david goodfellow

Hot off the press, (not), But hot off twitter. Head chef Ben Spalding is no more. He has left. It would seem Aulis chef Dan Cox will take things forward with Simon. Or is it Andy Tomlinson? Not sure who he is. Is he a chef or front of house? Roganic Twitter

Are the prices still as low as they were on our visit? Did you not take any photos Martin?

Yes, I'm happy to admit to being a food snob. I religiously follow the Michelin guide, because in the main I trust their judgement. Sometimes of course they get it wrong, by a margin, but that just goes with the territory. However having said all that, at times we both crave honest down to earth "normal" plates of food, not over processed, just perfectly cooked a la minute. Thats the reason we dined here. Soho is coming more into focus for foodies of late and this latest addition has received much press coverage. The exterior is very low key. The interior is cafe style with three blackboards listing the menu items. The best seats are at the rear sitting at the light flooded kitchen counter watching the chefs cook your food. We sat at the worst table, the one by the draughty entrance door. The reason we persevered was purely to gain natural light for my photos. The menu is simple and to the point, perhaps six starters with a couple doubling up to mains if you wanted. Eight mains, and five desserts and a cheese course. There was nothing on the menu that I would be unhappy to eat and one thing that I desparately wanted to eat, Goat Pie Oh my giddy aunt, never ever have I seen goat pie on a menu. Yes you will get goat perhaps in an Indian restaurant, say at Birmingham,s Lasan, in a biryani for instance, but not in all my travels have I seen one on a European menu. I really wanted to order the six starters and share one main, the goat pie. She who must be obeyed deeply objected to the Lambs brain, sage, capers and brown butter, and fancied the Middlewhite pork main so we compromised and had two mains and an irresistable three starters. Bread, baked fresh daily, was good. Soudough and an especially nice onion topped focaccia. Tap water is served in a milk bottle and the cutlery is stored in a specially made recess in the table Queen scallops and chorizo (£8) Totally gorgeous, eye candy of the highest order and top tasting. Three and a half each was not really enough, we could have just gorged down on another plateful. The plump scallops and the oozing fatty chorizo were a marriage made in heaven. Quite a bargain too for the price, cheap as chips. Quadretti (£6) is a type of pasta, and this dish was loaded with wild mushrooms. Think trompette de morte, chanterelle, etc. Burrata (Italian creamed cheese) sat atop and started to melt into the hot pasta. This was the only underseasoned dish of the meal, (the others were highly seasoned) but as soon as the sea salt was added it lifted the flavour no end. Simple, simple, simple, Mackerel, romesco, and lemon (£6) but again big on flavour. Good presentation and good combination of ingredients. You know what they say, don't you? " If you don't ask, you don't get" Well I asked and "I got" more of that great focaccia. My goat pie next. I was like a kid at Xmas, could not wait. Would it live up to the expectation level that I had set? Goat pie, parsnip mash and shallots (£16) Looking like a roasted cranium and to some not a thing of beauty, but it was to me. Chrimes this was a big ballsy plate of food, sod those pathetic little Michelin portions. This is what I would crave as a final meal. If someone was to ask what goat tastes like I would have to say "mutton", a strong mutton flavour. Not a heady overpowering gamey hit just a mellow full flavour. Fairly big pieces of slightly fatty meat,(thats not a criticism in any way btw). Eating very well indeed, but in need of an occasional dip of the deep rich sauce protecting the parsnip mash. Good buttery pastry, a none lumpy parsnip mash and sweet, sweet shallots. I devoured nearly all of it but had to admit defeat after reaching the last twenty percent of the mash having run out of the delicious sauce. A big thumbs up from me. My wifes dish next, and this would have been my second choice main Middlewhite Pork, celeriac puree, kale and apple chutney (£18) Again another butch plate of enjoyable food. A sizeable portion on an oversize plate. I tried the crackling, tried the pork, tried the chutney and would have been very happy on another visit to eat the whole plate on my own. Needless to say my Missus polished it off. Dessert, no not really, but hey perhaps we could share one. Chocolate fondant? Lemon tart? Yogurt panna cotta? Ice cream? No the only oneof real interest was the Pear Tatin, almond praline ice cream (£5) Worth a fiver all day long, an absolute bargain and easily enough for two to satisfy any sweet tooth craving at the end of the meal. Well for an unstuffy meal in a very now Soho this is a great addition. It is a victim of the current no bookings fad, however you can book at lunch, as we did. It was popular and seemed fully booked and they had to turn away a sizeable amount of business because of limitations outside of the normal lunch period, even though they also serve some very interesting bar snacks. I am not really into wine but note should be made that the mark ups here are tiny by anyone's standards never mind by London standards. We can without reservation (get it) recommend you try this place out. You can go the whole hog like we did or just try a starter, dessert combo, or main, dessert, or perhaps just even a main. Happy chef Cameron Emirali

