Scott

I was here about 6 weeks ago. food very good, service terrible. the australian front of house manager very good, welcoming, but then handed our table over to the 12 year olds. We had to prompt them to tell us what we were being served, and still often couldn't hear their mumblings. becoming my no.1 hate. Thought it odd there was no amuse until later we witnessed everyone else getting them. Had the small taster wines, only problem being that they were neither very good or good matches to food. Just saying this wine matches this course, doesn't mean that it does. At the end of the meal I felt that it was a very dispassionate affair, and my wife correctly pointed out that it was the service that made everything seem cold. For the price: 2 menu's, recommended wines + service > £150 I didn't think it worth returning. It is very sydney stylee dining, in both good and bad regards.

agree this is excellent glugging.

A few mates slipped over the channel to have a nice lunch and some good booze. thought you might be interested in some very basic notes. Can't be arsed going into more detail at this stage 1990 R&V Dauvissat Le Clos Chablis: absolutely superb, amazing length. Sommelier tried to stop us ordering it - "not ready". Long life yes. not ready, no. 1990 Coche Dury Meursault: bit dull really. classic popcorn nose, Some nice richness, but not very complex, slightly uneventful. 1979 Trimbach Clos St Hune: A bit tired, but very pleasant. Slight hiccup towards the back, where the finish gets a little coarse and astringent. for an extra 30 euro - should have gone the 1983! 1985 Lafon Volnay - Santenots de Milieu: Attractive, and well balanced. Very tight and hard, could be more generous. A little singular, but started to open up well. Showed poorly in comparison to: 1978 Rousseau Gevrey Clos St Jacques: Beautiful bottle of wine. great aromatic complexity, soft and generous around a finely attenuated but resolved tannic structure. superb balance. 1985 Fesles Bonnezeaux - bit tired and clumsy. poor. 1988 Baumard Quarts du Charme - sommelier recommendation. lovely green gold fruit, balanced, fresh, cleansing acidity and nice weight. some botrytis. interesting and satisfying drink. 1991 Rousseau Chambertin: Considered to be best Chambertin from Rousseau since 1978. Massive wine, sweet fruit, very young, depth and complex long finish. very fine wine. great class, will live 50 years. As good as Burgundy can get. Really opened out towards the end of the meal. 1990 Rayas "pignan" - very sweet, overripe raspberries and liqueur cherries. bit hot on finish and tad simple. tried to convince the others that we needed the 1978 Rousseau Chambertin as well, but the puratanical pussies wouldn't go for it

Phil, I don't follow your point then. 1. it happens, why hold the front page 2. you should know it's not very good wine. I am lost by your response as I don't understand: "hold the front page" and " you should know its not very good wine" Maybe I'm missing something? Phil Phil, sorry for any confusion. What I was trying to say is that under those circumstances, this instance just doesn't seem very newsworthy. I could understand if someone had been expecting a great bottle, and wasn't sure what went wrong... now if it had been Ducru or Palmer...

I do feel rather odd going to a city like London, and somehow not knowing a single person there. It seems like a major oversight in my life so far. I am willing to spend a bit of money, provided I am treated nicely and there is a decent wine list. I would prefer to not do "ethnic" unless ethnic is French or Spanish (two cuisines not readily available here in Hawaii). I think that I want to sit at a table and not a bar because I am shy, and bars can be a bit overwhelming. I want my experience to be pleasant, and I want to feel as though I have treated myself, because this night comes in the midst of lots of family holiday craziness and will be my one moment of sanity (i.e. no family). -Emily Andrew Edmunds is avery friendly, cozy, very typical london restaurant. Good value, and excellent wine list. what I don't know is if they're open

Phil, I don't follow your point then. 1. it happens, why hold the front page 2. you should know it's not very good wine.

Pure publicity stunt. she is not rated especially highly in UK, this is a way for somerfield to draw attention to their wine department.

Oh and I probably should add, Lunch the next day at Tour D'argent was as expected. - view great - staff surly - food average - wine list otherwordly.

