MacD

I finally made it to Red Chilli last night - I've been really keen to try it, as I have only ever been to one Sichuan restaurant (Chilli Chilli in Liverpool) and after all these rave reviews of Red Chilli, I wanted to see if our one cut the mustard (or should I say "cut the chilli"...) I wanted to try the hotpot dish for comparison between the two places, and I also wanted to try something new. So we ordered the beef hot pot, belly pork with preserved vegetable casserole, spring onion bread, green beans with pork and boiled rice. (As an aside, Prawncracker asked upthread whether the hot pot dish everyone raves about on here is a lamb version of "water boiled beef" which is a literal translation of a very traditional Sichuan dish. It is definitely the same dish - it's also called water boiled beef in Fuschia Dunlop's book. The secret behind its umami and real depth of flavour is in the chilli bean paste, which is the main ingredient of the sauce). Anyway - for what it's worth, our thoughts (and comparisons, where we have them before) on the dishes we had are: The hotpot was great - very similar to the one we have at our regular haunt in Liverpool, but not as hot. Having said that, people on here have said that the heat can vary from day to day and chef to chef, as it can in our place. But it was delicious nonetheless. I would say that the broth was slightly better than the one we're used to, but that the use of iceberg lettuce is a bit strange, as it becomes soggy very quickly - the traditional dish would usually have celery and chinese leaves, which remain crunchy. The belly pork with preserved vegetable casserole was not what I was expecting from the reviews on here. It looked and tasted pretty anaemic (although after eating the hot pot many things would ...). It was comforting in a way, but still rather bland, especially as the menu gave it a two chilli rating - there was absolutely no heat or chilli in it at all. And I couldn't taste or see any preserved vegetables - it was all fresh chinese leaves, glass noodles and a little bit of pak choi. The slices of pork and leaves were in a pale watery broth. I was convinced they had given us the wrong dish, so I queried it, but they insisted that it was the right one. There is another similarly named dish on the menu - Braised Sliced pork Belly with preserved Cabbage - which does not have a chilli rating, and could be what I got. But even if it was, there seemed to be no evidence of the preserved cabbage (and it has a really distinctive flavour). We had the leftovers for breakfast this morning, and it seemed to improve with a bit of age, and with the addition of some soy sauce, but the jury is still out on that one. The French beans with pork was nice enough - a different rendition to what we're used to. The Red Chilli version includes chilli bean paste and is more generous with the pork. "Our" one is simpler, with whole green beans, whole dried chillies and sea salt - I think I prefer it like this, as the plain crunchy beans are a better foil for all the complex flavours in the other dishes. Finally, the spring onion bread - I hadn't realised we had had it before in the Liverpool restaurant until I tasted it. I'm not sure that I like it - it's very like a Chinese version of Roti, but the grease was too much for me, and there was very little spring onion in it. The one we'd had previously was smaller and flakier in texture and had more flavour - but I wasn't a great fan of it then. Overall, it was good stuff - the hot pot in particular. If anyone has any ideas on the mystery of the belly pork dish, I'd be interested to know your thoughts. The staff were lovely too. Prices are very good, but the beer has a big mark-up at £3.60 a bottle - should have stuck to the draft. I was pleased to try another Sichuan place and also pleased that I think the one we have closer to home seems to measure up ok! I hope I haven't bored you with my musings... )

Thanks for this review - I've seen several really positive reviews, and 5 stars in the GFG is quite something for a small local place like this. I keep meaning to go there, but haven't got round to it yet - I hope expanding doesn't change things quality-wise.

I'm not sure how useful this will be, but we have stopped off at the Boot Inn at Lapworth inthe past - it's a bit off your route though, as it is is near the junction between the M40 and the M42. It's very handy for those motorways, so if you could adjust your route from London, it might be worth a go. I haven't eaten there for some years, but it was always a good stop off. One word of warning - the last time we tried to eat there they were really busy, and so directed us to a sister pub not far away - and it was rubbish. Not very good food and it felt very corporate - I hope the expansion of the business hasn't influenced the quality of the food at the Boot, because it is a lovely haven. Other than that, the stretch you are looking at is a bit of a desert - particularly the bit between Birmingham and Stoke.

Surely an almost inedible dish, along with other serious flaws, means that it's not "safe 1* cooking" ...?

