Matthew Grant

So if I fancy Bouef Bourgignon, a Beefburger or a Thai Green Curry they should knock me some up on demand simply because the food they do sell costs so much money? If you want a particular dish I would suggesting ringing in advance or employing a private chef.

Why is it a "strange answer in a place like this"? Its a three star kitchen that has worked all day preparing to serve the days menu. A customer comes along and wants something completely different - why would you want to do that? Have you considered that making pasta in the middle of a service might affect other aspects of your own and other diners meals, would you have been happy to sit around an hour while the dough rested in the fridge? Although they had ravioli on the I can imagine that this pasta mix might differ from one to make an "unstuffed" pasta course and also that the ravioli might be already prepared before services

I forgot about the Scallop dish, I thought it very good as well. Why didn't you get Petit Fours, we had a really nice selection including some great Madeleines and good macaroons.

Simon gave us a lift back to the station

I'm thinking that this will not be a full on version of his cuisine, after all to charge £75 for three courses would barely buy you a starter in Paris or Monaco though it would stretch to the lunch menu in Monaco so we may be lucky.

It still doesn't look very transparent to me (although obviously better than having no information at all. Some of the sections seem a little misleading , "Consumers at risk" suggests that there are consumers at risk at a particular premises when in fact it is simply a rating based on the type of business so a risk rating of 0 which you might initially think was good actually means Whereas a 15 might seem high in the grand scheme of things bit simply refers to a large distributing business. Type of Food and Method of processing are similar type ratings. Still no explanation that I can find about the scores required to achieve the stars

I had a quick look yesterday, I hadn't even realised he was releasing something like this - looked great.

I’m a bit confused by my meal here on Saturday, maybe it was because I was distracted by eating with friends and not really being able to concentrate on the food quite as much as I would like. I’m not sure if it was merely OK or if it was bloody good, I’m erring on the side of the former though I think I need another visit to decide. Pigeon with the bacon popcorn worked well, not sure what sort of pigeon it was, the size of the claw would suggest that it was a hybrid crossed with a golden eage. The red wine essence seemed a little lost. The cod with crispy chorizo and coco beans was nice but nothing out of the ordinary (coco beans seem so passé), the fish was a little overcooked for my tastes as well - hardly groundbreaking. Black leg chicken was well cooked and coated in various grains, it came with a wasabi emulsion, unfortunately the only clue that it was wasabi was the light green colour, understandably they are worried about overpowering the palate with something like this but it really should be identifiable as an ingredient. My Valrhona chocolate dessert was the least successful dish, a chocolate ganache with fennel salt, cardamom ice cream and olive oil. It felt a little heavy and once again not particularly interesting. A coconut dessert was much better with interesting plays on the theme, a foam, cake, flaked coconut and ice cream (this is from memory it wasn’t my dessert) were good. Sometimes I felt they were trying too hard, a dessert of Lemongrass and Ginger soup with summer fruits and mango came with a small piece of onion in it. I didn’t taste it and my friend commented to the waiter that she didn’t think it really worked. The waiter explained that the chef wanted to be unusual so that people remember them. IMO there is no point in being unusual for unusuals sake! I’ll remember a good dish whether it has odd ingredients in it or not. Service was excellent throughout the meal. The dining crowd didn’t appear to be particularly foodie either which surprised me a little. Overall a pretty decent meal (it sounds like I’m griping above I know), solid one star cooking with potential, it will be interesting to see how it develops.

I had the lunch menu and wholly recommend everything we ate! If it hasn't changed then I can fully recommend the Lobster and chestnut soup, Pigeon served with a sauce made from its offal, the Bernard Anthony Comte from the cheese board, the Louis XV chocolate dessert and the wild strawberries with Mascarpone Sorbet, all of which were particularly stunning. I also tasted seabass spiked with black olives and capers and a wonderful cepe salad. The saucing was particularly impressive, something that is so often lacking these days. Truly fantastic cooking and a bargain to boot, I would happily have paid full ALC prices for what I ate yet it was €125 including wine, water, coffee and petit fours. IMO London offers nothing approaching the level of ingredients and cooking on display there. It got me all excited about fine dining again and took all my willpower not to return the following day

