Putney Bridge

[Paul Bell]

Visited Putney Bridge for lunch on Sunday and it was very very good. The only previous time we had visited this restaurant was for sunday lunch about a year ago, it was good then but this time it was better at all levels, the food was better, there was more choice and the price has actually gone down.

Sunday lunch is a set three course menu costing £22.50, there are five or six choices at each course and it includes canapes, amuse bouche, pre-dessert and petits fours, the full michelin experience, for this level of cooking it could be the biggest bargain in town.

We had:

veloute of potato and almond as an amuse bouche, (very good, smooth and creamy veloute with a deep almond taste and containing small pieces of almond)

scallops pan fried and tartare with a coral and carrot sauce (very enjoyable albeit if you like scallops you can't go wrong with this sort of thing)

seared tuna with black pepper, green leaves, sesame dressing (I think) (again a fairly standard combination, but very well done, the tuna more generous than is often the case)

lasagne of rabbit with mustard dressing (did not get to try this and the children eat the lot)

main courses of:

sauteed John Dory with shrimp and chanterelle mushrooms (very good, a generous piece of fish cooked properly with a light shrimp flavoured sauce and garnished as above)

roast pork belly with gratin of macaroni (the pork was very moist and gelatinous, very tasty possibly slight less well done than is fashionable at present, the macaroni consisted of four long tubes of pasta stuck together and topped with a cheese sauce)

slow cooked lamb, with artichoke and tomato stuffed with rice and mint. (excellent, the lamb was unctuous, and even the tomato tasted really good, I didn't get much as again the children scoffed the lot)

desserts were:

caramel jelly with poached pear and liquorice ice cream (the jelly was slightly salty and almost meaty, didn't get any of the pear or ice cream).

passionfruit cream with white chocolate mousse, this was really good, the white chocolate mousse one of the best I have tasted.

waffles with chocolate syrup and chantilly (very light waffles, very enjoyable).

apologies if my descriptions are not the best, I am in a hurry and struggling this morning.

overall the cooking was of a very high standard, as you would expect, I suspect it would be more challenging in the evening, but this was hugely enjoyable and very good value.

Paul

[cabrales]

I agree Putney Bridge is promising; I have mentioned this on more than one occasion on the board. I ate there around one year ago; the chef was offering woodcock prepared traditionally. Demetre has technique (including as a result of Koffman's tutelage). The service is very "French" (in a good way). The views are beautiful; the downside is the location of the restaurant being a bit away from central London.

I should add that the a la carte lunch option Sundays at PB is much more expensive. For members less familiar with London, the least expensive way to access PB if one does not have a car is to take the subway to Hammersmith station, and then hop on a quick taxi ride.

[Paul Bell]

I am not certain but I believe they have stopped offering the a la carte at sunday lunchtime, certainly last year we were offered both but this time everyone just got the sunday lunch menu, although most of the items on the menu are either off the a la carte or simplied versions thereof.

Bearing in mind the cost of taxis in London, the cheapest way to the restaurant is probably a train from Waterloo to Putney BR station (which does of course mean extensive travelling south of the river). Although both times we have driven because on Sundays you can park right by the restaurant.

Paul

[Andy Lynes]

Here's a report destined for UKGourmet, hence its slightly formal nature :

It would seem that Anthony Demetre of Putney Bridge restaurant in south London is a chef of the old school: a craftsman content to remain in his kitchen and ply his trade. He has no media profile to speak of, and unless you are a regular reader of industry magazine Caterer and Hotelkeeper (in whose pages he appears from time to time) you will probably not even know what he looks like. By shunning the spotlight, Demetre arguably runs the risk of being overlooked by the restaurant going population in favour of chefs more eager to pursue celebrity. If my recent dinner is anything to go by however, this would be a big mistake. Putney Bridge offers a very fine and rewarding dining experience to those who care to seek it out.

The restaurant is housed on the first floor of an impressive purpose built modernistic lozenge on the banks of the Thames. The dining room’s rectangle is divided in two along its length. To the rear on the road side is a raised platform of seating at smallish square tables. This overlooks the floor level area of generously proportioned and well-spaced round tables set near to the restaurant's floor to ceiling plate- glassed frontage which affords a calming view of the river to all.

