Morgan M

[Bloated]

a quick mention of this newish restaurant in Liverpool Road, Islington. Morgan Meunier (Admiralty, Monsieur Max) is the chef.

The coconut and rum sorbet in my dessert was 10/10 excellent. The rest of the food was nice to very nice. The service was very slow indeed. My fellow diner put it 'on a par' with Zafferano and Monsieur Max in terms of quality of cooking. I thought it was a bit below that. The decor is certainly a lot below those two.

I suspect by the two bookshelves bearing only red Michelin Guides that the restaurant has ambitions in that direction...

starters include snails, pumpkin soup, scallops, game terrine

fish mains, sea bass or halibut

meat mains include venison and pigeon

[circeplum]

yes, good isn't it? and surprisingly reasonable for this level of cooking - set menu's £32 for 5 courses. and it changes regularly - been twice and had different, excellent stuff both times. he's also red-hot on vegetables and does a separate set 'garden' menu.

m

[Janice]

I am going in three weeks time and will report back.

The location is one of the less glamourous corners of Islington but very convenient for me so I'm hoping it's good.

[tony h]

Had the 5 course "meat" menu for £34 last night. Overall - I the food was pretty wonderful but the service is really awful. M came out & talked to us at the end & said that he knew that there were teething troubles but a head waiter was arriving soon. he/she have their work cut out for them.

Briefly:

Amuse of fava bean soup which is poured over basil puree & carmeliase onions - superb

1st - pumpkin veloute with little floaty things - one bum note of the evening - lacked the clarity of the amuse - also a bit too similar.

2nd - perfectly cooked scallops with tatin of chicory - very good indeed

The alternative 2nd was foie gras with figs - seriously good

3rd - sea bass (?) or siilar white fish with lentils & girolles. Very good

4th - slithers of venison on an bed of red cabbage & raviloi of wild hare - ravioli was v good, venison good but nit great

Alternative 4th was pigeon - pretty good.

5th - standard chocolate pud with melting centre - choice of chocolate - 45% or 70% coco. I went for the sugar hit. Milk sorbet came with it.

Alterniatve 5th - pineapple souffle & various bits & pieces.

Worth a detour.

Edited October 23, 2003 by blind lemon higgins (log)

[magnolia]

gotta add my two cents, loved every minute of it...all five hours, not kidding - arrived for lunch at 13h30 on a Sunday, left at 18h30. At the time I didn't mind so much, was catching up with friends and drinking lots (oh, if I have one thing to complain about - and it's a tiny peeve, it's that their wine list is too limited and not very inspired - i.e. not in line with the food which was terrific - but prices are good for what they have ) but if I had someplace to be, I suspect I would have been very annoyed. They would not have been able to cope - there were two waiters for the whole room and the chef was pitching in. I didn't notice the back catalog of red guides, but I did note the very upmarket bathrooms, linen hand cloths= high overheads on non-food related items, which does speak to Michelin I guess, but seems a waste to me...I'd rather use a hot air dryer and have an extra snail ravioli :-)

[Scott]

gotta add my two cents, loved every minute of it...all five hours, not kidding - arrived for lunch at 13h30 on a Sunday, left at 18h30. At the time I didn't mind so much, was catching up with friends and drinking lots (oh, if I have one thing to complain about - and it's a tiny peeve, it's that their wine list is too limited and not very inspired - i.e. not in line with the food which was terrific - but prices are good for what they have ) but if I had someplace to be, I suspect I would have been very annoyed. They would not have been able to cope - there were two waiters for the whole room and the chef was pitching in. I didn't notice the back catalog of red guides, but I did note the very upmarket bathrooms, linen hand cloths= high overheads on non-food related items, which does speak to Michelin I guess, but seems a waste to me...I'd rather use a hot air dryer and have an extra snail ravioli :-)

Re: wine.

they may allow BYO, as they have at Morgan's last 2 restaurants.

[Janice]

Went last night. I had the 'Autumn' menu which was very similar to that in Blind Lemon Higgins' review. Likewise found the food to be excellent. Only criticism would be that the red cabbage accompaning the partridge I had at the 4th was a bit too acidic to my taste.

We had chosen to go there because there were two vegetarians in the party and the 'Garden' menu (5 courses, £30) met with their approval.

The only problem was that the service is still slow and haphazard. We didn't mind since we were having a good time but it could be annoying under other circumstances.

