Duncan

Actually, yes we did. They comp'ed the desserts before serving them, so we didn't have a chance to refuse payment there, and we stumped up for the other courses. Of course, if we'd realised at the time we were the only ones paying...

I was away on holiday and missed it ← We were on holiday too, but we caught up last night (they nearly caught us out by doing two episodes a week, but we'd tivo'd the first episode and the second was repeated yesterday). Jackie was just as bubbly as we remembered (nice in small doses), but the jazz thing was obviously even worse thought out than we'd realised at the time: the mayor was dead right saying she thought it would be too loud for the space, and I guess we'll never know why Sam spent time setting up his drum kit while customers were waiting for food. The scary bit (for us) comes on Wednesday evening when they'll be covering the evening we spent at the Ostrich. Maybe they'll concentrate on some of the other restaurants though, I though they seemed to give the Ostrich an awful lot of coverage in that first episode.

I'm not saying you are wrong in that assumption, but the first time we went to the Fat Duck was in a party which included two children. The staff were great with the children: the baby got a tour of the kitchens and the restaurant. When she obviously enjoyed the beetroot jelly her mother asked if it was possible to have another one and they brought out an entire plateful. The older child also got asked in detail what sort of things he liked and also got a tour of the kitchens (and his mother was turning green at that). That was in the good old days when they did a cheaper lunch menu. I doubt many children have gone for the full tasting menu, apart of course from Jay Rayner's visit for the Observer.

We had an excellent meal at The Goose on 20th July (it was just as well we'd decided to go there rather than elsewhere that evening, as it was possibly one of the few places we could have reached without getting wet). We had a couple of courses in common with MobyP's menu: the unctuous pig's trotter, and the raspberry cake, but other highlights included leek and potato soup with a poached egg in the middle, salmon rolled in herbs, halibut steak with herb gnocchi, and some very nice Cornish lamb. Are we the first people from eGullet to visit in the evening for the 'full workout'? Matthew did us proud. I put the full menu and some photos here.

We eventually got le Champignon Sauvage mid July. David offered to cook for us, so although we were shown the menus, this was just for show; we just had to pick some wine and then sit back and receive course after course of sublime food. Also another highlight of the evening was being able to sit and chat with David after the meal: it really is great to talk to someone so enthusiastic about his food and cooking.

I disagree. For a start, it falls foul of the Disability Discrimination Act... (If you're visually-impaired and using assistive technology such as a screen reader, you'll get nothing from the website whatsoever.) (Actually that's a slight fib. You'll get "Arbutus Restaurant, Soho - London" - very helpful!) ← To be fair to Arbutus, I think they have redone their website since March (which was when Winot said it was pretty good). If I remember correctly their previous website was approximately one page containing a menu and as such was pretty good and accessible. The new one is just pretty.

Are you sure about that hire rate? The website says £12 an hour/£14 at weekends.

I think the moderator police will be fine with the link, although they do like some kind of summary or quotation so that people aren't absolutely forced to leave the site to know what it is about. e.g. I think the following quote sums things up very nicely: (I'd have made it the full paragraph only then it would have exceeded eGullet's limit on not quoting more than 15% of the article!)Is there any word yet on where Simon Attridge is going to go? From the sound of it, the restaurant was good and the chef was good, but they just weren't best suited to each other. A switch to local food suppliers etc. sounds like a good move on the part of the restaurant and I hope we'll be hearing of a similarly good move for the chef.

Another couple of suggestions which we haven't visited particularly recently but would visit again sometime: the Mole Inn at Toot Baldon is just a few miles South of Oxford, and the Cherwell Boathouse has a great setting on the river in North Oxford.

There are synchronised and very readable reviews of Nathan Outlaw from Jay Rayner and Henrietta Lovell. See: Cornish Cream and Dinner and Tea with Jay Rayner Tasters from the reviews: It sounds like they enjoyed their visit, but I wish whoever put the page title on Jay's review had put in a bit of effort.

The Witchery does do a set pre-theatre dinner menu early and late evening for £12.95 for 2 courses. I've no idea how it compares with the a la carte though. According to the GFG the set dinner menu is available 5.30-6.30 and 10.30-11.

Excellent news. I for one am quite happy to pay the retail price if it means they force their smoothies down the schoolkids throats.

http://www.ap-foodtechnology.com/news/ng.a...onalds-smoothie Which says: Innocent themselves have this to say: http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent...er_or_no_1.html I guess putting some proper food into a McDonald's Happy Meal has to be an improvement, but you still aren't going to find me in a McDonald's any time soon.

