Michael Caines @ The Royal Clarence

[wgallois]

I have previously said nice things about Michael Caines ('@ the Royal Clarence' - ugh) in Exeter, so I am slightly loathe to post details of a mediocre meal there on Friday. I have a great deal of admiration for Caines because he is a great cook and he seems really committed to Devon and to improving the restaurant scene there. However, our meal on Friday got me wondering about the much-debated question of 'diffusion restaurants' and how easily standards can slip when the main man is not in attendance (Caines other job is as head chef of the two-star Gidleigh Park on Dartmoor, while his Exeter operation includes a pub, champagne bar, cafe-bar and a deli, as well as the restaurant).

I should say that neither the food nor the service were crap on Friday, but they were both disappointing. We left feeling the way one does after going to see a much-hyped film that turns out to be only so-so, with that sense of ambiguity that comes from not being sure whether the film really was bad or if one's expectations were simply too high and that it could never have offered satisfaction.

We arrived just before nine, to find that our table was still occupied, so we had a drink in the bar whilst looking at the menus. Waiter poured tonic over one of the party, and was slightly apologetic. Moved to our table and the first thing I registered was the din in the packed room. The menus didn't really inspire me as the vegetarian options were exactly the same as they had been 18 months earlier. It was clear that the waiting staff were struggling to cope with the numbers of diners, and while I wouldn't say the service was bad, its clipped character didn't really help one relax. Some tomato bread was plonked on the table. It was OK, if a little boring. There was an amuse of sweet potato and chilli soup which was nice, though it could have been frothed up a bit. As a starter my wife and I had the onion tartlet with spinach, wild mushrooms and a poached egg, which is a great dish, although it seemed less well constructed and exciting this time around. The others had a goat's cheese dish which looked a little boring. As a main I had polenta with ratatouille (it had a fancier name which I forget), which was a total let-down. It was well-cooked, but there was nothing special about it at all, and I sat there thinking that its taste was pretty similar to something I'd rustle up in the kitchen in fifteen minutes, though in a measlier portion than I'd award myself. My wife had morel ravioli in a cream sauce, which was tasty but 'no better than Sainsbury's ready-made pasta'. The others had chicken and sea-bass which they were pleased with. We skipped pudding on the basis that seven pounds fifty was an unreasonable flat-rate in such a restaurant, and bought a tub of Smarties ice cream on the way home, which we ate with a crushed Yorkie bar.

I left the restaurant feeling rather deflated because my overriding impression of the place was that it had become rather lazy and greedy, but I also felt a bit of a mug for booking a 'turned table' on a busy Friday night, and uncertain as to whether I was now applying inappropriate standards in criticising this place. While it is certainly not fair to compare it to the graceful charm of Gidleigh Park, I think one should expect more of a place which has a relatively high score for cooking in the Good Food Guide and which charges fairly serious prices.

Five better options in Exeter:

1. Fruta Bomba for decent Tex-Mex in a fairly funky setting.

2. The Dinosaur Cafe for a plate of Turkish mezze for lunch.

3. Crepes, fudge, or both, from the stalls on the High Street.

4. A picnic from Devon Country cheeses in Topsham.

5. A good pub lunch just outside the city: Jack in the Green (relatively pricey, but very competent Devon-Med option), the Beer Engine (hearty, tasty, cheap and atmospheric), or The Nobody Inn (for cheese, wine and whisky lovers).

Note: Matthew Fort reviewed Michael Caines @ The Royal Clarence in June, 2001:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,...,506808,00.html

[Paul Bell]

Had lunch here a couple of times and enjoyed it but thinking back now I can't quite decide if I am anxious to be impressed because I like Gidleigh Park so much. Additionally Exeter is a bit of a food dessert (what is it about the south/south west coast?). It has a number of 'diffusion' type restaurants Brazz, Carved angel cafe etc all pitching about the same level. Of these I think Michael Caines is the best but it is expensive for what it delivers and for the area.

Paul

[wgallois]

Yes, Paul, I think my problem with Michael Caines is that it is expensive for what it is. As well as Brazz and the Carved Angel, there is also the newish brasserie in the Hotel Barcelona which offers a similar mid-range British-Mediterranean experience. I think I'll probably go back to Brazz before the others as the space is attractive, they have Staropramen on draught and the food has fewer pretensions.

[wgallois]

My wife reminded me that my list of recommended places in Exeter did not include one of my favourites, the Moroccan restaurant 'Al Farid', which, like Michael Caines, is located on the Cathedral Close. The restaurant is divided between a more formal area (upstairs) and a less formal space where one sits on cushions to eat (no booking for this section). Downstairs they have a series of set-meals whereby you can pick a very large number of mezze and kebabs from the menu, and pay around thirty or forty pounds for about fifteen separate dishes which the 'table' shares. I have never eaten at the more formal restaurant upstairs. The food is tasty, the atmosphere generally pretty 'buzzy', and you can also smoke shisha there.

