What Restaurant did you eat at last night?

oli collett · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:37

Went to the Fat Duck last night, my first visit in 3 years and a lot has changed. Bar a bit of a wait at the start when we sat down which was a bit odd (could have at least had some nibbles) everything was perfect. Although I missed the previous breakfast theme to desserts, the "BFG" was incredible as were the macerated strawberries. The lamb dish was also amazing - I was told this was just a seasonal dish which makes me wonder that they might be looking at changing the menu more often nowadays. The well known mad hatters tea party dish did not dissapoint either, I think it was the most flavour rich soup I've ever had yet at the same time tasted light.

I can't say it was better than last time because last time it was basically perfect as well, but it's certainly still a fair way ahead of anywhere else in the UK - and it seems most of the rest of the world, too.

Scam · 15 Aug 2011 at 15:25

Went to Zayka in Ealing. It's my third time there and the food was top notch yet again. Such lovely staff and the food is brilliant. Probably the best Indian I've ever been to. Glad to see they weren't damaged in the riots, I'm gaining quite an affection for this place! The worrying thing is that it's approximately 75m from my front door.. :eek:

iNPUt · 15 Aug 2011 at 15:35

Went to Hoxton Grill on Friday night, had a lovely 20z T-bone, all the meat was high quality. We also shared three mini starters (ribs, potato skins, chipolatas) which are excellent value for the quantity.

Staff were nice, food was good, nice smoking area and nice musical atmosphere, only downside is that the bar area is quite big and lots of people just come for drinks and get fairly drunk, quite mellow though. I have heard if they are busy they are strict on the 2 hour limit, they were happy enough to let us stay for 5 hours though..

oli collett · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:57

Scam said:
Went to Zayka in Ealing. It's my third time there and the food was top notch yet again. Such lovely staff and the food is brilliant. Probably the best Indian I've ever been to. Glad to see they weren't damaged in the riots, I'm gaining quite an affection for this place! The worrying thing is that it's approximately 75m from my front door..

I keep meaning to go there, I'm not far away from there either!

J1234 · 18 Aug 2011 at 12:50

Went to the Pizzeria in Harrods yesterday, it was nice and it was proper pizza from a wood fired oven, but it's expensive for what it was. The Prosecco from the Canti Prosecco bar next door was great.

Scam · 18 Aug 2011 at 20:00

oli collett said:
I keep meaning to go there, I'm not far away from there either!

In Nottingham?

Do go, it's brilliant. Be warned the portions although don't look massive are surprisingly filling. The last couple of times my girlfriend and I went we just had 2 x poppadoms to start, 2 x mains, 1 x side, 1 x rice and 1 x chappati between us. Usual fair you'd think but we were absolutely stuffed! The Goan and Nepalese stuff is worth a try, I'm working my way through that list

JRS · 1 Sep 2011 at 19:17

Not last night but two nights ago I went to Kettuvallam, which does South Indian cuisine from the Kerala region. Fantastic service, wonderful food, very reasonable prices, and I bet it's closed in six months. Just too different for this town, where people go to an Indian restaurant expecting to see Chicken Tikka ******* Masala or Vindaloo. Damned shame.

I had Kozhi Ularthiyathu as a starter, followed by Varutharacha Kozhicurry (wasn't in the mood for Lamb or Mutton, and don't eat seafood). Both were delicious, spicy enough to know about it but not overpowering. Had some Cheera Parippu Curry with it (spinach and dal dish), and some breads.

I'm making plans to go back before the inevitable happens and yet another decent, different restaurant goes the way of the dodo in this town!

oli collett · 1 Sep 2011 at 19:52

Scam said:
In Nottingham?

Do go, it's brilliant. Be warned the portions although don't look massive are surprisingly filling. The last couple of times my girlfriend and I went we just had 2 x poppadoms to start, 2 x mains, 1 x side, 1 x rice and 1 x chappati between us. Usual fair you'd think but we were absolutely stuffed! The Goan and Nepalese stuff is worth a try, I'm working my way through that list

I should change my location really, moved away from Nottingham some time ago!

Might head over later this month

Oh and went to Hertog Jan the other day in Brugge - superb meal. Wouldn't surprise me if it got 3 stars in the near future.

harenzo · 3 Sep 2011 at 13:57

Went to Apsleys at the Lanesborough. Impressive setting and impeccable service despite it being a busy night.

We went for the set menu for £45 ea incl glass of champagne. Also a bottle of excellent Viognier white wine.

One of our party was gluten intolerant and so the chef sent out some gluten free pastries and bread between courses, which were a bit bland but a nice thought.

Soup starter and gelati dessert were great but the chicken main course left a lot to be desired. It tasted processed like a sausage and the spinach side was almost non existent.

5/10 overall. Doubt I'll be back, plenty of other places to try!

BillHicksRIP · 3 Sep 2011 at 20:59

Panama Hatties. It's alwaysa good sign when you're presented with a drinks menu that has 4 beers you want to try as well as the food. Worth a detour if you're heading up north but a must if you're in Cheshire.

mr.bond · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:11

Tali Tali Indian in Woking, bit of a let down to be honest. I normally leave an Indian full, but didn't last night.
Was over priced also, 2 starters and 2 main meals (sharing 1 naan and 1 rice) + 2 drinks cost £45.

Rotty · 11 Sep 2011 at 20:18

Thinking of trying this place on next Vegas trip, looks superb

http://www.lasvegasdaze.com/2011/09/e-at-jaleo-review.html

molinari · 26 Sep 2011 at 09:32

As a birthday meal, I was taken to Corrigan's (Richard Corrigan) in Mayfair on Saturday evening. Their website doesn't show that they have a taster menu so we were pleasantly surprised to find out that they did do one when we arrived. 6 courses (3 starters, 2 main & 1 dessert) for £75 is good value, and an additional amount for the matching wine for each course.

