Matthew Grant

At £12.50 they are well worth the money, I wonder if they are doing this to get rid of older birds?. Incidentally chatting to them the other week I tongue in cheek suggested that they needed to start selling French geese complete with the foie Gras, they advised that they are available at the new shop but are very expensive (they couldn't tell me an approximate price)

I had a Poulet De Bresse from The Ginger Pig at Borough recently - I'd be very surprised if you can get them fro £12.50. They are also selling French Black leg chickens and I suspect that they are around the £12 mark. The PdB we bought was an average size for two people and came to £18, another that we had weighed was £22. I have also eaten numerous Label Anglais from Wyndham Poultry and a small one costs around £8. The Label Angalis is bred to taste like a Poulet de Bresse, I would recomend that you get the Label Anglais and not the Special reserve which carries more fat on it but in my opinion has less flavour. The Poulet de Bresse I had recently came fully numbered, stamped, complete with head and was drawn in front of me. It was roasted very slowly to 64 degrees and had moist slightly gamey flesh, it was undoubtedly good but in my opinion not worth double the price of a Label Anglais. I cannot sing the the praises of a Label Anglais enough, go and buy one NOW

Is Mantannah still as good as a few years ago when it was run by Tym Yeo (Sp.?) and her husband? It was a fantastic Thai restaurant with excellent regional dishes. I loved the fact that Tym and her husband took the kitchen staff to Thailand every year to collect new ideas and recipes At short notice they left (I'd be interested to know if/where they are cooking now) and the new owners didn't have a clue when we first visited (unaware that Tim had left). They kept the same menu with the regional dishes and admitted to us that they didn't know how to cook them. Dish after dish came out tasting exactly the same and bearing little or no relation to the original. It still bugs me that they have kept up all the awards and reviews that Tym and her husband won. Admittedly I haven't been back recently but my initial visit when the new owners took over led me to believe that they weren't interested in authenticity. Tym was great to talk to about food - types of sugar to use, potatoes in green curry (unacceptable) etc. etc. A great shame

Excellent dinner on Saturday night. Started with Mackerel salad with beetroot, grain mustard, watercress and crisp pancetta. The Mackerel was a touch over not done and the skin looked wonderful on the plate, I'm a recent convert to beetroot and the warm pieces were a nice earthy component to the dish. Rachel had Rare grilled tuna with salsa, avocado, crème fraîche and coriander. Only got one bite of the tuna which was excellent, too nice slices of tuna seared on the outside virtually raw in the middle. Rachel's main of Roast Black Leg chicken with herb stuffing, morels, gnocchi and pan juices was simply served. A large supreme (a surprisingly large wing bone!) with a buttery stuffing under the skin. The stuffing was predominantly tarragon. The chicken was cooked to perfection and I was actually allowed two bites of this. On a seperate dish were the Gnocchi. Rachel always finds Gnocchi rather pointless and I'm trying to find a reason to disagree with her, however they disappeared from the plate very quickly I had Confit Pork Belly with Chorizo and a bean salad 4 slices of melting meat and crispy crackling (if its not crispy then I suppose it's not crackling?) accompanied with a variety of beans and slices of cooking Chorizo. Desserts were a revelation, I can't remember the last time we had such great desserts. Cherry and almond tart with jersey cream was sensational but Rachel's Raspberry and vanilla tartlet with lemon curd stole the show.. VERY thin crisp pastry, filled with Lemon Curd with large raspberries on top, on the side was a super vanilla ice cream. This was the best Lemon tart I have tried since the days of Nico Two minor gripes - the service was a little slow and when we asked for a wine recommendation were immediately shown 3 around with the cheapest being £48 mark The food at Chez Bruce is relatively simple cooking but executed fantastically, thoughtful combinations allow the quality of the ingredients to shine. Even though Bruce Poole wasn't in the kitchen it is quite obviously working very well.

Surely that should be "Former 2-start Michelin Chef...."?

Much as I admire Ramsay as he has become more famous I have felt less inclined to visit his restaurants, I can't really put my finger on why but I am always willing to stick up for him with people who don't know better I think he will now attract a whole new customer type now, people that know nothing about food and have shown no interest in it before are suddenly a little impressed and expressing an interest in Ramsay and his restaurants. Whether more experienced foodies like it or not we all started out like this so perhaps it can only be good for us all: the masses will begin to appreciate decent food and high end chefs will be forced to start (re)producing more exciting food (again).