[Gavin Baxter]

On our way to Padstow last week we stayed at the Royal Clarence. Did think about eating at Michael Caines@RC but were deterred by wgallois' comments above. On a reccie around the cathedral we spotted Al Farid and its mezze bar but when we went back after opening time it was full with a private party.

Ended up in the Pizza Express across the close. Never mind, made up for it at Gidleigh Park the next day.

Gavin

[Bapi]

Gavin,

Padstow and Gidleigh Park! Sounds like a bit of a tour. Can you give me some details please? Gidleigh Park has been on our wish list for a while now. Especially after Paul Bell's comments about the place at the egullet Chez Bruce lunch last year.

Cheers

Edited April 3, 2003 by Bapi (log)

[wgallois]

Have eaten at Gidleigh Park just once, but it was a fabulous experience when we ent for lunch last summer for my wife's birthday. The drive up to the house is fun as there are signs for the hotel/restaurant from some distance off, and the excitement builds as you negotiate the fairly narrow lane for a couple of miles up to the house. Everything - food, presentation, service - was very precise in the best possible way, and I was impressed by the fact that many of the dishes were relatively simple (a tomato tart for instance, or a delicately-dressed salad offered after the mains) yet delicious. The petits fours were great, as was the Cluedo-style lounge in which we ate them. We ate off a vegetarian lunch menu and drank a half-bottle of wine, and the bill, with water and before a tip, was something like £110. There are lots of other good places (for food, walking and sightseeing) to dicover on Dartmoor, so I hope that you have a great time when you go Bapi.

[AnnyBaxter]

Gidleigh Park is probably the best hotel/restaurant combination (dreadful description; makes it sound like a US theme park, it's a country house hotel) I have visited. The staff are warm and welcoming and it seems completely natural to be informed that "our tradition is for no room keys".

We had a huge room overlooking the gardens and the bowling green, with fresh fruit supplied. Dinner is served between 7.00 and 9.00pm (residents do not need to book a time) and we decided on the degustation.

Forgive me but I can't find my copy of the menu so accurate descriptions of our meal are not to hand. A langoustine bisque, seared fois gras, sea bass, rare filet, an orange tartlet and a prune and armanac souffle were all in there somewhere. Outstanding food. Before the puds was the cheese. We decided that only French was what we wanted (petty reposte to the American chap who was sharing the dining room; he took it in good spirit and we had a fine conversation in the bar afterwards, all about restaurants and food).

It's a fabulous place. It's an expensive place. Our one night stay was 580 GPP, thats 500 GBP for DBB (brilliant kippers for B) which includes afternoon tea, tea/coffee served in your room in the morning and (unless they forgot to charge us) a couple of beers after a ramble on Dartmoor. Champagne and wine accounted for the other 80 quids. Rooms can be had for less but you don't get the stunning size/views.

Gavin

It's really Gavin but since One's Wife joined last night I forgot to do the identity switch thing!

Edited April 3, 2003 by AnnyBaxter (log)

[Bapi]

wgallois and Gavin

Thanks for that information, it looks and sounds like a wonderful experience. May have to keep this on hold for a while though unfortunately as I have a few other crafty trips in the pipeline for later in the year.

Cheers

Bapi

PS Have a lookat their site http://www.gidleigh.com/

[wgallois]

More on Exeter restaurants. Two new openings are:

1. Havana - a 'Cuban' restaurant in the space formerly occupied by the Mud Dock Cafe. While I've heard that the food in Cuba is generally bad, I hope it's not quite as bland and overpriced as the Tex-Mex offerings here. Salsa from a jar and fajitas (even bloody veggie fajitas) at £14.50 are about all I need to say about this place.

2. Red Square - Exeter finally has a Russian restaurant! Before going there a friend described the place as being conducive to a really good evening, with the enjoyment not necessarily stemming from the food. That seems fair enough as the best things about this restaurant are the warm service, its obvious enthusiasm for Russia and Russian food, a selection of very good, large (500ml) Russian beers, the £8.50 for two courses pre-theatre dinner menu, and, one imagines, the very large selection of vodkas which we did not try on this occasion. We had mushroom blinis followed by a hearty stew. The servings were generous and the food was tasty, though I would have liked the herbs and spicing to have been accentuated more (their style may have been authentic, but the blinis, for instance, suffered from the fact that the amount of dill used in the dish was miniscule). Still, they have only just opened and I'm sure that they will sort such things out. I can imagine having some enjoyably hazy memories of this restaurant in the coming years.