- We started with a shared plate of game meats with toast, with the hi-lights being the chicken liver parfait (smooth and lovely) and the foie gras (beautiful and creamy).

- Next came smoked salmon pancake with salted cucumber and crispy oyster; very nice.

- The final starter was nettle gnocchi with wild rabbit and sheep's cheese. I'm not a real fan of gnocchi but it it was very nice and went well with the rabbit and cheese.

- The first main was pan fried John Dory with caramlised Chervil root. The stand out dish of the evening, it was beautiful.

- The second main was Yorkshire Grouse with pickled Damson and game fat chips (crisps). Grouse has a strong gamey flavour but is very nice, it's just a shame that I appeared to have some shot/pellets left in my grouse breast

! Not a nice crunch. We spoke to our waitress who said she'd speak to the chef. A short while later, we overheard another table speak to her as someone else had the Grouse and found it a bit crunchy.

- The dessert was a chocolate and walnut cake which was very rich and chocolatey. Feeling quite full, I just about managed to finish it with the accompanying Italian sparkling red wine (unusual but very nice).

It doesn't have a Michelin star, and for the food alone it deserves one, but the service really lets it down. Several tables near us waited almost 20 minutes just to get the menu, and the table next to use was also left waiting 20 minutes before placing their order.

As for the Grouse, it would appear that they took the cost of the accompanying wine from our bill. Not sure how much that would have been, but probably about £40 each. A final total of £200 for the evening (2 glasses of champagne, the taster menu and the tip included), so good value for money really. Despite the Grouse incident, a solid 7/10

randomshenans · 26 Sep 2011 at 15:01

I've just booked a table at Bistro Bruno Loubet for my birthday and /hopefully/ Roganic for the anniversary.

Should be a good month!

oli collett · 26 Sep 2011 at 18:59

QuickLink said:
I've just booked a table at Bistro Bruno Loubet for my birthday and /hopefully/ Roganic for the anniversary.

Should be a good month!

BBL is a Very nice restaurant, and as you can prob tell from my writeup I LOVED Roganic

el_dazza · 5 Oct 2011 at 15:08

62, The Bank, Barnstaple

Mine and the other half's anniversary and I'd heard good things about 62 so we gave it a shot.

Starter:

Me + Her: Garlic mushrooms (£5.95 each) in a puff pastry case inc. salad - very nice, nothing overly fancy for a starter but we both love garlic mushrooms and were satisfied with that.

Main:

Me: Fillet Rossini (£19.95) - 8oz fillet steak on a crisp crouton with bacon, paté, mash and seasonal veg in a madeira jus. Delicious. Not a fan of pate but it worked very well with the steak and bacon, very filling after a starter and was cooked to perfection.

Her: "Original" pancakes (£14.95) - Slices of rump steak in a creamy horseradish sauce in a pancake the size of a small african hut (seriously, it was HUGE) with fries and salad. She can eat quite a bit but only managed half of this, it was enormous. I tried a bit and I hate horseradish but this was delicious. Mild but with that little kick, worked very very nicely indeed.

Dessert:
Me + Her: Banoffee Pie (£4.95) - Huge slice of pie, wonderfully gooey but there was so much I literally had to force it down, didn't want to wasteas it was so tasty!

Total Bill: £67.10 + £6 tip.

Excellent venue, excellent food and somewhere I'm looking forward to visiting again. So many things on the menu I would have tried (Parma Chicken sounded divine also) but settled on the Rossini. Both agreed it was excellent value for money too

Scam · 5 Oct 2011 at 19:18

Good writeup of Corrigan's molinari, that's one restaurant on my wishlist. Although I thought it had a star? :confused:

£75 for a taster menu is really good, I didn't realise they did one. That's almost within my budget for a birthday meal or something

Does that include wine?

Glaucus · 29 Oct 2011 at 23:29

Are yearly visit to
http://www.latrompette.co.uk

Yet again simply stunning and attentive but not intrusive service, which I find many top restaruants get wrong.

Yet again another Sommelier for 4th year running and again knew his stuff perfectly. I think they must be headhunter away from this place. As usual can't recommend this place enough, you really have to try it.

Starter
Sauté lambs tongue and sweetbreads with Italian type ham on a chilled capers and creamy spaghetti - never tried sweet breads before and they were very nice and the balance of flavours were spot on. Best course for me.

Main
Guniea fowl with barley, black pudding and braised celery - how could I not select this the last three are some of my favourite foods and it lived up to expectations.

Cheese board, wish I could remember my selection, I found a new favourite and second favourite cheese but haven't a clue. The best was a very deep rectangle block. So milky, mild and soft a really refreshing taste, the second was something washed in calvados think it might of been Camembert.

And the wine just wow. The others will off remember and will have to try and source them.

PapaLazaru · 30 Oct 2011 at 00:10

What price can one expect there for 2, with a bottle of wine?

It is my ladies birthday soon and it is not out of the question to drive up there from Reading. She took me to http://www.lortolan.com/ for my birthday, so I have to do something as good for her.

Glaucus · 30 Oct 2011 at 08:37

Would say around £80 each.
It's £37.50 for three courses.
Steak is usually an extra £6, cheese board an extra £5.50.
Wine depends what you want but they have a huge wine list from around £20 up to crazy money. Plenty of choice in the £30-40 range.
Then service charge on top.