I do feel the need to clarify my above comments regarding "service issues". Nanna, head chef John Freeman and the sommelier? were lovely, very friendly and professional and are a credit to their employers. Unfortunately Sat Bains appears have taken offence to me personally, perhaps for comments that I have made on here. He did see us, he stood ten metres away at the desk in reception, taking a phone call. We were sitting in the lounge, and the only two diners for lunch on the day. I looked over in his direction a number of times but he chose to blank us, for his own reasons. I need to point out that we have spoken to him before, at some length, perhaps four years ago, on our last visit I would have loved to have booked incognito. In fact this would have been by far the preferred route. We were certainly not looking for special treatment, far from it. Having to give credit card details cancelled any opportunity to remain anonymous. I am still considering whether or not to review our meal but because it takes so long for me to do it, it is offputting given the comments. I have said it before and will say it again. The food is not everything in dining out, the whole package is the the most important thing. If Michel Roux of the famous dynasty can take the time out to visit every table during service, why can't Sat Bains say hello to his only two customers on the day, whoever they are. I rest my case.

Had a very tasty meal here today. No farty little thimblefuls of mucked about food, just honest flavoursome plates at very reasonable prices. Review with photos to follow

Matthew I hope you don't object to me using your quote as to the "service issues" inherant at restaurant sat bains. Your ability to aptly describe the problem with the said establishment is precise and to the point, and perhaps better than I could convey. Thank you.

Yesterday we were mostly eating small portions of food in the Development Kitchen at Restaurant Sat Bains. The sun was beating down. The famous bunnies were in the garden. Sat and Amanda were in the office. The very lovely Nanna Vestergaard cooked for us and head chef John Freeman popped his head through the door, but no Sat, he chose to ignore us. Did I hit a nerve over their cancellation policy? Considering that we were the only two diners at lunchtime in Lenton Lane at both the Chef,s and Development Kitchen is it too much to ask for a hello off the big man? I took my normal array of photos but as always I check through and generally need a bit of time to rejig some of them. Hopefully a report up as soon as I have a spare two or three hours.

As it turned out Nick some of the courses were a decent size and from most chefs point of view this would be considered a well balanced meal. It could be argued that you should not feel overfull at the end of a meal, however mostly I like to feel full especially when paying top money for a meal. To sum up. Overall I was very happy with the quality and quantity of the meal, my wife not so much on quantity as she craved more meat, specifically some chicken. Yes we did stop at the services on the M1 and were tempted by the Waitrose takeaway meal for a tenner, but resisted. We did have a moussaka later on in the evening though

