Suzi Edwards

good review in the guardian today....mentioned "i have heard murmurs about the service, but we expereinced none of them" looks like matthew fort peeks in here.

i think a search of the uk forums will bring up the addresses of the pubs. i'm not a pub person so i can't recommend either, but i am not sure that they are famous for their food though they are certainly well regarded pubs. i was in kensington for burger club the other night and i walked past both clarkes and kensington place (both on kensington church street) both are quite famous. clarkes is "the british chez panisse" and could be a really good bet for a solo meal. i've never been but would keen to hear any reports. they do a "set" menu for £5 per head. it also has a lovely looking deli attached which fi mentioned she really rates. a little futher down the road is kensington place which was named as one of the uk's most important restaurants a while ago. this is mainly because when rowley leigh was cooking there it was part of the british restaurant revolution so i can't comment on what it's like now. it was packed last tuesday and struck me as a buzzy fun place to go. might be a good solo dining place as it looked great for people watching. don't miss pierre marcolini in lancer square on kensington church street too. amazing chocolate. we bought the single bean ones and had a chocolate tasting at home. madagascar won, in case you are interested :-)

i'm having goose this christmas. can anyone tell me the best way to store the fat afterwards?

i went to a class on sa cooking and we made a sort of a custard tart for desert, it had lots of nutmeg on it. very tasty. can't wait to hear how it all pans out.

gary, i salute you (and your tummy)

did i hallucinate that a food writer recently wrote that wd50 is the world's most important restaurant opening in 2003? if i didn't hallucinate it, does anyone have a link?

you can come with one proviso....we take suzanne f to st john when she's in london. maybe we should have another suckling pig feast. suzanne is that ok?

andy, is there any more news on this? fingers crossed...

it's such a shame you had terrible service here. i had a complete nightmare with them last week and know exactly where you are coming from. i hate it when places get too big for their boots. thanks for that website suggestion btw, that might come in useful.

http://www.londontouristboard.com/whats_on...stmasindex.html this might help you make sure you don't miss anything. i was pleasently surprised by how much was open in ny for thanksgiving but i think you might find that lots of places will be closed here. i'd second moby's chinese idea though.

i'll choose the winking smiley for you, because that's the spirit with which my comment was made. i asked morgan about the service and he said that he feels it's improving week on week. i guess that's why i felt the time line was important. he also said that the restaurant was full almost every night and that this had made the initial opening period harder for them to cope with. the proof of this will be if people are still complaining about the service in january, as morgan says it will all be sorted by then.

my fave edinburgh hotel is the bonham. small, sexy and boutiquey. i'd really recommend it.

keep up andy, both jonathan and i have reported that the service was ok for us, and we have been there since matthew :-) that said, the "maitre d" knew us so i'm guessing that's why we did ok. i was kind of surprised that no-one picked up on my comment that the maitre d used to work in a bar round the corner from where i worked, however....i'm not sure what he did before, if he was moonlighting while waiting for morgan m to open but i wonder how experienced the front of house staff are. the fact that several of them spoke pretty basic english caused one or two confusions with our meal too. if i were morgan i'd be taking elena's etoile or the ivy as my cue. get a full on maitre/maitresse d in to a. sort the service and b. smooze the regulars. the restaurant's location means that it needs repeat, local business monday through thursday, at least until he gets michelin recognition. word of mouth about the food is enough to get people through the door once, but the service will currently keep those people from returning. to answer andy's questions specifically, i thought it felt like they had too many staff at times. i especially loved the mark almond look-a-like runner and i expected him to break into a non-stop erotic cabaret everytime he came up the stairs. can't comment on retention, though.

i'm feeling grumpy that i have never been to a restaurant with black napkins. where will i find these?

jack and i were sat on a table on the left hand side of the restaurant just before the stairwell and with a good view of the cheese trolley (IMHO). we were there on wednesday. i, obviously, was looking impossibly poised and glamourous, you might easily have mistaken me for a young audrey hepburn.* * shush those of you who have met me.