Go, but make sure you're not in a hurry.

[nicola]

Went here for dinner last night. First the good news - the food was fabulous. I had a game terrine - chunks of meat and root vegetables compressed together with a cabbage surround - followed by partridge. Followed this with the cheese, which although excellent quality was slightly disappointing as you were presented with a pre-cut selection - I prefer to select my own favourites from the cheese board.

And the bad news - the service! I said to my boyfriend this morning that the service had been dire - his comment was that it wasn't that good! I see from past comments that the service is not considered great but either I'm less tolerant than the previous posters or it has gone even further downhill. Basically we were never made to feel welcome from start to finish. My boyfriend and I were early and we sat at the table and had an aperitif. We were also offered bread. The next two arrived on time at 8.00. About quarter past someone came round and offered them aperitifs. They said they would just get some water and please could they have some bread. Eventually the water arrived and was all poured into our glasses - they then whisked away quickly without asking if we'd like another bottle. It then took us twenty minutes to attract someone's attention and order wine – 1 white, 1 red. By the time the wine arrived the last person in our group had also arrived. She had been running late and rang the restaurant to ask them to pass on a message to us. Their reaction was that they were very busy, it was a very big restaurant (it is not) and they would see what they could do. They had passed on no message to us.

The white wine was dispensed between the five of us who wanted it and a glass of red poured for the sixth person. We were not offered another bottle of white. The waiters disappeared again and it was impossible to catch anyone’s eye. After a while the amuse arrived – still no bread. We asked for it again. The waitress barely acknowledged our request. After the amuse had been finished and still no bread appeared I went over to the top of the stairs leading to the kitchen to try to have a quiet word with the head waiter (or at least the one who appeared to be in charge). By this time some of our party had been in the restaurant for one and a half hours without being offered any bread.

The waiter (who declined to accept the title maitre d’) said that they had run out of bread and were just baking some more (a bad error on the part of the restaurant but why hadn’t we been told this sooner). He then didn’t seem inclined to listen to any more concerns re the level of service and instead suggested I talk to M. Meunier. I said OK, he went in to the kitchen and then came back and said that he was too busy to talk to us now (understandable) and would come up after service.

From then on service improved very slightly but was still pretty poor. M. Meunier came and talked to us while we were having coffee and just seemed to think these things were inevitable when one first opened a restaurant. Given they have now been open for over a month I would expect them to have the teething troubles (if that is what they are) sorted.

We were also disappointed that when the bill came they had included the “optional” 12.5% service charge. As they had forgotten to charge us for one bottle of wine (although this was less than the service) we decided to just pay it.

Sorry for the rant! There were innumerable other problems (missing bread plates, glasses not cleared etc) but I suspect you are all bored with this by now. Go there for the food which is excellent but personally I won’t go back until I hear the service has improved.

[endless autumn]

Just another quick moan about Morgan M...

I went last night and had the Autumn menu which was superb. Service, in spite of previous complaints was good enough - they once forgot to bring more bread when requested and did not bring us our 'truffes' at the end of the meal but we were bored of waiting and wanted to leave in any case.

The reason we were so bored is because we were completely sober. We were encouraged to choose pre-selected wines to accompany each course and gladly agreed. I am not someone intimidated by pseudo-sommeliers and bookish wine lists, rather I thought that an ambitious restaurant might have chosen some interesting wines to complement the food.

However, we were served four quarter-glasses of house wine - the four glasses available by the glass on the menu. There is no way that any of the 'glasses' constituted the minimum 125ml serving of non-fortified wine; the wines, except for a perfectly palatable Vouvray, were unexciting, served at the wrong temperature and accompanied by senseless descriptions from the well-meaning waiter. (e.g. 'this wine has a very strong flavour', or 'this wine is very, very nice, or 'this wine is light: it is an excellent aperitif' (why then serve it with an earthy turnip and truffle soup?).)

In total, we were served around 300ml of wine each. The most expensive wine which we were served was £17 a bottle, so we paid £38 for what was worth (according to their wine pricing) around £14.

I think it an immense shame that a restaurant which produces such good food should let itself down in so many other ways.

[MobyP]

Does anyone know M Meunier, or someone else in admin at the restaurant? I wonder if we could invite them here to address the concerns being made? There seems to be such a respect for the food, he must feel some sense of defeat that so many are leaving disappointed.