Liverpool

It's sad to see Edwina still in there, unfortunately my prediction is that she will probably win despite being the weakest chef by a long way.In other reality shows the public are learning to keep the most interesting people in the show even if they are disliked, I think this is probably the case with Edwina (that and the zillions of Tory voters from years gone by) I liked Al, he really enjoyed the work and his fish pie did look reasonably decent if a little like comfort food. Jens chips aren't nearly as burnt now, Edwina's guinea fowl looks like slop on a plate. None of the dishes are particularly original are they? Whether you like it or not, I think that what Ramsay has managed to achieve in such short space of time is pretty good, it's a shame that it had to come in a reality game show format. For his next project how about taking a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs that are willing to give up their existing careers and training them in a similar fashion but in a permanent restaurant and in a long term role and seeing if they can achieve a Michelin star. I'd like to volunteer myself

At a wedding in Zurich a few weeks ago, Rachel's heel fell of her shoe, fortunately she was full of alcohol so didn't really care. Our waiter had been superb at keeping our glasses full all night and we decided to see if he would go the extra mile and showed him the shoe. He took it away and after an hour we thought he must have misunderstood and thrown it away - no problem, it was no use anymore. A few minutes later he returned to our table with the shoe glued together and presented it to Rachel on a sliver platter

Not a recent acquisition - it was awarded in 2000 I believe.

I don't know - I'm too scared to eat there

Just read that Mr & Mrs Aiken's have split up (Evening Standard) . She will continue to manage the restaurant. He will continue to cook.

Andy, IMO, for inventive cuisine (not necessarily technique) Claude is right up there with Heston Blumenthal and well deserving of his second star. One of my favourite meals of last year. Incidentally, Claire Bosi's service is second to none, on my visit she worked the floor fantastically with just one other waitress for assistance.

Is this a joke thread?

My boss called me something similar at work today

If it is the same Dim Sum chef as Hakkasan this will be a winner. Dim Sum in Hakkasan is way ahead of the the competition in London.

That'll be me

Incidentally I thought the food looked good and the restaurant looked nice during the day although I'm not so sure about those sorts of colour schemes in the evenings. I shall try and visit shortly, obviously using an assumed name in case they have read this thread

Hold your own! Looked like he'd been beaten into submission and the kitchen was his last refuge!

They must have been so shocked when Matthew Fort turned up booked under somebody elses name and dragging a TV crew along with him from the same production company. Noticeable how the kitchen was the only place that Tom dared speak. Give the guy a break, that chef obviously needed branding!!

Interestingly, the pizza restaurant (Pizzazz) which is virtually next door to the Carved Angel has been for sale for months.

at what?

I wouldn't recommend 1880 for a celebration meal. A recent meal there was OK but (surprisingly) AA Gill summed it up very well when he talked of the excess on Sunday. I had a 'grazing' menu which incorporated Foie Gras, Lobster, Caviar, Fillet Steak etc. etc. etc. Nothing wrong with any of it but nothing spectacular enough to warrant a celebration meal. It just felt like they were wheeling out the luxury ingredients for the sake of it. They must of made a loss on our meal as well as I went trough a half price offer on Lastminute.com - 9 courses for £22.50!!!! Outstanding bread though. Capital has such a terrible room that I wouldn't recommend it for celebrating. IMO it has way to much of a reliance on the Breakfast theme (as discussed elsewhere) throughout the meal. Chez Bruce and La Trompette are far less formal than some of the other restaurants you mention, I use Chez Bruce as my benchmark for quality and price wherever I'm eating. Always excellent cooking and a nice atmosphere, I would happily go to celebrate there. Lunch at Le Gavroche a couple of weeks ago was excellent but at the same time a little disappointing e.g. poor fondant potato and pommes puree, both underseasoned and the fondant just plain poor quality. As described above it is very opulent and the service is outstanding. It should always be considered as long as price is no object. Gordon Ramsay RHR has 3 stars for a good reason If you want an evening reservation be very sure to be on the phone at 08:59 a month in advance and remember they are not open on Saturday or Sunday.

Second the Zebra - very good indeed. Ostrich was fantastic when we were there, served exceptionally rare. it seems to me that you had an awful lot of 'normal' meat on your vist. Our meal was made up almost entirely of Game (Buffalo, Impala, Zebra, Ostrich, and several other things that I can't remember. They sometimes had Giraffe on the menu!!!! When they carved the meat they carved from the top if you preferred your meat rare and from the bottom for well-done.

In my local Tescos I noticed some herb crusted Trout in their "Finest" selection the other day. It had a sell by date that was still 7 days away!!!!!