Author Topic: a restaurant review I enjoyed  (Read 49804 times)

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #75 on: 02 May, 2017, 10:53:52 am »
I have had very good and fairly bad food in France, and price is not a good delineator. 

I recall, after PBP 2015, a tiny restaurant  in the rather grubby back streets of Versailles. We ate on the pavement whilst the person who had cooked for us watched the world go by through a window and exchanged pleasantries.  Cheap and excellent.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #76 on: 02 May, 2017, 08:38:08 pm »
Restaurants should be about eating, not pretending to eat for appearances.

That's just symptomatic of the world we live in. You could say exactly the same thing about cars that should be about getting from place A to place B, clothes that should be about protecting your body from cold and rain, you see what I mean.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #77 on: 02 May, 2017, 09:54:46 pm »
Don't mock. Raw fish is wrong. Someone has to make a stand.
What about raw crustacean?

This is Ise ebi. They kill it, scoop out the meat, & serve it on the carapace, with seasoning. The head is for decoration. You leave it on the side of the plate, & later in the meal it's brought back to you in the form of a nice tasty hot soup.

I've only eaten it once, but it was in Ise.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #78 on: 28 May, 2017, 10:00:27 am »
He's done another cracker today  :)
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #79 on: 02 April, 2018, 01:06:23 pm »
£520 for "a Barbie-sized silicone breast implant" Hahaha! That's funny  :)

To me, it's ridiculous to spend huge money on so-called food masterpieces. I've been once or twice to such posh restaurants, and, to tell you the truth, both an incredible amount of money and my time were spent in vain. I'd rather have a meal at a local food shop or a cafe for a reasonable price, for instance, at R&H that's near my house.

Redlight

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hellymedic

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ian

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #82 on: 02 April, 2018, 06:34:58 pm »
Possibly the best (and only) description of globe artichoke that you need.

I had, for hipster cred, a jackfruit burrito the other week. People have been raving about such things.

It was awful. I'm not a big meat fan and often go for the veggie option, but it's was just weird chewy, fibrous stuff that was nothing like meat, and possibly something like a triffid's stinger.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #83 on: 08 April, 2018, 08:00:05 pm »
Quote
cannot get over the fact that my £13 sharing starter was even served in its £1.15 Asda original container ffs
https://www.bristol247.com/food-and-drink/news-food-and-drink/bristol-restaurant-serves-customer-cheese-still-asda-packaging/
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #84 on: 16 April, 2018, 01:42:18 pm »
I had, for hipster cred, a jackfruit burrito the other week. People have been raving about such things.

It was awful. I'm not a big meat fan and often go for the veggie option, but it's was just weird chewy, fibrous stuff that was nothing like meat, and possibly something like a triffid's stinger.

I, however, had the MOST AMAZING jackfruit 'wings' on Holy Saturday*. Proper tasty, spicy, bread-crumbed, deep-fried delciousness. Awesome texture (succulent and kinda reminiscent of muscle fibres) and so much better than real wings with their stupid bones and actual flesh.

Maybe it's like seitan. I really like seitan but sometimes it's like eating the soles of your own shoes.

*In Manchester from some lovely people calling themselves 'Wholesome Junkies'. They were so good I had two lots. Which rarely happens.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #85 on: 05 May, 2018, 07:39:27 pm »
Something I've just read (fiction) has made me wonder about restaurant reviews: they always mention "My companion had... " but is there in fact always a companion? Might the companion sometimes be a journalistic device to make the review more interesting?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #86 on: 05 May, 2018, 07:50:44 pm »
Something I've just read (fiction) has made me wonder about restaurant reviews: they always mention "My companion had... " but is there in fact always a companion? Might the companion sometimes be a journalistic device to make the review more interesting?

Bringing one or more companions allows for more dishes off the menu to be sampled by the restaurant critic without leaving most of it on the plate.
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #87 on: 05 May, 2018, 08:51:53 pm »
The book I'm reading features a journalist who does restaurant reviews solo but writes them up with a fictional companion, so allowing her to invoke conversation, an aura of potential romance and the sampling of more dishes without seeming a greedy pig!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #88 on: 08 May, 2018, 03:17:06 pm »
In my experience, it varies depending on which publication you're working for. I worked for one restaurant guide that would reimburse the cost of dinner for two, including a reasonably priced bottle of wine, but they didn't pay a fee for the report. Another one I worked for only paid for a meal for one, not including drinks, but they did pay a small fee for the report, so I would often dine alone when working for them.

