rjs1

Could someone possibly post a link to Jay Rayner's Observer review (which was more enthusiastic) for purposes of comparison?

Hope to die well before eating this

Jason Atherton also used to do lamb with lavender at L'Anis. I was once served a supurb pork dish at a dinner party in which the meat had been marinated with lavender for three days.

It will be interesting to see how you find it. My experience is that both service and food miss the mark. The food offering is both overpriced and misconceived. For example, what would have been a very pleasant mushroom pancake was served with stong crumbled stilton which completely destroyed the subtle flavour of the rest of the dish. On the other hand, it is a great place for drinks; the cocktails are fun and wine list is well thought out. The views are lovely, and apart from some weak artworks the fit-out is a triumph. Maybe its future is primarily as a bar?

You might be able to get parmesan for free by contacting the Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio Grana Padona (www.granopadano.it). They were exhibiting at La Dolce Vita at Olympia last week and have a UK PR (Emily Buckland at Weber Shandwick - ebuckland@webershandwick.com).

It was up for sale a few months ago. Maybe it's gone? Does anyone know if the Lobster Pot at 3 Kennington Lane is still trading?

maze - whatever you think about ramsay, atherton can really, really cook - definitely amongst the best in town. and the ramsay name draws the slebs. also jun tanaka at pearl. seriously underrated and def high end. the bar does some first class cocktails and is rather severely beautiful. otherwise there's the wallet-hammering blue bar/petrus or foliage/mandarin bar combos... x ← Maze - great, great food, but surely the decor is about as uncool as it gets? Pearl - the sommelier told me at the end of January that the ceiling had fallen in after Christmas and that it would take until March to repair it and re-open. Anyone know if it's trading again yet? Foliage itself isn't at all wallet-hammering at lunchtime - in fact the lunch and matching wine deal is really rather good value. Don't know about the bar - too smoke-filled to linger.

And some very negative ones... A Covent Garden old stager which I've always found very reliable is the Punjab at 80 Neal Street. Lamb with fresh fenugreek and chicken with pomegranate (sp?) are both recommended. It was founded in 1949 and moved to Neal Street in 1951; it must be one of the oldest Indian restaurants in the UK. I remember when I lived nearby in the '90s that the old boy who started it was still there every night, sitting near the door keeping an eye on everything while his grandsons did the work. He seldom moved, but if anything wasn't absolutely right he beckoned to a grandson and told them in no uncertain terms to sort it out. Then he wasn't there anymore and Sital, one of his grandsons, told me his grandfather had gone back to India for a holiday. A few weeks later he told me that the old boy had died out there. I commiserated and Sital said "well, it's sad, but he was 101". Quite an advertisement for the preservative powers of curry...

I'm in total agreement regarding the fish from Applebees, not only is it not great quality, I once bought red mullet from there which was inedible, the staff are also rude and unhelpful. Have to disagree; I've always found the staff pleasant and the produce decent. As for value, they had very fresh looking John Dory at £3 each or 4 for £10 this morning, which seemed a good price. Generally the Barrow in Furness place is better value, though - on Saturday they had supurb Sri Lanka tuna at £19 a kilo when Applebees were charging £22. Applebees is also useful by being open five days a week.

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! Sorry, I'll get a grip. Nonetheless, if you are in a Bologna, asking for spaghetti Bolognese will immediately identify you as an ignorant foreigner (no offence meant). If you manage to find a good traditional trattoria, most of which now seem to be outside the city according to the locals, you should order Tagliatelle al Ragu. Spaghetti bolognese is the southern Italian imitation of the dish which has unfortunately become widespread in Italian restaurants around the world. It's not half as good as the original. ← Sorry, my Italian accent is so bad I find it best to just point at what they're having at the next table and grunt hopefully. However, I've seen it on the menu as Spag Bol at every restaurant I've been to in Bologna and haven't been disappointed with the offering yet.