[Suzi Edwards]

i am going this evening!!!

i'll report back and if things are as bad as suggested here (and i hope they aren't) i'll try and speak with him.

[MobyP]

i am going this evening!!!

i'll report back and if things are as bad as suggested here (and i hope they aren't) i'll try and speak with him.

aaaaand?

[Suzi Edwards]

disclaimer: when jack and i were first courting we frequented a wine bar that was next to our office. the head barman put up with our mooning for several months and aided and abbetted jack in his wooing of me by setting him up with glasses and wine for a moonlit drink by the river one evening. that man is now the maitre'd/sommelier at morgan m, something we didn't know until we sat down last night and something that might have helped with our service.

all that has been said about morgan m on here is true. the food is simply superb and the service can be pretty shambolic. we were lucky; our service ran smoothly and i had no complaints. a minor miracle as jack will tell you. i started to chat with a table of ladies next to me however who were pretty disgruntled...but my desert arrived so i only heard the start of their complaint (coat not taken, long wait for bread etc) nothing keeps me from desert, especially when it's a rich chocolate cake (called a fondant on the menu but not) served with a cheeky shot glass of cream infused armagnac. it would be jennifer patteson's ideal milkshake and was really very, very good.

i chatted with morgan about the service and the food. he still feels that the resturant is bedding in but wants to make things better. his restaurant is evolving at the moment and he is trying to run the kitchen and get the front of house right himself. he expects things to be "right" by january and is working hard to achieve that. what impressed me most was that morgan comes out onto the floor at the end of service every night and really listens to what people say, good or bad. for example, i commented that our first three courses, although each individually good, became a little monotonous in terms of look and texture when taken together on the autumn menu. this homogenaity (?) was thrown into relief by our fourth course of venison, one of the best dishes i have eaten this year. we discussed this for at least 10 minutes, bouncing ideas about building tasting menus and i feel confident that my comments will be acted on. i did kind of wonder if they read this site as many of the negative comments (pre-cut cheese and house wines being the ones on the pairing menu) had been changed.

morgan m is a resturant to be praised and cherished. we've commented before on this board about "the ramsey empire". this place is completely independant and i think it's a serious contender for stars, once they have sorted the service. morgan was a little bashful about his pursuit of michelin glory saying that his first aim is to make the customers happy, then himself and hopefully the guides will then be interested. but to me he deserves* stars more than wareing, for example, as he already has a distinct style and this will only continue to evolve.

and it's a 10 minute walk from my flat. nar nar ne nar nar.

* emotive term, i know

[MobyP]

What were the first three courses?

How was the venison done?

And what about Mister Spatchcock?

[Suzi Edwards]

What were the first three courses?

you want to know about the food? lord. you'd think this was a website about food.

turnip soup with truffles. this was a light turnip puree served with turnip brunoise and black truffle shavings. is it just me or are turnips becoming more fashionable at the moment? anyway, jack found this a little bland, and while it wasn't in the league of a wareing truffled soup, it was good enough for me.

scallops with red wine sauce, onion soubise and a chicory tatin. three queen scallops artfully arranged across the plate with an almost tatin on the side. the chicory had been tamed by the braising and it sat on a thin rectangle of pastry. the onion was too similar in texture to the soup, but the red wine jus sat well with the scallops. i would have prefered two bigger scallops that the three small ones. but that's a minor quibble. we were served a "frais" merlot with this, the only wine that was unsucesfully paired as the chicory seemed to bring out some heavy liqourice flavours in the wine. bleurgh.

i think the next course was pave of sea bass on another puree but jack and i were deep in discussion for this course and this was where we felt the sameness of colour and texture became a little overwhelming. the wine here was a vouvray, which was much more interesting than the fish.

next was venison with chestnut puree, red cabbage, roasted apples and grapes. the venison was served very rare (from the loin i am guessing) and was tender with good gamey flavour. the best bit of this dish was a hare ravioli that deserves a best supporting actor award. it was really rich with an almost faggot-like unctuousness in a thin pasta case. very autumnal, very good.

then we shared some cheese from la fromagerie. mainly epoisses as this is my fave. this also gave us a chance to have some more of the fantastic bread while we chatted with morgan before.....

desserts. you know about my chocolate, jack had a souffle. i can't actually remember anything else about that.

then followed peppermint tea for me and calvados for jack with some truffles (which were ok)

[Jonathan Day]

Dinner at Morgan M last night. The basic "Christmas menu": turnip soup, foie gras with quail, venison as described above, cheeses. This was described as "four courses", with the amuse-gueule counted as a course.

