Matthew Grant

The River Cafe is a great spot for lunch and one of (if not the) best place in London for utilising high quality ingredients. I was there on Saturday, standouts incuded a stunning piece of Turbot from the Wood fired oven, and a Penne Carbonara with Asparagus which was absolutely superb. The Asparagus was incredibly sweet and tasted like it must have been picked 10 minutes before hand but it actually came from Germany! Not cheap but for realtively simple food using the best quality ingredients it can't be beaten. I'm thinking of remortgaging my house and eating here everyday for a year.

Whereabouts in Meath are you Conor?

Dinner here last night, my second visit in the last few weeks. I won't go into too much detail , pressed shoulder of lamb lacked seasoning and IMO was a little too firm, not enough fat involved. Braised veal cheeks was a good dish, rich madeira sauce, melting veal cheeks, what more could you ask? Desserts were hit and miss. Lemon tart was good IMO although one of our table thought the pastry a little soft but this is a bistro not a 3 star restaurant. Rhum Baba was too powerful with Rum! It was poured at the table but the alcohol made it far too difficult to eat. Tarte tatin was not Tarte Tatin I'm afraid, a derisory piece of pastry with a neat pile of apples that hadbn't been cooked enough. A seperate caramel poured on the plate. Good ice cream to accompany. I got quite excited when I saw a Tatin for one person. Apricot Souffle was not as good as last time, Cremem Brulee was judged as good although I didn't try it. Overall, despite some reservations about the food, I enjoy the restaurant, it has a nice feel to it and it is very busy which is a good sign for the business.

You might want to set your goalposts a little higher! I personally dream that I could be a professional footballer or Rock God!

I thought the JBR starter looked a bit sloppy and the asparagus didn't look great quality IMO. hopefully tonight the show won't have quite as much padding. Otherwise a decent attempt at showing some proper cooking for a change.

What sort of temperature are you talking about? IMO 80 minutes for a 1.5 kg bird is a long time. I cooked a 1.6kg bird for 30 minutes the other day at 180 and the breast was easily cooked. The legs however do need a bit longer. I would fear for the breast meat if you cooked it for 80 minutes

I've taken to roasting mine in a casserole without the lid on. Oven at around 180 Turn the chicken sideways onto the thigh for 15 minutes, 15 minutes on the other thigh and then 15 minutes with the breast up to brown. Iit is unrealistic IMO to expect to cook each element perfectly. I more often cook the thighs seperately the following day

Bernard Anthony supplies Capital once a week, it is a very impressive cheeseboard, possibly the best I have seen in recent years. The Greenhouse also gets some cheeses from Bernard Anthony (not sure if the whole board comes from him) but only once a month.

I personally would hold off on the Greenhouse until we see what effect the new chef is going to have on the food now that Bjorn van der Horst has "left".

That's normally Zam Baring, if you hear him doing the voiceover you know there's trouble ahead

A leg of Joselito lasted you a year! How did you keep it? My girlfriend often argues that we wouldn't get through a whle leg but if we can keep it good condition for a year I might be able to persuade her Incidentally Brindisa supply Joselito gran reserva in London, I'm not sure where you are based so don't know whether they will be able to help you.

Ah! I thought you may have been colour blind or working on a black and white monitor

Doesn't my asparagus look green enough to you?

I made one once by cooking the trimmings from asparagus for about 20 minutes in some stock, strained the stock, added a little Lecithin and then mixed with a bamix. If I remember correctly I added a few spinach leaves to help make it green in colour.

Lots of restaurants par cook the rice, strain the liquid, leave the rice in a single layer and then at service add the liquid and complete the cooking process. Important to strain and lay the rice out so it doesn't continue cooking too long though. In my experience it isn't as good as making it from scratch but is a decent alternative.

Do they still have a one-month in advance reservation policy?

From memory, MPW did credit Koffman on his menu. That dish is synonymous with Koffman and I have regularly seen it on menus as Pigs Trotter a la Pierre Koffman. I agree that a lot of recipes get passed down and copied without a nod to their creator but to have virtually a whole menu without crediting anybody is, in my mind, treating its diners like idiots.

I was looking forward to a Spring opening of Robuchon. I just heard a rumour that it has been delayed to the September/October!

I looked in the window last week if that's any help?

It does seem a little cheap although I would be surprised if Shellseekers was using farmed fish, I may be wrong. He told me it had been caught the day before but i didn't ask the provenance of it once I was told they wouldn't cut it into smaller pieces.

Farmed Turbot is pants but 18/kg does seem a little cheap. Don't they normally get more expensive the bigger they get?

Ahhhh! I wonder if Chris Galvins wife would sell me one or two for my dining room?

The deconstructed crab ravioli at Astrance in Paris is pretty good too. ← On a philosophical note, the one problem I have with haute cuisine langoustine ravioli, however, is no matter how hard you try to tart them up with truffles an' stuff they always end up tasting like a giant overpriced prawn wonton; sometimes more flavourful; sometimes less flavourful. In fact this is precisely the reaction of my Chinese-American uncle to the Ravioli of Lobster and Langoustine at GR@Claridges "Mmmm. Tastes like a giant prawn wonton" (or words to that effect). ta J ← That's because Ramsay minces or chops the lobster and langoustine meat and if I recall corectly utilises (or used to) Lemongrass. Koffmans was special because it remained whole.

The benchmark haute crustacean pasta thingummy still has to be the lasagne of crab with cappucino of shellfish at The Square right? (the killer ingredient is the strips of fresh basil they drop on right at the end - really makes a difference). Matt - what lead time did you need for the booking? Last time I swung by late on a Sunday afternoon they claimed they were all booked up. I get the impression now the place is taking off as a decent neighbourhood resto it will be harder to get in, esp on the weekends... J ← For me the best Pasta/Crustacea dish was the Langoustine Ravioli served by Pierre Koffman when he was at Royal Hospital Road. Beautiful flavour packed, clear spring vegetable broth with a single large Langoustine tail left whole and wrapped in impossibly thin pasta. Sensational and a dish I've dreamt about ever since. As for lead time I think I booked about 4 weeks ago.

Walking back from Tate Modern towards Borough Market last Friday i was contemplating Tapas at Brindisa when I walked past the Souvlaki bar and grill on South Bank. The smell grabbed me from about 100 yards away, I had a smell flashback to proper Gyros in Greece from when I worked in Falaraki years before it was turned into a TV show A jug of lager and a couple of Souvlaki seemed like a good idea so we dashed in and forced down the bloody awful Alfa beer and ate our appaling Souvlaki. Dry old bread wrapped in paper as in the previous pictures. They were being turned out like McDonalds turns out Burgers, sat on the side waiting to be served. Luke warm, flavourless lamb, far to chewy to enjoy properly. The Tzatski lacked garlic and the tomato sauce was flavourless. Interestingly there was no smell at all in the restaurant but when we walked outside 30 minutes later the fantastic smell was back! Are they piping Gyros fragrance into the air to attract customers. Overall, dreadful. I shan't return.