So eventually we are in. I have tried every combination of dates available and had to settle finally for a Tuesday lunch rather than wait another couple of months for a weekend slot. This simply means a day tripper journey of over three hundred miles instead of a leisurely overnight stay and another restaurant the following day with a chilled out return back home. To add insult to injury our normal three hour journey turns into four because of an accident which totally blocked off the M1. This was literally a few hundreds of metres in front of us just past the motorway services. Luckily we were fifty metres this side of the turn off so we were able to re-route off the rear of the services to the next motorway junction. I was joyous of the fact we had started earlier than normal. We arrive late and stressed after a further delay in parking the car because a new company is in charge of parking so I have to re-register which they simply can not do that quickly. The restaurant is on the ground floor and is smaller than I thought, perhaps seating thirty or so. The basement bar is larger, perhaps twice as large and equally as industrial. Metal thieves would have a field day in here, its all metal, more metal, concrete and bare brick with a bit of wood thrown in for good measure. The oversize metal front door would not keep them out they would simply nick that too. Service put us at rest from the off as I was assured that the tasting menu was still on offer even though we were late arriving. The set menu was however very appealing with quite a few dishes crossing over from the a la carte and tasting menu, this from memory was £24 for four courses, excellent value. The carte has five, six and five choices and seems very reasonably priced although having said that you will need four perhaps even five courses to fill you up. From reading some of the reviews I had a nagging feeling the portion size was going to be an obsticle for us. Indeed the coddled egg dish (which we shall come to later) I viewed as a bit of a micky take at £7. The homemade nutty Rye bread arrived warm in a date stamped brown paper bag, with some whipped salted butter and a handfull of tasty bulbous green olives. The bread had a fantastic crust with good flavour and exploded in the mouth to meld with the salty butter. The tasting menu seemed good value at £49 for seven courses but apart from the egg I could see that one of them was a pre dessert so that would no doubt be tiny. Time would tell if we were sated at the end or not. Bang in season, English asparagus was presented with a deliciously lush homemade virgin rapeseed oil mayonnaise. Sprinkled on the plate were some chopped hazelnuts and meadowsweet. We were advised to eat this with our fingers which was a bit messy but fun. Mixed alliums in a chilled pine infusion sounded intriguing. How would it eat, how were the onions cooked, etc. I thought the dish was a real looker. I had to take multiple photos to make sure that I captured the dish correctly. What a simple plate of food and really refreshing on a summers day. Floating in the broth btw is an aioli and basil emulsion. You have to be careful cutting the onions as they are served with a good bite to them. We are spoilt with eggs, my ducks lay fresh ones daily in spring and summer so the Coddled free range hen,s egg had a lot to live up to. Not at all sure what "woodland mushrooms" were in the egg, they were a tiny dice but did their job well along with the smoked butter. Not for me as ethereal as others may decide but nevertheless a simple fun dish nicely presented. I guess it may end up being a signiture dish (if not already). Charred Salmon with elderflower, spring onions and almonds was again summer on a plate, and boy was the sun shining today. Top tasty piece of well sourced salmon, sweet distinctive elderflower with a spritz of lemon, whats not to like. The only meat on the well balanced menu was Barbecued Iberico pork perched atop a mound of savory acorn praline. To the side are turnip tops and somewhere on the plate was homemade apple vinegar, I suspect dressing the turnip tops. I was informed the pork is simply barbecued in the kitchen with no sous vide involved at all. I have a lovage plant growing in my garden which should be bursting into life very shortly, the pre dessert of Iced lovage has given me an idea as to how to use some of the leaves. I guess not to everyones taste this really is a distinctive herb but for us it worked and freshened the taste buds up no end. A work of art next and possibly my favourite dish. The forest floor on a plate. No not a plate, my mistake, a slate no less to show it off to better effect. Chocolate and virgin hazelnut oil ganache, basil moss, sheeps milk ice cream.. Witness chocolate ganache, chocolate log, chocolate soil, basil moss, dill cream, and the ice cream. Too often desserts are oversweet, some are sickly sweet and part way through they can become hard work, this was totally the opposite, visually exciting, we could not wait to get tucked in. Perfect balance of crunch, pitch perfect ganache, slightly sour notes from the ice cream and an excellent "basil moss". A star dish imo. Now then we skipped coffee as we normally do but were still served the most amazing canneles, sponge cakes baked in beeswax with a cherry on top. Absolutely gorgeous, the cherry on the top was a revelation I can't imagine these being bettered. Fantastic, I wished I had been cheeky and done an Oliver Twist and asked for more. Now then I never ever go to a restaurant looking for faults, its just not me, why pay good money to be unhappy? Having said that I did think that Dabbous would perhaps not fully live up to the hype. I did expect to nit pick on portion size and I suspected service may not have been perhaps all that, but I was wrong. Everything seemed destined against an enjoyable experience but we immediately fealt relaxed and fully enjoyed the experience. Special mention to Graham Burton and his staff for looking after not only us but some of the happiest customers that we have seen in a restaurant in recent times. Considering that he worked last with Agnar Sverrison at Texture for a number of years Ollie Dabbous has not copied his style but developed his own and that is admirable indeed. There is a clarity about his food, its not muddled with lots of different flavours and indeed as we expected we think so far that this has got to be the restaurant opening of the year and a very exciting one at that. Shame again its so far away and booked so far in advance, still, there will be a next time. After service Ollie came out of the kitchen to spreak with a fair few of his customers whom he seemed to know quite well. Eventually and mindfull not to keep him we had a very brief chat before we hit the chaotic M1. He certainly is humbled by all of the attention he is getting and he seems to be a really focused hard working guy. We wish him all the very best. We took this photo.

For the benefit of those people who do not know who Andy Waters is, I started a thread on Edmunds restaurant back in 2009. This is the original thread.

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the photos Marc. Nice to know a chef approves. We guessed you were busy, and we had to dash ourselves because of the rush hour traffic. My Missus advised me not to poke my head in the kitchen at the end because she knows how much I rabbit on once I get started. Can't commit too much on the menu black at present as we have quite a bit pencilled in for the next month or so, but keep me informed of any developments would you please, we would like to give it a whirl.