We had a good/interesting lunch at Mirazur although not reaching the heights of lunch at Louis XV. What a great view from the room over the ocean, especially with blue skies and waves crashing on the beach as they were. We chose the degustation though a little bird had made the reservation for us so there were a few extras. Standouts for me included the Langoustine in Dashi, the soup poured over the raw Langoustine at the table, local flowers on the surface adding interesting sweet and bitter flavours to the dish. Another simple dish of Garden vegetables with salad leaves and Rocket was also very good though completely reliant on good ingredients. Carpaccio of cepes with rocket salad /flowers and parmesan and balsamic also highlighted great ingredients. The smoky sauce accompanying the fish course worked very well indeed, delicate but distinct at the same time it worked with well with the fish. Less successful was a pork dish of pigs tail with mustard sauce, capers and apple salad. The jus was a little over reduced and even then carried little flavour, the pork tail itself though interesting didn’t really help the dish, it was nice and crispy but didn’t carry enough pork flavour. A pineapple sorbet with shiso jelly and la reine du pres (?) mousse was outstanding and displayed beautiful balance. Full meal: Shallot Cream, apple, mint, algae cream(?) Tomato martini (a tomato jelly with wild flowers) Smoked Mackeral with coquillage, turnip and turnip oil Langoustine with dashi broth, local flowers Carpaccio of cepes, rocket salad, local flowers, Parmesan and balsamic Garden vegetables, with leaves and Parmesan Foie Gras with beetroot and lemon Ruccole (a local fish?) celery puree, smoked fish sauce Pork tail, mutard sauce, capers, apple salad Pineapple sorbet, shiso jelly, la reine du pres (?) mousse And another dessert which I can’t really remember except that it contained a tea sorbet but, for me didn’t have enough sweetness A good meal if a little off balance for a total meal but this was mainly caused by the extra dishes, perhaps a little over reliance on the local flowers which did add interest but were utilised in too many dishes.

Yep, bookings are being accepted just managed to book no problem at all. After Lunch at Louis XV last week I couldn't resist, if it reaches 75% of that level I'll be reasonably happy

I still can't believe that Jeremy is there after last weeks episode when he told Raymond that there was nothing in season at the moment so he couldn't create a local, seasonal menu!

Arbutus £8 taxi from waterloo ← Or one stop on the train to Charing Cross and a ten minute walk

Now this might seem a bit obvious for me to say this but Arbutus fits the bill perfectly.

Is this the place with about 90 champagnes on the list?

I guess Lee was on the show to attact a new fanbase, and so he has, a few thousand "travellers" who are now his biggest fan. His manager will be very happy

I think his point was that by impressing yourself you will have hopefully impressed the diners though with the standard of the celebs cooking so low I'm not necessarily sure that is the case

I lost a little respect last night when the stockcube product placement happened, are we seriously to think that Marco approves of stock cubes. I'm guessing he needed a whole butter of Worcestershire sauce to cover up the flavour of the cube

F*!£ me what did you drink to make it tha price

That's the first "main" show I've seen. Looks like Sam just isn't interested. From a business perspective surely the Brown & Green restaurant is looking the best bet? How many days a week are the restaurants open, I was left with the impression yesterday that it was only one?

Mirch Masala There are 4 or 5 to choose from including one on the Commercial Road.

Henry Harris leaves Racine

I have still got my Oak Room menu and would not give it away for love or money. It is printed on the heaviest hand-made paper my hands have ever touched and contains all those wonderful dishes. Yes, the pigs trotter has the name Koffman next to it. But the best thing is the Dali quote on the first page: "At the age of six I wanted to be a chef. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambitions have been growing steadily ever since." What I remember most about the Oak Room is not so much Marco's food though, I have to say. It is the unbelievably luxurious atmosphere and service. This was a haven of luxury without any compromise. The only comparison that comes to my mind is Ducasse's Louis XV in Monte Carlo. ← Agree, fantastic service, we were relatively young when we visited and I remember being looked after very well. Beautiful flowers as well, I seem to remember they cost something like £5000 a week?

3.6m viewers

I'm talking about him cooking, not fronting/owning another restaurant