Duncan

When we went to Le Meurice a few years back they were doing that, except in our case they accidentally gave Judy the one with the prices (and then quickly switched them round when they realised). It was also memorable as the only restaurant I've ever been to with special handbag stands so you don't have to sully your bag on the carpet.

Isn't the classic answer just to hit the base of the bottle ?

Fox and Hounds? We haven't actually been there, but this page suggests it has just changed hands:

I use Cadman Fine Wines admittedly at first because they were the only place in the UK that I found stocked Fondreche, but I don't have any complaints with their service or the wines I've bought from them.

That's interesting: we had Negrito at Rafa's. It was delicious but didn't look anything like the El Bulli version. We were told it is a variety of tuna but with white flesh. It's a bit hard to Google for further info though as there are too many irrelevant hits.

IMHO The sea anemone with rabbit brains was hideous beyond belief and the pinenut and chocolate bon bons were fantastic, so I guess tastes differ. My complaint BTW wasn't with either the anemone nor the brains: either of these tasted fine when fished out of the sauce, but the sauce itself was overwhelmingly bitter. Sadly we got a bit of a run of not so great dishes together (peas 2008 was ok but not great, Judy didn't like the crustaceans eel, and we weren't overly impressed by 'castanets' although that may be because we couldn't work out what the waitress had tried to tell us about the dish. I finally got around to doing a writeup on my blog: the overall conclusion is that we're glad we went, but we're not going to be queueing up to get another booking.

I think last week at el Bulli we also managed to set ourselves a new record, but since it was Judy's birthday treat I shan't post the exact number here. Suffice it to say that it was significantly less per head than you managed. ← but did you think it was worth it? ← On the whole I think yes. We enjoyed most of it, some of it was really outstanding. There were though a few courses we didn't like and unfortunately they came as a bit of a run together.

Well we do like eating earlier so when we ate at Hibiscus they had given us a time limit but they were still happy to do the tasting menu within that time. I wouldn't like to be told at the time of ordering that I couldn't choose from a particular menu because there was insufficient time: if they told me when booking then that might be acceptable, but if I thought I might want the tasting menu then I would go elsewhere.

I think last week at el Bulli we also managed to set ourselves a new record, but since it was Judy's birthday treat I shan't post the exact number here. Suffice it to say that it was significantly less per head than you managed.

I think you got that backwards: when we were there they were taking the asparagus round after smoking but before plating up: that way the table and mosr of the restaurant got the hit of oak smoke as it was uncovered. Great theatre. Thanks for the excellent writeup: it brought back memories of our visit, an all too long 6 weeks ago.

OK, not so subtle hint taken, I have now booked for Duncan's birthday. (Although based on last time we may need a very light diet between then and going to Spain for my birthday...) ← Ok, we're now in light diet mode until the end of the week. Judy booked the package with the surprise menu (full writeup and photos) and we had an excellent time all round. Highlights included a Wagyu beef carpaccio, Rabbit "not from the garden", Veal with morels and broad beans, Chocolate and pistachio dessert, and a Peach and raspberry dessert. Full menu: Aperitif: Champagne, Oyster with Tabasco & Worcestershire sauce, Tempura Oyster with lemon mayonnaise Squid-orzo-alphonso-coriander; sweetcorn soup, foie gras, popcorn, pickled girolles; melon, tomato, balsamic, olive oil; salt cod croquette Sauvignon Blanc (N.Z., North Island) Breads: treacle and paprika, lincolnshire butter. Monkfish, Wagyu beef "carpaccio", "soy truffle" shoots, mussel juice Chardonnay (Adelaide Hills) Crab "Brown Bread and Butter", sea herbs, grapefruit Rabbit "Not From The Garden", salsify, ash "Noma" Pinot Gris (Oregon) Lemon Sole, Abbey Park asparagus "Raw - Cooked", Bellota Ham Goosnargh Duck, Foie Gras Royale, pumpkin salad, cocoa, cumin fudge, birch sap Mademoiselle (3rd growth Medoc) Wild sorrel granita Rose veal from Shropshire with morels, broad beans, jersey royal, jus gras Fig, pine nut ice cream, aged parmesan Cheeses from Premier (Eric) (Ticklemore, Tunworth, Langres AOC, Lincolnshire poacher, Maroilles 'La Cave', Cropwell Bishop stilton) Pineapple, fennel, coconut and lime foam Chocolate "Fruit and Nut", yoghurt Maury & Chenin blanc (S.W. Aus) Caramelised Peach, raspberry, basil and sage "TASTE - TEXTURE - TEMPERATURE" Tea and chocolates

That's a great set of photos although it took me a little while to figure out how to get flickr to display the captions. We're counting down to our visit in about 2 weeks time.