As a lone diner I was surprised, but nonetheless very pleased, to be allocated a window table for four all to myself. As I took my seat, I did briefly wonder if my solitary status had caused the front of house staff to mistake me for a man from Michelin, but I rejected this idea as being overly cynical.

The sun was setting on some stray waterway traffic as I sipped a beer, tucked into a fine and generous selection of gougeres, cheese straws, mackerel “puffs” and chicken liver parfait toasts and considered my menu options for the evening.

The 6-course degustation with its asparagus, foie gras, scallops, lobster or venison, cheese and assiete of desserts all for a relatively paltry sum (by London standards at least) of £49.00 was enormously tempting. With a mind to my waistline and budget however I reluctantly decided that perhaps the a la carte might be the expedient choice. Which is not to say it was in any way second best: dishes such as “fresh Dorset crab, cucumber cream, young leaves and fennel salad” (£14.50) or “roast veal sweetbreads, potato gnocchi, young carrots with truffle honey, casserole of morels” (£22.50) amongst others ensured it a place in the capital's premier league of modern haute cuisine.

I ordered “young squid, farcie of beef daube, brandade de morue, parsley cromesquis” to start. This appeared helpfully on the carte as simply “Squid”, with the detailed description in smaller type beneath it. All items followed this format, which allowed me to quickly flick an eye down the list and identify instantly the main ingredient of any given dish. I was then able to decide if I was in the mood for say chicken or asparagus or scallops without having to first wade through a lot of complex menu language which, although designed to make the food sound appetising, often simply confuses matters.

An outstanding amuse of cream of foie gras, cider jelly and spiced bread emulsion was offered along with excellent onion bread from a choice of 4 types. Too often these additional courses can act as an irritant, included by chefs in a doomed attempt to play the Michelin game and second-guess the criteria that might win them a star. In the wrong hands, they can disrupt the natural flow and balance of a meal and dull the appetite, making the diner full before he has had a chance to eat the food he actually ordered. Not so at Putney Bridge.

A thin layer of jelly and a blob of the emulsion topped the light, chilled cream, studded with marinated sultanas. The effect was delicate, with subtle flavours of the liver, cider and spiced bread worked into the mousse-like texture. Delightful to eat and easy on the stomach, it was a nice lead in to the more robust intent of the squid.

Two tubes of the mollusc had been stuffed with the wine-enriched meat, browned off and served with a large quenelle of the salt cod and potato. The cromesquis was a variation on the Marc Meneau classic, with a parsley coulis set with gelatine then breadcrumbed and deep-fried. This required careful knife work in order to avoid a hot verdant fountain of the now liquid herb shooting up from the plate and staining my jacket. This danger successfully navigated, I assembled a forkful with each of the seemingly disparate elements to see if they could form an unlikely alliance on the tongue. Somehow it all worked, with the parsley uniting the fairly neutral squid casing with the intense but tender beef and the rich salty mash. A real cracker of a dish in fact, encompassing braised, sautéed, poached and deep-fried ingredients to great effect, and all for a bargain £9.50.

A main of “Lamb” was a herb coated rack, slow cooked shoulder “boulangere”, young (there’s that word again) vegetables and roasting juice. As if to acknowledge that the pink meat of the spring lamb might lack a little in the flavour department, a small heap of sea salt and white pepper had been piled onto the edge of the plate. It was a lovely hunk of protein never the less, with the potato cake adding the necessary heft and unctuousness that the rack couldn’t manage alone. A nicely judged array of vegetables included some lightly soused fennel, roasted cherry tomato, whole baby carrot and courgette.

The dish was finished with “not enough gravy” (my quotes) which seems to have become a feature of modern cooking. I would be lying however if I said the food was in anyway dry, it’s just that I like a lot of sauce. I know a flooded plate is terribly old fashioned, but maybe restaurants could get in the habit of offering a little pot of extra jus on the side. I should add, that given the level of service I received at Putney Bridge, I don’t doubt for a second that one would have been produced should I have requested it, but I realised too late that the last couple of mouthfuls would have been improved with a touch more liquid.

A pre-dessert was described as “veloute of coffee with burnt milk ice cream”. What that actually represents in terms of cooking technique I’m not entirely sure, but it certainly shared the mousse like qualities of it savoury cousin served at the start of the meal and was another winning dish. Dessert proper took the form of warm vanilla waffles, banana and pecan nut jam, Chantilly and warm chocolate sauce. Three waffles, tucked up in a napkin on a rectangular plate came with quenelles of the jam and cream and a pot of the sauce on a separate platter. It was then up to me to put it all together, allowing me to happily slosh far too much of the delicious molten chocolate about the place and act like a hungry five year old at breakfast.

