[Food] Restaurant 2019 Thread

[Goldstone1976]

Tast - King Street, Manchester.

The GLDHI and I went to the City game and were again generously and beautifully hosted by one of NSC's finest. I won't embarrass him by identifying him, but his house had an unusually large collection of specialist 1970s German & Scandinavian films and rather more books on football finance than one would normally expect to find.

Mine host suggested that he booked Pep Guardiola's restaurant for dinner after the game.

It's Catalan food, with plate sizes somewhere between tapas and a full serving. We ordered 11 dishes between the four of us, and our waiter grouped them into 3 courses: starters, fish, and meat. The first course was ok - but nothing great. However, the fish and meat dishes were really very good. The GLDHI and I thought the otherwise excellent rice dish was a tad over-salted, but the turbot, pig-cheeks, and quail cannelloni were excellent.

I was expecting something very meh (you know, a restaurant owned by a football manager - how good can that possibly be?), but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Decent food, good company, and (including a bottle of wine and a pint of lime and soda), at £50pp including tip, very reasonably priced.

Turns out that our (very good) waiter went to uni in Brighton and spent a few months as a supervisor of one of the beer outlets at the AMEX. Small world. It seemed churlish to ask him why they're such a disaster.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Yummy

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Mmmmm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Westdene Seagull]

MmmmmView attachment 115048View attachment 115047


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That colour nail varnish really doesn't suit you !

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

MmmmmView attachment 115048View attachment 115047


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Bird in Berlin?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The Bird in Berlin?

Indeed. Needed some solids after yesterday’s Brewdog AGM.

 

[Machiavelli]

Be excited. Enjoy. We'll look forward to the review.

Oh. Got that one wrong.
FWIW, the review was good.

 

[Machiavelli]

I suspect he must live locally. He has reviewed FM Mangal, Silk Road, Crooked Well and Nandine (possibly Camberwell Arms as well?) down Camberwell Church Street. He's also reviewed Louie Louie and a non-descript Korean restaurant up the Walworth Road AND a load of places in Peckham. I understand that he is a restaurant critic but that still seems like a high concentration of local restaurants in quite a small area.

He does live locally. I lived round those parts from 1995-2002. I think he lives in Clapham South (there used to be some kicking Indian restaurants in Tooting that were his go-to) but, if not, it's in the broader Clapham/Brixton vicinity. GMG restaurant journalists like it round those parts, as John Lanchester also lived in Clapham Common. I used to serve him regularly. Really nice guy. He's also written some of the best revelatory/explanatory books and/or articles on real-world developments -- I've got finance and technology in mind here.

 

[Springal]

Don't really want to advertise this... but Brighton October Best comes out on Monday !

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Oh wow, go to a few restaurants around Sussex and am generally impressed but this place for great food and value blew my socks off!

https://reinakitchen.co.uk/

Simple Turkish food but reasonable portions, great taste and very attentive staff, well worth a try.

I admit based in Chichester it'll be too near Cornwall for some of you but if you're at Revival this weekend give it a go ... but not tonight I'm there again and don't want you nicking my table!

 

[Goldstone1976]

Riddle & Finns (the one on the beach), BN1

“Welcome to the best restaurant in town”, said our waiter, Louis (pronounced Louie) as he presented the menu to us.

“Yes, we’re looking forward to it. We’re having a fishy weekend; we’re off to Little Fish Market tomorrow night too”.

His face fell. “Oh. Now that probably is the best restaurant in town”.

The GLDHI and I shared a raised eyebrow look.

He brought a basket of OK+ bread, accompanied by excellent dips, particularly a mackerel pate.

I ordered 6 oysters as an amuse bouche - 3 Jersey natives and 3 rock, and proceeded to enjoy them one by one, much to the jealousy of the GLDHI, who loves oysters, but is violently sick after eating them. They were fresh, and utterly delicious.

“Yes”, said Looie, “We really do do good oysters”.

Another eyebrow-raising moment was shared at the implication that the rest of the food wasn’t so good.

“Is that a carrot you have tattooed on your thumb?”, I asked Looee as he came to remove the shells. “*Sigh*. Everyone thinks that. I think it’s because it looks like a carrot when I have my thumb straight. I had my thumb bent when I had the tattoo done. It’s a jalapeño; look”. Sure enough, it looked like a jalapeño when he bent his thumb. He also had the word “slowly” inked just above the wrist. Perhaps that was an instruction from his girlfriend? Or possibly it morphs into a giraffe when he flexes his wrist?