Just got an email on the Allium mailing list: I think those of who have visited Allium will agree that this is well deserved.

One place to try is the Summertown Wine Cafe. I haven't been there yet, and it doesn't do much in the way of food, but if Raymond Blanc recommends it then it can't be bad. (and I'm working a day or so each month in Summertown at the moment so I'll get around to dropping by at some point). Hmm, I just looked at their website. That 'Nude bottle society' looks interesting, though I'm not sure how the offer of a chance at a parking space really fits in. ← We went to the Summertown Wine Café on Sunday for a tasting of the current monthly selection and then back again on Wednesday evening to help choose the wines for next month's selection! They've got a very nice selection of interesting wines (although one or two didn't really go down so well), and it's a really friendly place.

In previous years only the judge's top 3 have been eligible for voting. That makes much more sense to me as then they can weed out any dishes they think are truly weak. The public voting has then pretty much along the judges' lines (I'm not sure if any dish placed first by the judges has ever failed to be the winner). Also in previous years there has been an option to vote online, but this year it is premium rate phone number only. I'm not sure whether that counts as unfair against Tom (how can they expect me or my countrymen to vote for him under those conditions! ).

See this article from the Times which implies that part of the influence was his mother's death from cancer and part was recovering from an operation whilst he was in the RAF. The problem I have is that a lot of his preaching comes across to me as inaccurate. He's jumped on a bandwagon and wants everyone to follow him when he should actually be concentrating on his obvious strong points: flavour and presentation. For example, from the same article: If we assume his appetizer has at least 60g of red pepper (otherwise it would have less vitamin C than a 150g orange) the resulting 75mg of vitamin C is more than the UK RDA but unless his customers have scurvy they are probably getting more than enough vitamin C already. Besides there is no conclusive evidence that vitamin C does actually help to prevent cancer, and it has been shown that antioxidant supplements, at least when presented in pill form may actually increase your chance of dying:

One place to try is the Summertown Wine Cafe. I haven't been there yet, and it doesn't do much in the way of food, but if Raymond Blanc recommends it then it can't be bad. (and I'm working a day or so each month in Summertown at the moment so I'll get around to dropping by at some point). Hmm, I just looked at their website. That 'Nude bottle society' looks interesting, though I'm not sure how the offer of a chance at a parking space really fits in.

I think Chris Horridge's dishes certainly looked prettier (almost too pretty), and in today's final with less time for the preaching it was a lot less off-putting; some of them actually sounded quite nice. I can't say that I'm going to be beating a path to his door though (and if I do end up there he's going to have to cater for someone who is 'milk substitute intolerant').

I find the idea that a single meal makes a difference absurd, no matter how nutritionally well balanced it is. I was intrigued though about the choice of ingredients last night: birch sap wine sweetened with xylitol. Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar substitute and was first purified from birch sap in Finland during the 19th century, so using it to sweeten the birch sap wine seems entirely appropriate. I really wonder whether he knew that when he chose the ingredients or if it was just serendipity. If it was deliberate then it was totally lost on the BBC: the online version of the recipe has been dumbed down to use red wine (perhaps because they thought people wouldn't be able to buy birch sap wine), but still uses xylitol with a note that it is only available commercially.

We finally went there last week and ordered the surprise menu. They probably improved from a few months ago as they now have a few off-the-menu items. ← We went last week and also had the 'surprise' menu. I think that perhaps 3 of the 7 courses were 'off menu', or at least they weren't on the 'taste of spring' menu which I later photographed, they may have been on a a la carte. My favourites were the smoked asparagus (at least partly because we were reminded of it throughout the evening as every time it was served to another table a blast of oak smoke went through the restaurant), and the halibut with spring vegetables. Also the saddle of kid was very nice. I like the decor: there's a strip mirror round the walls so that even if you are facing the wall you can keep a keen eye on all the goings on around. See my blog (link in the sig) for photos and more detail.

San, thanks for the pictures. We're counting down to our visit in June...

Sorry we shan't be joining you again this year. We've got a table booked for Judy's birthday at a little place just north of Barcelona. Although come to think of it, there's my birthday to plan for as well.

Breaking news of Delia's next venture: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/04/d...cted_delia.html

I expect you'll get some answers from people with direct experience, but if all else fails, Betty's springs to mind. I don't have experience of their mail order service, but see http://www.bettysbypost.com/ Nor do I know if you can arrange for collection --- if you depend on mail order then I guess anywhere in the UK could deliver.

Strange, I'm pretty sure I'm not being redirected when I try to follow the direct URL: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article....ticle_id=433239