Koffmann is NOT buying the bleeding heart. He is actively looking, and is not in negotiation with anyone at present moment.

went on saturday - 2 of the best dishes I have had this year were served. Most exciting 'new' restaurant I have come across in lord knows how long... more details to follow Ok, Had lunch at violon d'ingres earlier in the day, very good I might add, and planned this one for later that night. arrived to quite a trendy choc/gold interiored restaurant, well comfortable but it did seem part aztec part morrocan. Anyway, Nick Lander of the FT recommended this as Frederic Simonin had just been annointed the best young chef in paris upon his last visit. thought cool, let's go. Simonin is ex Maurice & Taillevent and his party chef is Francois Benot of Ledoyen. Robuchon I think is behind the backers somehow. anyway, they decided simonin at the ripe old age of 28 was perfect to take over from Ghislaine Arabian in this venue. Good lord, the food was good. Now this is a no star restaurant open less than a year. Service was friendly but a little erratic, all well humoured and intended. The menu has changed since opening, it is now a list of small tapas entree, mid sized mains, grand mains, and desserts or mini desserts. the idea is 2 entree, 2 mini mains/1 grand main + dessert or 2 mini dessert. I wanted more starters but was informed that would not be wise. Excellent advice as I could not finish otherwise. Prices were excellent, given the quality. I'd say the food was very solid 2 star in many cases, pushing skywards in one instance, and little lower on another. Starters around 10 - 12 eur mid/mini mains 23 - 25 eur grand main 46 and desserts around 15 eur so about 75 eur for a well judged menu, that grades upwards effortlessly, never out of sync, building nicely and ends beautifully. We were given an order that dishes should be served once we had selected and this was very accurate and demonstrated the care that had gone into planning composition and escalation of the menu. Wine was fairly priced - 1/2 george vernay 2001 condrieu terrace l'empire 60 euro and a Montille 1988 Pommard les Pezerolles 110 eur anyways the food, I haven't forgotten No amuse Bouche - I suspect they forgot, ordinarily this would have pissed me to high heaven, but sometimes it's easier to forgive. I started with Ravioli du Hommard, perfect toothy ravioli of lobster in a coriander and herbed emulsion. Immediately upon tasting it, I passed my fork to my wife silently - i never fail to comment, who was equally impressed. I stated then that this was about the best thing I have tasted this year. The lobster was juicy, well seasoned, sweet, good firm texture. It had obviously been prepared beforehand, expertly and gently sealed within the pasta. complex and well judged. I am particularly taken by this as I have had similar in many multi starred places and been disappointed, the lobster I often find a little flavourless in this preparation. So much so, my wife questioned why I ordered it - initially My wife made do with a perfect 'elegant' mushroom risotto, with a light foam accompaniment, timing was excellent, again complex, understated, not too rich, harmony sprung to mind. Mushroom risotto is a crowd pleaser, it is not a complex dish - at least I used to think that. I then had frog's legs in an airy tempura with a classical parsley and garlic dipping sauce. The meat bulbous and sweet, with the leg erect like a cocktail stick. utterly perfect in execution and conception, but lacked the complexity of other dishes. hey I ordered it, and I have never had better, though as a dish it has inherent limitations. Again my wife suffered through fried oysters in a curry crust, served with a szechuan dipping sauce. the crowd swooned at the flavours, big, uplifting, aromatic and enticing - delicious but again not complex. it's very clean and fresh and I would eat this dish every day of the year if I could. Interesting that we each had 2 starters 1 that was sublime in it's complexity, and another that was delicious, satisfying and easy to understand. Perhaps 2 dishes to measure the chef and 2 to enjoy?? very, very good start. my wife ordered 2 mini mains, a john dory and duck in orange sauce - to summise, good, maybe very good, but not great. perhaps a bit obvious in their preparations, no surprises and I lost interest a little too quickly. in no way bad, but not in the league of my main. Now I have eaten half a dozen times in 3 star restaurants and maybe 4 times as many in 2 stars, and fuck knows how many 1 stars, but I have never had a more perfect dish that my 'grand' main - ever. Sea Bass with truffles. a perfect slab of bass, almost translucent in the middle, fraction undercooked giving a fresh, briny character to the meat, whilst still showing some firmness to the tooth. a very confident hand shown here, with great timing. 3 discs of truffle adorned it, and speckled throughout the ever present emulsion, and a truffled fish sauce which I can't quite describe, other than many little fishy things had been boiled into nothing. The smoky, aromtic complexity of the truffle, the succlence of the fish, a rich lusciousness of the sauce, lightened by the foam - it was heaven. I passed sliently the fork, and said nothing - for about the 2nd time ever, and twice in the last hour! This was as good as anything I had ever had. We agreed it was different class, and started thinking of prior dishes and occasions. Like a prize fool, and I am a fool - I have the championship belt to prove it , i noticed I had not touched the 3 half heads of caramelised chicory. I tasted a piece, delicious and slightly smoky sweet. hmmm... do I risk wasting a piece of already fish with another accompaniment - how I debated! so I do. This then brought every element of the dish into a greater harmony, then the crushing realisation I had wasted half a perfect dish, eating it in a state of less than total perfection. I'll get over it, but not quickly. The composition of the dish, the timing and execution, complexity of complemtary flavours added up to a grand achievement. I made this clear to the staff that I considered this a 3 * dish. I got the impression that they may have been aware of this. The Pommard matched the dish very well, better than it matched the wife's duck in fact. desserts, well I never pay much attention here, but 1 was of the highest standard, 1 was very good and 1 was not to my taste. I had mini desert with orange sorbet on an orange biscuity construction covered with mandarin flesh. very good. I also had some rose sorbet that I didn't rate, wife had the plate seize au seize. Benot was fanous for his choc at ledoyen, and I know why. though the wench was as keen to share her dessert her as had been with my bass. damn her. Anyway, it was just a bowl of choc stuff. actually it was different preparations of choc, to different densities and textures layered. from a white choc whipped fluffy mousse, to a liquid dark choc, to a milk choc pudding consistency, separated by biscuit & grated choc 'flakes' with a choc brulee like lid. perfectly light and rich at the same time, very elegant choc plate, and that's not always easy to do. many layers of flavour and texture made this a superb dish that was very, easy to eat for a non choc person. coffee good. In short, not only was this a truly exciting meal, it was such a treat to find this hidden away in the 16th. I felt I had discovered a great talent waiting to take his place at the height of culinary recognition. 28 years old huh? - damned show off bastard

