Hallie

Sandra, this is very exciting. Its so close to my work as well! What's on the menu? See, persistance pays off. I'll keep reviving this thread and asking the same question until the streets of London are running with mole and hand-made tortillas are available in my corner shop... ...well, maybe that's being a bit too hopeful...

Such is life in the gulag.

As its now been over a year since anyone last posted on this, I thought I'd revive the question: ANY IMPROVEMENTS ON THE MEXICAN FRONT IN LONDON???? Please. Its cold. Its January. I'm getting desperate.

Moby, your news has almost brought tears of joy to my eyes. I have tried for so long to find the high quality sourdough I grew up with in California. Which Tesco's is this?

Well, the Christmas meal has been consumed, along with gingerbread men and tea - what's there left to think about aside from good chain restaurants? I so love Nandos. Its the best thing that ever happened to fast food. Like you Suzi, I'm out and I'm proud. Strada is good. Huge fan of carluccios - it just seems to fill the niche in the market for that sort of thing. We always seem to end up there on a Saturday for lunch or brekkie. Their breakfasts are fantastic. I will also mention that mini chain - Giraffe. I'm a complete devotee - though sometimes the volume of kids and noise does get me down. Had lunch in the Muswell Hill branch once during half term and I could have sworn that I'd walked straight into a school refrectory. Might I also add the Gourmet Burger Company to this list? Top burgers...but I think that's another thread... Happy Christmas all.

Generally Browns is very good. I sent some friends to Browns earlier this year as well and then got a frantic phone call telling me that they arrived to find the entire place shut for refurbs. My friend wailed, 'they're going to ruin it!'. I worry that this indeed might be the case. Afternoon tea was brilliant there when I had it last year - v. traditional. I just hope they don't turn the whole place into some minimalist ice palace in order to compete with the many boutique hotels in London.

Maggie, you have summed up entirely why I love this place. Several months before it opened I was moaning to a friend of mine that what London needed was a 'grand cafe' like those in Paris and Vienna. It seemed to go hand in hand with today's burgeoning coffee culture. It seemed like the perfect antidote to Starbucks. Lo and behold, the Wolseley opened. We need more places like this! If its afternoon tea you are after for not so much money, I've found that the restaurant upstairs in the Great Court at the British Museum does a fairly decent one - though not nearly as good as the Wolseley.

It brings to mind a good old Georgian saying, 'One night with Venus and a lifetime with Mercury'.

I wasn't there with the conference - I escaped from the conference for the evening to got here on my own. Christ - the kind of conferences I go to usually barely have enough money for hand made sarnies (actually happend to me). Also, the restaurant was not full so they were hardly stressed Perhaps because it was a Sunday night may explain why the food was less than wonderful when I was there - or - maybe they just had the odd good night when you were there btw - did you stay there - what were the rooms like? ← On and off nights seem to be de rigeur with restaurants (even those with stars that shouldn't have off nights). They were certainly 'on' when we were there. The place in general is lovely. We had one of the smaller rooms which was still of a sufficient size and quite comfortable. Breakfasts were excellent and included a continental component as well as a cold buffet and a cooked 'main' - I had smoked haddock, poached eggs and champagne sauce. Most of all we made use of the gorgeous swimming pool, steam room, sauna, gym and also booked beauty treatments. We just wanted to chill out, eat well and be within walking distance of central Bath. The Priory hit the mark on all three. We also went for tea at the Royal Crescent - really nice but surprisingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon. Re: the conference - since we seem to run in the same professional circle I was wondering how they managed to swing a group meal in a one star place. In my experience, you don't even get sandwiches - biscuits maybe and undrinkable wine at private views. You've clarified my misunderstanding of the situation nicely. For a moment there all of the BM's financial problems seemed to be put into perspective!

A serious error of judgement there - shouldn't the hand with the cayenne pepper on it be used exclusively to hold the pot (not the other way around)? ...must be all that port - got you muddled my dear boy... ← Obviously you don't go to the right sort of 18th century recreationist parties. Consider it as a poor-mans cantharide. Which on reflection would make pissing into a pot on the ground even more of a challenge.... ← Ooooh, not quite sure about the cantharidic effects - perhaps yet another hair-brained 18th century scheme for warding off the pox. I seem to recall Boswell once tried something like this...or was that with mercury??

A serious error of judgement there - shouldn't the hand with the cayenne pepper on it be used exclusively to hold the pot (not the other way around)? ...must be all that port - got you muddled my dear boy...

You are so right. I guess its all about context. Having said that, I'm a huge fan of outdated cookery books. Not so long ago I started collecting 18th century ones (mostly reprints). The idea was to create a Georgian meal for a number of my fellow nerdy historian friends. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn't manage to squeeze a decent meal out of the first book I bought. Somehow inviting people round to eat Dry Devils (the first line of the recipe reads: 'These are usually composed of the broiled legs and gizzards of poultry, fish bones, or biscuits and sauce piquante') did not seem very hospitable of me. I've since purchased a few others with slightly more edible recipes. Bad books are written in every age unfortunately. The dry devils I have seen are ribs or chops, mixed with spice and then grilled. The problem with serving Devils and other savoury courses now is that the women have to be sent from the room. In general I have noticed that this practice does in fact piss off these women and they tend to complain a lot. Somthing to do with them being seperated from the port. ← In fact its not the port that we miss but rather the opportunity to piss into the chamberpot that's circulated under the table on such fraternal occasions.

This is unbearably, disgustingly hilarious. I especially liked the 'decline and fall of western civilization via the medium of jello'.

You are so right. I guess its all about context. Having said that, I'm a huge fan of outdated cookery books. Not so long ago I started collecting 18th century ones (mostly reprints). The idea was to create a Georgian meal for a number of my fellow nerdy historian friends. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn't manage to squeeze a decent meal out of the first book I bought. Somehow inviting people round to eat Dry Devils (the first line of the recipe reads: 'These are usually composed of the broiled legs and gizzards of poultry, fish bones, or biscuits and sauce piquante') did not seem very hospitable of me. I've since purchased a few others with slightly more edible recipes. Apparently the Imperial War museum sells a replica second world war cook book. I'd like to have a look through that. Imagine the 'make due and mend' mentality in application to food. It seems that British cusine in 1956 was still very much labouring under the aftermath of what happened to food, taste and the concepts of eating during the second world war. I suppose people just got used to spam and powdered eggs. How else could stuffed deep fried brussel sprouts be consumed - and undoubtedly with such relish?

Its a shame that this place as received such bad press on this site. We've just returned from a lovely weekend there - hopefully I can do something to resurrect its reputation. I'm terrible at giving detailed reviews of precisely what I ate. I live for the moment and after the wine and post dinner drinks the minutae of a good meal just seems to blur into one very fond memory. In a nutshell: Service was fabulous -attentive, professional but down-to-earth. Thankfully, the Bath Priory does not have a 'whispering dining room' which would have just ruined it for me. I was totally overwhelmed by the starters - a great selection. I couldn't decide between the rabbit ravioli and the roast quail breast. I eventually went for the roast quail breast with cepe cream and parmesan crust. What a lovely combination - the parmesan added such an interesting crunch and zing to a smooth taste and texture. Frank had a terrine of duck and foie gras which he enjoyed greatly (I didn't get to taste it). My main was the sea bass with roast tomato cous cous and braised fennel. Again, a very well thought out harmony of flavours. The cous cous was of a more traditional pearl barley type redolent with a tomato-y sharpness that lifted the sea bass. I had the cheese plate for dessert - its rare to find an entire cheese trolley composed solely of British cheeses so I chose to indulge. Frank had some sort of melting chocolate fondant thing. I was too stuffed to have more than a mouthful, but what a mouthful it was. In my humble opinion, the Bath Priory does deserve its star. I've been to places with one star (da Fiori in Venice comes to mind first) that don't deserve it. It is certainly on a par with London one-star establishments like the Orrery. I think Tony's experience of being there with a conference might just explain the slight slip in standards. Its not a big place - both the hotel and dining room are on the intimate side. I would imagine that the kitchen would be quite pressed under such circumstances. All in all, our meal was top notch.

I will be going here for dinner on Saturday night. According to the Michelin guide it is one-star worthy. I'm particularly intrigued by the scallop and crab ravioli. Has anyone been here lately?

First of all - congratulations. Second of all, unless you put your foot down quite firmly those 16 could quite easily expand to well over that number. I speak from experience. Be firm. I can recommend Il Convivio on Ebury Street, near Victoria. My husband had his 30th birthday celebration there a couple of years ago. They have an upstairs room that is absolutely wonderful - its decorated in such a way that you feel as if you are sitting in a dining room in someone's home - it comfortable, spacious and very private. There is even a sitting area with overstuffed sofas and a CD player (you can bring your own music). The food is divine! Some of the best Italian food I've had. I've also been to Rules (actually for my hen lunch) in one of their private rooms - very atmospheric, but more of an autumn/winter venue with its dark wood paneled walls.

London honey? Is this the stuff that comes from the bee boxes (don't know the technical name) in Regent's Park? I think the company are called something like 'The Urban Honey Collective' - or was that a 90s indie band? I bought some of their stuff at Borough about a year ago - a huge glob of honeycomb oozing with the best honey I have EVER tasted. I was completely shocked that London bees (whose bodies I always imagined were coated in a layer of exhaust fumes) could produce something as incredible as that. I'm dying to get more of it but they don't seem to be at Borough any longer.

Ah, but you forget that much maligned favourite that frequently appears with a fry up - the potato waffle.

I would agree with this. Undoubtedly while there are some people who enjoy a 'fry up' every day, my guess would be that they are of a slightly older generation. 'Fry ups' on a daily basis simply aren't practical for a number of reasons: 1. Most working people don't have the time or inclination in the morning to cook themselves a massive breakfast 2. health consciousness - (yes, we do have it here) - dictates that a daily fry up is not so good if you plan on living past retirement age 3. Unless you are going to be walking the peaks of Derbyshire or attempting to overcome a hang-over, lining your stomach with such a large meal tends to be rather superfluous and uncomfortable so early in the morning (in my opinion at least...) The whole thing about devilled kidneys (which I have never been served), black pudding and kippers is that you don't usually find them all on the same plate at the same time. Your average fry up generally features: eggs, 1 or 2 rashers of bacon, 1 or 2 sausages and possibly a selection of one or more of the following: grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, beans, fried bread. There are also regional variations. I noticed while I was living in Yorkshire that black pudding did feature (as did white pudding...don't even get me started on that or I might be sick...). In Northern Ireland they have a slightly different version where the fried bread becomes fried soda farls. Having said all of that, I think that you'll find the majority of us stick to one or more of the following: cereal, porridge, yogurt, fruit, toast, eggs, coffee or tea on any average morning.

Thanks guys for the good suggestions. A couple of major problems with the picnic: our anniversary is the 23rd of November and the probability of good weather at 5pm on that day is quite dim. Just FYI - I had a quick look at the People's Palace website and apparently the restaurant is now run by the same team who run the Capital Hotel. The chef apparently comes the Coq d'Argent. The menu doesn't sound half bad: http://www.capital-london.net/peoples-palace/menus.html I certainly intend to try the Anchor and Hope some time. Fi: Meson Don Filipe and I go way back. It was at one time a constant after-work haunt due to its accessibility for a number of friends of mine. Its been a while since I've been there. I seem to recall that it was a bit hit and miss at times but generally better than most tapas joints. Suzi: Baltic isn't bad. I've had one very good experience there about two years ago and two alright experiences since then. Until I find a better place for Eastern European food, I'll probably keep going back. Last time I tried the Oxo Tower the whole experience just had an air of 'over-rated' about. Its starting to look like the People's Palace...

In bit of a pickle here - We will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary on a Tuesday night by going to the National to see 'the History Boys'. The play begins at 7pm and as I unfortunately need to be up before 6am the next morning, the idea of sitting down to dinner after 10 somehow seems to have lost its charm. This really means that only a pre-theate meal somewhere within the vicinity of the National is practical. As it is our anniversary it would be nice to have something a bit special, though I imagine that our choices will be somewhat limited by time constraints and location. Has anyone tried the People's Palace lately - or is that a no-go zone? Thoughts?

I'm really upset that I missed it. While you were experiencing the wonders of dry meat and cardamon kulfi, I was droning to a room of 25 half asleep students. Life is unjust. Having said that, I still have yet to try the Parsee...

Ah well, you know me Suzi - I love a bit of hyperbole! Anyway, driving quickly down Upper Street it just looks like a streak of white...

Well, tell him that he seems to have found a winning formula for Islington - any hope of opening one in Muswell Hill (N10)? I'm desperate here. But seriously - had lunch there last month on a Saturday and was very impressed with the food. For several weeks before venturing in my husband and I used to pass it by as we drove down Upper Street and gauf-faw with laughter at its pretentious exterior (we dubbed it Le Palais de Wank - but you don't need to tell your friend that) . To say that it looks rather self-conscious from the outside is an understatement - rather frightening to those of us mere mortals who don't use botox or have live-in nannies. Curiousity got the better of us and after reading the menu we had to try it. The only way I could describe it is that its rather like an eat-in deli with a difference. I had a selection of what they called salads - this was more like an array of different vegetable dishes that could each stand on their own as main courses. Roast butternut squash with tahini and some sort of spiced, baked cauliflower dish were superb and came in very generous portion sizes. The desserts were seriously seductive, brownies that oozed molten chocolate, and massive merangues. I can't wait to go back.