I'm a bit surprised that you gave it a whirl Marco, but pleased for us both that you enjoyed it so much. Looking forward to seeing the photos, especially the King Crab, when you get around to putting them up on your site. Comforting to hear that they were busy.

Well, today we have been mostly been eating Marc Wilkinson's food. In fact I think apart from a very lite snack, that is all we will be eating. A long overdue return considering its perhaps just an hour fifteen, thirty minutes (subject to traffic) up the road. Trouble is we rarely book too far in advance and getting a table here at short notice is nigh on impossible, except this time we got a cancellation. Having said that however, it still took us four perhaps five weeks. Not sure how many days lunch is served, perhaps just Friday, Saturday, Sunday. More and more we prefer lunch service, late nights do not do it for us anymore especially if I am driving a long distance after a big meal. On the plus side of course some of the best bargains are to be had at lunch just to get bums on seats. Some tasty spiced pecans were placed on the table for our pleasure whilst the kitchen cooked our food. A bit of fun next, which was on the menu as The kiss The lips reminded me of something off a Rolling Stones album and they were in fact part of a bloody mary cocktail especially when our server sprayed some Grey Goose vodka over them. Fun. Reading like a five courser on the menu, with The kiss as an extra header the first course was entitled Potato cream. coffee/ montgomery. Montgomery is of course cheddar cheese and this dinky little pot of goodness came with some extremely addictive crispy poppy seed bites, and squid ink crisps. One thing I really look forward to at Fraiche is the very excellent bread, and four little buns arrived as follows. Granary and treacle, five nuts, cheese, and mixed seed. Butters were unsalted Goats butter, and slightly salted Cows butter with Hawaiian sea salt. Cauliflower cheese, beafort/ mint was plated similarly, and reminded me of a dish that we ate at Tom Aikens a couple of weeks ago. This rendition was roasted, pickled, raw, and poached cauliflower with mustard and mint dressing, rocket, olive oil powder and a beaufort cheese crisp. A simple vegetable given the royal treatment by a good chef. We were looking forward to the next course, at least I was, perhaps not so very much for the Wild Cornish brill fillet but more the briney cockles, dashi broth, and oyster leaf. Beautifully plated and eating rather well, subtle but complex we really liked this. Second serving of bread next. Mushroom, tomato and olive oil, black olive, and organic oat. My, My. I think Marc must know that quail is one of my favourite eats, I would like to think that this was why it was on the menu, although then again,perhaps not. This one was from all the way from France. Loire quail, parsley root/beetroot. Now I'm fairly certain our waiter said that the quail was roasted? It was so tender I could have sworn it would be sous vide, but what do I know. Perhaps it was and then finished off in the oven. Whatever, it was cooked to perfection, truly excellent flavour. Did it have a glaze of some sort, not sure? The dainty little legs were confit and by golly did that work. Also on the plate were roasted shallots, parsley root puree, pak choi, poached beetroot, potato crisp and truffle. Excellent. Another fun little diversion, and one that we have had before were the Fizzy grapes) There was a choice of cheese (at no extra charge) or dessert. I tried the cheese which looked fabulous on the chariot. Whilst the cheese choice was being explained to me, a surprise dessert arrived for my wife. Having the feel of a superior bath sponge, a featherly lite Chocolate cake with cherry toothpaste. We shared the cheese and in tune with the extreme generosity of the restaurant the normal four choice turned into six. Really spoilt for choice I chose bleu de basques, an artisan sheeps milk cheese. Some chabichou, Calvados camembert, A cheese washed in champagne? Plus? A cracker selection was served along with some jelly and various fruit. vis apricot, apple. Surprise, surprise Cilla (well we are close to Liverpool) a cracking dessert arrived next. Simply listed as Chocolate textures this did indeed look the part. Arriving in three pots for full effect, I could not wait to try a spoonful,(or three). Witness, chocolate mousse, milk crumb, ? brittle and chocolate foam. Fresh cherry, chocolate clafoutis and a cherry ice lolly. Yum, yum. Well, well, what a fantastic lunch. from start to finish not one hiccup and incredible value. Lots of extra bits and bobs, as good as any evening tasting menu currently on offer. As it would happen, it was unbeknown to me until this morning that this was our wedding aniversary. Ok its a man thing I,m ashamed to admit forgetting. So we had a glass of champers each, three glasses of wine and a glass of port between us, no coffees, tap water. All of the above food and with a tip the bill only came to £110. Incredible value. Be prepared for a couple of months wait for a table, or do as we did and ask for a cancellation, but whatever you do . Go.

Anybody been here recently? The thread seems very quiet considering it was one of (if not) the best openings of last year. I'm hopeful of an update.

