rjs1

You could try Corrigans jn Mayfair. Don't be put off by the expensive location! This is top notch dining at user friendly prices. When we went in January I had the most expensive dish on the menu.Widgeon,when in feather a very pretty little duck,on the plate,as nice a tasting piece of game you will eat. This cost all of £26,you can eat a main course for as little as £12 if my memory serves me right. Expect lots of game on the menu and strong flavours Mr Corrigan does not do bland. There is a good choice of seating including an overspill dining area if they are extremely busy. ← Many thanks. I went to look at the menus in the windows at St John and at Club Gascon, but wasn't particularly excited by either. Corrigans sounds good, but my host wants something with the kind of culinary fireworks Pied a Terre used to have in the 1990s, and I want somewhere where I know at least one member of the team FOH or in the kitchen, so I think we are now chosing between Maze and Texture. Any views? One thought is that at my advanced age I don't want to eat to the beat of bad loud music, which marred the only occasion that I have ever been to Maze in the evening rather than lunchtime. ← Not been to Texture,although its had decent reviews. My one and only visit to Maze was very disappointing! We had the four course lunch at £28 .The portions were,minuscule. The waitress seated us at a very poor table,right near the back,up the flight of stairs, when other far nicer tables were available. They kindly reseated us in a far better spot with some cajoling. Not the best start and it went downhill quickly. This lunch was the worst we have had in London. Jason Atherton was in the kitchen ,and to his very good credit produced two dishes foc ,to prove what he is capable of. However that said the Table d hote menu should not be an afterthough it should be carefully considered before being offered. Moving on,it is always difficult to recommend,as I worry that people may not agree with my choice. That said,perhaps my best meal last year was at Foliage. Most people who have dined here seem to have thoroughly enjoyed the very fine cooking of Chris Staines,a fairly low profile Chef who lets his cooking do the talking! Hope this is of help. ← Chris Staines is very talented. My only thought is that Foliage is such good value for lunch compared to dinner that I'd rather save going there for a lunchtime. Not sure that there's nearly as much price differential between lunch and dinner at Maze and at Texture as there is at Foliage.

More from the Kitchen Rat site: There's a few old faces, a few new and (hoorah?) no Jenny Bond sticking her nose around about the kitchen with inane, grin-fixed questions. Instead there's the equally attractive past winners Sat Bains and Jason Atherton presenting. ← Equally attractive as each other, or equally attractive as Ms Bond?

You could try Corrigans jn Mayfair. Don't be put off by the expensive location! This is top notch dining at user friendly prices. When we went in January I had the most expensive dish on the menu.Widgeon,when in feather a very pretty little duck,on the plate,as nice a tasting piece of game you will eat. This cost all of £26,you can eat a main course for as little as £12 if my memory serves me right. Expect lots of game on the menu and strong flavours Mr Corrigan does not do bland. There is a good choice of seating including an overspill dining area if they are extremely busy. ← Many thanks. I went to look at the menus in the windows at St John and at Club Gascon, but wasn't particularly excited by either. Corrigans sounds good, but my host wants something with the kind of culinary fireworks Pied a Terre used to have in the 1990s, and I want somewhere where I know at least one member of the team FOH or in the kitchen, so I think we are now chosing between Maze and Texture. Any views? One thought is that at my advanced age I don't want to eat to the beat of bad loud music, which marred the only occasion that I have ever been to Maze in the evening rather than lunchtime.

I have been invited to dinner next Thursday by a very old friend whom I have not seen for some years as he has been working abroad. He is out of touch with the London restaurant scene and has asked me to book somewhere good - quality of food and wine much more important than the fripperies. He is a partner in a City law firm, so it doesn't need to be at credit-crunch prices, but at the same time I don't want to suggest anywhere too outrageously expensive. He mentioned Pied a Terre, where we both used to go a lot in Richard Neat/Tom Aitkens days, but I think that would be OTT price-wise at dinner. He will be staying in Smithfield but is happy to go anywhere in central London. I live in Little Venice, but am also happy to go anywhere in central London. I would like to try somewhere I haven't tried before. Nowhere too loud, as we have lots of catching up to do. My most recent noteworthy meals have been at Dehasa, Maze, Patterson's, Salt Yard, Texture, Theo Randall at the InterContinental and Vinoteca. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Haven't been yet, but I worked at Sorrel with one of the Terroirs partners, Richard Martinez, and he really knows his wines. He was restaurant manager at Al Duca, Zaika and Via Condotti, among others, in his time.

Just found out La Palme d'Or will be closed when I am there (Feb 19-22). ← Two suggestions: Astoux et Brun 5 Rue Louis Blanc (off Le Suquet) Very long-established seafood restaurant, awesome plateau des fruites de mer (excuse my French), scruffy decor, "brisk" service to put it kindly, good value. Actually looks onto Le Suquet, by the bandstand - don't confuse it with Astoux, a few doors along, which is ok but not as good. Jade 24 Rue Pasteur (off La Croisette, just after the Martinez if memory serves) 04 93 94 33 49 Really good family-run Vietnamese place. I haven't been to Cannes since we closed Neat in 2002, but a friend who goes there a lot tells me Astoux et Brun is still excellent. He also says you can't book there - just turn up and queue if necessary.