you want to know about the food? lord. you'd think this was a website about food. turnip soup with truffles. this was a light turnip puree served with turnip brunoise and black truffle shavings. is it just me or are turnips becoming more fashionable at the moment? anyway, jack found this a little bland, and while it wasn't in the league of a wareing truffled soup, it was good enough for me. scallops with red wine sauce, onion soubise and a chicory tatin. three queen scallops artfully arranged across the plate with an almost tatin on the side. the chicory had been tamed by the braising and it sat on a thin rectangle of pastry. the onion was too similar in texture to the soup, but the red wine jus sat well with the scallops. i would have prefered two bigger scallops that the three small ones. but that's a minor quibble. we were served a "frais" merlot with this, the only wine that was unsucesfully paired as the chicory seemed to bring out some heavy liqourice flavours in the wine. bleurgh. i think the next course was pave of sea bass on another puree but jack and i were deep in discussion for this course and this was where we felt the sameness of colour and texture became a little overwhelming. the wine here was a vouvray, which was much more interesting than the fish. next was venison with chestnut puree, red cabbage, roasted apples and grapes. the venison was served very rare (from the loin i am guessing) and was tender with good gamey flavour. the best bit of this dish was a hare ravioli that deserves a best supporting actor award. it was really rich with an almost faggot-like unctuousness in a thin pasta case. very autumnal, very good. then we shared some cheese from la fromagerie. mainly epoisses as this is my fave. this also gave us a chance to have some more of the fantastic bread while we chatted with morgan before..... desserts. you know about my chocolate, jack had a souffle. i can't actually remember anything else about that. then followed peppermint tea for me and calvados for jack with some truffles (which were ok)

disclaimer: when jack and i were first courting we frequented a wine bar that was next to our office. the head barman put up with our mooning for several months and aided and abbetted jack in his wooing of me by setting him up with glasses and wine for a moonlit drink by the river one evening. that man is now the maitre'd/sommelier at morgan m, something we didn't know until we sat down last night and something that might have helped with our service. all that has been said about morgan m on here is true. the food is simply superb and the service can be pretty shambolic. we were lucky; our service ran smoothly and i had no complaints. a minor miracle as jack will tell you. i started to chat with a table of ladies next to me however who were pretty disgruntled...but my desert arrived so i only heard the start of their complaint (coat not taken, long wait for bread etc) nothing keeps me from desert, especially when it's a rich chocolate cake (called a fondant on the menu but not) served with a cheeky shot glass of cream infused armagnac. it would be jennifer patteson's ideal milkshake and was really very, very good. i chatted with morgan about the service and the food. he still feels that the resturant is bedding in but wants to make things better. his restaurant is evolving at the moment and he is trying to run the kitchen and get the front of house right himself. he expects things to be "right" by january and is working hard to achieve that. what impressed me most was that morgan comes out onto the floor at the end of service every night and really listens to what people say, good or bad. for example, i commented that our first three courses, although each individually good, became a little monotonous in terms of look and texture when taken together on the autumn menu. this homogenaity (?) was thrown into relief by our fourth course of venison, one of the best dishes i have eaten this year. we discussed this for at least 10 minutes, bouncing ideas about building tasting menus and i feel confident that my comments will be acted on. i did kind of wonder if they read this site as many of the negative comments (pre-cut cheese and house wines being the ones on the pairing menu) had been changed. morgan m is a resturant to be praised and cherished. we've commented before on this board about "the ramsey empire". this place is completely independant and i think it's a serious contender for stars, once they have sorted the service. morgan was a little bashful about his pursuit of michelin glory saying that his first aim is to make the customers happy, then himself and hopefully the guides will then be interested. but to me he deserves* stars more than wareing, for example, as he already has a distinct style and this will only continue to evolve. and it's a 10 minute walk from my flat. nar nar ne nar nar. * emotive term, i know

