What Restaurant did you eat at last night?

A bit surprised about that news when I got the email. Have to admit that I went there a couple of years ago and wasn't that impressed compared to what I'd read and heard about it. The service was especially poor for what you'd expect.

Recently back from California where I ate at a number of restaurants. None Michelin starred unfortunately, and all quite expensive and very average. One of them was Mortons Steakhouse in Union Square - very expensive for not very good steaks.
 
Last edited:
Chonky said:
The service was especially poor for what you'd expect.
Click to expand...

Maybe we were very lucky as the service we had was excellent. The Maitre D' was a real stand out. He had a great sense of humour.

Chonky said:
Recently back from California where I ate at a number of restaurants. None Michelin starred unfortunately, and all quite expensive and very average. One of them was Mortons Steakhouse in Union Square - very expensive for not very good steaks.
Click to expand...

Last time I was in SF I was staying on Union Square and was in the mood for the steak. I asked at the hotel for recommendations and was warned off Mortons. I ended up at Ruth's Chris which was excellent. The 20 minute walk back to the hotel was very welcome too so I could walk off some of the enormous piece of dead cow I'd had.
 
Went to Trishna in Marylebone for lunch on Thursday. It was very nice but very expensive for what you get. Glad I wasn't paying. Lunch for two was £75 with no alcohol or starters. Eep!
 
I was taken to L'Enclume for my birthday weekend. Dinner on Friday at L'Enclume was fantastic. 17 courses (snack sized to start with) of fabulous food, acommpanyed by some great wine matches. The whole meal was perfectly timed over 4 hours, and we left feeling very satisfied. Service was superb, and noticably better than most of the starred restaurants we've been to in London (something we've noticed with restaurants outside London, and in the US).

We were supposed to spend the 2nd day foraging with one of the chefs, and then the evening in Aulis, the development kitchen, but unfortunately it hasn't re-opened since the fire. So instead, we ate at Rogan & Co on the Saturday. 3 course A La Carte, it was very nice. Obviously not comparable to L'Enclume, but still very good.

We stayed and L'Enclume House for the 2 nights, so had a very nice full English breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday :).
 
Palamino Smokehouse in downtown Calgary.

A really scuzzy looking place from the outside, and kind of on the inside too. Something told me it had charm and character, though.

Sure enough, was top notch. Friendly staff, good selection of local beers, and really nice hearty pub food style. I had poutine for the first time, with pulled pork. Very satisfying indeed.
 
Went to Zouk in Manchester on Saturday night. Food was actually very good and service during the meal was good too. Massively let down by the restaurant manager coming over after the table had been cleared and essentially trying to kick us out before we'd finished our drinks. We weren't offered tea or coffee before she brought the bill over and then asked me to take my card to the front desk to pay?! I politely refused pointing out we still had things to finish which seemed to be a massive inconvenience for her.

The place wasn't that busy and we'd only had the table just over an hour so totally unnecessary. We'd had starters, mains and two rounds of drinks in that time so they definitely had their money's worth. I've complained but not heard anything back.
 
Another couple of places in downtown Calgary over the past two nights.

First was Charcut Roasthouse, where four of us shared Alberta prime rib, duck fat poutine and sausage burgers. All of it was excellent, and the beef was absolutely sublime.

Last night was Saltlik, also in downtown. Two of us had Alberta beef again - fillet mignon and sirloin. Again was absolutely top notch. Wonderful texture in every bite, lovely think steaks, deep satisfying taste.

They are extremely proud of their Alberta beef here and I can see why. This week I've had best beef I've ever had since I had Wagu beef in Tokyo, and even then it's a close run thing. We need this in the UK!
 
randomshenans said:
I've booked a table at ABAC in Barcelona this Sunday. Will see if it matches up to Lassarte.

http://www.abacbarcelona.com/en/restaurant
Click to expand...
So, just how good was it?

After L'Enclume last weekend, my birthday celebrations continured this weekend with dinner at Sketch Lecture Room & Library on Saturday evening. A fabulous 6 course taster menu, with some lovely nibbles and petit fours either side of the main dishes, along with matching wines. Perhaps because of the lovely rich food I've eaten over the last week, I was utterly stuffed at the end.
The dining room itself is stunning as you can see from the photos on the website.
 
Chonky said:
So, just how good was it?
Click to expand...

My expectations were high and they are surpassed. The food is absolutely amazing! It tastes great and looks just as good.

I can see why the place has all the hype around it, it's very well deserved.

Without doubt we'll be returning.

Chonky said:
After L'Enclume last weekend, my birthday celebrations continured this weekend with dinner at Sketch Lecture Room & Library on Saturday evening
Click to expand...

I've been there once but I find that the menu tends to alternate between one that appeals greatly and one that doesn't appeal at all.

This isn't something I usually ask - did you go to the toilet when you were there?
 
We had an evening in London on Saturday and took the opportunity to head to Pitt Cue in Devonshire Square for dinner.

We had lamb heart, potato skins and artichoke to start. The heart was perfectly tender with that texture in between meat and fat you get from well cooked offal. The skins were crispy and well seasoned - albeit a little cold - and went well with the kimchi mayo. The artichoke was the clear winner though, had great bite and tanginess and came with a really well balanced celery and chestnut cream.

For mains we shared the pork jowl and pork loin chop. Both were great. I feel like pork chops are due a bit of a renaissance as most of us probably have bad memories of sawdust dry chops for dinner. This was perfectly medium rare and well crisped on the outside. It was great. The jowl was really good too and came with a great apple sauce.

For sides, we had bone marrow mash, chilli slaw and radicchio. The latter two were the best by far. The mash was good but don't think the marrow added much to it. The slaw had a great mix of umami flavours though. It was just a bit annoying the waitress and menu didn't mention the loin chop came with a small serving of slaw, as I would have ordered a different side had I known.

We had no room for dessert after that but did have a glass of wine each with the meal. Including service it all came to £105 which I thought was very reasonable for how good it was. I've seen Pitt Cue described elsewhere as a restaurant with a barbecue rather than a barbecue restaurant and that is spot on.

Over the course of the week we also called in at:

Beigel Bake - yeah, it's a bit of a tourist trap but the fresh bagels are great so I don't mind.

Franco Manca pizza - very good pizza (although I think Honest Crust in Altrincham is better FWIW) at extremely reasonable prices. Good for lunch. £7 for a very good sourdough pizza plus quality toppings is ace for Covent Garden.

The Rib Man - may be controversial here, but not worth £9. It's decent pulled pork and nothing more on fairly council-y white bread rolls. Yeah, the sauce is good, but for £20 I could have bought 2 pork shoulders, rolls, sauce and had change. The girl serving was rubbish too, pretty rude and took our orders about 4 times since she kept forgetting.
 
Miller & Carter Steakhouse - Newcastle.

Superb steak last night - 16oz T Bone. Great place, great food, needs to slightly improve the service as it was pretty slow when ordering drinks - but very nice place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom