My other half really likes her food, so she'll pore over reviews and talk to her friends about 'must do' restaurants, I'm more about portion size, than nuances in cookings, but from the ones I've been to, these are my favourites.
Fat Duck, Bray.
The best restaurant in the country? Seeing as it's consistently rated as the best restaurant in the country, no 2 in the world etc. We had to try it. It is pretty much obscene prices. The only thing you can order is the tasting menu, it's currently £160 per head, so with service it's £180, so even if you drink water, and only have 1 coffee, you're going to be lucky to get away with £200 a head. We saved for a year (every £2 coin we got went in a jar) and went for an anniversary meal. We had to book 2 months in advance over the phone, calling at 10 AM exactly 2 months before we wanted to go, so it's a total pain in the arse, but I think they're getting a better system now.
For some reason I was expecting a larger restaurant, it's tiny. Service was awesome. Dishes ranged from 'awesome' to 'interesting'. However there was one dish that totally blew me away. The sound of the sea. It's like a freakin' sculpture that you eat.
Immaculate table cloths, custom plates for each dish etc. Amazing staff who pamper you non stop for 4hrs. It's 50% magic show, 50% restaurant. Someone on the next table switched their Wine Gum dessert for bacon and egg ice cream, and the waiter wheeled out a trolley and 'cooked' it at their table. It was total theatre, as pretty much every surrounding table stopped eating to watch the waiter cook. We didn't even get to taste the damn thing, but watching it was spellbinding.
Thanks to a mistake in the bill, I didn't to get charged for the £15 optional cheese board. Would I go again? Maybe, but not for another 10 years at least. You don't go to the restaurant to get full, you go there to taste. I had to fill up on the non stop supply of bread between courses
. I'm glad I went, as the Sound of the sea is the single most memorable dish I've ever eaten.
Galvin@Windows, 28th floor Park Lane Hilton London. Bar/restaurant. It costs £4.50 for a cup of tea in the bar, but you get awesome views over London. You can literally see directly into the Queens back garden. I really rate the service there, we took my dad to the restaurant there for his birthday, and they wrote a birthday message in chocolate on his plate for him in Chinese. For that alone I will rave about the place until I die. Food's not bad, but it's the views that are the thing, just go for a cup of tea (they even include a couple of biscuits) and go look at the view.
Company shed, Mersea. If you like seafood, you have to go. It's awesome. It's a shed. You can't book, you may have a long wait, you have to share tables, they just sell sea food. You have to provide your own drink, salad and bread, but they can lend you glasses. We went there, I didn't talk to my gf for a couple of hours, I just ate.
Orchard, Granchester, Cambs. I haven't been for years, but afternoon cream teas in the summer in the Orchard are awesome. Sometimes you get bothered by wasps, but it's the location and weather that makes it so good.