i really should have done this before, but here are my thoughts from august (oops) overall none of the food was as bad as the jerry sadowich late show we saw, but neither was anything as good as dave gorman or adam hills. owing to shows in the evenings we made lunch our main meal of the day and i think the resturants of edinburgh are missing a festival trick by serving fairly boring lunchtime menus. anyway....my thoughts... nargile, 73 hanover street, 0131 225 5755. really interesting mezze to start followed by some average grilled meat specials but overall spoiled by churlish service from the sean connery lookalike owner. off the wall, 105 high street, 0131 558 1497. boring, bland and another word beginning with b that i can't think of. probably better outside of the festival when they are not cranking out a safe set lunch menu for the festival hoards. i left surprised that this has a mention in the good food guide. oloroso, 33 castle street 0131 226 7614. this was my biggest disappointment. we went for sunday lunch and were faced with a preposterously expensive set menu with only two choices per course or eating from the grill menu with steaks at £25. nice view of the castle, service so poor that they eventually got what they deserved, great chips. which they ought to be for £25. martins, rose street, 0131 225 3106. again let down by a limited festival lunch menu and we were slightly put off as we were two of four people in their, but the cheese is amazing. i *loved* that were shown a picture of bertha the cow, whose cheese we were eating. general khushi: popped in randomly for some sustinance before a late show. complete revelation. we just had naan and two of their "special" curries. i know very little about indian food but i am guessing that this place might not be especially "authentic" but the minced beef was probably the tastiest thing i ate all holiday. simply a small dish of really spicy mined meat with one potato in it. unlicenced, byo. valvona and crolla: lots has been said about this place before. i loved it. it made me want to open my own deli. i think it beats any london deli by a long way.

i am going this evening!!! i'll report back and if things are as bad as suggested here (and i hope they aren't) i'll try and speak with him.

i went last week and while they weren't talkative, i didn't think they were rude. i also thought it was one of the most interesting concepts i'd seen for a while and would love to see it take off in the uk. having eaten at espai sucre in barcelona (the world's first desert restaurant i believe) earlier this year, i was keen to see the new york take. i had great company (thank you blondie :-) and we were more interested in talking than asking questions... in terms of asking them questions the nearest analogy i can make is with going to a sushi bar. i wouldn't ask them loads of questions there (and not just because they have such sharp knives) :-)

i have a slightly similar problem to this. perhaps some people might have some ideas. i have friends coming over for supper tomorrow night. i am going to cook the venison that my butcher talked me into buying. (don't ask) i have a 4lb piece of roasting venison. would i treat this just like an off the bone beef joint? i've only ever had venison steak/medallions before so i am keen to try it as a whole piece. but i'm not sure if it should be served rare or welldone or what :-) i've never found venison to be tasteless as described above. i was thinking of roasting it plain and then serving a cumberland style gravy with it. given that's a pretty huge hunk of meat, would people suggest maybe marinading it beforehand to give the flavour a helping hand? any ideas on a good marinade? any ideas on a way to update the cumberland sauce idea?

in my ideal world it would be there. i was sure i could taste it.

i think it's on swallow street, just off regent street.

lol. i might just do that. btw, did you think the tarte tatin had any cheese in it?

wd-50 has to be one of my favourite meals of this year. we had late table last wednesday and i left wishing that all restaurants could be like this. gone is the hushed reverence of many places with famous chefs, the snooty waiters and whispering guests genuflecting at the altar of food. instead, british guitar music, waiters who are having a blast and witty, whimsical, inventive food. we ate squid lingine and butternut squash soup, roast cod and pork belly and pear five ways and gianduja parfait. from the chopped scallop couscous with the soup, through the sweetly crisp yet melting fat of the pork and to the subtle rainbow flavours of the pear, there was hardly a duff note. this is fun, inventive (there's that word again) that made me wave my fork, steal from my brother and keep badgering the waiter with questions. i have to make some comparisons, mostly with el bulli. i'm not going to get into arguments about better or worse, because the two are miles apart. but both share desire to change, innovate (natch) and challenge the diner. but wylie, to me, has a much better crack at creating cohesive dishes made up of constituent, crazy parts. his lemon paper served with the soup was similar in execution to a pineapple and olive paper i ate earlier this year. but here it was an integral part of a dish that added flavour and texture to the soup, while the paper's flavour was deepened and rounded by the soup. the giandula desert reminded me of my single favourite taste at el bulli, a hazelnut that reminded me of ferrero rocher, but this time the reminded was of a very posh toffee crisp, all the more enjoyable for not being a single bite. most importantly, the atmosphere at wd-50 invites people to have fun while eating his food. unlike el bulli where i was at a table that had to be moved by two waiters every time i went to the too. anyway, enough. i loved it. i just wish it were closer to london :-)