Suzi Edwards

I'd second Ottelenghi but on the proviso that if you go you do not order the eggs with mushroom polenta served with a beef jus. It is one of the most disgusting things I have ever eaten. Truly, terribly, nauseatingly horrid. Stick to the pastries and you'll be fine. I had a quite good taleggio and tomato danish there the other day.

Found it, it's in The Guardian. Again, no pictures online and it's quite short but it was in the science section. Here's a link to the article from New Scientist but you'll need to register to read this one.

One of my best friends called me today to tell me that there has just been a HUGE article in one of the UK broadsheets about Moto. She called and said "There's an article about edible menus and some restaurant in Chicago. It looks totally fantastic and I'm sure it's one of those places you've been telling me about" We're just doing a search to find out where it was. I'll post a link as soon as I can. Moto goes global...:-)

It's just really strange. I booked online on the 24th January but today thought "I'm going to confirm that reservation". So despite the fact I have notification from them saying I have booked, the guy said "our computer system doesn't have it so either you're wrong or we're wrong but I'm not inclined to fit you in" Clearly a time when "computer says no" and "waiter says no" equals "Suzi says aaaaargh" I wouldn't mind, but he might have apologised. Luckily the guy at Chowki found the whole situation highly amusing and was really helpful. He even cheered me up.

So, the bloody New Tayyab has "lost" my reservation for 14 people this evening. Apart from the guy on the phone is possibly the rudest man I have ever spoken with, I guess I'm not going to be eating here. Ever. So, can anyone suggest an alternative place that they think could do a table of 14 with, what, five hours notice? *seethes* Edit to add we're now going to Chowki. Hail my saviour of Indian restaurants.

I wouldn't call what I wrote "general mediocre malaise". I ate a salad which I loved, and several spoonfuls of a great soup. I had some of the best roasties I've had in a restaurant and although I found the pork too fat for me the meat was great. I didn't get to taste one main because it disappeared so fast! I use the phrase "slightly less mindblowing" to describe the mains, which perhaps suggests my mind was blown by the appetisers? Isn't that a good thing? I didn't say I didn't like the room, I just found it a little studied for my tastes. While bemused by the rhino, I have no beef with it. And does anyone really like to be surrounded by duffers when eating? I doubt it. But I can't really a blame a restaurant for its diners...Actually no, maybe I can and from now on when I book I'll demand that there's no-one in a suit in the same room as me and they cancel all diners over the age of 40 to make me more comfortable? As for the price, I thought it was very reasonable to be honest. Just over £50 per head which I thought was a really good price for a meal I really enjoyed. You can get a lot less for a lot more in Central London these days.

I went last week and it was great. Like Gareth I'm not sure it was quite as good as I was expecting it to be from the superlative reviews, but overall a very well conceived and executed place. Started with drinks in the bar and then through to the (much) more formal than I was expecting dining room. There's a very strange statue of a rhino in the middle of the room, surrounded by tea lights. I didn't really know what to make of it, what with the strange scrap paper chandelier, but the room somehow reminded me of Private Eye. I think there's a sort of studied insouciance to it, but it does feel peculiarly British, in spite of the ungulate. I felt very under-dressed in jeans although there were a couple of other casually dressed people in there. Maybe it was the large table of duffers in suits that are making me think this...but all in all the dining room is well proportioned, if a little formal for this kind of food. First up was some superlative soup. "Jane Grigson's curried parsnip" for my dinner dates that was the perfect choice given the weather last Thursday. Thick, sweet, mildly spicy and garnished with a swirl of parsnip crisps. I went for the slightly less becoming on a wet windy evening salad of wet walnuts, apple, cashel blue and dandelion. I was a little worried about the dandelion after a brush with too large a portion at St John the other week, but this was a beautifully balanced bitter salad shot through with tiny croutons. Great British ingredients, great contrasts, great flavour. A perfectly executed salad. Mains were slightly less mind blowing, although the roast potatoes with my slow roasted middlewhite pork were some of the best I've had in a restaurant. The pork was a little too fat for my liking (not for the faint hearted as Moby would say) but the meat was exceptional quality and rich with the flavour of garlic. The crackling was the best bit; a sliver of porky brittle. A main of venison with bitter chocolate sauce was less successful to my mind although the meat was fantastic quality and properly hung. I found the sauce a little too one note and that dish lacked the hit from the advertised winter truffles. My other dinner guest had the vegetarian option that disappeared with such speed I never got a fork to it. From memory it was artichoke and poached egg with stilton which sounds disgusting so I know I'm not remembering properly but seemed to do the trick. This isn't a place for vegetarians; only two starters were meat and fish free and only one main. Both on of the starters and the main contained blue cheese which made for an unbalanced selection. Desert was apple and pear crumble and a poached pear. Neither did a huge amount for me, but the slab of Bakewell tart with raspberry ripple icecream that was delivered to the table next to me caught my eye. Mark Broadbent (formerly of The Oak) has taken great British ingredients and given them centre stage. Having never eaten at Bluebird before the refit I can't make comparisons, but I will be going back. Bluebird Dining Room 350 Kings Road, SW3 5UU 020 7559 1000

Great review from Fuschia Dunlop in Time Out as well but I don't think they post online. Will see if I can get permission to reproduced in some way.

She's the one trying to crawl out of AA Gill's jacket.