Very good coffee was accompanied by yet more food, this time an impressive selection of petit four. Although these went left untouched on the day, they were not wasted as they were presented to me in a very smart black box to take away.

Service, headed by William Smith, was pitched perfectly: runners with trays, ceremonial conveying of plates to the table, appropriately detailed explanations of the food, help with the wine list, a “bon appetite” here, a “how are you enjoying your dinner” there. All the formalities present and correct, but only so as to allow the diner complete confidence in the restaurant, not to intimidate or to impress.

I would like to be able to say something intelligent about the wine list, but can only comment that it starts at a very pleasing £15.00 for a bottle of Touraine, goes up quite a bit higher than that and includes many interesting bottles, a white Chateau Musar being just one example. I drank most of a bottle £26.00 Chardonnay which stood up well to the food. As it was chosen for me by the sommelier and I failed to take any notes, I can tell you no more about it other than it went down a treat.

On the basis of one meal, Putney Bridge appears to me to be an outstanding operation in every regard. With high ratings in many of the guides, a packed bar and busy dining room it would be erroneous to suggest that it needs to be somehow re-discovered. But it if for any reason it has dropped off your culinary radar, a reconnaissance mission deep into the heart of SW15 could well be overdue.

[Paul Bell]

We (Dawn, myself and two children) returned to Putney bridge for lunch on Sunday. It is probably still the best value in London, although not quite as good as previously, in that (I suspect as a cost cutting measure) they have cut out the amuse bouche and the pre-dessert, and instead of petits fours with coffee you get coconut crusted marshmallow.

You do still get the cheese straws, gougeres, tasot with tapenade etc while you peruse the menu.

The menu is still a variation on the evening menu rather than a separate lunch menu and as such offers excellent value at £22.50 for three courses.

To start we had the Squid (the same as Andy's), Asparagus with serrano ham and poached egg vinaigrette and chilled tomato gazpacho. I won;t comment on these as Andy's has described the Squid perfectly well and I did not try the other two, although all parties were well pleased.

For main courses we had roast beef, roast pork and slo cooked sea bream with herb risotto.

The pork looked excellent (I didn't get near it), generous thick slice of 'black pig from Gascony) with black pudding, roast apples and a sort of crushed potatoes (I think) and roast carrots (which were excellent, I did get one of those). the beef was excellent and would I imagine satisfy anyone with a roast beef craving for sunday lunch, it came with fondant potatoes (even if they were described as roast and green beans). The sea bream was very good, slowly poached (in oil?), very tender, very flavoursome, served with a good toothsome green herb risotto, a swirl of green olive puree, and a razor clam shell of assorted fishy bits. Very good, I think I am slighty less effusive as I was watching everyone else have roasted meat while I had the fish.

The desserts were chocolate soup with coffee ice cream (excellent judging by the speed with which it disappeared), apple tart with vanilla ice cream (very enjoyable, excelleny ice cream very smooth and unctuous) and a jelly of rhubarb and blood orange with topped with a sabayon and pink grapefruit sorbet (very refreshing and very good).

Oh and we had the cheap £15 bottle of wine Andy mentions, which was not bad, not a lot of depth but good varietal/terroir character for the money.

Overall this is still a really good place for sunday lunch, very fine cooking, good choice, excellent service.

If you do go over the summer make sure you request a table overlooking the river, as they get booked more quickly.

Paul

[Andy Lynes]

I've e mailed Anthony Demetre to see if he can verify and expand on the presumptions I made in my report about his cooking techniques, so I'll report back on any response I recieve. Maybe he might even join us on this thread at some point, who knows.

[Andy Lynes]

I recieved a reply from Chef Demetre which basically said that I had got everything spot on and that the wine I drank was Marques de Griñón, Dominio de Valdepusa, 1996. So there you go.

[Andy Lynes]

Just booked in for lunch in early June and requested a window table. I was fully prepared for the reply to be "we'll see what we can do for you, but I can't guarantee anything, those tables a re very popular" which is pretty much what I always get when I try a specify a particular table in upmarket restaurants (Petrus and Orrey spring to mind especially).