Service was clumsy but not terrible. We had ordered glasses of Montbazillac with the foie, and these didn't arrive, but a word to the waiter set things straight quickly enough. The cheese service was amateurish but generous: we had a piece of every cheese on offer. It was all in good condition.

The food was not flawless but not bad either. The venison was nicely prepared, though I felt that the apple and red cabbage were overly acid and assertive and the venison itself just a bit reticent. The brown bread was delicious. My companion, a visiting professor from the US who has a good palate and is as "well dined" as they come, enjoyed Morgan M but commented that it didn't have the energy and love of the cooking at Chez Bruce, where we had dined on a previous visit.

I wouldn't make a long journey to this place, but it's nice to know it is here. I'll certainly be back.

[MobyP]

Did you run into each other? (This is a French Laundry moment!)

[Jonathan Day]

Good heavens! The couple sitting at the next table were clearly "foodies" from their conversation, and I wondered whether they knew about eGullet. Tarka, where were you sitting?

[tony h]

deleted - posted when very drunk last night

Edited December 12, 2003 by blind lemon higgins (log)

[Suzi Edwards]

jack and i were sat on a table on the left hand side of the restaurant just before the stairwell and with a good view of the cheese trolley (IMHO). we were there on wednesday. i, obviously, was looking impossibly poised and glamourous, you might easily have mistaken me for a young audrey hepburn.*

* shush those of you who have met me.

[Jonathan Day]

Ships passing in the night. Didn't spot you. Next time!

[Matthew Grant]

I had somehow missed thi thread before I went to Morgan M on 6th December!

Morgan M is certainly located in the middle of nowhere and if it doesn't buck up its ideas on service it will end up with no trade at all. Last night it was full to capacity and despite having more than enough staff in the room, service was an absolute joke.

When you enter the restaurant there is a small dividing wall which prevents you from seeing the room and the waiting staff from seeing new arrivals. I poked my head around the wall and despite making eye contact with 4 different waiters not one of them came to our aid despite some of them merely setting empty tables and others polishing cutlery - surely your priority has got to be greeting new arrivals? When we were finally met (by now another pair were behind us) we were told that our table wouldn't be ready for another 10 minutes and we were left in the doorway, not invited for a drink, told to go to the pub about 50 yards up the road or anything, just left there. Watching very carefully I noticed our table empty for around 5 minutes before they did come and get us when we were pointed towards our table and left to seat ourselves coats in hand, we stood there for a moment waiting for them to take the coats, this was clearly not going to happen so we put them on the back of our chairs. Another couple of minutes passed and the couple on the able next to us were looking very peeved. On the other side of us we noticed that they were being brought their main course followed some minutes later by the accompanying glass of wine (they were having the degustation with wine). We ordered water (never arrived) and a glass of champagne. Looking around the room we noticed that the waiter station was full of dirty plates that weren't being cleared. A few minutes later the table next to us were brought their bill which they paid freeing up the table for the other pair who were behind us in the doorway. They suddenly appeared drinks in hand from downstairs where there is a very tiny bar which we weren't told about!

Watching the various errors around the room we decided to order the Degustation menu without the accompanying wines as we could foresee that the wines were never going to turn up on time. The waitress took our order and Rachel chose the scallops as her starter, I chose the Ballotine of Foie Gras (these were the only choices). The waitress then just stood there looking at us, we looked back, she looked at us some more, then we realised that she expected us to order our desserts now. We deferred.

5 more minutes passed before we were told in faltering English that that there were no more scallops and Rachel could have Game Terrine instead, Rachel isn't that keen on Terrines or Foie Gras so managed to choose a dish off the vegetarian menu as a replacement. We then heard the waitress taking an order for scallops on the next table - we couldn't believe that she hadn't remembered and waited for her to come back and tell them they were off the menu. I then asked the waitress for the Sommelier.

Waitress: "Sommelier?"

Me : " yes, the sommelier"

Waitress : "We don't have...."

Me : "Ok...."

Waitress : "We have Semillon..."