I think if I was serving this there would only be three pieces of fruit. but there were 3 judges and I wanted one piece for each of them hence the rather cluttered plate. I thought about serving with a sprinkling of icing sugar on the souffle or sugar coating the tips of the raspberries or sticking some mint leave on for decoration but it all seemed a little old hat. ← Ok, that makes a lot of sense then. I'd steer clear of the mint leaves though, that's the sort of thing that seems to upset the judges on this kind of thing. Fruit kebabs on a cocktail stick perhaps? But don't take my suggestion, there's probably a good reason you are in this competition and I'm not

Congratulations, but why the regimented fruit in a three-by-three grid and strawberries perched up on end? It looks a bit peculiar to me.

Oysters with lavender, Sardine sorbet, Beetroot space dust crumble, Liquid nitrogen mousse, salmon with liquorice, and parsnip breakfast cereal were all conspicuous by their absence. Sat Bains's idea of fun is much more conventional and, err, fun.

Is it just me or does anyone else also think that Matthew Norman has a screw loose somewhere? Presumably the Guardian's budget stretches to two meals, so he has to go and order two full menus for himself. At least Jay makes the attempt to find someone willing to eat with him.

Strangely though, it doesn't include the 10-10-10 tag on the printed copy we were given. Going through the dishes we were served, I can only spot two other differences: There was no mention of Richard Corrigan on the salmon dish: so perhaps the tribute version was a one-off, or maybe the beach vegetables had limited availability. Also, I think the our lamb dish was slightly different: it included goats cheese, and didn't feature Manni Olive oil.

It reads to me like a list prepared by one person. You really have to wonder what the selection criteria are when you get comments such as: So I'm guessing this is just a list of places that Mitchell Tonks has visited or wants to visit and perhaps he prefers Italian cooking over French.

The deep fried pizza predates the mars bar as a staple of Scottish chip shops, but unlike the one shown here we are talking deep frozen, dipped in batter and fried, and on one memorable occasion I remember they forgot to take it out of the plastic wrapping before battering and frying it. Ick. The Neapolitan version really does look like health food by comparison.

I took some pictures. They're a slightly variable bunch (I don't like annoying other diners by using the flash, so I never quite know how they will come out). Since Bapi has relieve me of the responsibility of racing him to the writeup I'll take my time, but expect to see a couple of the better pictures appearing here in the next few days (and I'll put the rest in my blog). Judy and I had much the same menu as Bapi and Rosie (but without the extra pork belly course). Fortunately for us Fisherman was easily recognisable from his photograph here, I'm looking forward to hearing how the surprise tasting menu differed from the beginners version. As chefs go, Sat seems amazingly accessible. We had a chat to him in the afternoon by the rabbit hutches in the garden, and another brief chat this morning. I hope you don't mind Bapi, but I left a copy of your writeup with Amanda. Another really nice touch here was that Sat gave us a copy of the menu this morning, hand annotated with the extra dishes which aren't on the printed menu and dated and signed. Edit To be going on with: Tea with cake and lemon curd Chicken liver parfait with popcorn, Butternut squash with pumpkin seed, Sweet shrimp tempura and yuzu spray. Organic salmon, avocado - almond, smoked roe

Bapi's challenge, should he choose to accept it, is to write it up before any of the other eGulletters who are visiting Sat's restaurant later this week get a chance to write up their visits.

I found Nathan Outlaw writing about lamb and hogget with a couple of recipes. The one he describes as 'straightforward' is hogget saddle, sweetbreads, globe artichokes and jerusalem artichokes and a red wine sauce. Straightforward for some perhaps. The 'more challenging' one looks eminently cookable at home provided you can find a good supplier of some of the more interesting lamb bits: liver, tongues and heart.

Judy and I finished off our tour of Cornwall with a visit to Restaurant Nathan Outlaw (and a night in the Marina Villa Hotel). It looks to me as though he should be getting back that well deserved star in the near future. The food is fantastic, and the setting is one of the best in any restaurant I've visited. I love the way he uses his ingredients. It is interesting to see how the dishes change according to the seasons. e.g. instead of plum sponge I had plum tart but still with the bay leaf ice cream. The total food bill for the two of us was £85.

For what it's worth, I've scribbled down some impressions on my blog of our meal last night. It was wonderful, thanks again Bas. We went for the tasting menu (which in effect is three starters+main and dessert). The squid and asparagus starter was cooked just right; next was Basildog's chorizo and mushroom risotto where Judy reckoned the chorizo was quite delicately spiced whereas it can be quite harsh. The mackerel and cucumber salad was unusual in that the cucumber actually had flavour. For main course we had sea bass straight off the boat and for dessert Judy had a large (I thought it looked large, for all I know it was a reduced size portion) sticky toffee pudding, and I had the famed[*] poached pear, muscat jelly and clotted cream. [*]If it isn't famed it jolly well ought to be. Edited to add more detail which was omitted first time round because Judy was telling me it was time to get ready for dinner: see future post.