Matthew Grant

I would not wish anyboy not to visit Thyme, merely for Thyme to re-evaluate how they deal with people such as Ben. Incidentally, I'm no wine expert but I have drunk plenty of wine with plenty of sediment in it. What should the restaurants position on the sediment be?

If anybody sees Ben The Twat as they enter a restaurant, I strongly suggest that they leave before placing their order.

Ben, yes, you the guy in the green trousers and the red top. You are a first class twat. Next time you want to go and impress your little rich friends try and do it some place away from people who have tried to come out and have a nice evening. For those of you that weren't there, Ben The Twat was wearing green jeans and a red sleeveless jumper (just so that you can identify him if you should see him again) and pouted his lips every time he wasn't the centre of attention on his table of 3. He was so drunk he could hardly stand up, his table let mobile phones ring....and ring and ring (oh how funny). They had a wine waiter running backwards and forwards like a lemon "What wine isn't going to give me a headache in the morning?", "We paid £60 for that , I bet you bought it for a pound", "Bring us the Chateau Palmer", "At Sketch they serve magnums of Chablis, I love magnums of Chablis" all at the top of their drunk voices. Things came to a head when The Twat stumbled to the toilet losing a shoe in the process. The girls thought it hilarious to put the shoe on the plate and cover it in food. Ben The Twat returned picked up the shoe, turned to another table and said "Excuse me, What the fuck is all this about?" . Now we had one upset and angry customer who complained that Ben The Twat had been objectionable throughout the meal, this drew another customer from a few tables away. One of the girls said "you shouldn't be listening to our conversation if you find it objectionable" (it was impossible to ignore). The other girl was heard to say "That's the second time in a week that people have complained about us in a restaurant!" Funny if you weren't there but for myself and at lest another couple of tables Ben managed to tarnish (along with the wine waiter, more of that in a minute) what could have been a very enjoyable meal. The Sommelier (tall with glasses) was another aspect that tried to make me not enjoy my meal. We chose a 1995 Musar, as is normal a small taste was poured at the table, it was full of cork which is not really a problem but there was an awful lot of it and it wouldn't have hurt to tidy it up a bit. my problem arose when the first pour was full of sediment, I'm not talking about a tiny bit, I mean lots, like it had been stored upside down. I pointed this out to the waitress who had poured it. She takes it to the sommelier who sniffs it and I could already see what was coming next. He came over in a very non-discreet way advises that the wine isn't corked. "I didn't say it was, I complained about the sediment." "This wine has a lot of sediment" "I am familiar with the wine, I know it has some sediment, but it needs to be allowed to stand for a little while before it is poured. I felt the Sommelier was being a little aggressive and he returned 5 minutes later to say that he was going to decant the wine. He returned a couple of minutes later and poured me another taste, again full of sediment. By this stage I was getting angry so just told him to pour it and we let it settle in our glasses. Before I had even taken a sip from my glass the waiter swoops up to the table, if I didn't know better I would have thought he deliberately disturbed the decanter and sloshed a top up into my glass that disturbed the sediment in my glass and in the decanter once again. Deep breaths all around. I should have complained, but I didn't, we already had Ben The Twat disturbing us on the next table and I couldn't be bothered with any more aggro. Shame on me. Finally we get to the food. Canapés of deep fried calamari, Olives and olive bread crisps were pleasant enough. An Amuse of White Onion Veloute with Foie Gras something or other (Mousse?) which melted into the soup was great. a light frothy soup packed with white onion flavour given a bit of richness from the Foie. Excellent, this could have been a starter in its own right. Rachel started with Red Mullet stuffed with crab, this was very cleverly done, it looked almost like the fish had been filleted without cutting the skin, presumably it had been filleted, stuffed and rolled tightly in clingfilm before being cooked, this was served with "sweet and sour" - a cold scoop of red pepper cream (?) which had a good balance to it and wasn't overpoweringly sour. Warm salad of pot roast partridge, celeriac and apple macaroni, smoked bacon lentils was a great dish, deeply flavoured stock was poured over the dish at the table, I didn't quite get the apple macaroni, it appeared to me to be more like regular macaroni? As Jan Moir said "The essence of winter in a bowl, it would be even greater as a main course with the whole bird. Yum." Rachel had a main course of Roast Quail served with a smooth hazelnut cream which was very nutty and very nice, there was also some mashed potato and a lemon emulsion in there somewhere but it did seem o get a little lost. Rachel enjoyed the dish, I didn't really taste enough to give a good appraisal. The "Pig came as a square of melting pork belly which appeared to have a sweet glaze. Alongside was a trotter stuffed with Langoustine, I found the Langoustine was lost in the dish and became rather pointless. Excellent mash potato (Rhodes 24 take note) and a smear of what I think was celeriac puree which had a lot, perhaps too much, citric acidity to it. We shared a dessert of Chocolate which looked like it came straight from the Tom Aikens school of presentation. A very light mandarin foam/mousse/cream (not sure what to call it) with a Valrhona chocolate cream and another nutella tasting bit - all over the place, the Frangelica and Mandarin were a bit ovepowered by the chocolate and Hazlenut. You'll have to excuse the vague descriptions, Ben The Twat was rather distracting. A couple of chocolates with coffee. One was a Chocolate and fermented tea - ths was wrong, very wrong. It tasted strongly of fish and wasn't particularly pleasant. I go the impression that they were trying to be different for differents sake. Get rid of that Chocolate!!!!!!! Overall I was pleased with this meal, it was interesting enough to make me want to return, although the price point has been complained about, I've had so many disappointing meals at this price level that I felt that Thyme was perfectly entitled to charge these prices. The room wasn't as bad as other people have mentioned, in fact I thought it quite pleasant although I was sitting next to what appeared to be one of only a couple of pieces of artwork (no not Ben the Twats shoe) in the restaurant so the rest of it may have felt rather stark. Now if they could only sort the stroppy Sommelier out and make sure that annoyances like the table next to me are sorted out you might end up with a great restaurant.