I was therefore pleased to hear the response "that won't be a problem". Given that I am booking a few weeks ahead and that, because of their location, I would guess that lunchtimes are quieter for them than dinner, it shouldn't be that that surprising that they are able to accomodate the request. However it was very refreshing that there was no song and dance made about it.

Has anyone else had similar problems with getting a particular table in restaurants, do you in fact care about where you sit?

[Andy Lynes]

Have now eaten said lunch. The room was indeed quite, around 25 people served according to chef Demetre who came and had a chat with my wife Gill and myself at the end of another highly enjoyable meal.

Canapes were as described above, followed by an excellent amuse of gazpacho with crab. Gill went for the stuffed squid dish that I had at dinner and I chose asparagus served with serrano ham, parmesan and warm egg viniagrette. This looked particularly stunning, the veg artfully arranged on a triangular glass plate with the ham draped around, a small pool of the egg and the cheese in the form of a crisp. I usually dislike "comedy crockery" but in this instance the presentation worked very well indeed.

Main courses of roasted breast of Guinea Fowl with a fricasse of mushrooms, cabbage gateau and pont neuf chips and a classic veal blanquette with young veg and potato gnocchi were deeply satisfying, perfect lunch food. Seasoning for everything was absolutely bang on the money.

Desserts of stawberry trifle and ile flottante were both presented in straight-sided circular glass bowels and were delicious. Service was highly professional and reassuringly authoritative, enthusiastic without being overbearing.

We paid £90.00 for two people including champagne, a bottle of wine, 1 coffee and service which was great value given the quality of food on offer.

Some changes may be a foot at Putney Bridge in order to make the experience more informal, a more commercial proposition, especially at lunchtime. I like it just the way it is, but had to agree with Anthony Demetre that I could well be old fashioned in my expectations of what constitues a great night out. Demetre is quite obviously the equal of the likes of Phil Howard, Marcus Wareing, Chavot et al, but appears at the moment to looking for an alternative to collecting more Michelin stars to drive his business forward. It will be interesting to see in which direction he goes.

[olly s]

For members less familiar with London, the least expensive way to access PB if one does not have a car is to take the subway to Hammersmith station, and then hop on a quick taxi ride.

The closest tube station is Putney Bridge, on the District Line - which does run on a Sunday ...

[Scott]

Took a mate along last night, to cheer him up.

where's the wow? another elaborate michelin kitchen without any real pizazz or spunk.

I won't go into too much of what I had, I can't remember - we had the degustation and waiter never announced or explained any of the courses and I didn't really recall from the menu. The waiter didn't speak english, nor did he look old enough to shave. I repeat, he didn't speak english - do I ask so much ?

Anyway it was all fine, the food was perfectly ok (not great, maybe not quite good either), service was poor and sporadic, the bill was high enough to make me wish I had gone to tom aikens or pied a terre instead. As the point was for a bit of good old fashioned fussy service, I'm not too happy that it was so slap hazard.

A john dory course and a sea bass course were all too similar me thinks, and a foie that was big on presentation but a little thin on execution. The beef was excellent, wonderfully textured and rich in flavour, but the only real winner of the night. The food just lacked a kick, as service was crap, where was the bit that made feel good that I had chosen to come here? The cheese course was chosen for me, just a single piece of a chevre or similar, when their board looked so inviting.

I think I would be fine here for lunch where the value is better, but overall not an exciting experience - no bang for the buck. A perfectly decent neighbourhood restaurant along the lines of the stepping stone or sonny's; but twice the price. Sloppy, should try harder.

- Oh and wouldn't give us a window table, but we watched 2 of them below us go vacant the whole evening.

Edited October 2, 2003 by Scott (log)

[Jon Tseng]

Sea bass AND john dory on a tasting? Sounds like a funny...

J

[Scott]

Sea bass AND john dory on a tasting? Sounds like a funny...

J

I agree

scallops with ham

Foie with run & raison cakey thing

John dory

Sea Bass

cheese

Strawberry souffle

[Andy Lynes]

scallops with ham

Foie with run & raison cakey thing

John dory

Sea Bass

cheese

Strawberry souffle

Where's the beef?

[Andy Lynes]

the bill was high enough to make me wish I had gone to tom aikens or pied a terre instead.

Tasting menu at both those restaurants is £10 more than Putney Bridge I think i.e. £59.00 compared with £49.00?

