carpet bagger

Has anyone been to this Bistro since they changed their kitchen staff about a year ago? What is the new staff and their food like? I used to absolutely LOVE the Pigeon and Razor clam.

I need recommendations for a day trip out of Paris for dining and wine. There and back in one day. Michelin star quality not necessary, just delicious. Middle of April 2011.

Chez Georges on the rue du Mail in the 2nd. ← Francois Simon, on his blog today lauds Georges, rue de Mail near the place des Victoires where he’s been coming for 20 year but warns that the Breton chef, Alain, will soon be retiring, so hurry up if you want to go. ← This is short and definitely sweet. I recently ate two nights in a row at Au Bon Accueil. I had the Pigeon both nights. the only mistake I made was not to have pigeon for my first course and my second course. That dish is worth commuting for. They have a short but appropriate wine list. It is very fairly priced too. I would like to tell you just how good it was. I had dinner reservations at Joel Rubichon's Attelier for the second night. I called and cancelled them to have the pigeon again. The first time that I had it was a year earlier and each time has been equally great. Go and you WILL ENJOY.

In my opinion the best restaurant in the whole area is Artisan. artisanpasorobles.com They take a lot of pride and the dishes are delicious. They are cery friendly. They are also very busy so be sure to make reservations. They would make it even in LA or Sanfrancisco. They also do lunch. Absolutely a "MUST" go.

Boy am I glad you asked this question. My wife and daughter and I went what I consider one of the really good restaurants in the East Bay area. Lalime's. www.lalimes.com The food is absolutely deeelicious. The service is impecable and very attentive without being overbearing at all. They really care about pleasing their clientele and they mean it. We went there on Mothers day when it was busy and difficult to keep up with the mob. They did it with a-plomb. Go there, you will be very happy you did. If you like Chinese seafood, have I got the place for you. The Legendary Palace in downtown Oakland is fantastic. They have 17 live fish tanks. There are a lot of choices of shell fish and regular fish. Fresh is not the word. Reasonable and cooked to perfection. If you have difficulty with reservations just tell them George from Los Angeles sent you. Besides The French Laundry Gary Danko and La Folie these are my favorite places. Have fun and eat yourself into oblivion.

I wanted to thank everyone for the great advice. I can't wait to go eat at all the places. I have my work cut out for me now. Carpet Bagger.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their helpful insight about BYO. Carpet Bagger.

Do restaurants in London and Edinburgh allow people to bring their own wine? If so is there a corkage charge?

Winter in Edinburgh, where to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I'm planning a trip to London end of March. I would like to find out about restaurants that visitors may not normally find out about. I prefer Chinese, French, New fusion, Indian and fish and chips. Anything else that someone particularly loves.

This may not fit exactly but here goes. I was out at dinner in a then fancy restaurant, that has since gone. They had on their wine list 1959 and 1961 Latour and Lafitte. Isaid to the waiter, boy if someone were to order those they must call ahead and ask you to stand them up and decant them. He replied: A short time before he had 4 people come in after playing a round of golf, and drinking the whole round. Beer no less. They were quite schloshed by the time they arrived. They ordered both bottles, at that time they were $550.00 and $600.00 each. 20 years ago that was a pretty penny. The waiter said he wanted to take the bottles in the back and switch the wine for a cheap red anything. The people were so drunk he said they would never have known. He could not bring himself to do it. He said that he decanted the two bottles and brought the balance of the wine to the table. He poured the wine for them during the course of the evening. He noticed that when the decanted wine was finished one of the guys poured the dregs into two of the empty glasses and the undrinkable was consumed. He said the bill was about $1600.00 which was put their credit card, Can you imagine what they must have thought when they were sober and probanly didn't even remember anything about the evening. That took place in the early 80's. Glad it wasn't me, at least I don't think it was.

My intention is to expose young great Australian wines to some of my Francofile friends. This may end up being too much fruit and over the top for some of them. I know they are young, but in some cases they mey still be available. I am not in the wine business but I love to expose people to wines they may otherwise never taste. By the way the 1998 Grange is surprisingly forward enough to really enjoy. I am sure that it will be better later but that is why extra bottles are a great idea. (Ha!)

What food would you serve with the following? Or would you bother drinking them. 1998 Penfolds Grange, 1998 Killibinbin, 1994 Henchke Hill of Grace, 1996 Greenock Creek Roenfeld Road, 1997 Torbreck Run Rig, and 1998 Marquis Philips Integrity, 2001 Shirvington, and 1998 Jim Barry the Armagh. All are Shiraz. This dinner wine tasting will be at Restaurant 2117 in West Los Angeles. I would like suggestions for Chef Hideo to make the best dishes. Thank you.

Melkor that sounds like the table exactly. Andy it was worth bringing our own wine. They did not have the same wines on their list, but had they, it would have been $600.00 to $700.00 off their list. I looked at their list to determine what to bring. To me the wines I drink with dinner is as important as the food. These wines were perfect with the food. Both in time and taste. I have been known to be crazy because I will bring a case of wine to a restaurant so I can select the most appropriate wine for the dinner. I once went to Tru in Chicago. I called ahead and spoke to the wine steward from LA. We actually talked quite a few times discussing the food and wine pairings. I ended up bringing 11 bottles for 9 people. The first bottle I gave to him for all his help. We drank 9 and I ended giving him the extra bottle to take home with him. Their corkage was also $50.00. Well worth it because the wines, if they had them on their list, would have been about $2000.00.

Andy the original table was one of two in a relatively small room, kind of squashed into a corner. Probably ok but it was much better to be in the open. We were early so we decided to try to take advantage of more open space. As I said they were very gracious and immediate about the change. The corkage was $50.00 per bottle and we had three. That was $150.00 of the total bill $836.00 for four. We felt that everything was sooo good that we added to the tip and made the total $900.00 I hope they felt that that was enough.Throughout they were only interested in our wellbeing and that we were happy about how everything was going. They did everything without the feeling of their hand being ready to catch the tip they would be anticipating. I hate the way most restaurants here in town are. A lot of the waiters are very pretentious. Enough said, this is the best example that I have experienced and I have been fortunate to eat in some of the great restaurants throughout the world. Many European restaurantsespecially in Switzerland and England have been trained properly. They have offered similar treatment.