Me (she had obviously misheard: "No, please can I speak to the Sommelier?"

Waitress :"No Sommelier, Semillon? Sauvignon?"

Being completely bamboozled by the crazy service I proceeded to downgrade my wine to just about the cheapest thing on the menu. Pre-Starters of Parsnip soup with truffle were very good, then we had our starters. The Foie Gras Ballotine had far too much alcohol (Armagnac?) which hadn't been burnt off sufficiently. Rachel's Pasta with Ricotta was unimaginative but nicely done. Then the table next to us got their starters complete with scallops. Rachel complained discreetly to the waitress, she got the manager, he rushed off to find out what had happened. The waitress came back "I told you there were no scallops, you could have Game Terrine in stead"

"Yes but they've got scallops next to us"

" Yes but you had Degustation" at which point the manger reappeared and plopped 2 glasses of champagne on the table and walked off. We almost laughed, Champagne at this stage of the meal was ridiculous and we already had a bottle of wine on the go. I can't remember the full details, Sea Bass was nicely cooked and on a bed of Pomme puree, the whole dish was woefully underseasoned, strangely enough, Rachel's was overseasoned

Venison dish with Hare Ravioli was promising. Then came desserts, we ordered one of each - a chocolate fondant described as very light by the waitress and a pineapple soufflé. This should have been preceded by a rice pudding with a tuile and some strawberry sorbet (I think), Desserts came before the pre desserts. I pointed this out and the waitress said she would bring them after we had finished. a few minutes later two glasses of Banyuls appeared at the table, presumably by way of apology. I think it was corked. The Desserts were outstanding although to call the Chocolate Fondant light was crazy, it was delightfully heavy.

The table next to us were looking at us constantly and he made a point of grabbing the waitress when he was paying the bill to say how outstanding the service had been. It was a farce!

Morgan then came up to the now emptying restaurant and I asked for the bill. Morgan went to every table except ours which was strange as I wanted to talk to him about the service. I discreetly asked for the service charge to be removed form the bill and this was done (I can't be bought with corked Banyuls and champagne halfway through dinner) without complaint and at least the waiter asked what we thought was wrong.

This restaurant clearly has potential but too many niggly complaints in the food and incredibly inept service will not help its survival.

If Morgan is reading this thread, I'm more than happy to carve out a new career in restaurant management - give me a call!

[Andy Lynes]

I can't remember a restaurant that has been reported on egullet in recent times that apparently has such good food yet such poor service. Based on Matthew's report, things are not improving. The place has been open long enough now for this to be more than teething problems.

Would anyone who has eaten there like to take a stab at what might be at the heart of the problem: Are there simply too few staff for the numbers of diners, is it a training issue, are they having problems retaining staff?

[Jon Tseng]

I remember Lolas when it first started with Hywel Jones had fantastic food but sloooow (rather than bad) service.

The problem there I think was more the kichen being too small for the no. of covers than the staff.

cheerio

J

[Suzi Edwards]

I can't remember a restaurant that has been reported on egullet in recent times that apparently has such good food yet such poor service. Based on Matthew's report, things are not improving. The place has been open long enough now for this to be more than teething problems.

Would anyone who has eaten there like to take a stab at what might be at the heart of the problem: Are there simply too few staff for the numbers of diners, is it a training issue, are they having problems retaining staff?

keep up andy, both jonathan and i have reported that the service was ok for us, and we have been there since matthew :-)

that said, the "maitre d" knew us so i'm guessing that's why we did ok. i was kind of surprised that no-one picked up on my comment that the maitre d used to work in a bar round the corner from where i worked, however....i'm not sure what he did before, if he was moonlighting while waiting for morgan m to open but i wonder how experienced the front of house staff are. the fact that several of them spoke pretty basic english caused one or two confusions with our meal too.

if i were morgan i'd be taking elena's etoile or the ivy as my cue. get a full on maitre/maitresse d in to a. sort the service and b. smooze the regulars. the restaurant's location means that it needs repeat, local business monday through thursday, at least until he gets michelin recognition. word of mouth about the food is enough to get people through the door once, but the service will currently keep those people from returning.

to answer andy's questions specifically, i thought it felt like they had too many staff at times. i especially loved the mark almond look-a-like runner and i expected him to break into a non-stop erotic cabaret everytime he came up the stairs. can't comment on retention, though.