What Restaurant did you eat at last night?

Soldato
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Newcastle's only starred restaurant. Just wrote an email of complaint to them. The first time I've ever felt it necessary to do such a thing.

Food was decent, though there were a multitude of errors which ended in the staff just being plain offensive to my mother and I as we left.
 
Soldato
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Sounds intriguing. Name and shame!

I was at Busaba last night to make up for having to do some shopping at Westfield. I have to say I love their calamari. We both had pad thai which was great (and massive). Always a decent meal there, to be fair.
 
Soldato
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Yes, it was The House of Tides.

The food itself wasn't bad, it wasn't up there with other starred places I've eaten but it was good. The first thing that was a bit off was after we had ordered drinks in the downstairs bar, a second waitress came up to us to take our drinks order with the drinks in full view of us at the bar. Just seemed very amateurish.

My mother doesn't drink red wine, at all. So we asked the first waitress if the reds in the wine flight could be substituted for something else. She said that wouldn't be a problem and let the sommelier know. When her lamb course arrived (the first and only with a red wine pairing), he arrived with 2 glasses of red wine. She asked if it could be substituted, and he uhm'ed and ahh'ed for about 15 seconds in front of us before deciding that a Chardonnay would be OK but stressed an awful lot that it wouldn't work. He just didn't seem to have much of a clue about wines.

We were sat down at the back wall, beside a table of two others. Beside them were 2 empty tables of 2, one being beside the window. We were also led past another couple of empty tables. We felt it odd that we were sat right beside another party, but assumed that the tables must be reserved or whatever. They didn't fill it.

As we were leaving, the receptionist asked how our meal was to which we said it was good but were a bit miffed as to the seating arrangements. It would have been nicer to sit at a table where one of us weren't facing a brick wall, or even beside the window. She quite abruptly replied that "better tables were reserved for a VIP who didn't show". I found this very rude, and quite astonishing that we weren't as highly regarded as guests as another reservation. The fact she said that it was for a VIP rather than just a reservation beggars belief in my eyes. The lack of apology and how curt she was did certainly sour the experience.

Am I being particularly picky and anal? I don't think so. Having spent £300 on a meal for two, there were just too many small issues to ignore and the final remark by the staff was quite out of place so I sent an email detailing my displeasure. I got a phone call from a member of staff, no idea who she was (oh yes, not one of the staff introduced themselves by name which I also find pretty off); asking for more details and apologised on behalf of the restaurant. However, I wouldn't be going back if I lived locally and I certainly wouldn't recommend it.
 
Soldato
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They sound like minor things individually but I agree that with all of them together it must have really soured the experience. And £150 for a 1 star tasting menu? That sounds like a lot, even with wine pairing!

The VIP comment is totally out of order, they would have made me see red..
 
Soldato
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They sound like minor things individually but I agree that with all of them together it must have really soured the experience. And £150 for a 1 star tasting menu? That sounds like a lot, even with wine pairing!

The VIP comment is totally out of order, they would have made me see red..

The food was £55, and wine £45. But we also had two martinis in the bar, I had a brandy at the end, she had a cocktail and we both had "coffee and snacks" (little chocolates) which weren't part of the cost for some bizarre reason.
 
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That sounds like a **** of a lot for 2, in a 1 star, which wasn't hitting the mark. I paid about 500chf for wife and I at 3 star Trois Rois in Basel, which was full tasting, wines and champagne to start and coffees. Not to mention Auberge de L'Ill 3 star was 450ish EUR which was simply stunning in every way. In fact, I'd have been pretty narked at anything less than amazingly awesome at that price.
 
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I'm taking the missus to upstairs at the grill in Chester this coming weekend, had it recommended on here a year or two ago and have been obsessed ever since, this will be the third time we've been. I'd like to think I'm going to try something new but i know I won't, Chateubriand for two is going to go down a treat :D I'll report back after.
 
Soldato
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Went to goodman's in Mayfair Friday night, quite a bit better than Hawksmoor but was pricey (400 for 4 of us)

Sounds about right. I took my Dad a few weeks ago.

Two Old Fashionds, two steaks from the board, sides and a bottle of red was £200. It is great though. How is the Mayfair restaurant? I've only been to the Canary Wharf one.
 
Don
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Sounds about right. I took my Dad a few weeks ago.

Two Old Fashionds, two steaks from the board, sides and a bottle of red was £200. It is great though. How is the Mayfair restaurant? I've only been to the Canary Wharf one.

not overly plush but perfectly fine
 
Soldato
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It's a really great restaurant. The food is excellent, meat fruit in particular. I was sorely tempted to order 2 as a starter - it's that good.

Service is typical for a Heston restaurant - excellent.

I think this was the third time we've been and we'll definitely be going back again.
 
Soldato
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Going to Budapest next Friday on a stag weekend and we've booked into the 1 star Borkonyha WineKitchen on the Saturday afternoon. Quite excited as it'll be my first Michelin place to eat at so really looking forward to it.

We're all having their set menu of the following:

• Ravioli filled with shrimps with beetroots and roquefort cheese
• Ierusalem artichokes soup with gizzard
• Fresh fish with lentils and fried mushroom
• Sadle of venison with dried fruits and thyme
• Bitter chocolate dessert

That comes in at 16500HUF per person which is £42 so fantastic value imo, add on a couple of beers and I can't see it being much more than £50 a head.
 
Soldato
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Going to Budapest next Friday on a stag weekend and we've booked into the 1 star Borkonyha WineKitchen on the Saturday afternoon. Quite excited as it'll be my first Michelin place to eat at so really looking forward to it.

We're all having their set menu of the following:

• Ravioli filled with shrimps with beetroots and roquefort cheese
• Ierusalem artichokes soup with gizzard
• Fresh fish with lentils and fried mushroom
• Sadle of venison with dried fruits and thyme
• Bitter chocolate dessert

That comes in at 16500HUF per person which is £42 so fantastic value imo, add on a couple of beers and I can't see it being much more than £50 a head.

Went there a few weeks ago. Went a la carte. Food was OK.
For a place that is supposed to have 200 wines by the glass when you get the menu and wine list you have a very small choice. The menu is limited as well. It's like a bar menu size wise which has one page of wine and one page of food. I was super excited about this place as it's name (wine kitchen) seemed to summarise everything I wanted from a restaurant over there. Was massively excited about the access to large amounts of wine and to eating Hungarian starred food. It was a huge let down. The sign on the street is kinda tacky too imo.

What is very bad about that place is that you go for the wine and then order a selection and then the sommelier brings you bottles to upsell. It's not like- I would like a glass of this please and he brings you that glass. He would instead bring two bottles of not what you asked for and then try to sell those instead. Pretty uncomfortable if you're intending on tasting a lot of different wines. You don't have full control of what you order nor do you ever know what all the options are that you can order. Either use the small wine list on the menu or have the bloke upsell, or spot wine on the shelf that's for sale but not on the menu and ask for that. It leaves you totally in their hands which I really didn't like. Odd experience if I'm honest. If you're happy to just blithely let the bloke do everything for you then you'll think it's wonderful. If however you want to choose for yourself or at least have the option of doing so then you won't like it.

Think we spent £180 between the two of us when we went. Both of us left thinking that it was fairly decent but didn't like the upselling on the wine and the lack of ability to choose what to have and thought it was overrated. Service is good. Atmosphere is decent. Given where it is we thought it may come out being a tad cheaper but the price wasn't the issue. Would I go again? No.
 
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