dallardice

The former Alfred now has a sign up outside for 'Nama' Restaurant and Bar, with signs seeking Cocktail Bar staff.

We had dinner at La Grande Cascade in June last year. The setting is very magical. The room is beautiful, but because the weather was very good we ate outside in a very attractive garden setting. We thought the food somewhat 'old-style' French haute cuisine. The execution was excellent and the food very impressive, but compared to our other 'big' meal that weekend (at Carré des Feuillants - fantastic) it seemed decades old. What put us off particularly was we found the service terribly patronising. We are British, with reasonable French and have visited a decent number of great restaurants. But I found the service somewhat unfriendly, as if the restaurant was disappointed that we were sullying its Frenchness (we were the only non-French table within our earshot). Wine recommendations were at twice the budget we asked for (a non-trivial €75 per bottle); the food explanations were of the Janet-and-John school. Put it this way: it's what I expected a Michelin restaurant in Paris to be like, before I went to any. If this had been the first one I'd been to, I might not have gone to another. Perhaps we caught it on an off-day, or we just hit a particularly supercilious maitre-d that day. And certainly the setting is very beautiful. But although the food was good, I wouldn't give it a whole-hearted recommendation.

Love that part of the country. Our favourite in that area is an old-fashioned mas just outside Pernes-les-Fontaines, called Mas la Bonoty. Service can be a bit haphazard (but is getting better since the owners have employed real staff rather than trying to run the resto themselves) but the food is very good and quite adventurous - definitely Provencal but with new world influences. Outside eating at lunch and dinner if the weather's good enough. We were disappointed by the Michelin 1* in Pernes, Au Fil de Temps - overpriced and starchy (the service, food was just OK.) In Avignon we'd a great meal in June at Hotel de l'Europe, and a lousy one at Compagnie des Comptoirs.

I had heard (I think from Simon M of this parish) that it's becoming an S&M Café.

Clvie Anderson gives Metrogusto a cool review in the Standard tonight.

I'll give a place a second chance if I hear good reports from a trusted source. Having said that, the Fish Shop on St John St has used up its two chances for me. Which is a great shame, as I was a huge fan of the Upper St Fish Shop and Alan and Olga welcomed us very warmly when we first went there. Haven't seen them there since, though.

It's on Theberton St, about 100 yds from Upper St (far enough to avoid the madding crowds). Heading up Upper St from the Angel, about half-way to Highbury & Islington, left before Oddbins and then it's on the left just past my hairdresser. Used to be a rather more pretentious Italian called Maremma, which I never visited.

Won't argue with any of this. Huge fan. Service can sometimes seem off-hand but if you start talking about food or wine it soon warms up. Not sure about the aggressively non-smoking since we have been stuck in non-smoking section before, with smokers at the next table (much apologies, but they wouldn't tell them to stop). Their initial branch was in Battersea which I believe has now closed.

We don't have harmonised taxation in the EU: for example, UK restaurant VAT is 17.5%, Italy is 10% and Spain is 7%. Only France of the major countries is as high as 19.6%. So the size of the cut relates only to France. The recent draft EU constitution explicitly excluded tax harmonisation as a short- or medium-term goal.

I can also offer my feedback after having attended and enjoyed Michael Schuster's introductory course. The course is held in the basement of his house in Islington and about 20 people attended over 6 evenings. The course is very much tailored to enjoying wine and the tone is enthusiastic rather than academic, although Michael clearly has a lot of knowledge behind his conversational tone. The course is arranged thematically, with the first night concentrated on simple tastes like acid, sugar, salt and so on. From then each night concentrates on a region, with subsidiary topics like decanting, storage, and so on. The wines tasted average about £5-10, mostly from supermarkets, with a few from the Wine Society (on whose board Michael sits, a fact he was at pains to point out each time the Society's name came up). Normally up to 3 wines were tasted concurrently, with around six a night, so that we could compare different styles or different ages of similar wines. A healthy contempt for wine marketing, and genuine enthusiasm for some more off-beat wines, made it a set of very enjoyable evenings. No tests (not even multiple choice ones), and, as I said in my previous thread, not the way to start a formal wine education, but thoroughly recommended for helping you understand why you like certain types of wine, and how to better analyse what you're tasting. We plan to attend the French fine wines course when our timetables permit, probably next year.