[Scott]

Andy,

choice of beef or sea bass, i went fish, mate went beef.

my mistake.

as for prices, yeah the tasting menu's at the other places are slightly more expensive, but the food is vastly more exciting.

IMHO Putney Bridge is a correct restaurant that went south the night we were there.

It's this variability that I find hard to forgive. They would not have retained their michelin star on this showing.

did I mention my waiter didn't speak english?

[Matthew Grant]

I'm booked with friends on Saturday night , I've requested a Window seat that apparently "won't be a problem". I was really looking forward to it until I read your report! My last visit a couple of years ago was very good.

As for the buzz I think this is the problem with a lot of restaurants thee days, unless chefs have apsirations towards 2 or 3 stars the buzz is too often lacking, as Marco Pierre White once said, it's winning the stars that is difficult, keeping hold of them is comparitively easy. I've tables booked at PDT and Tom Aiken in coming weeks so it will be interesting to compare.

[tony h]

If its a romantic nigth out wacthing the tide turn - its a wonderful place.

But the food thought lacks sparkle - its perfectly well executed & presented. Its a bit "too english" in that there is potential but there's no dimension or depth to, say, the sauces. Its food to observe rather than to partake.

Oh and - they do this vodka with fresh raspberries cocktail-thing - best not.

Edited October 3, 2003 by blind lemon higgins (log)

[Matthew Grant]

We returned to Putney Bridge on Saturday night for the first time in a couple of years. I Definitely won’t be leaving it that long again. I’ll recount as best I can although dining with friends meant that we couldn’t concentrate on the food as much as we’d have liked. Good table next to the window overlooking the Thames just as requested a few weeks previously

Started with a generous selection of Canapés which included a choux type cheesy puff, cheese straws and a small piece of Chicken Liver pate on exceptionally thin crisp bread. A nice introduction.

Amuse was a bowl of Foie Gras cream with a cider jelly. Wonderfully light and smooth , the cider jelly was a good accompaniment although I would have preferred a little more as it was so nice.

To start I ordered Fillet of Red Mullet, potato waffle, aubergine caviar, jus with Pesto. A single large fillet of red mullet, cooked to absolute perfection, the fillet rested on top of some gently fried onion resting on a potato waffle with a small trail of Aubergine Caviar and a drizzle of pesto. This was a wonderful way to start, the potato waffle tasted fresh and light and the sweetness of the onions was well balanced with the fish and aubergine caviar (not sure who cooked this first but it tasted very similar to Ramsay’s version). The Pesto was delicate enough not to be intrusive. The fish played a starring role.

Rachel ate ravioli of slow cooked aromatic pork belly, Enoki mushroom, spring onions and choi. In reality this was a Chinese dish but none the worse for it. Tender pork belly served in Chinese style dumplings, the dish was finished at the table by the waiter who filled the dish with a Chinese style broth fragrant with star anise. This dish was sensational, completely unexpected in style, the soup was possibly made with a ham stock and the addition of the star anise meant it blended perfectly with the aromatic pork which filled the dumplings.

The other dish on our table which I didn’t get to try was Roast Scottish scallops, smoked Ham flan, shimeji mushrooms, beurre noisette with cabernet sauvignon vinegar – it looked good and the scallops were large, that is about all I can tell you but it disappeared without any complaint.

Next I ate Rabbit cooked two ways, roast saddle, confit shoulder ‘cottage pie’, sweet and sour carrots, roasting juice. WOW! This was so good, I haven’t eaten rabbit in a long time! Three finger sized pieces of saddle with a thick finger of carrot with only a hint of the promised sweet and sour, small preparation of cabbage which I now forget and a great bowl of Confit rabbit topped with smooth, light cheesy potato puree made with a lot of butter. I would have been happy with a large bowl of the cottage pie but the other elements of the dish were good enough to stand on their own. The saddle was cooked medium and the fat enveloping each piece melted away without any effort considering the light cooking the meat had. In my opinion this is the best single dish I have eaten in England this year. I suggested to our waiter that the ‘cottage pie’ be renamed ‘parmentier’, virtually the same I know but too many negative connotations with cottage pie and this dish deserves to avoid them.