Out come our starters: tempura tiger prawns for me, sea bass ceviche for the GLDHI. The prawns were large, but they were NOT tempura. The batter was standard fish and chip shop batter, not the light batter that is, err, the definition of “tempura”. They were grossly over-cooked. The ceviche was 80% lettuce, 10% mayo, 10% sea bass. When you could find a piece of fish, it was fine.

More eyebrow raising.

Then came the mains: Dover sole, skinny fries, and greens for me; Kerala fish curry for the GLDHI. The sole was grossly over-cooked (go to the Plough in Bolnhurst for how it should be done), the chips were greasy, the fish in the curry was sparse and, err, grossly over-cooked. The greens were perfect.

Louee brought the bill, and a “comments” card. The GLDHI wrote “Louis was awesome”. He was. I took the card and added “But the fish was grossly over-cooked”. It was.

The GLDHI was horrified, and dashed out of the restaurant. “That was mean...I really need a pee, and I couldn’t go in there; the chefs have knives”. I shrugged. “There’s public toilets just up here back towards the Palace Pier”. “Oh, yes”, she said.

They were locked. Much hilarity ensued.

We had a couple of (cheap, very cheap) single malts in the Black Dove, where an old school DJ (he was playing vinyl ffs) played Cuban dance music and old school rock and roll. Brilliant.

Outside the pub, we met a woman with a ferret on a lead. She sat at the table next to us and was explaining to her table companions that the ferret loved to be with her pet rat, until the rat died, adding “I didn’t know what to do with the rat, so I’ve put him in the freezer until I decide where to bury him”.

“That’s going in the review”, I said to the GLDHI. She smiled and nodded, “Yes, dear”.

TL;DR: by all means go. Just don’t order any fish that they’ve, you know, had to, err, cook.

Give our regards to Louey.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Little Fish Market, Upper Market St, BN3.

It’s only as I started thinking about the first sentence of this review that I realised the similarities between LFM and Sushi Tetsu: both small (20 covers a night vs 14), both only having one person doing all the cooking, both with a real attention to ingredient choice and precision, both with only one person doing front of house.

“We’ve just arrived”, texted [MENTION=28490]Machiavelli[/MENTION] just as we got out of our taxi from the Pond where we’d spent a very pleasant couple of hours drinking with a habituee of this thread who has been picked up by a 1901 steward for being unable to button his shirt correctly, carries a “leather tote, not a handbag”, and has a penchant for extremely messy-looking burgers, and several friends of his, two of whom had cycled down from the AMEX. Not being a knowledgeable craft beer drinker, I followed the lead set by the tote-carrier and very nice they were too.

Mr & Mrs M were perusing the wine list as we entered the sttripped-back restaurant. “The wines last time were fine without being great”, Mr M said. Trusting his judgement in vinological matters, I was happy to defer to his choices throughout the meal, and very nice they were too. No champagne or “champagne” was selected. Just saying.

It’s a six course set tasting menu for £69pp. I say six; they were preceded by three individual amuse bouche, which were exquisite in their accuracy and attention to detail, and by a boiled egg with various additions including a mushroom foam - reminiscent of Manresa’s famed egg.

The food is uniformly excellent, with a focus on accuracy. There’s just no doubt that you got served exactly what the chef had intended to serve you when he planned the dish. Consistency of presentation across the four servings of each course was deeply impressive too.

The sea bream (just beautiful, and perfectly cooked) and plum tart (including the thinnest pastry case I’ve ever seen) were my favourites, though tomorrow I might think it was the crab ravioli or the wild bass.

The only slight fault, in our opinions, was that the brandade was a touch over-salted.

This is really very good cooking - worthy of a star.

The company was, as ever, fantastic. There was some discussion about whether Mrs M’s architecturally-themed necklace was a representation of a Frank LLoyd Wright-designed house; I’m still not sure.

We saw no vinyl-playing DJ, no ferrets, no stories about freezing dead pet rats*. Instead, good company at the pub and restaurant, good beer, decent wine, and very fine cooking.

*Though I did see a seagull when we got out of the taxi outside our B&B.

EDIT: “You didn’t say anything about the tiniest eclairs I’ve ever seen” says the GLDHI as she reads this review. She’s right, I didn’t. They came as one of the three amuse bouche. If you imagine a carrot/jalapeño tattoo on a thumb - they were about that size. Neither did I say anything about me asking the “is that shredded coconut on top of those eclairs?”, only to hear “No, it’s Parmesan” in reply. “Oh yes, so it is”. Oh well, too late now.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Little Fish Market, Upper Market St, BN3.

It’s only as I started thinking about the first sentence of this review that I realised the similarities between LFM and Sushi Tetsu: both small (20 covers a night vs 14), both only having one person doing all the cooking, both with a real attention to ingredient choice and precision, both with only one person doing front of house.