Ahh, it's nice to be back on here; you're a nice bunch. I see I even missed a thread on my pet subject - Manchester restaurants! So many posts, so little time... Cheers Thom ←

This is the funniest post I've read here for a while. You effortlessly hit the sort of tone that I think Victor Lewis Smith tries for every week, but fails to get anywhere near. Since I started doing the Media Round-up I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of non-London and South East coverage. To be honest, I get a bit annoyed when a review is of a place not in London, especially when the place is a bit out of the way and you end up trying to work out if it's actually worth going out of your way to eat there, or if there is anywhere else near that you could turn it into a weekend for. I really liked Giles Coren's trip to the Lake District and would love to see more things like that. I've just checked with my brother as to what the food coverage in the Coventry Evening Telegraph is like and he replied "There is none. There are no restaurants in Coventry" I think he might be having a bad day though. I would love to put more regional stuff in the Media Round up. Someone suggested the Scotsman's food critic, but I now can't find her stuff on the Scotsman portal. So, if we do find reviewers, let me know.

it's all about the details isn't it? bet you didn't go thirsty either 2 out of the 3 serving staff are ex-el bulli, A 3 star michelin - and it shows. denis at no3 has experience at various 1-2 stars in europe and again you can tell. cheers gary ← It's for reasons such as this that I think that Suzi must have been at at different restaurant from the comments that she posted. ← Nope, different people have different expectations and hence have different experiences. Not everyone likes the music I like, not everyone likes the restaurants I like. Simple as that. I will get round to posting about my experience, it's just that my mother is really ill at the moment so I'm trying to minimise the hassle in my life. And sometimes some things are just more important than dealing with the crap you get for disagreeing with what other people think.

Paula- I'm not sure that BLH is suggesting that you need to be a certain type to enjoy fine service. I think he's laughing at the idea of a group of "geeks" at Le Gavroche. May I ask what your association with Le Gavroche is? Did you work there? Le Gavroche interests me as a place to eat. But I find the jacket and tie concept so out of date I doubt I'll ever visit.

I'm with Moby, but I'd probably substitute Durack for Coren at the moment. I think Giles has got a little self-indulgent, but I applaud his raising awareness of animal husbandry.

I had a funny feeling I might have read this book and hated it. But then I realised I was thinking of "The Raw and the Cooked but Jim Harrison. I am now very happy to think that I have a whole Terry Durack book to read.

Welcome to the eGullet forums Raj and thanks for the first post. The best Korean at the back of Centrepoint IMHO is Woo Jung. I had a great monkfish and tofu hotpot here recently and a gluttinous amount of kimchee. The people that own this restaurant are the owners of the Korean supermarket opposite and the CentrePoint Sushi Bar, that I still frequent regularly despite peaks and troughs in the service and the advice of Jon Tseng!

Quoted from the User Agreement that you agree to everytime you log into the site. I think the discussion of whether Jay or the restaurant has gone as far as it can go. Thanks.

Cheers for that. I was going to suggest you try Ready Steady Cook but given you're about to be on Masterchef I might withdraw that suggestion. Not sure Ainsley can stand the competition. Hope my post didn't come across as too harsh. I am genuinly interested in why people apply for reality TV shows.

Lt's draw a line under this. If you want to continue discussing the review, please do, but futher mean-spirited posts about the wine service at this restaurant and people's opinions of it will be deleted. Cheers.

May I ask why you're so determined to get onto a TV cooking show?

Can you give us a few more details Tony? Do you want to drink much? Any strong feelings on the type of cuisine? Are they foodies? Are you trying to impress? What's the closest tube stop you're thinking of?

All round good stuff at Roka in Fitzrovia from Toby Young. Pretty mindless review though (IMHO) so may not make the cut for inclusion in the esteemed Media Round Up next week. Reviewer must try harder. A- for the food at Cocoon but Terry Durack's so hot he thinks he might "hatch from a crysalis to a beautiful butterfly". Must be all that talk of brazillians. B+ for the food at Bluebird in Chelsea from Tracey Macleod, but other things rankle for her. Giles Coren is disappointed at Ristorante Fiore on St James's So we'll give it a C. Interestingly, haven't seen a good review for this place yet. D- and Jay Rayner says "must try harder" at The Box Tree Ilkley There's been a storm in a Reidel wine glass about this review which you can check out here. I'm not sure about E for effort, but Marina O'Loughlin finds little worthy of the old Sugar Club address at The Grocer on Warwick But if you read one review this week, read Jan Moir's slaying of Albannach in Trafalgar Square If this really were a school report I think the restauranteur might have been expelled. Fay Maschler isn't quite as mean, but she's pretty disappointed with Albannach too. What do you reckon, closed in 6 months?

Not quite a clean sweep for Bluebird this week, Tracy MacLeod find a couple of quibbles.

Not a silly question at all. I posted a link to the Gastro Pub thread that has some conversation about "what is a gastro pub" on it. There was some dissention, but I think it's fair to say that you wouldn't find a gastro pub serving Indian food. You won't really find a pub serving Indian food, unless it's a bright orange chicken tikka masala next to vegetable lasagne on the menu. I have seen a growth in a slightly different sort of Indian restaurant, ones that tend to serve lighter, more regional food in a more cafe setting. Maybe the Masala Zones and Soho Spices of this world are a separate restaurant continuum, but challanging the same things as english gastropubs did with restaurants. Am off to stab myself in the tongue for using the word continuum in an eGullet forum post.

Interesting thread. I'm coming to SF in a couple of weeks. Any recommendations for places I can try to eat this food?