I have the pleasure of travelling to Bermuda on business on a fairly regular basis and on my last trip I bought a bottle of Gosling's 'Rum Deluxe' which is a premium Barbados rum imported and oak-aged on Bermuda. It's a golden colour, like whisky, and is 80 proof. And I haven't tasted it, since it's a present for someone... I tend to drink just the regular 80 proof dark rum which I adore. I have a bottle of the 151 proof which I drink from time to time when I forget just how strong it is... I agree with sandra though that it's too strong, and not as tasty as the milder stuff. I didn't know about the spirit limit on planes, which makes it very interesting that Gosling's sell the 151 proof stuff in the Bermuda duty-free shop (in the non-US part of the terminal): I know there's a separate duty-free shop for US passengers, which I've never visited, but the small store servicing BA passengers returning to London has the 151 stuff, which, being duty-free, you can only export by taking on an aircraft! Sounds unlikely, but is it just a US restriction?

I put a report on my visit to Sketch on 26/4 in the Sketch topic. It wasn't a detailed review, but I was surprised it didn't yield more comment.

Yes, part of the same chain: the menus here say 'Soho - Earl's Court - South Beach'.

I can't add much more in general terms than to agree with SWoodyWhite's excellent post, but to add some London perspective: The last formally 'gay restaurant' in London closed about 8 years ago, called "Roy's West End", after it moved to London's West End from Chelsea where it had just been called "Roy's Restaurant". Roy's was noted for good but not stellar food, friendly service and a small, convivial space surrounded by mirrors (useful for checking out everyone else in the restaurant). Alex and I used to go there for the occasional Valentine's night (when we still thought it important to eat out together on the busiest, least pleasant dining night of the year) and when we were meeting groups of friends that we thought might get a bit loud and campy (Us? No, not ever.) A straight couple in Roy's would definitely feel out of place, and may even be made to feel unwelcome. The need for Roy's vanished, like many other places referenced in these posts, when it became apparent that no decent restaurant in London was going to throw out a gay couple, even on Feb 14th, if they were spending money and not insulting the staff (or, at least, insulting them in an amusing way). Older friends of mine recall eating at the old Roy's when they wanted a more friendly meal, because they recall in other restaurants having to change the discussion topic to work-related matters whenever staff came close lest the staff take offence (this was in 70s London). Now there in London most restaurants are gay-friendly, at least, and the gayest places tend to be see-and-be-seen diners like Balans in Old Compton St, with huge windows, where the food plays definite second fiddle to the cute staff and flirty atmosphere. A straight couple would be fine there, as long as they didn't have that look on their face as if they were visiting a zoo. Which is pretty much how things are in London in all but the hardest-core gay bars (many of which are not bars in the sense that serving alcohol is their main attraction): treat other customers, and staff with respect and no-one is going to care who you sleep with.

Well, OK I was taken to Sketch last night, the posh bit, the Lecture Room. It was a celebration dinner and I wasn't paying, so I can't comment on the price (or the wine list) beyond what I saw on the menus. I'm also going to disappoint you because I can't remember everything we had to eat. But yes, it was fabulous. The Lecture Room space is upstairs and very separate from the chaos downstairs. We had a look in the Gallery after dinner and it doesn't look like the sort of place I'd like to eat - noisy, frantic, canteen-like. Upstairs is calm, refined. The decor is somewhat eclectically exotic but works well. I'd say the Lecture Room was about 80% full last night - a few tables weren't taken all evening. Dinner started with a glass of '89 champagne and the following eats: ginger and foie gras biscuit (stunning), salted gingerbread, cuttlefish and pepper parfait, and a couple of other nibbles. The first hint that the meal was going to be exciting. At our table we were presented with 4 amuse-bouches to eat in order: the smoothest foie gras with avocado topped with raspberry coulis, duck with cucumber jelly, a red pepper soup with almonds and white beans, and a beef carpaccio with herring roe. The menu is listed by ingredient - so the meat mains were, for example, 'Pigeon', 'Guinea Fowl', 'Lamb' and 'Beef'. There were 4 starters, 4 fish mains, 4 meat mains and 3 vegetable mains. I'll come back to desserts... For my starter I had the 'Essence of Spring' (£38), which consisted of four dishes. A pea soup, poured over cabbage, parmesan and ham; A rye dumpling with cheese; A mousseline of crabmeat wiith snowpeas; A jura wine jelly with mushrooms. Fascinating, complex flavours, each individually exciting but which together provided a very satisfying but quite filling starter. We had an excellent half-bottle of Condrieu with our starters. I had the 'Beef' main (£60). The mains were by comparision with what had gone before more traditional. I had three pieces of very tender fillet, with a bearnaise sausage (like boudin noir), marinated turnips that were deeply dark, spring onions and canneloni of snails. Presented separately was a tarte tatin-like dish of very finely sliced potatoes with very rich caramelised onions. This was all very tasty, but I felt it wasn't quite as exciting as what had come before. But then, this isn't El Bulli (gotta wait til August for that), and a traditionally-styled main with more interesting touches seems to fit with the ethos of the restaurant. We were guided to a Morey-Saint-Denis in place of the Gevrey-Chambertin we had first thought of. It worked well. A few small bites of sweet things (including a gorgeous rosemary marshmallow) to tide us over until dessert, for which we both went for the Grand Dessert (£32), which had 8 sweet things. This was getting to overload, and if you wish you could select some from the list at £4 each. Highlights were an upmarket butterkist combination of popcorn, meringue, nuts and raspberries, a lemon soup, and a flower mousse. The d'Yquem 94 went well despite the sommelier's warning that it wasn't the best Yquem. Coffee and fresh mint tea completed the evening. As I say, this was a surprise dinner, for a celebration, so inevitably that colours my report (as does the fact that I wasn't paying). But I thought this was an exceptional dinner, where it was easy to see where the money was being spent - the food was sophisticated, elegant and excitingly tasty. The service was friendly once it had warmed up a bit, verging on the over-attentive, but when you're juggling eight plates for dessert it was quite useful for them to be efficient with the plate-clearing. So, I'm a fan. I want to go again in somewhat more sober and rational mood, to better evaluate (and think about) what I'm eating, but that won't be for a while probably. But it's certainly the most exciting meal I've had in London for a very long time.

