[Apsleys - a Heinz Beck restaurant]

Went their last year, excellent food but service wasn't brilliant. First they started serving up set lunch menu without giving me an a la carte menu, which I had to ask for and at the end their crappy card machines couldn't read two of my cards, and the waiter acted like a complete dick over it. Both cards worked perfectly both before and after the meal in shops and at the cashpoint. That is my main memory of the visit.

[Meat Scandal]

My main beef with the issue (groan) is the complete failure of a documented supply chain.

It's not just fraudulent use of horse instead of beef, it's the risk of phenylbutazone, other medication, and the fact no one knows if its a healthy safely slaughtered horse, a knackered drug loaded race horse, or the 6 week old maggot ridden carcass of a horse pulled out of a waterlogged ditch somewhere in Romania. It also puts into question the origin of all supermarket meat and processed meat, not just beef. Hell, no ones tested for cat, dog and rat DNA have they, and although it never made mainstream news, if collagen farmed from executed Chinese prisoner's skin worked its way into the western beauty industry, what happened to the rest of the prisoner?

Whilst my local butcher displays the location of the farm, the breed, the day of slaughter and even ear tag number, I must admit I used to buy at supermarkets as well, had the odd bit of comfort food (Fray Bentos pies, ready meals, tins of ravioli and spaghetti) and would enjoy the odd fast food takeaway every now and then. Now I'm having to change my buying and eating habits to remove those altogether.

[Great British Menu 2013]

It's definitely not what it was but I'm still enjoying this years GBM, if only to see some of the modernist techniques on show, and to see some new names I've not heard of before. I'm concentrating on the food rather than the competition, they ran out of reasons for the show a few seasons ago when the finale was Barbara Windsor in Leadenhall market with some random people.

[Bo London]

I had the full tasting menu a few weeks ago when I visited with my brother. We ended up having the Chefs menu, 16 "courses", having had 1 extra dish due to my brothers lobster being a bit chewy. I really enjoyed it to be honest, it made a nice change from French and European modern cooking and tasting menu's I'm used to having and I enjoyed some Chinese ingredients and flavours I hadn't had before, the jolo (I believe, a Chinese wine) sauce on the scallop being a fine example, as was the tomato dish and Wagyu and noodle soy truffle combo. It's clear that the menu has evolved since the earlier (Dec) reviews too, some courses have disappeared, some new, most changed considerably. The test tube of hawthorn drink as a palate cleanser was much maligned in its earlier incarnation with the basil foam, but the one with mango foam we had was fab.

However, 17 dishes during a 9 course lunch at Viajante this Saturday showed that Bo London calling a spherified ball of soup on a spoon a course is pushing it a bit. Viajante provided far more bang for the buck. I reckon the Bo's Chefs menu is about 7 courses and 8 amuse bouches/canapes. For the money they charge the portions need to be a bit bigger, and they need to be more generous with petit fours too. After 140 quid and 16 courses I want to waddle out of the restaurant like Homer Simpson after an all you can eat barbecue, rather than that a niggling feeling I could have eaten more.

Having said that, I may well return so my wife can try the vegetarian tasting menu, a change in price or what's on offer would certainly seal the deal.

For those who want a breakdown of each dish and some rather dark photos, it's up on my blog.