“We’ve just arrived”, texted [MENTION=28490]Machiavelli[/MENTION] just as we got out of our taxi from the Pond where we’d spent a very pleasant couple of hours drinking with a habituee of this thread who has been picked up by a 1901 steward for being unable to button his shirt correctly, carries a “leather tote, not a handbag”, and has a penchant for extremely messy-looking burgers, and several friends of his, two of whom had cycled down from the AMEX. Not being a knowledgeable craft beer drinker, I followed the lead set by the tote-carrier and very nice they were too.

Mr & Mrs M were perusing the wine list as we entered the sttripped-back restaurant. “The wines last time were fine without being great”, Mr M said. Trusting his judgement in vinological matters, I was happy to defer to his choices throughout the meal, and very nice they were too. No champagne or “champagne” was selected. Just saying.

It’s a six course set tasting menu for £69pp. I say six; they were preceded by three individual amuse bouche, which were exquisite in their accuracy and attention to detail, and by a boiled egg with various additions including a mushroom foam - reminiscent of Manresa’s famed egg.

The food is uniformly excellent, with a focus on accuracy. There’s just no doubt that you got served exactly what the chef had intended to serve you when he planned the dish. Consistency of presentation across the four servings of each course was deeply impressive too.

The sea bream (just beautiful, and perfectly cooked) and plum tart (including the thinnest pastry case I’ve ever seen) were my favourites, though tomorrow I might think it was the crab ravioli or the wild bass.

The only slight fault, in our opinions, was that the brandade was a touch over-salted.

This is really very good cooking - worthy of a star.

The company was, as ever, fantastic. There was some discussion about whether Mrs M’s architecturally-themed necklace was a representation of a Frank LLoyd Wright-designed house; I’m still not sure.

We saw no vinyl-playing DJ, no ferrets, no stories about freezing dead pet rats*. Instead, good company at the pub and restaurant, good beer, decent wine, and very fine cooking.

*Though I did see a seagull when we got out of the taxi outside our B&B.

EDIT: “You didn’t say anything about the tiniest eclairs I’ve ever seen” says the GLDHI as she reads this review. She’s right, I didn’t. They came as one of the three amuse bouche. If you imagine a carrot/jalapeño tattoo on a thumb - they were about that size. Neither did I say anything about me asking the “is that shredded coconut on top of those eclairs?”, only to hear “No, it’s Parmesan” in reply. “Oh yes, so it is”. Oh well, too late now.

Was there a bouncer on the door?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Little Fish Market, Upper Market St, BN3.

It’s only as I started thinking about the first sentence of this review that I realised the similarities between LFM and Sushi Tetsu: both small (20 covers a night vs 14), both only having one person doing all the cooking, both with a real attention to ingredient choice and precision, both with only one person doing front of house.

“We’ve just arrived”, texted [MENTION=28490]Machiavelli[/MENTION] just as we got out of our taxi from the Pond where we’d spent a very pleasant couple of hours drinking with a habituee of this thread who has been picked up by a 1901 steward for being unable to button his shirt correctly, carries a “leather tote, not a handbag”, and has a penchant for extremely messy-looking burgers, and several friends of his, two of whom had cycled down from the AMEX. Not being a knowledgeable craft beer drinker, I followed the lead set by the tote-carrier and very nice they were too.

Mr & Mrs M were perusing the wine list as we entered the sttripped-back restaurant. “The wines last time were fine without being great”, Mr M said. Trusting his judgement in vinological matters, I was happy to defer to his choices throughout the meal, and very nice they were too. No champagne or “champagne” was selected. Just saying.

It’s a six course set tasting menu for £69pp. I say six; they were preceded by three individual amuse bouche, which were exquisite in their accuracy and attention to detail, and by a boiled egg with various additions including a mushroom foam - reminiscent of Manresa’s famed egg.

The food is uniformly excellent, with a focus on accuracy. There’s just no doubt that you got served exactly what the chef had intended to serve you when he planned the dish. Consistency of presentation across the four servings of each course was deeply impressive too.

The sea bream (just beautiful, and perfectly cooked) and plum tart (including the thinnest pastry case I’ve ever seen) were my favourites, though tomorrow I might think it was the crab ravioli or the wild bass.

The only slight fault, in our opinions, was that the brandade was a touch over-salted.

This is really very good cooking - worthy of a star.

The company was, as ever, fantastic. There was some discussion about whether Mrs M’s architecturally-themed necklace was a representation of a Frank LLoyd Wright-designed house; I’m still not sure.

