjoyed the crunch it gave in this instance. Main Course 1 – John Dory (Halibut?), cardamom and tomato dressing and tarragon gnocchi This was a delicious dish. The fish was perfectly cooked. But I am not sure if it was John Dory or Halibut. We booked by e-mail to inform them we were coming and ordered John Dory, but on the day we heard them telling the table nearby that it was halibut. So I am not sure whether we were served halibut or John Dory, either way it was delicious. The cardamom and tomato ‘dressing’ was more of a thick puree, but was tasty nonetheless. And the gnocchi was lovely. It was topped off with 2 mini onion (or shallot?) rings, which melted in the mouth. Main Course 2 – Lamb, apricot, herb couscous and cumin sauce The lamb in this dish was the nicest I’ve ever eaten. The couscous was also nice and flavoursome and the broad beans were tasty. It also had a very fun lamb sausage roll. This was a nice touch and tasted great. I didn’t actually pick up any flavours of cumin or apricot from this dish, which was probably for the better, because the lamb was just so perfect. Desert 1 – Blood orange jelly, honeycomb and vanilla ice cream I was expecting this dish to be quite boring, but it was very delicious. The jelly packed loads of orange flavour, and the vanilla ice cream was perfection. The honeycomb was a perfect balance of crunchiness, but not toughness. And it was topped with a little light honeycomb cake. Desert 2 – Apple and Cinnamon terrine, tarragon and white chocolate ice cream This dish consisted of a layered terrine of chopped apple flavoured with cinnamon, which the waitress then finished with a butterscotch sauce. It had a scoop of tarragon and white chocolate ice cream next to it. The apple and cinnamon terrine was delicious and went brilliantly with the butterscotch sauce. But the tarragon and white chocolate was a true revelation, it tasted fantastic, the tarragon was noticeable and subtle. Petit Fours The petit fours here were the same as our previous visit. Except the popcorn panacotta was bubblegum pannacotta. Unfortunately this tasted hideous; it reminded me of aerosol spray cans. This was my only real complaint of the day though.

Hi, We are going to watch a rugby match tonight for my fathers birthday in Llanelli(Wales), and afterwards we are hoping to go out for a meal. Does anyone know of any great restaurants in the Llanelli/Swansea area? Preferably for under £20 a head. Thanks very much, ElisG.

Working at a Chinese I get some really strange orders such as: Egg fried rice with no egg. Sweet and sour chicken with curry sauce instead of the sweet and sour. And a personal favourite of Chicken Curry with no chicken.

That's great to know, does everything such as fermentation take the same amount of time that way? Or does that also need to be reduced? Hopefully, it's probably not a great idea to drink too much of it though, having just turned 15 .

I haven't read this whole thread seen as it is so long, but first i'd like to thank you for making this guide, it's really helpful and has inspired me to start homebrewing. Anyway my question is, can you reduce the amount you make by quartering it? or would that mess the whole thing. I know this sounds kind of stupid, but I don't really like beer, I just want to make it. Haha.

I prefer glass bottles but tend to drink more coke from a can, because of it's availabillity. Coke from a plastic bottle tastes hideous to me though, really fizzy but goes flat quickly. I think the reason that coke from glass tastes better is not so much because the flavour of the drink is affected, but because as you drink it your tongue is touching the glass as opposed to metal or plastic. I think if you poured both into a glass and compared, there wouldn't be a great deal of difference.