JudyB

Apart from this one unique exception, it is a safe assumption that there will be a Gratuity option at the card machine, as is so commonplace as to be expected in these circumstances. As I went through tapping "Yes", no gratuity option appeared, and by then it was too late, it was hand back to the waiter. Cheers, Howard I'm not quite clear which is the "unique exception" that you refer to, but no, it is not a safe assumption that there will be a Gratuity option on the card machine. Many places these days, as implied (I think) earlier in this thread, simply enter the amount of the bill and that is it, meaning that you must leave a cash tip if you want to leave anything.

I think that demonstrates why places like Which campaign against "open" credit card slips. Although many places are honest enough not to add an "optional" charge and then leave the machine set to prompt you for a tip others are far less scrupulous and will try to encourage you to do both. If we have the option of adding a tip to the credit card payment, and the restaurant seems to be good enough that it will pass this on to staff then we will do so. If in doubt we do not but leave a cash tip behind, and increasingly the good places do not leave the bill "open".

Yes, that was the "Orwells" menu and not The Room. Although I suspect that we are quite a bit nearer than you - it's about a 45 minute drive from here - we are unlikely to make the £10 lunch since it is only Monday to Friday .

We never made it to The Goose at Britwell Salome before Ryan left, but we did make it to Orwells in May. It's too late now for a proper write-up, but we did have an excellent meal, and here are some pictures to keep you going: Appetizer: Confit Salmon with horseradish and Marie Rose sauce Starter: Crab Cocktail with Marie Rose sauce and soda bread Mains: Sea Bream with asparagus, crushed potatoes Sole with crushed peas, rostis and caper butter sauce Desserts: Rhubarb crumble with Tonka bean ice cream Chocolate Pot with toasted brioche

Unfortunately not - it's a few weeks back now and we didn't get around to making enough notes at the time. However it was very nice and we plan on going back soon if we can, so we will try to write it up next time .

Tonka bean is banned as food by the US FDA as it contains an anti-coagulant coumarin. It is clearly not banned in the UK. I know that I have had this at Orwell's (Ryan Simpson's new place) and I'm fairly sure that I have had it elsewhere. Also, according to Wikipedia courmarin is not itself an anti-coagulant, but can be converted into this in contact with fungi: That suggests that it should only cause problems if used in conjunction with the wrong things. So Tonka Bean panna cotta or ice cream (which is what I have had elsewhere) should be OK.

I'd be concerned about the amount of driving too (from England we have always used Motorail to get to the south of France). Another place to consider on the way to Cannes would be La Beaugraviere at Mondragon, which is about 6 hours driving from Paris (according to ViaMichelin). We've never been there ourselves but it has been recommended on here in the past, with particular praise for its cellar (which is one reason we've never made it there).

Really? I know that Alan didn't come across well, but I just thought that Will was out of his depth in the competition, as well as being very constrained by the rules which limited what he could use, particularly for the fish course. We had an excellent meal at La Becasse in April and I would certainly recommend going there if you have the chance.

My email to Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries last night resulted in this response first thing today: So, in other words, "watch this space...". Thank goodness for Tivo - at least if they do show this something like 4AM that will automatically pick it up for us!

Does anyone know what's happened to Iron Chef UK? We got home this evening expecting our Tivo to be recording this, but discovered that it wasn't (because "this programme is no longer in the programme guide) and that C4 are showing "Come Dine with Me" instead... A quick search on Google shows that there is at least one week still to be shown (with a chef called Lisa Tse), so it looks like it has been pulled or re-scheduled...

I don't know for certain that this is a general rule, but I definitely have the impression that previous weeks have also been 3 contestants who are at least semi-professional, including some from cookery schools, plus one "real" amateur, such as the Design Engineer/Wrestler from last week. At a guess Madalena Moreira is this week's amateur, but the others do sound to be particularly strong opposition for the Iron Chefs.

You should definitely do that if you have the opportunity, we had an excellent meal at La Becasse on the evening the "Central" final was broadcast. We went for the "surprise" menu, with wines chosen by the Sommelier. Duncan's write-up is here if you want to take a look.

I think that you may be a little bit too cynical , but it certainly seems to be the case that first time round many of them totally misjudge the "rules" and also don't fully understand the foibles of the judges, so second time round they do tend to do better. My assumption about the third chef was that this was an attempt to revisit what they tried in an earlier series of having an "elimination" round where Matthew Fort choosing who went through to the competition proper. That way they can claim that more chefs take part, but without the extra time for the "real" judges. The other factor which it introduces, which may confuse things, is that the chef judge almost certainly has a very different viewpoint from the other judges, and might lead to some contradictions?

