Suzi Edwards

Heston speaks out about those pesky food inspectors

Wow. Great photos. I'd love to hear more about what the food tastes like and how it made you feel. I'm slightly worried about the concept of 7.5 hours over dinner. That's 50% of the time I spend at my desk every day and I can get up for drinks and (I hate to admit it) cigarettes. That said, my day is my own, stressful, intellectually stimulating and I'm not paying for the pleasure. But when I'm eating out, I tend not to leave the table. I'm guess I'm lucky because I also eat alone a lot (of my choosing. I do actually have friends...) so my experience is my own. My meals aren't in thrall to someone else's bladder... I know that every time you leave the table chef needs to re-plate dishes and I wonder how much of an effect that had on the first night at Alinea. Either way, if I'm going to be sat for 7.5 hours I demand a mid meal massage. I expect this to be standard at Alinea by the time I visit.

Welcome back Dirk.

I found several dishes oversalted but it has been sometime since I ate there. Several other people have agreed that there's someone in the kitchen with a too-keen hand with the salt. Hopefully they will be off the day you have lunch. I keep hearing nice things about this place and I think another good review or two would convince me to go back soon.

Aren't the tobacco chocolates from L'Artisan Du Chocolate?

Giles Coren eviscerates Shanghai Blues in The Times

If it was on the corner, it's Marathon. Used to be Merkato. Haven't tried it yet. Any dishes you would recommend Alex?

There's also an Eritrean restaurant called Zigni House that's opened on Essex Road. Time Out loved it. Link to Time Out review.

Quite easily I would think from the fallacious logic you've displayed so far in this thread. Which is a shame because from reading the above you do seem to be able to describe complex food science in really readable terms. I wanted to understand Dirk a little better, so I decided to read all of his posts. I am aware that I really do need to get a life, but 38 out of Dirk's 91 posts directly mention the Fat Duck and/or Molecular Gastronomy. All pretty much negatively apart from the one where he says he was one of the first 100 people to eat at FD when it first opened. Any sort of glance over your posting history shows that you have written one post that actually describes a restaurant dining experience in any real depth (several where you said you liked or disliked a meal but didn't mention a single dish), but almost every single other post has been either about capons, restaurant guides or The Fat Duck/Molecular Gastronomy. Which feels very strange to me. Why, as someone who proports to enjoy fine dining, would you allow your contribution to a food website to be so much about a restaurant and style of cuisine you don't enjoy? You accuse others of having agendas. You have one too, don't you Dirk?

I've worked in hiring for the past ten years. There has been a strange phenomenon in the past three or so. No-one is sacked anymore. They either resign or get made redundant.

Ask and ye shall receive. VPL is no longer the food critic at The Guardian His last review is of a fish and chip place in Yorkshire called Audrey's.

I am loving the show and I hate myself for it. Between this and "Playing it Straight", British TV is at a new low.

I look forward to your contribution next year.

I'm with Gary. Profound sense of deja vu in this corner. Or am I mistaking deja vu for ennui?

And here's a link to the review Quite food related for a AA Gill review.

And I'll try not to be detoxing next time we go out :-)

This is strange as Fraiche in Birkenhead produces a la carte, and two tasting menus (6 and 12 courses) and they only have two people in the kitchen. That said, should Anthony's start offering a tasting menu, I would go back if I was in the area. ← why is it strange? is the fewer the chefs in the kitchen now an indicator of quality?! cheers gary ← Not at all and that isn't what I said. I know you find it hard when people don't like Anthony's, but I'm sure I'm not the only person to feel that the experience didn't live up to expectations (expectations set primarily by people whose opinions I trust on this board, I might add) I was pointing out that smaller kitchens are able to produce tasting menus but the kitchen size is always the reason why Anthony's don't.

This is strange as Fraiche in Birkenhead produces a la carte, and two tasting menus (6 and 12 courses) and they only have two people in the kitchen. That said, should Anthony's start offering a tasting menu, I would go back if I was in the area.

Do you know what happened?

Can we merge this thread with the one about home delivery? Seems to be a lot of duplication.

It's not clear from the site if they deliver in London. I tried inputting my postcode and don't get a message they don't deliver, nor do I get a message saying they do...any North Londoners get a box from them?

Kill me now.

Could solstice help? It's not on the site but they may know a supplier.

Sad to hear that about Sala Thong. I withdraw my recommendation! There's a thread here about The Three Horseshoes

*puts down the packet of Quavers I was eating in disgust* You've spoiled my early morning snack with another fine report of the quaver-shaming food this place. How easy/hard is it to get a table?