Just remembered that with all of the comments on this popular thread, that I did not do any kind of review. That would be a real shame as to sit for two to three hours on the uncomfortable bar stools and not do a report, well it would be a bit of a waste. Everyone is compted these crunchy morsels just to get your jaws ready for the main event. . Fifteen items on the days menu, broken down by ten tapas and five larger main course dishes. Can't remember if there were any more "specials", but this was enough choice for us in any event. Right in front of us the young lady was prepping and plating an appealling looking Artichoke, cauliflower and soft cheese salad.So we ordered that to start with. This was tasty enough, perhaps (to me) looking a bit better than it actually ate. Also on the plate were some crunchy walnuts which added extra texture. Prawns, Cecina,(cured or smoked meat) chilli, garlic., was a good eat. So good in fact the Mrs wanted another portion. So did I, but wanted to try as many dishes as we could manage first. Gathering pace now, we could not resist the Boquerones which were plated up with, sweet roasted red peppers, olives, a well dressed mixed salad, and perfectly cooked runny golden egg. This was one of the best dishes and its contents disappeared rather sharpishly out of sight. I'm always amazed to see what chefs can transform pulses into. So the soup on the menu had to be tested out. Spicey chickpea soup, chorizo or manchego. The sausage was more appealing than the cheese and guessed the spicey, smoked fatty meat would just advance the dish farther than cheese would. I was right. I can't resist Quail if its on a menu its on my plate. This version although perfectly cooked lacked colour which was slightly off putting and it would also have gained a bit more flavour by searing it more. The romesco sauce was ok, I just feel the plate could have been elevated a bit more, Not by far the best quail we have eaten. We ate duck at home last night and ate the ducks liver by flashing it in the pan with butter. The Duck livers, capers, Fino here were at their distinctive best, quite strong flavoured, not everyone's cup of tea, a bit of an aquired taste I guess. The little flavour bomb capers took our minds off the offally overload. I have described the Lamb, lentils, and radiccio above so I will not dwell on it too much, suffice to say it smelled and tasted wonderfull. We ate nearly every "starter" plus the tasting portion of lamb, and we were well and trully stuffed. The last dish was not something that you often see on menus, if at all. Lamb's tongues, red onions and gherkins. Again, strong flavour, pleasant enough, good to have the gherkins to cut through. Not a memorable dish but one we would try again if we returned. Well, as you can see we ate for England, but it was over about a three hour period so it was not too bad. Truth be told we had to do something to take our minds off the poorly designed stools which we kept slipping off. Portion size is far from mean, quite generous in fact, so not really tapas as such from that point of view. We very much like this format for a change from Michelin, and general fine dining. The honesty of the cooking shines through and I am not wracking my brains trying to guess components in a dish, its all there in front of you so I just get on with eating it. Apart from the tasting portion of lamb (£10) and the prawns (£8) all of the other tapas dishes were from £5.50 to £6.50 so it is not at all expensive and ideal for an anytime visit without breaking the bank. Our lunch bill including a bottle of house wine and tip was about £80, but that was for an awful lot of food, suffice to say we did not eat anything more, until the next day If we lived local we would be trying each new dish as it came on to the menu, but we don't. More's the shame.