This week's Time Out reports a rumoured falling-out between J-G and the Berkeley, meaning that his new restaurant will not open there. Ramsay is now reportedly looking at the Vong space for a "cafe-style" operation. No change on the Berkeley website at the moment....

Spent a few days in Bilbao last year. Would thoroughly recommend the restaurant in the Guggenheim museum - modern takes on traditional Basque food. Well designed, great service, make sure you book in advance for lunch. We also ate at Zortziko, which has a Michelin star, but that was disappointing - it was its first night opening after its annual hols and may not have got back into its stride, but it was our last night in town. Traditional French service, and not in a good way. Food was well-executed but uninspiring.

I ate in the Avignon branch with friends in Sept last year. It was seriously one of the worst meals I have ever had in France. Discordant ingredients appeared on the plate with no relation to each other; a lot of effort in the presentation but not in the cooking. Service haughty and unfriendly: two dishes (one starter and one dessert) which had figs as a major ingredient arrived with quince instead; we were told that we should have know that figs were out of season at the time we went - in which case, why on the menu? Desperately trendy and desperately empty bar completed the sorry state. Our French friends had been before, and only went again at my request; they thought it expensive and disgusting. Not sure I understand what the Pourcels are trying to do here; it seriously put me off trying Jardin des Sens; I'm not a traditionalist when it comes to food but I do like some intelligence put into the process.

Sequentially makes sense, just got our confirmation for late August. We'd offered dates in April, May, July and August, so I guess they fill from the start first, and pushed us to our latest date since they have fewest reservations that late in the season.

8 dates during the course of the year from April to Sept, for two people, and I'm still waiting...

Joe, I too did email and fax (stating the duplication) and offered a choice of 8 dates, all Fridays and Saturdays, saying that we would be making the trip from the UK specifically to eat there. No word yet - did they confirm to you by email or by fax?

Tried Brasserie La Trouvaille in Islington last night, and found it extremely disappointing. Starters White asparagus, poached egg, cantal - tasty, a bit over-dressed, but probably the best thing I had all night Venison pate en croute - straight from the fridge, pastry dry and unpleasant, too much overpowering onion marmalade Mains Cassoulet - like baked beans with meat. The meat was very fatty, and didn't give the impression of having melded with the beans over a long cooking time Lapin au moutarde - totally overwhelming mustard flavour with no sense of rabbity undertones. Dessert Tarte tatin - might have been quite nice if it had been warmer. Interesting wine list, mostly regional French, lots of things I wanted to try. Choice of six dessert wines by the glass. Total bill came to a surprising £130 with a glass of champagne each, bottle of nice red Languedocian (about £30, didn't order and didn't note which) and a glass of Jurancon each. All in all, for that price, disappointing - service was friendly and professional. The room is oddly-shaped and not very welcoming, they haven't really overcome the problem that most of the previous residents of that space have experienced. For French food in the area, I'd go upmarket to the (not too much more expensive) Almeida, or downmarket to the Montmatre/Sacre Couer/Petite Auberge chain, which have too-long menus for their size of place but can still give you a decent meal for not many £££s. I notice too that Time Out gives Brasserie La Trouvaille a cool review today.

Caterer.com today reporting 26 Nov.

Same applies in my experience on 1 Jan. Never been in Paris on 1 Jan, but in other parts of France I've been on 1 Jan, nothing has been open.

According to caterer.com today, Koffman is not retiring and is looking to open a new restaurant after leaving the Berkeley, although it will likely not open until September 2003.