I'm afriad I don't recall which sparkling wines they had. I hope he enjoys it, heartily recommend the tasting menu I described in my first post.

Excellent call. Bragging rights to Signore Grant. ← I was wondering whether they knew about this when I was there? They didn't let on if they did and I mentioned it to them on more than one occasion. They gave the impression that they wouldn't be changing things simply to suit Michelin so I am glad that it has been recognised on its current form.

I know a one starred restaurant when i see one Well deserved!

The Italian Truffle man has a website: Click Here

They called it codfish but siad it was local and different from UK style Cod.However he did use the name Merluzza which I believed was Cod? It was not as falkey as cod and more delicate. Incidentally the chefs name is Michele De Leo and is 29 years old. website here

Now I always enjoyed Tracey Emin's art but taking a dead man to a party is taking things a step too far Incidentally Tracey is easing off the booze as well!

It came form both the concerierge and the receptionist at our hotel. The receptionist was very enthusisatic about food and according to her the best restaurant was Il Buco followed by Caruso. Apparently there were only 4 restauranst in town worth eating at and Il Buco and Caruso were way ahead of the other two.

Meal 2: Our second meal at Il Buco was once again outstanding. On arrival we were welcomed by the owner, sat down by the Maitre D’ and presented with a welcome glass of prosecco. Some minutes later he returned clutching the menus hard to his chest. “Do you want to see these?” “Have you got truffle tonight?” “Of course” “We’ll leave it to you to decide” Amuse as before Squid with Apple artichoke and a few shavings of white truffle. The squid was served hole but carefully cut to produce some parts as rings whilst still attached to the main body. The crisp apple complementing the artichoke and accompanied by a very fresh olive oil. Langoustine and Prawn with a Parmesan sauce and white truffle. By far and away the heaviest sauce of our two meals here. Well cooked large prawn and Langoustine, slightly overshadowed by the Truffle and Parmesan. A great homely sauce. Tagliolini with White Truffle. A simple butter sauce with white truffle shaved over then top. Baby Fillet of pork with meat juices. A small tower with a slice of courgette, tomato and mozerella, finished once again with a few shavings of white truffle. I was wary of this dish after dinner the night before which had presented a pork fillet which was woefully overcooked. I really thought this was where they were about to let themselves down. Our eyes lit up as we cut into the small round of pork and found it cooked medium. The owner came rushing over eager to explain that they think it is best-cooked medium but lots of people complain. We told him not to worry. We started (at our request) with the Berry and yoghurt ice cream as a pre dessert. This time the sauce was a touch heavier with cinnamon. We then split desserts – a “chocolate flan” was actually a light version of a fondant served with a vanilla ice cream. Wild strawberry tart came topped with meringue, unfortunately the pastry was slightly overcooked. Once again a great dinner, this one cost us a premium because of the white truffle but compared to London prices was a bargain at €120 per person plus drinks. The previous dinner really was a bargain €55 plus drinks. Descriptions cannot do this style of food justice, it is reliant on simple preparations and high quality ingredients. These were without doubt 2 of my favourite meals of the year.

