Matthew Grant

It would probably be pretty easy to spend £750 in there! Starters anything between £50 and £75. Mains average around £75 - 80. I think Desset was around the £50 mark. The wine list is ridiculously expensive, of course, you could always opt for a glass - a meagre £18. Far more reasonable is the lunch deal at £48 for 3 courses. Interesting cooking clthough a little quiet on the day we were there. Downstairs is definitely for the young and the beautiful, when dinner is over some of the chairs are folded back to become day beds and people start dancing. Video art is projected onto the pure white walls, really cool music and beautiful people everywhere who all seem to know each other. Bloody awful food though and it still set us back £180 for 2, but it was worth it just for the atmosphere although several months on this is probably lost now. As for Borough market, I don't think it opens on Friday mornings? Waterside Inn is not really a suburb of London, its just outside of Windsor in Bray. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it if you want a high-end meal, it is in a beautiful location, has a few (4 or 5) nice rooms and the cooking and service are outstanding. It competes well with RHR food wise and in my opinion it is better than RHR for a 'special' experience

Prasad, The cooking at both restaurants is very similar escept Mirch Masala has a larger menu. I perfer Mirch Masala for its bold spicing, something that I think applies to Rajastani cuisine. On my visit to New Tayab, while the dishes were good it was severely lacking in good spicing, by this I do not just mean in chilli. This wasn't so pronounced on the grills but the Karahi dishes we were actually quite poor. In my opinion, there are dozens of restaurants serving 'proper' (as against'english') curry, just like New Tayab, in London. Some of them may be a little more popular as their decor is a little tidier I also concede that these types of restaurant may not always be as consistent as a high end restaurant and that my judgement on the two is impaired by my single visit to NT. On my visit to New Tayab it was just an also ran, however, I have also had somebody else who has visited Mirch Masala and New Tayab who thinks that New Tayab beats Mirch Masala hands down. I'm willing to wager that that person doesn't eat or cook as much spiced food as I do

Too late to book for the IVY - last time I checkd it had a 15 month waiting list!!!! Not what I would call fine dining either. Your best bet for the Ivy is to just turn up, they hold so many tables back you have a good chance and it is an experience although as person foreign to these shores you may not recognise any of the b and c list celebrities that are taking up virtually every other table. Locanda Locatelli on the other hand is more like a high end restaurant food and price wise. I'd ease off on the Italian restaurants, you may be sorely disappointed in London (Locatelli excepted). I've heard some bad reports about Nahm recently - so much so that I cancelled my reservation. Pied A Terre was terrible on my visit a couple of weeks ago - certainly not living up to its billing as a Michelin 2 star. Atlantic Bar and Grill will be interesting as it is pushing hard again to regain a reputation as a 'cool' place to visit. I'd recommend Chez Bruce or La Trompette, always dependable Michelin starred food (Lets face it La Trompette deserved a star this year, that decision was worse that the Roy Jones Jnr fight result on Saturday night in Las Vegas).

Mirch Masala in Norbury, a more traditional style restaurant serving North Indian/Pakistani food, outstanding grills, breads and Karahi dishes. In my opinion better than New Tayab but I have only visited the once and I practically live in Mirch Masala.

Salt beef bagels from Brick Lane - superb. I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the place (I think there are actually two) but it never disappointed when I was working long nightshifts in Docklands.

1000 covers a week Another thing that surprised me was that they didn't seem to be turning tables, I may be mistaken here but lots of people were well into their meal or almost finished when we arrived at 21:00 and nobody seemed to be rushed out the door - fair play to them!

My first visit to Racine on Saturday, I won't go into too much detail but I thought this was a great restaurant - outstanding service (i'm ashamed to say that I let them go out to get me some cigarettes, I did tell them not to bother). Fish soup was suitably strong with croutons and alioli, Saucisson Chicago was served on a bed of lentils with a mustard dressing. Excellent Cod with crushed potatoes. Well cooked Partridge with a chocolate sauce, one gripe - the pomme puree was perfect once I had adjusted the seasoning Outstanding cheese to finish. I wish I lived next door to a restaurant like this. Although busy you have to wonder how they survive, rent cannot be cheap in an area like this and there were a lot of staff on view, add this to the reasonably priced menu and you have to fear for it?

Another thing - if I see another fillet of venison/lamb with fondant potato as a 'special' in another Michelin starred restaurant I shall scream. Nothing wrong with that dish but in Michelin restaurants I expect somthing a little more challenging coming out of the kitchen.