I'm in the area for work reasons for two nights in February - I'm not sure where to book my accommodation, because that will depend on where I go for my food ... The place I will be working in is in North Shields, which doesn't look very good for neither B&Bs nor food. I'm looking for somewhere which will do takeaway food (because I really don't enjoy eating alone in a restaurant) - so probably Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, Thai, Chinese, Turkish, decent kebabs, Indonesian etc etc, or even somewhere which does excellent pizza. But I somehow think my mission will be fruitless. My preference would be for somewhere in N. Shields, Tynemouth or Whitley Bay, but will stay in Newcastle city centre if there are no options. If someone out there knows of a nice B&B very near to good eateries along these lines, that would be a real bonus ... If you are stuck for takeaways, but can suggest a particularly nice place where I wouldn't feel self conscious eating alone, that might be something I'd consider. Oh, and it needs to be reasonably priced - I work for a charity, expenses aren't generous and I don't have much surplus cash to bump up the budget ... I don't mind spending between £10 and £20 each night on the food.

Sounds amazing, and it's great to have somewhere focusing on old British food. What about prices? Also - if "refreshingly there is not a word of French anywhere" - did they translate foie gras as fatty liver ...? ;o)

Where is Rasoi?

From what John has said above, it doesn't look like a problem with currency conversion, it looks like these items were clearly stated on the final bill. If the original complaint is genuine, it's hard to get away from it looking like different treatment for customers from the US - but this is so shocking that I can't see a company like this even attempting to do it. If I were in their position I would very definitely attempt to get my money back.

Yes, I'm a fan of Hardens too (and a contributor). It covers such a range of places right across the country that it's ideal when we're travelling and looking for a decent lunch on the road. I agree that many (most?) people in this country seem to be very easily pleased when it comes to eating out, but I find that the scoring in Hardens is often slightly lower than I would give to the places I know. There are a few misses, but in the main it is pretty reliable. They don't attempt to only celebrate the best and using the quality of food verses the price as the main reference point probably means that a wider range of places get mentioned, and it is therefore useful to a wider range of people, which can only be a good thing. How many guides and websites do we need to talk about the Michelin starred places?

The Delifonseca is great, and they now have another branch at the Brunswick dock. You may or may not know (or care!) that the chef behind the Delifonseca is one of the original kitchen staff from the Everyman in the 70s, and went from there to open the Armadillo, which was an excellent Liverpool restaurant throughout the 80s when good places to eat were thin on the ground. As for the Panoramic, I've eaten there once, about a year ago or more. For some reason, I can't remember everything we had (not a good sign?), but I do remember that the starters were excellent - really good. The mains were good, but (as I often find) not as good as the first course. The cheese board wasn't good at all - not much choice, and it didn't look at its best. I remember being irritated by the militant insistance on the staff doing all the wine pouring - she even took it out of my hand at one stage and after filling my glass, she moved it out of my reach to the other side of the (very large) table ... strange. There aren't many reviews out there that I trust - ie. Tripadvisor is no great guide to good food, and Hardens, usually a good enough guide, gives it a low score on food, but the comments don't seem to be as bad as the score, so would be interested to know what others think. On our experience I would go again, but it wouldn't be top of my list.

Well - we had our first meal there on Wednesday, and it was great. There have been a few detailed reviews here, so I won't go into depth. We had the bespoke menu, and the main comments I'd make are: Loved the spiced pecan nuts and the sumac and yogurt tapioca (particularly the purple crisps - black rice ones I think). The salted berry chocolate didn't work for me as an amuse bouche (sticks in your teeth for too long at that stage in a meal), but I know the aim is to surprise people at the start, rather than give them the usual cappuccino-type soup thingy. I like the lollipops though - the coconut and seeded ones were both great. Enjoyed the "five a day" shot that they came with, but it didn't blow me away. Our three favourite dishes were: The warm winter salad: a great mix of flavours - egg yolk, foie gras, celariac. Beautiful. The seabass with hazelnut quinoa: fab - I'm no hazelnut fan, but it worked well with the quinoa, and the fish was cooked perfectly. It was the only dish I felt needed salt, and I only added a tiny bit, but as soon as I did it was lifted to even greater heights. The Loire quail: my husband's favourite, and almost mine - perfectly cooked, with spinach and parsley root. Loved it. I prefer savoury to sweet, but the desserts were all great. My favourite, and I think the most interesting was the mango crumble with tamarind sorbet. The final one - and probably the richest - was called chocolate, apricot, sherry. It was a bit too much for me by that stage, but very good none the less. Lovely service - the only (minor) problem for us was that there was no-one there who could advise us on wine. It's a small place, so I don't think anyone would expect a sommelier, but someone with a bit of knowledge on the not small wine list would be useful ... We loved it and will go again as soon as we can afford it. It's great having something of this class so near to where we live. Thanks to Marc and the team.

The finest place I have ever done it was the Wimpey bar in Herne Hill, South London when I was a teenager... In my 20s, I did have to wash the dishes in a place in Camden once though! We didn't have enough cash and they didn't take cards ...

I must go again, as it's only an hour or so up the road. I've only eaten there twice, but it's one of the few places I've been where both times the food has been faultless.