Ah, the joys of psychosomatic dislexia - I read that as "He has a stump, and imprints it clearly." Moby, I am sooo looking forward to the results of your ink blot tests!

quite right too. One leaves the house not to be reminded of the mechanics of housework, but to deny their very existance

The first time I went to the 'real' petrus I noticed them doing some ironing nearby, but it was 2:00am by then! 3:00pm - well it needs to get done, but seems a little too close to service I would think.

Some thoughts: 1. MPW is a genius 2. Gagnaire obviously is too. yes it is obvious. 3. Gordon is not a genius, but a fine chef nonetheless 4. ducasse is a conceptual, executive chef these days. he don't cook no more. He has a stamp, and imprints it clearly. This does not diminish his star's lustre. 5. Gordon cooks less and less these days. Shock! horror! news at 11... One of his former Sous chef's works for my wife, and tells a lovely story of how once, when he needed to attend to a customers table he ladled some gravy over his immaculate whites before entering the dining room. he does attend most services, but doesn't cook too much. Does it really matter though? doubt it, I care what is on my plate, not who cooked it.

I'd heard that the chef has moved on. Does anyone know if that is true, if so when and has it affected the quality of the food? was there last sunday, food still fabulous.

Best Weekend lunch is probably Capital. Fat Duck does lunch on Saturday, but that's a little way out. If trendy is what you're looking for: Hakkasan is peerless. The food is spectacular, the setting a little cold, service woeful. but the food... It is not a place to drink in, water cost over £4 a bottle, and a terrifying markup on the winelist suggests a quick yum cha and be gone. but the food...

Hi Guys, I have been recommended to Seize sur Seize, and I know it is fairly recently opened, but has anyone been or heard much about it so far? would appreciate any help you could offer. cheers Scott

Won't be going now, over for weekend of 13/14 december. so disappointed they changed their weekend policy, as I had had it in my diary to call precisely 1 month before...

Sketch Guy Savoy El Bulli Note French Laundry is closing before Xmas and moving to New York - not sure precisely in what form in will be.

Finally they re-open, and now they will no longer be open on Saturdays or Sundays. booooo hisssss...

Really..?

Nicolas Joly is clearly an intelligent and well versed pioneer in the field of biodynamics. Please lets not forget however that many in the loire have but one reservation about him - he does not know how to make wine. straight out, he makes wine like a columbia MBA grad... He is passionate, charismatic, but perhaps noo very good at his job. A great terroir - perhaps the most expressive of all, frequently turned into an acedmic exercise. How many great coulee's have you tried compared to the disappointments? Madman or egocentric?

I am trying to book L'astrance for December 2003, but apparently it is closed for remodelling at present - does anyone know when it is due to re-open? It seems impossible to contact them at the moment thanks! Scott

They do BYO - £20

I would never want to suggest to anyone what they should, need, want to spend, etc. But I think it's worth considering that the we will already 'invest' heavily in the food, I think it would be a shame if we didn't make some allowance for correct wine to feature in the plans. The square is very strong, and offers excellent value in the Rhone, much more so than any other area. Just something to chew over amongst the priorities - whatever they maybe.