How about a call to Westminster City Council's Trading Standards people?

I think that's right, as long as the service charge is described on the menu as "optional", which it has to be to qualify as "tronc" and be free of National Insurance Contributions for both staff and employer.

West London? The Ledbury?

Short notice, I know, but it might be worth e-gulleters watching the film "Vatel" on BBC4 at 11.30pm tonight. Vatel was the Sun King's chef and committed suicide when the fish failed to turn up on time for a royal banquet - an example to all of us.... His body was found by a kitchen porter coming to tell him that the fish had finally arrived.

Well, they have to be described as discretionary for the tronc to work, with the National Insurance and other advantages that have been previously discussed on another thread. If a service charge is stated to be discretionary and you choose not to pay it (no doubt because you are unhappy with either the service or the meal rather than to save money), then there is nothing the restaurant can do.

This restaurant doesn't seem to have attracted much mention recently. Had a pleasant lunch there on Friday - prices haven't moved in the five years since the post above, except that puddings have gone up £1. Starter was caramalised cauliflower risotto with a lovely bit of smoked haddock. Risotto was very competently made, but I couldn't detect caramalisation of the cauliflower. I tried it to see if cauliflower could be made interesting, and it can't... Main was an assiette of lamb with red-wine sauce, puy lentils, spinich and potatoes - really good, five or six different lamb bits, very flavoursome sauce. Pudding was a fig tart with a nut ice cream, just right for a winter day. We drank what I think claimed to be a Pinot Noir from Corsica, which I found hard to believe - perhaps there is a cool microclimate somewhere on the island. Acceptable at £24. Overall lunch for two with service was just under £75. Not stunning, but decent food in pleasant surroundings, friendly and efficient service; pleasantly surprised that it was full for lunch when so many West End places are quiet.

Why go many times to a place you find "just appalling"?

Like it or not, it's HMRC that's right up there at the front of the queue I'm afraid. H ← Behind the banks, and of course at number one the insolvency practitioner. ← I'm a bit rusty on these things, but is it right that HMRC is still a preferential creditor? I thought that changed a few years ago. Banks are only at the front of the queue because they tend to take a fixed & floating charge over all the assets of the company. The insolvency practitoner gets paid because if he didn't there'd be no administration.

Neals Yard Dairy have used factors for years, and I'd guess that they'll survive the downturn (hope so, anyway).

It was in the "Style" magazine, so maybe it went to press before news broke?

Do you mean leek, or is the food highly diuretic?

The way the $ is rising against the £ at the moment, it may be you that's laughing by December. ← I believe in miracles, but I won't hold my breath for this one. ← Have you looked at how far the £ has fallen against the US$ in the last 48 hours? Start smiling, anyway...

The way the $ is rising against the £ at the moment, it may be you that's laughing by December.

There's a thread on this somewhere, but why not try Theo Randall at the InterContinental? At lunch it's far cheaper than the River Cafe and (given that Randall was head chef there for a lifetime, probably just as good). Prices head into the stratosphere in the evenings, though. Otherwise, agree with the recommendations for Latium.

As a former tax inspector, I can assure you categorically that such an unworthy thought would never cross the mind of anyone in government...

Was there any American legal reason not to just pay the $4,000 and tell them to pursue the no-shows-ers for the $1,200? What would they have done, refused to serve you the $4,000 meal and lost this?

Pork then pork? Sounds weird.

My tax and NIC knowledge is a bit rusty, but I think that the position is roughly as follows: Many operators feel that the service charge, whether added automatically or left to the customer's discretion, is wrong in principle. In an ideal world the prices on the menu should be the prices you pay, except for a (cash if possible) "pourboire" for good service. However, the National Insurance treatment of service charge means that very few restaurants can afford to take this principled stand. If the service charge is stated to be "optional" and is properly administered by a troncmaster who is not a director of the restaurant business, there can a number of advantages. It is then regarded as a separate employment, does not suffer NIC in the hands of the staff member, there is no employers' NIC to pay on it, and merely suffers deduction of basic rate tax. Cash tips can be paid gross to staff, who are then responsible for declaring them on their own tax returns (which probably happens about as often as the Vatican admits that they were wrong about contraception). I think that there would be a VAT advantage as well, but admit that I've never really got my head round that one - can anyone help? As a result, only seriously subsidised places like Lucknam Park and perhaps family run businesses where most of the staff are family members and there is little "employment" as such can afford to do the right thing. What surprises me is that there isn't more pressure for a standard 10% service charge rather than 12.5%, which always seems excessive to me.

I'm sure I'm on my own here, but is Monmouth (the Borough branch) a bit rubbish? I must have been about a dozen times as people keep telling me it's the best, and I simply don't get it. I think you may be on your own on this one. We ran a restaurant (Glas) about ten yards away, and every meeting was lubricated with takeaway coffees from Monmouth and it was always great. Still very good when I had a coffee to stay a few weeks ago. The Monmouth people really seem to care about what they do, so if you're not happy with what you're drinking, tell them what's not pleasing you about it.