I'm not on twitter so I don't tweet, but that does not stop me or anyone else for that matter, from seeing what other people are up to. Anyone can "follow" without signing up, except that is, if someones account is protected, you simply can not view their tweets. Of course as my life revolves around food and specifically where our next good meal is coming from, a lot of the foody gossip is valuable to me. New openings, new dishes on menus, that sort of thing. So. I'm getting good feedback about Aiden Byrnes burger, a tweet here, a tweet there, enough tweets to make us want to visit. Now. I had a bit of a preview on our last visit. I saw a couple of "whoppers" leaving the kitchen and made a mental note to try one in the not too near future. So here we are. What really interested me was how the food, including the burgers were cooked not on a Josper charcoal grill but an Inka charcoal oven. It is hailed as eco friendly because of its use of waste coconut husks which are formed into charcoal briquettes. These according to the blurb have great benefits including burning at higher temperatures, less smoke and fewer flare ups when grilling fatty foods. Aiden Byrne's Church Green is the first restaurant in England to have one. This is closely followed by Simon Rogans London outpost Roganic, where much lauded chef Ben Spalding will be giving it some hammer. Now normally on our outings we try to choose different dishes from the menu purely to see what the kitchen can offer, but on this occasion we were resolute, we both wanted the burger, and unusually for us we both craved the same starter. Mussels from the Inka Grill "sauces change daily" Todays sauce was Korma. We were intrigued to see how a korma sauce would translate to mussels. Normally when I cook mussels I can't drag myself away from the classic mariniere perhaps thinking anything else might overpower the mussels. Wrong. Served with a hunk of ciabatta in a cast iron pot, they were a joy to behold. I had to double check with Sarah that this trencherman offering was the starter potion. It was. The last time we ate mussels I bought them off the quayside from a wholesaler in Conwy, which is famed for its stock. They did not have the flavour of the ones served here, which were from Blackpool. These were gorgeous, plump and full flavoured. The sauce was classic, turmeric, cumin, garlic, cardamom, shallots, coconut milk, and some sweet dessicated coconut to finish it off. It was totally delicious, a knockout soup in its own right but perfectly showing off the mussels. Sadly I had to leave some as I would not be able to eat the burger. A meal in itself really fantastic value for £6. I was a tad worried that the burger would not live up to the hype, even more so because Aiden and Sarah were both in. No pressure then. Now then any chef that travels to New York to research burgers, (Aiden has) must have eaten some top notch examples and it would seem that the ideal meat mix is 85% steak with 15% bone marrow as it is here. The meat is not from O Shea's, this is the North West, so arguably the best butcher around is Frost Butchers in Chorlton, Manchester. Now then we don't claim to be experts on anything food, especially burgers. We have eaten what some consider the best, Goodman, and had a few others including the very good Bar Buloud one, but how would this one compare? The first bite would determine success or failure in my estimation, and guess what? It was flippin marvellous. We both looked at each other and blurted out high praise. It comes in two sizes a 5 oz at £8 and a whopping 10 oz at £12. You can choose from four toppings (all extra) I tried the fabulous roquefort and brie mix with breaded deep fried onions (£1). The toasted bun is itself a thing of beauty, a ciabatta base enriched with olive oil. Don't fully know how to describe the burger, moist, almost runny bone marrow and olive oil mix. Smokey barbecue style steak, perfectly seasoned just jam packed with flavour. A revelation really, far better than we could have hoped for. The other topping was maple cured bacon and duck egg, (£2) "Really enjoyable". Was the verdict. I was very happy to be served skinny chips, more beef dripping means more flavour and these were up there with anything else that we have eaten chip wise. I preferred them to Heston's triple cooked ones. We were both so full now a dessert was out of the question, but the ever so persuasive Sarah suggested that the Lime cheesecake with roasted pineapple was quite lite and worth trying to satisfy a sweet tooth. And she was right. We both tucked in and in no time at all we cleared the plate. Well, what can I say, apart from what you have already heard. For such a simple format, a burger and a bowl of mussels it was really really enjoyable. To suggest that this is just pub grub done well is an insult to the chef. Much effort has gone into research, sourcing, equipment and cooking that in my estimation this burger is worth travelling for. We have not tried the Meatliquor one in London yet but I can't see that it would be any better than this one, thats one very big thumbs up for just South of Manchester. If you still want a bit of fine dining the five course tasting menu reads well, and the specials were all worthy of a try. We had a chat with Aiden who told us the new fine dining restaurant in Manchester will be open towards the end of the year, but in the meantime he will be in the Church Green for nearly every service until then. Don't just take our word for it, try it yourself. Next time we visit we are going to try out the steaks. The Inka Grill. Coconut charcoal briquette

If you phone in the mornings Marc normally answers. I guess its about 4/5 or even 6 weeks ago since I phoned to bag a lunch table with no luck. Then out of the blue last week I get a phone call off Marc for one middle of this month. I looked at the website myself and was surprised no "bespoke" was on there. I do know for a fact Menu Black is available because I have been looking at his twitter account I'm not a stalker guvnor. Honest.

Ok, so I have lightened those pics as best I can. I have recently started using Picassa but for some reason or other the edited ones that I lightened up did not attach to the original post, so I did these in windows instead. They are far below the standard that I would normall post but at least you can now make out a bit more detail.

