JudyB

Sorry to hear that - and what a strange way to run a competition! Ah well, fingers crossed for next time... Caroline ← Hi caroline yeah i thought so too. but the judges decision is final and as they say thats show business!! ← They have just finished the first week of the "regional" rounds - the first one was the "West" which includes Wales, Southwest England and (Northern?) Ireland. Watching the programme the regional selection was very confusing - the way they presented it they went straight from the first auditions to the first TV round. I searched for this thread since I had a vague memory you had entered, and your comments seem to indicate that there was at least one round before the TV round. Do you know if the "next" round was the TV regional heats, or if there was more before that?

Yes, they do seem to have made some changes but as you say this is very recent. I just repeated a search I did mid-August before going to Bordeaux and now it does show the starred restaurants on the list. The bibs are only visible when you open individual entries, and have been for a while.

It's definitely less friendly if the feature is really still there. I just had another look as markk has said, the only option I can find is to search for "Michelin Restaurants" or "Other Restaurants" (which rarely seems to find anything). Can you tell the rest of us how to search by star category?

Yes, I think that they have effectively downgraded it: I found the same problem a while back. We have also seen problems with the map locations: a search for restaurants in Brive la Gaillarde includes a restaurant at #2 (by distance) which is actually about 5km away. However, I think that I have seen misplaced restaurants before, so I don't think that is new.

From the sound of it I'm not sure that you need a GFG entry, but have they said anything about how you get back in? The last time my father was visiting Padstow we persuaded him to eat at Margot's and I know that he had a very enjoyable meal. Being in the GFG (at the time) meant that it was fairly easy to suggest Margot's and it would probably have been harder work (for us) to persuade him to visit if you had not been in there.

The first week they were only open on the Saturday, but I think that the second week they were going to be open Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday lunch. I agree that the programme was very vague, but we went on the Friday and one of the contestants last night certainly referred to "on Friday" which implies they were open more than one day. In terms of paying at The Ostrich, I also wondered which day "no one" would pay for their meals? Apart from the desserts the first two courses were effectively bad pub food. For example my burger was bland and very dry, but it was edible. It wasn't clear from the programme last night when Sam sacked his sous chef - given that Sam defnitely didn't look like he could cook, I wonder if the quality dropped ever further down after he was sacked?

The BBC's Food website has several of the recipes. There is a "Quick recipe search" dialog on there and entering "food heroes" lists 36 recipes - 31 of which are by Rick Stein. Alternatively searching for Rick Stein shows several others from his other programmes.

3ft in the kitchen and bar- loss adjuster just told us to start ripping out basically the river coln burst its banks and flowed through us until it was redirected. ← Ouch! That certainly doesn't look or sound good. Does this mean that you get another enforced "holiday" while they are sorting this out?

Yes, we have been there a few times now and had the "Menu tomates" which is very good. Take a look here for a write up of a couple of our visits. The staff there mostly speak English, although some better than others, and will try hard to make sure that you know what you are about to eat. Your original post said that you are going in August/September, so you should have the opportunity of eating on the (shaded) balcony which has a very nice view of the bottom of the square outside the Palais du Papes. Have a nice time!

We have stayed near Avignon several times and I know that Gordes is reasonable for lunch from there, so I would suggest that anywhere in or near Avignon should be within a reasonable distance for you for lunch, as should places like Les Baux and any of the restaurants near Gigondas. Unfortunately, although we have eaten some nice lunches in Gordes in the past, I'm afraid that I can't remember any specifics. As John has suggested you should find several good suggestions in the threads listed in the "compendium".

I don't have the full prices, but the "Menu Prestige" which Duncan and I had last week was £60 per person including coffee and petit fours and we paid the extra £30 each for the matching wines. From memory I think that the optional cheese course (which we didn't have) was £7, or £10 including a matching glass of wine. The a la carte was a fixed price for 2 or 3 courses, but I can't remember how much. It appears that the pre-dessert and petit fours seem to be "part" of the a la carte since some people at a nearby table were surprised to get both of these (with the bill) even though they declined both dessert and coffee.