[wgallois]

Two more Exxie restaurants:

1. St Olave's Court: we had heard good things about this small, hotel restaurant both from friends and from reviewers (I think it scores something like a '5' in the Good Food Guide). The cooking is quite English in many ways, with many of the dishes based around local ingredients such as sea-food and cheeses. My favourite dish was a pudding of Pimm's jellies with shortbread and rasberry ripple ice cream. The selection of ice creams and sorbets was also good, with a fun cucumber ice. These were, however, two of the more outre items on the menu, which tended to be more restrained in general. Two courses costs £26.50, with three for £29.50. Service was very friendly, and my impression was that the wine list was much less of a rip-off than in most restaurants of this calibre.

2. The Conservatory: a restaurants about which there is a considerable buzz in Devon's capital. In part this is because they run a 'beat the clock' offer between 5.30 and 7.0 whereby selected main courses are charged at a rate which equates to the time they are ordered (so our party of four had three main courses for £6.43, and only one at the full price). Almost everything else about the restaurant screams 'individuality' from the decor (sort of children's fairytale in white pine), to the service (we learned to look this busy working in New York diners), to the rather meaningless note on the menus which went something along the lines of 'the people serving your food this evening are the people who own and manage this restaurant'. We only had mains and puddings, but I don't think it would be unfair to say that the food was more enthusiastic than refined. Most of the group did really like the food, but I felt it was a bit too casually chucked-together. Saffron and tarragon risotto was yellow and rather dry, whilst a vegetarian sampler dish contained a slice of bland goat's cheese on toasted baguette, a white onion tart on so-so pastry and a nicer tomato tart with chilli. Puddings were significantly better and more accomplished. I had a 'burnt lemon cream' which was a lemon creme brulee with fruit neatly burnt into the glaze, with blackberry sorbet in a brandy snap (generously included as it wasn't listed on the menu). I also managed to try a very good strawberry cheesecake. In time I could see the restaurant improving as they work out which of their dishes work, and which need to be abandoned.

[wgallois]

Much, much better meal at Michael Caines the other week. Everything was so much more carefully done than on our last meal: in terms of preparation of dishes, service and the range of dishes on offer. Best dish was probably wet polenta with wild mushrooms, though petits fours were also excellent.

[robyn]

Have eaten at Gidleigh Park just once, but it was a fabulous experience when we ent for lunch last summer for my wife's birthday. The drive up to the house is fun as there are signs for the hotel/restaurant from some distance off, and the excitement builds as you negotiate the fairly narrow lane for a couple of miles up to the house...

I had to laugh reading your message. I only stayed at Gidleigh once for about 3 days in 1987. And it was terrific. As was everything else in the area - from hikes to clotted cream teas.

But the roads - they were something else. Perhaps for someone who lives in the UK and is used to "brown roads" - they're fun and exciting. But for Yanks who aren't used to driving cars with manual transmissions along roads that are 1 1/2 lanes wide - with stone walls on both sides - where you have to back down from time to time when another car approaches - well let's just say that the staff and guests at Gidleigh would make small wagers about who would or wouldn't arrive with all 4 tires intact . It's a trip that I certainly would never want to make in the dark. Robyn

[Marco_Polo]

Much, much better meal at Michael Caines the other week.

I'm delighted to hear it. There is a new and enthusiastic young chef in charge, Simon Dow, who has replaced Jean-Marc Zanetti, who was head chef since the place opened in, I think, April 2001. I've had two good meals there lately: the Exeter South West Festival of Food and Drink special lunch, and, last week, at a special wine dinner hosted by Andy Tarry of Execellars centering on the wines from the Tuscan estate of Avignonesi. The meal was simple but just perfect as a foil for an astonishing and brilliant array of wines (I plan, when I have a moment, to write about the wines elsewhere).

As for a general comment on dining experiences at Michael Caines at the Royal Clarence, I've on the whole had very good meals here, though there have been one or two issues from time to time. But visitors should definitely not come here expecting the full-on Michael Caines/Gidleigh Park experience. That is something completely different, and though Gidleigh trained chefs work in Michael's restaurants and the food has a strong Gidleigh influence, the whole experience is totally different (as are the prices). Michael's aim, in creating his new signature restaurants, is wholeheartedly to bring fine dining to a larger public, those who would never go to a place like GP, either because of the expense or through feeling intimidated by the perceived formality of such a place.

(In fact, GP is not really that formal at all - it is a truly comfortable, magnificent country house hotel in the best sense - the only time we actually stayed there was on my wife's 40th birthday - I had bought her a tandem bicycle for her birthday, and she thought we were just going for a cycle and a picnic. We arrived about 30 very hilly miles later at Gidleigh, I suggested we stop for afternoon tea, but of course it had all been arranged for us to stop the night, with friends bringing out K's clothes and looking after our children.)

Marc