I had a meal on Saturday that put many UK one stars to shame and would also have embarrassed a couple of 2 star restaurant. The restaurant in question doesn’t have a single star, in fact it has 2 knifes and forks. Il Buco is a pretty basement restaurant in Sorrento, refined, with nice cutlery, glassware, outstanding service. It has a few tables outside which presumably are used during the summer. It had been recommended to us by the receptionist at our hotel who looked delirious with excitement at the merest mention of the restaurant. Now we’re not normally massive Italian food fans so ignoring regional specialities we enquired after White truffles. The Maitre D’ (what’s he called in Italian?) advised that he did indeed have white truffles and could replace the pasta course in the degustazione (sp.?) but recommended that we stick with the original menu all the way through because of the way it was balanced. Boy was he right! The meal that proceeded was a masterpiece of simplicity, good ingredients and balance. An Amuse of a miniature pastry filled with Mozarella and basil sat atop 3 sweet baby tomatoes was a pleasant start to the meal. Codfish with a Lavender crumb, lemon, olive oil and an Artichoke carpaccio really opened our eyes. The small delicate filets of fish (not cod) lightly coated in breadcrumbs delicately flavoured with Lavender. The fish slightly translucent, it must have seen the pan for just a few moments, the breadcrumbs remaining relatively soft. The lemon sauce seemed to be a simple olive oil infusion which complemented the artichoke and fish perfectly. Possibly my dish of the year. Next came a deep fried zucchini flower stuffed with tuna and Mozeralla. This was sat atop small florets of broccoli lightly cooked with pine nuts and raisins. An excellent example of this dish which is served in virtually every restaurant in this town. Light batter and again a good proportion of Tuna to mozerella. The broccoli worked well with the nuts and raisins and complicated by a drizzle of Olive Oil. Our Pasta course was Fish Ravioli, pumpkin and pepper sauce. Four large but short tubes of pasta (hopeless on Pasta names I’m afraid) rather than an enclosed ravioli, cooked very al dente. Initially the dish tasted quite strongly of fish but this balanced itself out during the course with the sweetness from the pumpkin and a slight heat from a hot pepper. Seabass came steamed atop some green beans and thin potatoes cooked very lightly, finished with another citrus oil. This was a beautiful piece of fish, streamed and again, slightly translucent. Fantastic. Berry and yoghurt ice cream was served in a red wince sauce as an amuse, the red wine stil slightly alcoholic and sweetened with a syrup. Delicious Lemon Souffle came with a small jug of strawberry sauce and lemon sorbet (I think). This was very nice but perhaps a touch overcooked/lacking an eggwhite. Service was attentive and friendly and we were quick to make another reservation before we left. Overall a superb meal, one of the best of the year and mystifyingly lacking in Michelin stars. Apparently Michelin want them to make their sauces a little heavier, use some cream etc. etc. I hope the restaurant doesn’t listen because the menu we were served here was almost perfect in its execution. After eating here I could understand why the hotel receptionist looked weak at the knees when she mentioned its name.

I always drink Château de l'Isolette Cotes du Luberon. 1995. Very nice and only around £25 a bottle.

I'm booked for a couple of weeks time, hopefully the service/cooking will have settled down by then.

V&C in Edinburgh is selling white truffles for £3500 a kg, so you got a bargin! ← I'm not sure whether that is a bargain rather than other places selling them at exhorbitant prices I was talking with a chef on Saturday who thought they were too expensive at £2000/kg.

Last night I had a quick sniff of the risotto rice that I didn't cook on Saturday. It has taken on the Truffle very well. It will make a very nice lunch on Sunday

Is howard related to the restaurant or just a big fan? Incidentally, I was thinking of booking Aubergine but changed my mind when I heard ths news. Unfortunately I don't really trust the motivation of the staff if they are in receivership.

I think they are a little cheaper because they are small examples - they wouldn't much good for slciing at the table in a restaurant although the smell was equally as good. I also read that prices are about to rise, good quality but limited supply apparently I have my doubts. Apparently the weather has been good for truffles, so why the relative low quantity? I can't help wondering whether the prices are kept artificially high by the dealers.

The place with the mushrooms, opposite Wyndham Poultry tel:020 7378 8666

They're also available at Princesse d'Isenbourg based in Holland Park. They were £2500/kg , not sure what sort of size they were. The borough ones were Walnut sized at best. Booths is definitely open Fridays, worth ringing before hand to check that they are going to have truffles though. If they are not of a good enough quality or too expensive they tend not to sell them.

