Taste of Bath

[PhilD]

We went to out first Taste festival in Bath this weekend. We went with high hopes but were quite disappointed. There were some good bits, but these were few and far between. First the food:

Bells Diner - the restaurant from Bristol, really interesting Oysters with cucumber espuma. A good serve, and very interesting. We also tried some braised belly pork with cauliflower puree and oloroso raisins. Which was good

Lucken Park - a loin of lamb with fricassee of peas, and gnocchi. Quite tasty.

The Bath Priory Hotel - roast scallop, lemon balm puree, and cumin. And a Duck cured in Birch sap, tangerine, and omega rich seeds. They both looked good but the miniscule portions meant you really found it difficult to taste.

The Dower House - suckling lamb, japanese samphire, celeriac espuma, and lamb nage. Quite a reasonable size plate and very good lamb, although the other ingredients got lost.

The Hole in the Wall - Mini Beef Wellington with Foie Gras, wild mushrooms, and madera juice - sounded great, but it was overcooked and dried out. We also tried the Whole Confit of Gressingham Duck, with pineapple chutney, and cucumber and coriander salad. Much better, but confit survives a bit of over cooking.

Hudsons Steakhouse - Fillet Steal and chips with bernaise sauce. OK steak and chips interestingly the most popular.

The Angel Coaching Inn - Beer Battered Whiting and chips. Nice fish and chips, and the second most popular.

So some interesting food, that should have been very good. We managed 10 dishes in a couple of hours and that is the problem. The plates cost between £4 and £5 each, but they were mainly the size of an average amuse bouche. Nearly £50 worth of food between us and we were still very hungry. Given it also cost £12 each to get in this made it very expensive.

The wine wasn't much better. Thank god for Sainsbury's, they at least sold well priced generous portions. Most of the other stands had expensive, small plastic glasses of wine.

So why my provocative title? Well, I have been to great food festivals in Australia, great events in France, but this was my first in the UK. Other countries festivals have a generous undertone, people are happy, there is a fun spirit, portions are generous, the charges are reasonable. You come out with a good feeling. You want to visit the restaurants, you are happy spending money.

Instead, after this experience, I felt I had, had my wallet wrung out. Little was good value. The exception was Chris Wicks at Bell's Diner - we will be paying him a visit.

[insomniac]

Bell's Diner is excellent value and well worth the visit Phil....hope you'll agree...

[malcolmwilliamson]

I assume Lucken is a typo for Lucknam PhilD. I'm booked in for lunch there mid July. Anyone else been recently?

[PhilD]

I assume Lucken  is a typo for Lucknam PhilD. I'm booked in for lunch there mid July. Anyone else been recently?

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Yes a typo - Lucknam Park it was. Wish I could comment in more depth on the food, but as I said the portions were so small it was tricky to gauge the quality. I had hoped the Taste festival would have led us to want to try some new restaurants based on our experiences but we are none the wiser.

I will be really interested to hear your thoughts on Lucknam Park as we have been toying with the idea of eating there.

[Gary Marshall]

don't forget 'taste of' is first and foremost a business that happens to involve food, it is not a few producers/ suppliers/restos getting together as used to happen it is basically a big event promotion company.

they are even in spain now doing taste of bilbao and madrid i think.

i would have given it a wide berth but got in free and met a few friends, however i did think it was very professional and was quite impressed, though i'd not want to pay to get in.