Matthew Grant

I think it would have made more sense to have regional heats but allow them to use produce from all over Britain.

What I don't understand is why the Queen would feel quite so strongly that Gary Rhodes would have to win? None of them are cooking anything particularly outrageous. Overall I have given up on the show, as Mike says you can simply watch Fridays show to get away from the repetitive dross. Do we really have to be introduced to the judges everyday, have the format of the show explained, have the judging system explained, have a look back everyday on what happened the previous day, have a look forward everyday to what is going ot happen later in the week....blah blah blah. It would be interesting to see how much of a show was left if you edited all that stuff out. My guess would be around 15 minutes a day.

Four Stars from Fay Maschler

Any recent reports on this place?

I've now had 3 meals at Arbutus, two of which were excellent, one merely good. I've read all sort of arguments both for and against, indeed one even despaired when comparing it to The Square, Capital and Foliage, restaurants that are approximately twice the price, and holding 5 Michelin stars between them! I suspect that Arbutus will be happy to have such a comparison even if it is meant in criticism! People have moaned about side plates (live with it) wine mark-ups (no higher than most restaurants in London and genuinely offering something different by selling 250ml carafes at 1/3 of the full bottle price). People have complained about over cooked potatoes, praised perfectly cooked potatoes, complained about small portion size, I was the other way and after my first meal worried that portion sizes were too big. People have also commented that the food has not been warm enough, indeed this is something that I commented on after my first meal and from what I can tell has now been rectified. Overall, however, I think the praise has outweighed the complaints and we have to remember that this is a restaurant in its first week of operation, still getting used to the equipment and space. Out of the dishes I have eaten fully or tried there are several standouts. The Lamb Boulangere, the Rabbit, the Squid and Mackerel "burger", the Chicken Sot-l'y-laisse and the ubiquitous lamb rump, indeed the Lamb boulangere followed by the rabbit saddle with cottage pie would make for a memorable if a little unbalanced meal. Crème Brulee, Floating islands and Cheesecake are all excellent examples of classic dishes. Before people shoot me down, there have been niggles, during our first meal the chicken could have been a little warmer and the seasoning on the rabbit saddle was a little salty, probably due to the ham wrapping it, a small problem easily rectified. Mind you who cares when you have a pot of the "cottage pie" alongside? Smooth buttery potato topping the tender shoulder meat sweet with carrot and a slight aniseed twist from the tarragon. People have commented that cottage pie should have a crust, well to them I say cottage pie shouldn't be made with rabbit, its not really a cottage pie, maybe they should rename it but whatever you do don't miss it! The most surprising dish for me has been the Squid and Mackerel burger with barbeque sauce, a dish that sounds so wrong you think the spell checker must have mistakenly replaced a couple of words when printing the menu, however its light spicing and careful cooking (crisp outside soft, lighltly cooked in the middle) combine well with the sauce redolent with star anise. The chicken oysters came with a sauce so moreish that I know I wasn't the only person to request a spoon to finish it with. Chicken cream and lemon thyme, what is there to dislike? The lamb boulangere seems to be a little bit of a lottery, either too much potato or too much lamb dependant on who you read, well I think this is just the luck of the draw due to the way it is cooked, remember of course that this is a starter and you have a plate of sweetbreads to get through as well. Personally I like a little more potato with it, flavoursome with the lamb fat and a nice accompaniment to those sweetbreads, an excellent dish, little changed from Putney Bridge (as is the Rabbit). Other dishes I tried included the breast of veal which was well cooked had a pleasant lacquer but perhaps could have used another element on the plate aside from the squash and could also have used a little more of the sauce, this dish had far more of a bistro feel to it than other dishes previously mentioned. Desserts are another strong point, the floating islands and cheesecake have also transferred over from Putney Bridge. In fact so have the dishes that the floating islands (more like a continent) are served in. Good use of seasonal ingredients is shown the dish of Alphonso Mango, "Imperatrice", sorbet and crisp, buttery Breton biscuits. I was unable to detect the chocolate referred to by a previous poster but thoroughly enjoyed the use of Alphonso mango on a European menu. Service is led by Will Smith who seems to have slipped effortlessly from the jacket and tie the more formal dining at Putney Bridge demanded to a far more casual and relaxed attitude here. No music, no smoking and a good buzz from the restaurant when it is nearly full have created a great space to dine in. If you have any questions regarding the wine list Will or Sylvan are well able to assist or suggest something. Mind you if you are worried about a bottle at full price buy a carafe at 250ml to see if you like it before taking the rest of the bottle. Overall this is a restaurant should cause a stir in London if it continues to succeed in its aims of turning out high quality food combined with low prices. William Smith front of house combined with Anthony Demetre's and his brigades obvious talent (several of the brigade are former members of the Putney Bridge brigade) have the experience and the ability to make this restaurant the best restaurant at this price point in London.

They are absolutely not aiming for a star, what I was saying was that based on some other London restaurants with stars the cooking is equally as good. My last visit to the Ledbury wasn't very good Rhodes 24 certainly doesn't show a huge amount of finesse, nor does the River Cafe.

Jeez, it would have to be a pretty poor show not to knock Rhodes 24 for 6

By London standards yes. I would put this on a level with Chez Bruce and the Ledbury, both of which have stars.