I basically ordered the same dishes as Andy and can only concur. Amuse were good. The trotter was OK, the mushroom Beignet was a little oily. The sauce presentation made no sense whatsoever. My Turbot looked like a scrap piece from the end of the fillet, this was overcooked. The dish was completely taken over by the lentils (wish were good) and the oxtail sauce was a little oily (the sauce was separating slightly at the edges. Rachel commented that the dish was all Lentils, she hadn't read Andy's review. Rachel ordered Langoustines which carried a £5 pound supplement (thankfully forgotten on the final bill). The Langoustines were poor quality, overcooked, and untidily shelled, they were small and had been butterflied, presumably in an attempt to make them bigger, they were completely overshadowed by thyme. Rachel's lamb was well cooked and good quality, I can't remember the rest of the dish or construction but it wasn't memorable. Service was poor, menus were proffered and they came back about 2 minutes later to take our order, 2 glasses of champagne turned out to be Ruinart 1995 at £13.50 a glass, there were no non-vintages available by the glass. Our first 2 courses were finished less than an hour after walking through the door, we delayed ordering dessert to finish our wine during, when we finished the wine we sat for several minutes without service at which point I suddenly couldn't be bothered to give them another £20 of my money for 2 desserts or cheese (which looked poor anyway). Finished off with 2 coffees and petit fours. Including a £31 bottle of wine and service the bill came to a few pennies under £168.In hindsight I wish I had deducted some of the service charge. Overall nowhere near 2 star standards for either food or service.

I still haven't got a reply after my last meal Now I know where to get hold of him I will try for a reply for a 3rd time

I'm hoping to be able to trash Andy's report after mI visit on Saturday (I mean that in the nicest possible way) Incidentally Andy, who was your dining companion?

Can't believe we're 2 pages into this thread and nobody has mentioned Dauphinoise!

I forgot to mention, there were only 8 people for lunch, 2 just had a solitary glass of wine. 2 drank water and 2 drank orange juice. Incidentally the 2 with the Orange juice looked like they were possibly tourists and had just wandered in by accident : Nothing better than being dressed down in a restaurant when everybody around you is dressed up Anyway my point was that you shouldn't feel obliged to order wine. If you really want to eat here but the prices scare you, go along and order the set lunch with a bottle of water, service was no different for any of the couples.

Matthew, did you have any interesting amuses? Can you describe how this particular starter was presented? I have to confess that I can't remember the Amuse - not particularly interesting obviously The first course was served with apol of the veloute on top of which was a sqaure of the tomato concasse, sweet onions still surrounded by the mould which was removed at the table. The Mousseline sat atop the concasse shaped like a scallop. I was surprised to find the this dish was served warm and one of the presentations collapsed a few seconds after the mould was removed. What did you find surprising in this dish? I think the idea of matching aubergine with a sweet counterpart like raisins in caponata, for instance, is not new. Using figs instead of raisins could come from Greek cuisine or Middle East. The surprising element was the sweet pastry, it was very delicate and would have easily been used as a dessert pastry. Out of curiosity, was the sorbet sweet enough to stand as a separate dessert? Would you find it appealing on its own? The sorbet was not overly sweet, I would have been surprise to find it as a dessert. It was very light indeed.

I'm going to PDT next Saturday, I can't comment on Gagnaire in Paris.

In monetary terms it may not sound much but at Sketch the wine is 23% more than GR@RHR which al;redy has a hefty mark up on the wine.

According to my waiter Gagnaire is onsite once or twice a week.

The taxi was actually only £10 for a return journey but I agree that the pricing is excessive - maybe thats why tey don't mark up the wine too much

22/10/03 Lunch at Sketch yesterday was very enjoyable and could almost tempt me back for the carte in the evening. 3 courses for lunch is £48 Starters were 5 small dishes Various peasant amuse were served while we chose from the menu before the main event. Starters: Paimpol white bean veloute with tomato concasse, sweet onions, fresh coconut and scallop moussline – fantastic Roasted endive with watercress and braised radish – dull. The watercress wasn’t at all peppery and the dish was under seasoned. Baby Aubergine and roasted figs was served in a sweet shortcrust pastry, very simple but a good combination that worked surprisingly well. Vinegar infused sweet and sour jelly with beetroot sorbet was outstanding. I would have happily eaten a bowl of the vinegary jelly. Aigullette of smoked duck with fine carrot puree perfumed with cumin and orange was a little run of the mill. It is only referring back to the menu that made me realise that the sauce was a simple orange sauce. The duck was sliced a little thickly and served with baby spinach and rocket. Mains: Dover Sole “Meuniere” with parsley veloute, young vegetables and on a side plate macaroni gratin with mussels and curry. Rachel found the sole to be perfect, served in a bright green parsley veloute which tasted rich with butter. The Macaroni gratin and Mussels were served with a wonderfully French curry sauce (it reminded me of the leak and curry coulis in Michel Roux sauces book) which again was very rich. Braised Knuckle of veal with baby cabbage, almond cream and potatoes comtesse – nothing complicated about this dish, melting veal knuckle eremoved from the bone served in the cooking juices which had a slightly sweet edge. Excellent potatoes cooked in stock with mushroom, Four desserts were very good and included a fantastic beer ice cream and a fennel ice cream which worked superbly. A dish, which I forget, was paired with mint and vervaint (?) – outstanding. Excuse my vagueness on the dessets but I found them to be very good, I was so perplexed by the mint and vervaint though that my mind seems to have blanked out the other good things. The wine list is horrendously priced, hardly a bottle under the £40 mark. Service was friendly but not as polished as I would have liked in a restaurant of this quality, waiters were friendly but didn’t know the preparations very well and clearly hadn’t worked in Michelin restaurants before (one came from Caviar House). However they did take the napkin test to new levels by replacing them after the main course without us even having to leave the table. Overall it was very interesting and some elements were outstanding, I would return for the evening if it wasn’t so expensive.