We bought 3 small white truffles at Borough on Saturday. It was an illicit thrill I can tell you. Booth's and the Italian stall only had small examples but the smell won us over, Booth's at £1900/kg and the Italian stall at £2000/kg. Approaching the Italian stall I could smell the truffle before I could see them and arriving at the stall found a dodgy looking gentlemen with several truffles under a glass dome. He lifted he glass dome and shoved it under my nose and then passed it to a girl alongside me looking at Salamis. "How much?" "2000" "2000 what!?" said the girl (who obviously didn't have a clue what they were). She looked like she was going to pass out when told that it was £2000 pounds a kilo and quickly scurried off. I checked the weight of a couple of different truffles, the smell wafting around my head making my heart beat a little faster. The small scales measured to decimal points and the first one came in at a touch over 10 grams. "£20" he announced, I chose another, fearful that it wasn't big enough. This one was also £20. Hmmmm, couldn't really justify £40 so felt another couple, carefully looking at them for any damage. Just over 7 grams "£14", we ummed and ahhed looking for another around the same price, realising that we needed about £40 worth of truffles but only wanting to spend £30. This had a positive effect as I think he thought we were bartering. He threw two truffles on the scale that came to around 16 grams "£30!" we looked at each other for reassurance that we were both happy with the quality of them and our hesitation seemed to convince him to put another small truffle on the scale which tipped them up to 20 grams and he declared that we could have it for free. That sealed it and we handed over the £30 which he stuffed into his pocket and then set to work trying to sell us a large summer truffle that he said reminded him of chocolate and velvet when eaten. Maybe next time. It felt like we had just carried out an ilegal transaction on a street corner in a rough neighbourhood. Truffles in tact we moved to Wyndham poultry and chose a Label Anglais chicken. Back to Northfield farm for a Rib of Dexter Steer that I was promised they would be selling today. None left! Ahhhhhhhhggggh, Rachel is going to have to give up netball if it means that the meat is going to sell out before we get there! Down to the Ginger pig for a Forerib of Longhorn that smelt fantastic and cost £22. The display at The Ginger Pig has gone downhill since the shop opened and this was the first time we had shopped here for a few months. A quick coffee at Monmouth, a toasted cheese sandwich with Poilane and Montgomery cheddar from outside Neal's yard (£3 - the food bargain of the year?) and a Chocolate brownie from the French guys opposite the French cheese stall, walking back past the Italian stall we noticed that the illicit truffle dealer had disappeared. I couldn't help imagining that he had lookouts at either end of the passageway who whistled him a warning when the police were on there way. A heavenly way to spend a couple of hours or so on a Saturday afternoon although mornings are nicer with fewer crowds. Back home I got some Risotto rice (carnaroli) and buried the truffles in it. The afternoon was spent lifting the lid on the bowl of uncooked rice and inhaling deeply, carefully inhaling every last molecule carrying the delicious smell. Rachel's eyes actually looked like they were about to pop out of her head and we both agreed that they definitely made the heart beat quicker and had a certain aphrodisiac quality to them ! Dinner was a basic risotto made with a light chicken stock and a little Parmesan, the rice already had a feint aroma of the truffles form covering the truffles during the day but the crowning glory was shaving one of the truffles over the top of the two bowls – heaven. Main course was no more complicated. A roasted Label Anglais Chicken, some tagliatelle with a cream sauce covered in slices of the rest of the truffles. What a smell! We ate hunched over our plates making sure we didn't waste a single bit of that all too brief moment. Everything about this dish was perfect. It made me think that it should be eaten like an Ortolan, your head covered to ensure maximum aroma consumption. This was the ultimate in comfort food, a heart pounding drug like high. As for its aphrodisiac qualities, well we never did discover, 3 bottles of wine and 6 beers later, we were only fit for sleeping! The come down the next day was dreadful, we could never get the thought of that dish out of our head, tugging at our insides, an occasional fake waft of truffle flavour in my nostrils. I felt awful and the only way to get over this hangover was the foodie equivalent of methadone. A roast dinner. The aforementioned Rib of Longhorn, hung for 6 weeks, potatoes roasted in beef dripping, Yorkshire puddings cooked in beef dripping, gravy made from the meat juices, Green beans, Broccoli a bottle of Marques de Caceres Gran Reserva 1994 bought on our recent trip to Andalucia. What meat, I forgive the Ginger Pig its crappy display! Started in a very hot pan to get that perfect dark crust and the finished in the oven to 50 degrees. This was just how I like my meat, suitably gamey with melting fat. Well it wasn't quite the fix we had the night before but it was enough to get us through the day. Rehab surely awaits.

Sorry I only just got back to this. I mentioned that this was in "Hotels and Haute Cuisine" because I think they are insinuating that it is Haute (it's not). The first line says "Is it a cafe or is it a fine dining restaurant?" Places like the Connaught, The Goring, Dorchester Grill room and the Savoy are listed outside of the "Hotels and Haute cuisine" section so I presumed that they listed it here because they had come to the conclusion that it was Haute.

I have to say that it was one of my more regular eating haunts when I was in Switzerland. I love those Bratwurst and the bread rolls, I used to take some of my colleagues ther but they just didn't get what the hell I was on about . It still has quite a "stand" feel to it.

That's the place! I dind't realise it was such a professional outfit. ts even got it's own website! Is it well known in Zurich or is it just my imagination?

What you doing up at this time of night!?!?