I was going to make a comment about hoping you have plenty of time free for calling them, but I see that you now have the option of using an online reservation system for weekday lunch reservation instead of phoning them. I'll be interested to hear how well that works (if it meets your needs). The new website is certainly flashy, but I wonder how well it will work for slower connections and for the visually impaired (with the continually shifting background)? As for the "breakie" no longer being on I would see that in some respects as a good sign - at least if it means that the menu will change more frequently than in the past.

I assume you mean at St John (not The Fat Duck)? (I was very confused initially since I had just read your Fat Duck review!) The St John website says the following, but I don't know if this is up to date:

Can you tell us any more about the location? We live just south of Abingdon so anything new in that area is definitely of interest.

There is a new Heston Blumenthal series starting on Channel 4 next Tuesday at 9:00pm for those in the UK. The Radio Times (and Tivo) lists this as "Heston's Chocolate Factory Feast", but Channel 4's website lists it as "Heston's Feasts 2". Whatever the correct title, it sounds promising:

Unfortunately not unless an American channel picks this up (I don't think this is the sort of programme which would go to DVD). The BBC make programmes like this available on BBC iPlayer for 7 days after the programme has been broadcast, but they limit access to UK IP addresses. Even if you had been able to access iPlayer this programme has gone now since it is now more than 7 days since it was broadcast.

So shall we start a sweep stake now on how long he will stay? This looks awfully like the same again - promising chef, capable of gaining a star...

We've never made it to the Harwood Arms, but we have been to the Pot Kiln a few times and my impression was that, initially at least, the standards did vary depending on whether or not Mike Robinson was around. Could the Harwood Arms be suffering from a similar problem with the increase in business after the star?

The AA has guides for hotels, restaurants (and pubs), so perhaps they save money by doubling up and reviewing both hotel and restaurant at the same time?

As sheepish has said there are many pubs which offer good food, but in terms of the better places within Oxfordshire I would single out the following: The Nut Tree - already mentioned and fairly close to where you are staying The Mole Inn - at Toot Baldon just south of Oxford, which has a Bib Gourmand The Magdalen Arms in Oxford - Duncan wrote up our visit here The Boars Head at Ardington (near Wantage) Further afield, but closer than Cheltenham, is Allium at Fairford, which is definitely worth a visit if you have the time.

Absolutely, I never quite worked out why we carried on watching the third series ... We haven't ventured in that direction yet (it's about 30 miles from us) but I see from their blog that it has been listed in the latest Michelin Guide (but no Bib etc yet), so they can't be going too far wrong.

Can you expand on this for us colonials? Not sure what you mean or what happened. I think that the comments in the Last Restaurant Standing thread here give you a flavour of what Harters was referring to. ("Last Restaurant Standing" seems to be the BBC America name for what is called "The Restaurant" in the UK). Essentially, reality TV in the UK attracts (or maybe selects) contestants whose only qualifications are to make so-called "entertaining" television. In this case the prize is to run a restaurant owned by Raymond Blanc (and partners) so you might have expected skill to be an important selection criterion, but no this programme just went for the "personalities". In the first series of The Restaurant I think they actually got some skilled contestants, but by the third series they hardly had any who could actually cook or run a business. I don't know about Harters' views, but what has angered a fair number of people is that the "chef" in the winning partnership effectively cannot cook, but Raymond Blanc apparently thinks that he has a decent palette and can be taught. During the series the judges also made comments fairly early on which seemed to indicate that the chef in question had to get his act together and show that he could cook, but despite his failure to do so he still stayed in the competition and won. There are those on the Digital Spy forums who have declared that they were so disgusted with the result that they will boycott his restaurants, although my guess is that none of them would ever dream of going anywhere near Le Manoir, and quite possibly don't even live near any of his brasseries. Personally I think that he has let himself get sucked in to a reality TV programme which has exhausted its potential (such as it was) and I much prefer to watch him cooking and showing about how things should be done, and I can't honestly get worked up about The Restaurant.

Here is a link which works (yours acquired an extra full-stop on the end): Times article Reading this I don't see quite the same bias which you saw, but what I can see is that only one of the comments seems to have been from someone who actually visited The Goose: There are several comments which seem to be over-generalizing whilst apparently knowing little of the location. However, what several comments pick up on is quite how the owner seemed to think that the prices were deterring locals whilst the chef apparently thought that the restaurant was doing well(?) and that perhaps the problems indicate a lack of communication. What no-one but the owner and Ryan Simpson can say for certain is how much communication over this there was (or was not) before this all went pear-shaped. I am also in agreement with those who are suspicious about the string of good chefs who have now left The Goose after gaining a star. If the owner knew that the locals wanted burger and chips then why on earth did he decide to employ another winner of the Roux Scholarship?