We saw no vinyl-playing DJ, no ferrets, no stories about freezing dead pet rats*. Instead, good company at the pub and restaurant, good beer, decent wine, and very fine cooking.

*Though I did see a seagull when we got out of the taxi outside our B&B.

EDIT: “You didn’t say anything about the tiniest eclairs I’ve ever seen” says the GLDHI as she reads this review. She’s right, I didn’t. They came as one of the three amuse bouche. If you imagine a carrot/jalapeño tattoo on a thumb - they were about that size. Neither did I say anything about me asking the “is that shredded coconut on top of those eclairs?”, only to hear “No, it’s Parmesan” in reply. “Oh yes, so it is”. Oh well, too late now.

Any clumsy oafs knocking drinks over?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Little Fish Market, Upper Market St, BN3.

It’s only as I started thinking about the first sentence of this review that I realised the similarities between LFM and Sushi Tetsu: both small (20 covers a night vs 14), both only having one person doing all the cooking, both with a real attention to ingredient choice and precision, both with only one person doing front of house.

“We’ve just arrived”, texted [MENTION=28490]Machiavelli[/MENTION] just as we got out of our taxi from the Pond where we’d spent a very pleasant couple of hours drinking with a habituee of this thread who has been picked up by a 1901 steward for being unable to button his shirt correctly, carries a “leather tote, not a handbag”, and has a penchant for extremely messy-looking burgers, and several friends of his, two of whom had cycled down from the AMEX. Not being a knowledgeable craft beer drinker, I followed the lead set by the tote-carrier and very nice they were too.

Mr & Mrs M were perusing the wine list as we entered the sttripped-back restaurant. “The wines last time were fine without being great”, Mr M said. Trusting his judgement in vinological matters, I was happy to defer to his choices throughout the meal, and very nice they were too. No champagne or “champagne” was selected. Just saying.

It’s a six course set tasting menu for £69pp. I say six; they were preceded by three individual amuse bouche, which were exquisite in their accuracy and attention to detail, and by a boiled egg with various additions including a mushroom foam - reminiscent of Manresa’s famed egg.

The food is uniformly excellent, with a focus on accuracy. There’s just no doubt that you got served exactly what the chef had intended to serve you when he planned the dish. Consistency of presentation across the four servings of each course was deeply impressive too.

The sea bream (just beautiful, and perfectly cooked) and plum tart (including the thinnest pastry case I’ve ever seen) were my favourites, though tomorrow I might think it was the crab ravioli or the wild bass.

The only slight fault, in our opinions, was that the brandade was a touch over-salted.

This is really very good cooking - worthy of a star.

The company was, as ever, fantastic. There was some discussion about whether Mrs M’s architecturally-themed necklace was a representation of a Frank LLoyd Wright-designed house; I’m still not sure.

We saw no vinyl-playing DJ, no ferrets, no stories about freezing dead pet rats*. Instead, good company at the pub and restaurant, good beer, decent wine, and very fine cooking.

*Though I did see a seagull when we got out of the taxi outside our B&B.

EDIT: “You didn’t say anything about the tiniest eclairs I’ve ever seen” says the GLDHI as she reads this review. She’s right, I didn’t. They came as one of the three amuse bouche. If you imagine a carrot/jalapeño tattoo on a thumb - they were about that size. Neither did I say anything about me asking the “is that shredded coconut on top of those eclairs?”, only to hear “No, it’s Parmesan” in reply. “Oh yes, so it is”. Oh well, too late now.

Have to say that LFM is probably in my top three in B&H. Shame you had the same experience at Riddle and Finns as I did last Summer. It does make me think they're either cutting corners or changed head chefs.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Have to say that LFM is probably in my top three in B&H. Shame you had the same experience at Riddle and Finns as I did last Summer. It does make me think they're either cutting corners or changed head chefs.

What are the other two?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

What are the other two?

The Witchez and Petit Pois ….. not tried Etch yet but probably going in November so my top three may change !

EDIT - although I have to add in Fourth and Church …. can I have four top three's ?

 

[Goldstone1976]

Wright Brothers, next door but two to The only pub in London

My younger daughter and I had a quick lunch here prior to me attending a meeting and her meandering around Tate Modern.

We had a bowl of cockles in brine (very fresh and briny), followed by moules mariniere (plump, really fresh and very good) for her and a caesar salad with fresh white anchovies for me (also vg).

Somewhat surprisingly good. Worth a visit.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Sushi Tetsu, Clerkenwell (again).

The GLDHI, my younger daughter and I went this evening.

OMFG.

Don’t try to book - it’s shit.

*message ends*

 

[CHAPPERS]

Off to Fourth & Church for the first time tonight. Expecting big things!