Rachel ate the special of the day which was English Organic chicken baked in a salt crust, cepes a la crème, roasting juice. Our waiter brought the complete parcel to the table and took great care in describing the cooking method and removing the large salt lid at the table to reveal a solitary breast of what he described as ‘English Poulet Bresse’, he seemed reluctant to divulge the breed of bird to us but beamed as I identified it as Label Anglais (spelling?). It was served with four tubes of pasta topped with a creamy cep sauce, the chicken was moist and flavoursome, cooked to absolute perfection under the salt crust, the skin must have been browned briefly before its final cooking in the oven. It had soaked up the flavour of the rosemary that was within the crust. Another fantastic dish that was finished off halfway through the course with a small bowl of the leg with a green salad.

Our friends ate the Rabbit and Slow cooked fillet of Aberdeen Angus/Charolais beef, sweet potato puree, sauté of cepes and fresh walnuts. The beef was a crossbreed from Donald Russell (I always thought they solde purebred Aberdeen Angus?). This beef looked fantastic, cooked very pink, with very large ceps, unfortunately I never got to taste it but I presume this was very good as it was very large and looked very masculine, our female friend normally orders seabass and she finished the whole lot no trouble at all.

Pre Desserts of passion fruit cream with white chocolate mousse was beautifully refreshing and the mousse was more like a foam but retained enough depth of chocolate to make it interesting and balance the tartness from the cream.

Desserts were the only disappointing dish. Our table of four only ordered 2 dishes.

Poached whole provencal peach . light strawberry juice and pink grapefruit sorbet was fine but lacked imagination. A glorified fruit salad with a small sorbet which lacked the sharpness that I expected from the grapefruit. The other dish was waffles (very light, crisp), wild strawberries, warm jus, lemon verbena ice cream. I didn’t get to taste this but the strawberries looked too large to be wild, they were arranged in a large pile alongside the waffle with a small pot of strawberry juice and a small portion of ice cream. It all looked nice but in a sort of simople way that wasn’t really in keeping with the rest of the meal. Maybe we ordered poorly but it was a slightly disappointing end to a fantastic meal. Good petit fours and coffee finished us off nicely. Total bill for four with 3 bottles of wine around the £25 mark was £270 – a veritable bargain for a meal of this quality.

Our waiter was charming and knowledgeable and we briefly discussed its chances of getting 2 stars. In my opinion this is verging on 2 stars but may be hampered by its modern setting and large number of covers. I hope it doesn’t spoil its chances.

Interesting aside this was the second best meal I have had so far this year, the other was cooked by Claude Bosi at Hibiscus – I believe he is Anthony Demetre’s best friend

[Andy Lynes]

Interesting the way this restaurant divides opinion as it doesn't strike me as a "love it or hate it" kind of place in the way that The Fat Duck might be. I like the desserts that I have tried, but would agree that those I have tried are in a more simple vein than the rest of the menu. I'm hoping to return in the near future to try the game menu.

[Scott]

Our waiter was charming and knowledgeable and we briefly discussed its chances of getting 2 stars. In my opinion this is verging on 2 stars but may be hampered by its modern setting and large number of covers. I hope it doesn’t spoil its chances.

Matthew,

ignoring differences of opinion on some common dishes, a restaurant of such variation in food standards and service surely can't be anywhere near 2 stars.

Glad you had a nice night however.

[Matthew Grant]

The only variation in food standards came at the dessert stage - everything else was in my opinion superb. Desserts were, as Andy said, simple rather than badly prepared but this could also have been due to what we ordered. This has to be close to 2 stars and Hibiscus will be 2 stars (putting my neck on the line)

This was some of the best food I have had in London for ages, I've been talking about it ever since and have in 4 days managed to persuade a total of 12 people to change celebration meals from a couple of other one stars I usually recommend to friends to here as I think it did have the buzz that so many restaurants are lacking.

I also do a disservice to my 'waiter' who appeared to be the Maite D'. I'm afraid I didn't get his name.

If PDT and TA are as good as this I will be a happy man!

[Matthew Grant]

Scott - apologies, I suddenly realised that you were referring to the variances in quality between my meal and yours

[Bapi]

Mathew's excellent post prompted me to book a long belated Sunday Lunch with friends at PB in a couple of weeks time.

I did, however, neglect to ask for table by the window, so I will need to rectify that tomorrow. Hopefully, I will have the same luck as those of you who have asked specifically.

I'll let you know how we got on.

[Andy Lynes]

I'm hoping to get back later this week so will also report back.