I assume that you are referring to the lunch prices quoted by Pasty? If so my guess is that there are two possible explanations: 1) The contents of the dishes really have changed since April 2) The early prices were deliberately low to get customers in I am actually impressed looking at the website that the menu there is a very close match to the menu Duncan and I had on Friday and is clearly being kept up to date. Many websites only give sample menus and this can mean that the website prices are out of date - at least here you do know what you are likely to pay.

The last time we visited Margot's, Basildog seemed to have mislaid the toys on the tables (wooden tortoises sold by one of the neighbouring shops). They have now reappeared and here is a picture of one examining Duncan's Sea Bass: As Duncan said this was a most enjoyable evening and we look forward to visiting again, but probably not until next year.

We had a slow-cooked egg of some sort at l'Enclume last year as part of the "Underground" menu: it was fully cooked but still soft, and I think that we were told at the time that it was still experimental. I can't say how it compares with Sat Bains' egg, but we may find out in a couple of weeks time... This assumes that the restaurant is still standing after Bapi's visit!

Does anyone know when the Champignon Sauvage will be closed in June? Duncan has promised to take me there for my birthday, but the website mentions a closure in June, unfortunately without specific dates...

There is also a short write-up in the Guardian Guide this morning here. Moby's pictures do look good so we'll probably be on our way to visit soon.

No, this is exactly the same format as for the Queen's banquet with chefs "from" Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the various English regions.

We have been to Rick Stein's restaurant three times now and we have felt that it was worth it. A couple of times we have had the tasting menu and the other time we went for the a la carte - the only problem that time was the impressive size of the fruits de mer starter, which didn't leave us with room for any desserts! The other place in Padstow which we have also been to three times is Basildog's restaurant Margot's - most definitely worth a visit. The other places in Padstow recommended by Basildog (in another thread) are Number 6 in Middle street and Ripley's in St Merryn, although we haven't been to either of these yet.

The (annoying) website says that it will reopen on 31st March 2006 - so they're not very good at keeping that information correct either...

This forum is certainly not "off the record" - eGullet is an open forum which can be read by anyone and is not restricted to members only. Other closed forums do exist which can be expected to remain limited to members. I also can't quite see why making reference to eGullet is caddish or underhand - surely this is just stating why Jay decided to go there and review the restaurant? Edit I agree with Basildog, but he posted whilst I was writing my post!

Agreed, although the original post did mention both of them becoming ill within 48 hours. If they both became ill within a short space of time I am inclined to suspect food poisoning, but identiyfing the exact cause is always hard. Duncan and I suffered from what we think was food poisoning about two years ago. On that occasion we both started feeling ill at about the same time (within less than an hour of each other). What we couldn't tell was if it was caused by our home-made lunch 4 hours before (including Taleggio and pre-cooked ham) or the steak which we had both had at a pub for lunch the day before. I suspect that we should have reported this in case it was the pub, but to be honest we were feeling too rotten to be bothered. I would agree with Infrasonic - advise the appropriate Environmental Health Office. That will allow them to decide whether or not the restaurant was at fault and to suggest any required changes to the food handling/storage there.

Has anyone been there recently? We had a very nice meal there a year or two back, but the press release for the 2007 Michelin Guide said that the Goose has had its star removed. What is confusing me about this is that the ViaMichelin website still shows a star - presumably because it hasn't been updated yet?

Probably. I'm almost certainly showing my age here, but remember that historically Warrington was actually in Lancashire and only became part of Cheshire (and therefore in some eyes "posh") in 1974 when they changed all of the boundaries and invented new "counties" such as Greater Manchester.

Actually I would have said that this is a matter of perspective. As someone who used to live near Manchester I would agree that it isn't in the "Midlands", but realistically there is a lot of England further North! My family is originally from near Newcastle-upon-Tyne and living near Manchester was definitely regarded as being "down south" from that viewpoint. In other words, you can't win - if you use simplistic terms like "the Midlands" or "the North" you will offend someone. So why not just get it right and describe Juniper as being in Cheshire or "near Manchester"? Both are clearly defined areas which will not be misunderstood. (I'm assuming that they haven't redefined which county Altrincham is in when I wasn't looking...)