Well, very unusual for us, and indeed for most people, we made a very swift return here. What got us back so soon was the Tuesday special, a five course tasting menu for twenty five english pounds? Now thats got your attention. First though before I start I must apologise for the picture quality. We chose what we thought would be perhaps the most discrete corner table. However the light was so bad we could not read the menu without holding the candle to it. Resolute not to use flash I was hopeful that they could be rescued. Having said all that the birthday party of nine at the table next to us "flashed" merrily away and no one batted an eyelid, so I may alter my stance in future depending on location. Now then, the menu was virtually the same as we ate last week but thankfully the attentive staff remembered and altered it a bit so that we did not repeat what we had already eaten. We had most of what Adam ate above and I am in admiration of his memory. Mine is like a sieve. Some tasty little bites were placed out for us, parsnip crisps, and a couple of Dolphinholme smoked cheese gougeres. The bread and butters were still the same of course. Fantastic crust, the type that when you bite down hard and it disintigrates, you wonder if a bit of your moler has gone with it. The amuse was the same potted hare from last week although this time a tiny morsel. The first course proper was a variation on a theme, Home smoked mackerel served with a poached rhubarb jelly (poached in cointreau and grenadine) and mustard cream. Oh and some toasted rye bread. Now then, this just really all worked together, wonderful fish, not as much in your face as mackerel can sometimes be. A bit of sweet and a bit of sour from the cream and the jelly. Jolly good stuff. A very nice eat. Ever the gent I let my wife choose the Mushrooms and snails served with birch powder (no, me neither) malt loaf and curds rolled in hay ash. Top quality produce on show, great mushroom selection, big meaty, dare I say slimey cep, don't really know how best to describe the snails. I suppose like the mushrooms really, "earthy". Celeriac soup with toasted chestnuts and truffle oil was in my opinion not as enjoyable as the mushroom soup we ate last week, but that was a very hard act to follow indeed. I could have had a fight with the toasted chestnuts but I would have lost, as some of them were harder than me. I cheekily asked for another slice of the lovely bread. Next up was Turbot and wow this smelled wonderful. It arrived behind me and the aroma made me turn around to see if the dish was at the next table. Meaty and well flavoured I had to restrict myself from wolfing it down, it was a smell the roses moment. My wife chose the Hare as described above by Adam. Now again hare is very rarely on menus but you must try it if it is. You know when you see pictures of hares knocking the sh-t out of each other, well this one never flexed a muscle during its life. Melting is overused to describe meat but here by golly its correct. Sous vide for thirty minutes? and flashed under the grill I need a day in this kitchen to see what I can do with the one which I have in my freezer. Desserts next and my choice was Quince tart, with nitro poached honey yogurt, topped with bee pollen, a daquise biscuit and quice coulis. Ever tried biting into a quince? My giddy aunt, bitter, you bet. Can't even hazzard a guess as to how much sugar was in this tart to get it to this balance of sweetness. Don't you find nitro poached yogurt and bee pollen a bit much after a while? We have it most days of course Across the table was Beetroot and dark cocoa cake served with a beetroot marshmallow, dehydrated ? bee pollen, ? snow. Too much for a layman to take in. Declared "very pleasant". Well again I'm far from happy with my photos but at least you have chance to see the layout on the plate and the somwhat distinctive style of the kitchen. For us the room is too dark, we like seeing what we are eating or at the very least to be able to read the menu without holding a candle to it. Next time we are here a seat next to the kitchen is in order to borrow a bit of that light. Positives next. Its great to see a restaurant turning tables on a Tuesday night. Ok so profit drops and you give your customers premium product that other customers pay top money for on a weekend, but this is recession hit Britain, so go with the flow. Best to have a full restaurant on one of the quietest days of the week than have staff standing about twiddling their thumbs, looking for stuff to do. As you may gather another enjoyable meal, many highs, no lows as such, and a big reccomend. Service was very pleasant, as was on our last visit, but because of the pressure of a full restaurant we were left to our own devices over wine and water. No big deal of course we can easily fend for ourselves. Sad to say they have dropped some of the lunch services, sign of the times perhaps? We passed a TGI Fridays on our drive home and I said to the Mrs "Thats wrong, they ought to change that to....... TFI Tuesdays"

Anyone been recently? Report with photos would be great. Just to get the taste buds going. I know Marc's always booked months in advance making it a serious foodie haunt but no activity on here? Managed to get a cancellation, just for lunch, which is equally hard to come by. So my report with pics will follow in a couple of weeks time. Worth the visit just for the fantastic bread.

Some classic spoon work in my recent Aumbry meal.