15/10/03 Gidleigh Park is in a wonderful location but this is really dining for the rich territory because of the high price of the rooms and the food. We chose to stay in a B&B in Chagford an take a taxi to the restaurant. If your going to go make sure you book the car in advance – there is only one taxi Chagford! The dining room is small and on the night we visited full of what I presume to be hotel guests who were suited and booted and ate there in a reverential silence – something that puts me off. We chose the tasting menu at £75 per person for 8 courses, the a la carte is £70 per person. A small cup of Jerusalem artichoke and truffle soup was a pleasant starter, slightly peppery and velvety smooth. Ballotine of foie gras wth girolle mushrooms and soused beetroot with honey, five spice and balsamic vinegar was suitably rich and wonderfully balanced – very good. Braised Turbot and Scallops with leeks, wild mushrooms an chive butter sauce was again very good, I would have preferred to see the scallops left whole instead of being chopped, the butter sauce was not overpowered by the chives and the Turbot was cooked to perfection showing the fish of to its best. Normally I think Turbot is overrated but when cooked perfectly it stands up well. Roast Local lamb with tomato fondue, fondant potato and onion puree, with a tapenade jus and rosemary oil was very pretty, two small discs of lamb either side of a disc o buttery fondant potato. The dish was fne, well executed, perfectly cooked but I could have kicked myself for ordering the set menu. I would have preferred something a little more adventurous. This is standard fare in Restaurants across the country and although prepared beter than most of them does not show much imagination for a 2 star kitchen. I chose a good Roquefort, average Montgomery Cheddar and disappoint Epoisses. A miniature palette of sorbets was a nice cleanser, unfortunately I can’t remember the flavours. A duo of Chocolate; dark chocolate mousse on a chocolate sable biscuit an white chocolate ice cream was a good finish to a good if unadventurous meal that lacked the WOW factor to gain a third star. Service was knowledgeable, the waiters knew the answers to my questions about preparation without reference to the kitchen, the wine waiter chose a great bottle of Lynch Bages 1997 at £50. I’m no expert on wine but the list seemed to be excellent value for money, something Gidleigh Park are very proud off. Overall the meal was very nice but lacking the WOW factor to gain that 3rd star, I now wish I had ordered a la carte. It a shame that the rest of the room wasn’t a little more vocal, I swear 2 couples didn’t speak a word to each other throughout the meal – more

I'm not sure whether that rumour is true or nt but during my visit earlier this year the food was attributed to Michel and Sebastien Bras so it would not surprise me. I am desperate to go back, when I was there earlier this year they had a special midweek price of 3 days for 1100Euros per couple including 3 dinners! An abosolute bargain.

There seems to be some disagreement here so I have come up with a highly scientific method to ascertain whether this restaurant is good or not. Myself, Andy and Paul enjoyed it, Scott and VivreManger did not. Thats 3 against 2 so it is a good restaurant and is quite clearly at the very least worth its one star It does seem to fluctuate a little doesn't it! I am happy to return again to make sure that I am right and Scott and VivreManger are wrong

Whoops! I meant to say Aubergine, never served Cherries at Petrus as far as I am aware. I like Cherries

Robuchon influence on Ramsay is quite clear. During my visit to Atelier, bowls of cherries sat atop crushed ice for guests to pick at. Ramsay used to serve cherries on top of ice as Petit Fours at Petrus

I ate there just after it first opened and enjoyed it a lot but I did have reservations (excuse the pun) about the queueing and the seating. The queue was fun just the once because everybody there was obviously coming because of a love of food and not necessarily because it was the 'in place' to dine. However, I wouldn't have stood there in the rain. I also don't like the way they place a single diner or couple from the back of the queue before the group of four waiting at the very front. The problem was made worse by the fact that they didn't enforce any sort of table turning (not something I normally advocate) and people could end up waiting outside for an awful long time if people inside linger over their wine. Another thing that might put the British off is the price. Dinner for 2 came to around the £200 yet you sit at counters - it just doesn't seem right for that sort of money. In its defence i would say that the food is excellent.