Hope you wore some looser trousers last night Matt. ← I ordered full bottles because 4 people sharing a bottle is easy to get through and my friends aren't particularly bothered by what they drink. I agree re: the shellfish, Langoustines are too expensive ('ve already asked) but scallops/ prawns might be nice. Last night I wore a Junk De Luxe jacket, Paul Smith jeans/shoes and a Full Circle jumper. I felt perfectly comfortable

I'm trying not to write about it using too many gushing superlatives. Chicken sot-l'y-laisse followed by Salt beef 'pot-au-feu'. Also tried Squid and mackerel burger (surprisingly good), The rump of lamb and the Salad of Jersey Royals. I've got another visit tomorrow and will try to write an objective report over the weekend. My honest initial impression is that this is probably the most accomplished cooking in London at this price point and based on current London Michelin star standards is a contender to become the cheapest Michelin starred restaurant in London. Rachel curses multiple visits to retaurants over anything less than a 5 year period but she rang me this morning trying to decide what she was going to order on Friday. Apparently there were some other EG'ers there last night, anybody care to comment?

Not that early, it was about 20:30 by my reckoning.

Damn that shift key! £22

In London, yep, you'll experience a similar trend in around 10 years time

Ha Ha! Well spotted. I'm changing it now. It should have been "thinly" The hotpot is expensive. Starts at around 322 for the basic broth and then you pay for everything hat you want to put in it, these are North of £20 in some instances.

I thought battleofthebulge was going tonight? Andy, I think they were limiting numbers in the first week while they settled in. As for bread plates, hardly anybody seems to do them these days, I suppose a side plate on the table might make it a bit cramped? Still trying to decide between the Pigs head and Chicken Oysters for tonights starter

Lunch here Friday. Strangely I really enjoyed it while Rachel thought it was just "Ho Hum". I'm useless at remembering the names of dishes but really enjoyed starters of dried beef, chilli and Szechun pepper and also a Chicken dish which was oily and not as hot as I expected/decribed on the menu. I thought the deep fried beans could have done with a touch more salt but otherwise were good. Beef fillet came thinly sliced with fantastic salty and hot pickled chillis which gave a very satisfying pop when you crunched into them. I had some sort or Bar Shu prawn dish, shell on which were OK, reasonable quality prawns, piled on top of some ubiquitous vegetable mixture. Another dish of chopped chicken was seasoned delicately (the main flavour I detected was ginger) and served on top of small discs of lettuce to wrap them in. Felt guilty about ordering a meat feast so we had some steamed rice on the side which was woefully overcooked. Service was friendly and our waitress enquired as to whether we enjoyed it, liked the chilli, found it to hot etc. a nice change in a London chinese restaurant. Unfortunately service was spoiled a little at the end when the bill was presented, no breakdown, just a total, no indication of VAT, service charge, the dishes you have had etc. The individual orders are stapled to the back but are illegible to anybody except the waitress. She then asked "would you like to add a gratuity to your bill for the staff?" I was a little surprised at such a direct approach especially as when I then enquired further service was included in the total. Overall I thought it was interesting and would go back but it didn't blow my mind quite as much as some reports would suggest although it was good to see something different in the way of chinese cuisine. A touch expensive as well IMO. Cost including 2 beers each was £93.

Not very easy to read I'm afraid. Winelist:

I don't think it is Hereford anymore, now unspecified breed of Scotch beef. I've did Bar Shu last week for lunch when visiting the unfinished Arbutus. Does that count as a double header?

You were there as well? Which one were you?

Warm brandade with chipperones is excellent as well, very tender squid. I might try the salt beef "pot-au-feu" tomorrow.

They have got a vacu-vin thingy for the wines, 250ml is a 1/3 of a bottle, most of the carafes are around 1/3 of the price of a bottle. I have got a copy of the list, I'm trying to resize it so that I can post it and it can still be read.

The t-shirt looked lovely, did my arse look big in my jeans? William was in the glasses, he had served your table so I guess it was him. I'm already having a dilemma over what to order tomorrow, I though I had settled on the chicken oysters but the Pigs head sounds good as well. Incidentally the chicken was black leg Landes Chicken. If you do a search I think you'll find me harping on about the rabbit cottage pie at Putney Bridge as well, just the right amount of tarragon and carrot which provided the sweetness. The potato topping is a thing of beauty. I just noticed Circeplum reading the thread, when are you booked in? I'll give them a heads up

You were pointed out to me MY Rabbit cottage pie went down very well with my other half

I'll just chip in and say that the Rabbit cottage pie is superb, IMO it could be served on its own in a bigger pot without the saddle. Interesting to hear your opinion on the Squid and Mackeral burger, I haven't tasted it but it sounds out of place IMO although Anthony was telling me that it was a popular dish last night. You must have been the table of four, one of you wearing a red t-shirt?

Due to my obvious bias I shall refrain from detailed comment until I have had a full price meal A good first night though and without going into too much detail I thought that this was somewhere between bistro and the food AD used to serve at Putney Bridge, probably comparable to somewhere like Chez Bruce but several pounds cheaper. I think there were a couple of other EG'ers there last night, I'll let them comment further.