Soundman

Calm down dear! I just said that in the bigger picture, that in my fairly well informed view, but obviously not as well informed as you, Anthony's simply wasn't good enough to survive. I did start to write something about the Corn Exchange, expanding too quickly etc etc, but I'm a diner, not a restauranteur.

Here's another mean spirited post, Anthony's just wasn't good enough. We tried all the various places a few times, only once had a good meal (At the one above the clothes shop, I forget what it was called) Apart from the one stand out time, there was always something wrong, most often terrible service, fairly often odd flavour combinations that just didn't work. We used to live a taxi ride from Leeds centre and would have loved to have loved Anthony's, but it just didn't cut it, and if we weren't prepared to travel 30 minutes, it's no surprise it never turned into somewhere people would travel further to.

Rara in Kew is pretty good, if not excellent, some interesting things on the menu, plenty of stuff you don't see often, and it's all very well executed.

Congratulations to everyone at LCS on their 25 years. I'll get that review done sooner or later, working 28 days straight over the build up to the Olympics, and over the games themselves takes it out of you.

I like Jay, I know what he likes, and thus can judge a review as to whether I'll like it or not. I think bloggers have done the biggest disservice to food writing imaginable, people consumed by ego and the ability to pay for food writing about it, rather than people with a talent for writing, writing about food, it can't work. I rarely read food blogs and when I do it's mainly to convince myself that I'm right to think they're written by fools with more money than sense.

I was indeed expecting a galette, and confidently told my wife that was what we should expect It was written on the menu, you'll get no criticism of waiting staff pronunciation from me..... What arrived was indeed a small patty, that reminded me in texture, but not taste, of a Thai fish cake. More to follow.

I'm overdue a writeup of our meal there last week, I'll do it this week. Suffice to say it was first class from beginning to end, the service and food were perfect, stand out dish was something I never would have ordered, mackerel with a pigs trotter and whelk gayette, really really good.

I was at St John last night, as good as ever, if not better, well worth a visit.

What a mammoth prick! (Mountain, not Goodfellow....) He always comes across as self obsessed with more mouth than talent. I haven't seen the episodes with him in it yet, but am looking forward to it now. I'm chuckling thinking of him as a drunken scrapper rather than the boring little prick he actually is

It's worth one last post surely? One to point out that Dave is consistent with the nonsense he posts, surely James Martin making 'Leeds join the Premiership' is no worse than a few years ago when he claimed that Matt Follas from Masterchef was a safe bet for a Michelin star, or have you gone off Matt now Dave, as he's not part of the Saturday Kitchen gangbang that you hold so dear?

I'd pay extra to be sure he wasn't in the kitchen

I don't know if this forum software supports it, but a lot support a feature called 'hide tags' which let you hide the photos unless people want to see them, I'd love it if people used them on here, I loathe bad food photos, and there's loads on here of late.

Don't know if you've noticed David, but the hot poached lamb has improved recently, it's served differently, in a dish which highlights the lamb rather than making it look like a bucket of chillis in broth! Only on our last visit to the Leeds branch was it served like this, so I was interested to see in your photos that it's served similarly over the Pennines now. As for the Green beans and pork dish, a true classic, the same everytime, and no worse for that.

Plenty around North Yorkshire at the moment, 20 quid a brace.

Sounds like you may have cooked it too hot, how hard was it simmering? Also not sure about this step 'I deeply browned the stew beef by frying in peanut oil deep enough to cover.' Is that your normal method? Sounds OTT for browning, more like deep frying, which is bound (IMO) to shrink and toughen the meat.

Just returned from our first visit to Red Chilli Leeds for a couple of months, and I'm pleased to report it was excellent, guotie, salt pepper squid and spring onion bread to start, then mutton hotpot (the one loaded with chillis and schezuan peppers), braised pig joint, green beans with pork and chilli and some rice. It was the perfect combination, all dishes we've had before, but cooked as good as they get. The best thing is, there's a carrier bag full of leftovers waiting to go in the fridge, so that's breakfast sorted.

The fregola you mention has been a favourite of ours since eating it in Sardinia a few years ago, a local deli stocks it, and we use it in place of rice in a paella mostly. If you ever see giant cous cous in the shops, it's more or less the same thing.

No, I think I've reviewed places in the past, I take no pleasure in writing reviews though, so tend to go for a shorter precis, rather than the napkin sniffing photo taking approach

The piece may be flattering, but shows writing about food isn't as easy as it looks, I found it cringe worthy, especially the line about brown nut butter, and the use of the word 'Moreish' There was a time when there was a clear line between professional journalists and bloggers, that line is getting more blurred and it isn't because the bloggers are getting better! Hattenstone isn't a bad writer, but I'll be skipping the restaurant reviews in future if he's anything to do with them. But back on topic, The Aumbry isn't so far from me, maybe it's time to visit...

Not tried Hipping since Bruno left, you're right that the dining room is amazing, but the bedrooms are a real disappointment, dingy and small, I think that's why we haven't returned.

TA

There's not much native to Huddersfield

How many times did he refer to himself in the third person in the press release?

July the 10th saw me and the new Mrs Soundman get married at The Star. Everything, from beginning to end was perfect. The food (for 30 guests) was perfect in every way, Andrew was on the pass which was no mean feat as he was also on the pass over the road that night as well, so a busy night for him. We had dinner at The Star the previous night to taste a few of the wines, and the Sommelier was really good, I'm not sure if he's new or not, I didn't recognise him from previous visits, but his recommendations were all spot on. All in all we were 100% happy with the Star, as were our guests, we'd definitely recommend it as a wedding venue, and the restaurant is currently cooking it's arse off too. A couple of pictures........ The cheese: Chef hard at work I'll get round to an actual review one day, for now it will suffice to say we had a wonderful day. The pictures were taken by our ace photographer, and need crediting to him: Wedding Photography by Rob Booker T: 0113 2702440 E: contact@robbooker.co.uk W: www.robbooker.co.uk

Peelers and graters are two things I really need more than one of in the kitchen, well done for managing with just one of each!