Have looked at your pictures, but kind of lost track of all the courses - great stuff though. Two weeks to go for my first visit - bespoke menu booked ...

21 courses? Was this the Bespoke menu or the Menu Black?

I'm going for my birthday in a few weeks - first time for me, and I'm really looking forward to it ...

To me, the issue isn't about whether reviewers should run their reviews past the restaurant before releasing them to the world - that would be nonsense. It is more to do with the fact that (as the reviewers have stated themselves)Marcus had been very generous with his time on the other occasions they had visited, he had chatted to them, showed them around the kitchen, left messages when he hadn't been there etc etc. In that context, and in the context of having had six or seven faultless meals there in the last year, I think they should have raised their disappointments with him first, to alert him to the problem/s and to give him a chance to rectify them. I do understand that places of this calibre (and price) should be reliably faultless, but because of the history of their experiences there, I think it a bit mean-spirited to very publicly highlight (on what seems to be a very new and widely promoted blog) what are relatively minor complaints about the food and about the service not being personal enough.

I don't know this place at all, but I'm shocked at the prices. I see on the website that it is £60 for two courses - even places with Michelin stars can be less expensive than this. They are charging the same as Ramsay at Claridges and Petrus. If you paid £120 for your food, that means you paid £100 for five glasses of wine - £20 a shot! I hope it was good wine, and well matched... Ideas above their station?

MikeHartnett I completely agree - it seems that there was more than just a customer/restaurateur relationship. PamBrunnning Your post emphasises that it is sometimes nicer to talk to the restaurant first before making a very public statement, when a business can be destroyed buy one well-publicised blog. Le Manoir behaved impeccably, but your editor made the right judgement when he/she decided that it was a good idea to show the review to the restaurant first.

I'll be devil's advocate too ... Again - no excuses for his rudeness and abuse - totally out of order. But ... If I was in your situation - ie. having had many good meals somewhere, followed by one not so good experience, I would have written to them about my concerns before making my thoughts so public. If it happened again, or if their response had been inadequate, then I would feel justified in making my opinions known more widely.

The Olive Branch is one of my favourites if we are ever over in that neck of the woods. I have never had a complaint about the food, and their daily set menu is great value. Strangely, their coffee is terrible - really watery. After a couple of times eating there, I even asked for them to make it a decent strength, and it was still really weak. I reviewed their sister place in Stathern not long ago, and it isn't as good. Talking of pubs in rural Cambridgeshire - has anyone tried the Queens Head in Newton, just south of Cambridge? It's just off the motorway, so great for an easy access lunch when you're on the road. All they serve is ham, beef and cheese sandwiches, soups (red or brown) and dripping on toast. Fantastic place, great beer and the food is quality stuff. On Sundays, there is a slight change to the menu, when they serve platters, rather than sandwiches - but it just looks like the same ingredients deconstructed - I'm sure there must be a reason for it.

I went to Sands, a Lebanese restaurant, when I was in Bristol overnight recently. I got takeaway, and ate it in my B&B room (not as sad as it sounds - it was a lovely room with a table and a view over the gorge), but they were friendly and I'm sure it would be fine for solo dining. The food was pretty good and not expensive. It's between the city centre and Clifton. 95 Queens Rd, Clifton, BS8 1LW Tel: 0117 973 9734, web: www.sandsrestaurant.co.uk

I really wish they would open a branch in Liverpool. We have one (to my knowledge) place that serves some very good Sichuan food, but as it is the only place I have eaten it, I have nothing to compare it with ... It's called Chilli Chilli, and the picture of your lamb dish looks very similar to the beef hotpot they do, and it's gorgeous. They also do the beans and pork, a great spicey, sour, glass noodle soup, some minced pork dumplings and some others too. Very addictive. Anyone know if Red Chilli have any expansion plans to this end of the M62?

I have been to the Relais Chantovent quite recently and was impressed. It's a lovely room and terrace and the lunch time menu was good value and very good to eat. Most of our eating in the Languedoc tends to be a bit further inland - so the places I would recommend are: L'Ochre Rouge in Herepian Auberge de Combes, in Combes (above Lamalou les Bains) Les Marroniers in Lamalou (go for his signature starter of oxtail and pate de foie gras - fab) Le Petit Sommelier in Lodeve A really nice wine bar in Bedarieux which serves plates of charcuterie and cheeses Should you find yourslef in Nimes, Cosy Wine (strange name choice, but it is run by French people) is lovely. Please do report back - there is little or nothing about the area on this or other foodie sites. As you said, it's amazing that the last post on this thread was two years ago.

I agree that going to Arles "on the way" to Cannes in an already hectic schedule is not a great idea, but your original itinerary would have been ok if you found somewhere to stop between Dijon and Lyon.