OK, fingers crossed that the quantities are correct. Serves two or three depending how hungry you are and if you serve boiled rice with it or not. 500 gram fine beans cut into bite size (2") pieces. 250 gram pork mince. half inch square of fresh grated ginger. 1, or 2 heaped tablespoons of Amoy brand, Toban Jhan chilli bean paste.(depending on how hot you want it) 3 spring onions cut on the diagonal, about half inch wide. 3 or 4 garlic cloves medium sliced. Splash of chinese wine or amontillado sherry. Two heaped tablesoons of caster (or granulated) sugar. 4 fl oz of chicken stock. Cornflour for thickening. Splash of soy sauce. Sesame oil to taste. First, fry the pork on a high heat until it catches. I purposely sear the pork well (as I do in a ragu) to get maximum flavour from it. Also I prefer a larger ratio of pork than in the original dish. Add the wine, reduce, and carefully season with the soy sauce. These days I never deep fry the beans. I steam them until almost done. You can still dry fry them so that they pucker up a bit. Add the beans to the wok and add the bean paste and the sugar. Keep the heat on high stirring all of the time. Add a bit of stock to loosen the mix, then add more as you see fit to give you a bit of sauce. Then thicken with the cornflour. This should only take minutes. Now add the ginger, slices of garlic and the spring onions and heat briefly, no need to cook them right through. Finish the dish by adding liberal quantities of sesame oil. Serve with boiled rice to break up the flavour a bit. Done. Do I get the job, chef?. Yes I know it is bastardised and you are asking where are the mustard greens? I still try the original recipe but this one satisfys me more. I hope it translates on to the plate as intended although you may have to refine quantities a bit to your own taste.

At no stage during the eating of the lamb dish did I experience any of the mouth numbing, beads of sweat that I would normally have with this dish. The purists may not be so happy with that, but I'm becoming a bit of a wimp in my old age, so I am. This is the original recipe. Although mine varies quite a bit as I have played about a bit with cooking the beans and I have added different layers of flavour. The main difference with my dish is the addition of a certain brand of chilli bean paste. The dish is still pork and beans but it suits me to combine different items to give it more depth of flavour. I need to double check on quantities for my dish because I don't measure stuff out normally, but will try to get the recipe up today so that you can try it for yourself.

Whenever we head to Chinatown its either overcast or pouring with rain. I'm convinced that on a dull day we seek out comfort in sichuan food. I'm nothing if not predictable and sort of guessed it would have to be the hot spicy lamb and gongbao chicken with whatever dish my wife fancied to complete the trio. The lamb dish is most certainly not as hot this time around. Two of the chefs that I noticed in and out of the kitchen were new on me, I had not seen them before. The dish itself had a lot less birdseye chillies in it and also a lot less dried chilli slabs floating about, in fact a lot lot less. I tried to persuade my wife to try it but she would not take my word for it. Still the plan was to doggy bag it as the portion is way to big for one to eat. So perhaps she would try it another time. Personally I think less chilli is for the better. We sort of both agreed that the Stir fried soft shell crab with garlic and salt was to be the third choice dish. We like the squishy briney inards and the slightly chewy outer. This never fails to satisfy. Apart from the a la carte menu, we were given a specials menu which lists perhaps about fifty? dishes which seemed interesting. Think tea tree mushrooms with pork belly, pig jelly and luncheon pork. pork maws with preserved vegetable, tender lamb belly with beancurd skin and chilli, pigs trotter with chilli and garlic, etc, etc. We went with the Garlic flavoured spicy ribs, this is an absolute steal for £4.50. More surprising was the fact the ribs mostly had been well trimmed with only a couple with noticable fat.Also on the plus side the bones were small meaning more meat per bite. I would never have dreamed to serve braised celery with this dish but it worked really well. I must try this at home. Good mild chilli bean sauce which surprised us. If you look at the top of the picture it is not all mixed in just spooned on top in some places. I asked the manager which type they used and he told me "Old grandma label" available from Chinatown twenty metres away. On to one of our all time faves the classic GongBao diced chicken with peanuts and dried chilli. Yes it claggy, sweet, garlicky and totally addictive. Not overly sweet of course, just right. Clearly though the dish is devoid of dried chilli. This theme ran throughout the meal. Ok so as far away from fine dining as can be imagined, but nevertheless comfort eating at its very best, that is if you like the cusine. Its down a notch on heat. Not sure if this is on purpose or its purely down to the different chefs interpretation. Personally we think its for the better. We doggy bagged the lamb and even though I ate quite a bit of it, this is what was left. We don't get to Red Chilli or indeed Red n Hot as much as we would like too, but they are hardly just down the road from us. Truth be told I have perfected the pork and beans dish that they serve here with the help of Fuchsia Dunlops excellent book Land of Plenty. IMO my dish is as good as any we have eaten out so sometimes for that chilli fix its diy at home. All of the above, and they are big helpings and easily enough food for four people, £50, which included two glasses of house wine, a pint of lager, tap water and a tip. Jolly Good.

I'm not bothered either way. Its virtually part of every dish that is served today. We still watch Masterchef and yes it is very repetitive, especially Greg and John banging on all the time about the