Rene Redzepi/Noma @ Claridges

[david goodfellow]

Get a life David ,Campbell is history nobody will work with the man he is so arrogant,he says he is going to open two top class restaurants this year but do not hold your breath.

Aw Sid, you disappoint me. I have a life. A very good one indeed

We have not heard the last of John Campbell i can assure you of that

Back on topic. Its got mixed reviews just as i thought it would.

[Andrew]

Just been speaking to someone who went. One of their party loved it, one hated it and the other two felt it was a mixed experience. I can't work out whether it is the love / hate of Marmite or just such poor vfm that the food is good but just not worth the cost. I'm pleased I didn't get my credit card out (although I very nearly did) although would be interested to go as someones guest

Andrew

[PSmith]

Loving the "Emperor's New Clothes" analogy on Trip Advisor.

A fool and his money ...........

[Harters]

Oh, please folks - can we not get to quoting TripAdvisor as arbiters of good food.

I'm happy to post hotel reviews there but most restaurant posters wouldnt recognise good nosh if it jumped up and kicked them in the bollocks.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Harters (log)

[PSmith]

Hatters - would you describe

"a flower pot containing a tiny carrot , a radish , two flowers and some faux soil that had been made with mushrooms"

as being cutting edge good nosh?

I am sure that some chefs could serve up a plate of Pedigree Chum and diners would think it is portion of amazing pate.

[Matthew Grant]

Just to add a bit of balance. TWO well respected industry figures thought the food to be very good, including Michelin star John Campbell no less.

In my experience chefs in the public eye are unlikely to slate a meal by another chef in the public eye, this is understandable. I also think its fair to say that chefs often look for different things in a meal, especially from a technical perspective. From this we can deduce that John Campbell might be right or he might be wrong :-)

[Putty Man]

In my experience punters who shell out a small fortune for a experience like this are loathe to criticise it lest they reduce its value in terms of social and cultural capital. In other words, the more desirable and rarified it is, the more people who are chasing a table, the more impossible the booking system; the more the punter has invested in the experience hence the diminishing probability of anyone slating it even if it is crap. For this reason, I suspect many of the negative reviewers may not have actually had the meal. This doesn't mean to say that it isn't bad; god knows, it sounds awful, but that the type of person who goes goes for the express purpose of showing off their acquisition and one can hardly show off about being fleeced.

[david goodfellow]

First of the critics reviews from Bloomberg's Richard Vines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-30/london-cocktail-marathon-awaits-olympics-drinkers-review.html

[Jon Tseng]

To be fair to them, setting up this sort of gig you're on a hiding to nothing.

As I've said many times before, how much you enjoy a meal is not about how good it is in absolute terms but how much it beats your expectations. In a place like this expectations are already sky high, which makes it very hard to beat them! Of course its not all tough for the restaurant though given the size of the cheque at the end of the night!

re: John Campbell I am in two minds about this. I can thoroughly recommend his cookbook Formulas for Flavour. Despite its naff title it really is an excellent and inspirational book which goes in-depth and slightly molecular without ever getting out of hand. I really is a shame he hasn't written another book since then. However the one time I went to the VIneyard at Stockcross I thought the food was so-so and the service horrendous - its the one time in the UK where we haven't left a tip.

J

[Gary Marshall]

re: John Campbell I am in two minds about this. I can thoroughly recommend his cookbook Formulas for Flavour. Despite its naff title it really is an excellent and inspirational book.

Look closely and you can also spot a young Anthony Flinn & Nathan Outlaw in the staff pics.

[david goodfellow]

First of the nationals. The Independent's Lisa Markwell gives her view.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/worlds-best-restaurant-comes-to-town-and-its-serving-ants-7995007.html

[Putty Man]

If this sounds like so much gastronomic claptrap, a dish designed to make headlines, not excite palates, that might be 50 per cent true. Everyone in the room either giggles or grimaces, but everyone I can see gives it a go. The overwhelming flavour is lemongrass ...

Lemongrass tastes of lemongrass too! So what? There is something sick about this. Not because it's an ant, but because, as with the whole foraging nonsense, this kind of foodstuff is freely available in hedgerows. The irony of braying cretins forking out a fortune to eat live ants because Rene says it's okay is priceless. Presumably they don't have gardens.

I mean, seriously, is there any credibility in fine dining or has it just become a total circus of status anxiety?

[PSmith]

I mean, seriously, is there any credibility in fine dining or has it just become a total circus of status anxiety?

You and I are singing from the same song sheet Putty mate.

Something in me says that certain chefs are having a huge laugh at the expense of the status diner.

ETA - not sure who is the biggest fool.......

Edited August 1, 2012 by PSmith (log)

[Man]

I mean, seriously, is there any credibility in fine dining or has it just become a total circus of status anxiety?

If you look at the very very top there is this circus element, it's true, but if you look at 'fine dining' in its entirety I think there are still fantastic meals for all tastes to be had, prepared by great professionals to whom I'm very grateful for making this whole wretched world a better place to live in. Long live fine dining!

PS Many thanks to David, as ever, for the news service!

[Putty Man]

If you look at the very very top there is this circus element, it's true, but if you look at 'fine dining' in its entirety I think there are still fantastic meals for all tastes to be had.

Okay, sure. But the poster boys for fine dining (for want of a better term) behave as if their mothers didn't pay them enough attention. I fail to see, and maybe it's just me, why something pulled out of a hedgerow or basted in liquid nitrogen is worthy of so much attention.

[Man]

If you look at the very very top there is this circus element, it's true, but if you look at 'fine dining' in its entirety I think there are still fantastic meals for all tastes to be had.

I fail to see, and maybe it's just me, why something pulled out of a hedgerow or basted in liquid nitrogen is worthy of so much attention.

I'm sure many excellent chefs too fail to see it...even if they don't say it publicly

[RDB]

A little unsure about "fine dining" concepts being plagiarised from popular jungle based television shows

[PSmith]

I fail to see, and maybe it's just me, why something pulled out of a hedgerow or basted in liquid nitrogen is worthy of so much attention.

As a kid, my Dad regularly fed us on stuff pulled out of the hedgerow - it was called road kill.

It was quite odd actually as my Dad ticked the "middleclass civil servant" box, but he still found the need to feed us on roadkill. I blame the war.