In fact, I would often opt for a more expensive bottle of wine on the basis that I didn't mind paying the difference myself since I was getting the meal for 'free' (not really free since it was work), but only if the wine list was interesting enough to be worth exploring beyond the house wines and the meal was likely to be of a quality that deserved a superior accompaniment.

I imagine the big name newspaper columnists like Jay Rayner will get dinner for two paid, including wine, plus a decent fee for the write-up.

Local press write-ups are often subsidised by the establishment being reviewed, and are usually divvied out among the staff as a perk - they don't usually have a named restaurant critic. This is why they are so often so badly written and full of clichés like 'My companion had...'.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

sib

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #89 on: 08 May, 2018, 03:36:56 pm »
AA Gill didn't have any old companion but ...the blonde !

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #90 on: 08 May, 2018, 03:44:02 pm »
AA Gill didn't have any old companion but ...the blonde !

By way of a response to that, one of my colleagues used to refer to her companion as The Beard in her reports.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mr Larrington

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Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #91 on: 08 May, 2018, 06:59:41 pm »
AA Gill didn't have any old companion but ...the blonde !

AKA Nicola Formby, for whom he deserted Amber Rudd :demon:
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Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #92 on: 11 May, 2018, 08:12:18 pm »
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/we-just-didnt-like-you-14643770


Wreckfish is lovely, but the owner is not the shy retiring type  :D
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Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #93 on: 12 May, 2018, 09:47:33 am »
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/we-just-didnt-like-you-14643770


Wreckfish is lovely, but the owner is not the shy retiring type  :D
I loved his reply to the Daily Hate:
I’d rather dust my own balls in icing sugar & brûlée them with an industrial blow torch than make a video for you.
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Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #94 on: 12 May, 2018, 11:33:20 am »
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/we-just-didnt-like-you-14643770


Wreckfish is lovely, but the owner is not the shy retiring type  :D

Conclusive proof that the whinging customers have no self-awareness whatsoever: they're announcing to the world that they go to a restaurant and order red wine and lemonade  :sick: :sick: :sick:

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #95 on: 12 May, 2018, 01:15:56 pm »
It wouldn’t be so bad if it were a £5 flagon of plonk, but it was a £120 bottle.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #96 on: 12 May, 2018, 08:58:56 pm »
Well quite; fruit punch or a glass of sangria are perfectly acceptable drinks, but they're made with cheap booze (which isn't to say that a cheap rough red in itself can't be perfectly pleasant to drink with a meal). But if you're spending silly money on a drink you clearly don't like the taste of, you're just being a showy arse.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #97 on: 15 May, 2018, 09:07:01 pm »
Oh, I reckon it's a serious existential question. Does a restaurant exist in order to serve the food the chef thinks is good or the food the customers think is good? Best not to try answering this or we'll get into "When does food stop being food?" ::-) :hand: :D
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #98 on: 15 May, 2018, 10:18:38 pm »
A restaurant exists to feed customers in the way they want or expect to be fed.
This will vary with time, taste, location and dietary requirements.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #99 on: 16 May, 2018, 01:45:20 pm »
I won't make a teleological argument, but I'd say that in order to continue existing, a restaurant needs to get enough punters through the doors to cover the costs of the business. It sounds like the food and atmosphere are popular enough for the owner not to have to be the shy and retiring type (indeed his personality is possibly part of the appeal). More generally, on the one hand I'd like to think once you've ordered the food/drink, it's yours to do with as you will; no skin off anyone's nose if you want to smother it with ketchup/mix it with coke/&c. On the other hand, when you get to a certain level of cooking, treating the food like that can be taken as a profound sign of disrespect for the chef and/or the ingredients. In either case, if you're asking the restaurant to go and procure something they don't normally stock, you shouldn't be surprised if the answer's 'no.'...