That's probably why Bologna is so attractive - no tourist hordes, unlike Florence which has got increasingly like Oxford Street on the last Saturday before Christmas over the last twenty years or so. To be fair, Prato is fairly tourist free, probably becasue the outskirts are so hideous. Anyway, don't you owe it to yourself to try Spaghetti Bolognese in Bologna?

Forli to Bologna is a long way. You really ought to fly to Bologna itself, then it's a few minutes in a taxi to the centre of Bologna and/or the station for the Prato/Florence train. I think from memory that Ryanair fly to Forli and Easyjet to Bologna itself, but I could be out of date on that. If only Forli is available, I'd go to Pisa instead.

The Pisa to Florence train service is fine, even on a Sunday. However, if you are staying in Prato, why not fly to Bologna and get the Florence train from there (it stops at Prato just before Florence)? Tends to be cheaper than Pisa, too (and also spend some time in Bologna itself if you can).

Isn't it an amazing flavor shot imparts to game! Is this the stand that had the pheasants strung up outside of it? It was quite a savagely beautiful display. One of two with this sort of display in the market - the other is the wonderful Furness Fish & Game, which often has the greater part of a deer hanging up outside it.

Ginger Pig, Northtfield Farm and Wild Beef at Borough Market all do it for me. ← And Wyndham Poultry in Borough Market as well. Great game sausages, containing pheasant, partridge & pigeon last time I asked (and shot, we discovered).

Yes. I suppose some people might watch Masterchef to get in the mood for a romantic evening, but...

We're really upset here at Sorrel. They filmed here all day, then told us the programme is going out on 14 February (so presumably will get an audience of at most two)...

Sadly, Portwine is long gone. I think that Graham Portwine developed MS and couldn't continue, and none of his children wanted to take over. It was a great place, doing things like salt marsh lamb and indeed Rothesay (sp?) lamb in season, plus being incredibly generous to my dog when I lived in Covent Garden. An excellent if punishingly expensive butcher is Silverside in Clifton Gdns, W9. At more palatable prices, Ginger Pig, Northtfield Farm and Wild Beef at Borough Market all do it for me.

Used to love this place. Happy to hear it hasn't changed. Macabee (sp?) beer is probably a better bet than tap water.

I hear he was drop dead gorgeous, the kind of chap women want to have and men want to be. ← It was you, wasn't it?

He gave us an absolute stinker of a review at Glas in the Sunday Telegraph on 23 July, very spiteful and personal in tone, which was particularly disappointing because I think he's a very good writer. He came in in a vile mood, was rude to the staff from the moment he sat down and generally behaved in such a way that was embarrassing to behold. I'd be astonished if Matthew Fort or Jan Moir ever behaved like that.

I was thinking of booking Aubergine but changed my mind when I heard ths news. Unfortunately I don't really trust the motivation of the staff if they are in receivership.

In their dreams

Apparently A to Z Restaurnants called in liquidators last week. Does anyone know what went wrong there?

No replies by the time I had to set off, so I went anyway. Not bad, I thought. Service was fine; the manager was enthusiastic about the offering and knew his way round the wine list, which was 95% Italian and pretty interesting, if not particularly bargain-filled. I had the usual "signature dish" four fish ravioli, from which (if memory serves - things got pretty hazy towards the end of the meal) the brill with saffron pasta and the tuna with tomato pasta were particularly good; the flavours sang and the pasta was perfectly al dente. My host had a "special" of Tuscan salami wrapped round wild rocket, followed by the fish ravioli as a main course (they added one more of the saffron ravioli to make it main course portion, which didn't seem particularly generous). We had a rather good Roero Arneis, new to the list, with the starters. My main course was venison with chestnuts and the manager recommended a Puglian red to accompany it which was also available by the glass and which complemented the meat perfectly. If I had had a glass rather than most of a bottle I would probably be able to remember the name. We skipped pudding but had excellent coffee. My rather imprecise impression is that the chef is cooking as well here as he did at Ibla, Green Olive or Paolo and the prices are quite similar to the these. I'd go back. Service was both charming and efficient.