Author Topic: a restaurant review I enjoyed  (Read 49806 times)

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #100 on: 16 May, 2018, 02:37:04 pm »
I remember a case some years ago when a customer in a Marco Pierre White restaurant went off-menu in requesting a portion of chips.

MPW complied with the request but charged £50 for them, which he said was the going rate for his time, as he did it himself rather than get one of the sous chefs to do it.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #101 on: 17 May, 2018, 04:33:31 pm »
Yes I remember having a laugh at that story  :thumbsup:
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #102 on: 15 July, 2018, 08:28:03 am »
Its pork pie is a bold expression of pig


Pork pies, Scotch eggs & Paris Brest ..... chef must be an audaxer..... ;)
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #103 on: 15 July, 2018, 12:15:17 pm »
And "a belief in the utilitarian qualities of cake liberally applied" suggests Jay Rayner's mum was too!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #104 on: 15 July, 2018, 12:24:14 pm »
She was a nurse. Tea, biscuits, sympathy and CAEK comfort and cure beyond conventional medicine.
Trufax.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #105 on: 24 September, 2018, 10:14:13 am »
Reading Jay rayners (in)famous review of Le Cinq in paris (3***) which is now published in a book. The review was v.damning but well written and the pictures were enlightening. What he got and the official picture were quite different

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #106 on: 24 September, 2018, 10:53:06 am »
There was a nice piece by Rayner this weekend in the Graun or Observer talking about the book and the review; he mentioned that was by far the most widely-read restaurant review he'd ever written (millions of views online IIRC), and possibly the most widely-read piece he'd ever written.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #107 on: 24 September, 2018, 07:30:19 pm »
Back before kids the good lady wife and myself had a good run of local meals for food reviews for local newspaper she was working for.

Mad thing was no one else in her office wanted to even after it was changed to 50 quid including drinks which meant we rarely had to put in much more then the tip out of our own pocket.

Our scores were never allowed to be lower then 7 out of 10 as might hit advertising. One Indian which got a well deserved high rating framed the review and then when my wife went back with a friend they didn't accept cash or cheque and the card machine was temporarily broken.

ian

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #108 on: 14 October, 2018, 12:41:24 pm »
Another good one from Mr Rayner today. I do sort of like the fact that he's generally generous and fair and doesn't just do hit-jobs, but equally – and let's face it – the negative reviews are far more fun.

Lines like this are far more delicious than the food that was evidently on offer:

Quote from: Jay Raynor
On the side is an underpickled pickled quail’s egg that has been for a bath in crimson beetroot juice. It looks like something that should be placed gingerly in a kidney dish with forceps after an intimate extraction.

Having been to the restaurant in question a month or two back, he's perfectly on the ball too. It's the sort of place that feels cynically designed as a posh restaurant-like experience for people who go to restaurants because that's what people like them do. I had the parsley and ham hock soup (honestly, £8 for a small bowl of broth) which tasted a bit like someone had bathed a pig in a swimming pool and scooped out a cup of the water afterwards. The amount of actual ham in the bowl suggested that any pig otherwise involved in its production had likely survived the process with little more than scratches. The chicken wellington which, let's face, sounds like a bad idea would have only been worse if it had come with the word 'Dunlop' embossed on the pastry. I wish I'd thought of 'a nappy smear of diced mushrooms' though.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #109 on: 11 November, 2018, 11:53:54 am »
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #110 on: 11 November, 2018, 03:54:05 pm »
Here's another classic, this time from Grace Dent

Quote
“But you can’t just invent a cuisine,” you may be shouting. “You can’t just bung the dining culture of Japan into a blender with 20 or so other sovereign countries of southern Europe and the Levant, and then invent the name ‘Meppon’ – which, by the way, sounds like a cat trying to self-regulate fur balls.” To which I would reply: sweetie, these people are very rich, and they can do whatever they want.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/nov/02/zela-me-hotel-london-wc2-restaurant-review-grace-dent


Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #111 on: 17 November, 2018, 03:26:39 pm »
Quote
“My friend, you want kebab?” a member of staff wearing a backwards cap that could have been designed by Jackson Pollock shouted to one customer over the skipping sound of reggae.
https://www.bristol247.com/food-and-drink/features-food-and-drink/slix-and-ritas-two-constants-among-a-changing-stokes-croft/
In another context, that might have been quite a feature.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #112 on: 17 November, 2018, 05:47:58 pm »
Quote
“My friend, you want kebab?” a member of staff wearing a backwards cap that could have been designed by Jackson Pollock shouted to one customer over the skipping sound of reggae.
https://www.bristol247.com/food-and-drink/features-food-and-drink/slix-and-ritas-two-constants-among-a-changing-stokes-croft/
In another context, that might have been quite a feature.

I quite enjoyed that, but it felt like an intro to an interesting longer piece rather than a stand-alone feature (unless there was a page 2 link I missed hidden among the banner ads?).

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #113 on: 17 November, 2018, 06:26:31 pm »
No page 2, but I've just realized the stupid ambiguity of my post. I meant the "Jackson Pollock" cap could have been a deliberate feature in a restaurant with arty pretensions, as opposed to a grease-splashed cap. But it does look as if I meant the article could have been "quite a feature".  :facepalm:
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #115 on: 28 November, 2018, 11:31:06 am »
thats the danger. the owner(s)/staff get complacent as business booms and unless some firm management is upheld the slide begins. Its best when the owner pref the Chef is on hand to supervise eg Shaun Hill at The Walnut Tree/Abergavenny.

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #116 on: 29 November, 2018, 10:32:58 am »
This was followed up in the Guardian today, with Jay Rayner saying if the restaurant can’t run perfectly with all tables occupied they shouldn’t put the covers in. To be fair he does warn restaurateurs if he’s doing a good review, as he realises the potential effect.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #118 on: 18 January, 2019, 03:30:42 pm »
I was hoping to go there - unlike Imperial treasure in that London which has a review in The Guardian recently

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #119 on: 03 March, 2019, 03:54:42 pm »
<i>Marmite slave</i>

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #120 on: 04 March, 2019, 01:35:08 pm »
Oh dear - I fear for the chefs in this place:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/03/yeni-london-underwhelming-dishes-and-in-yer-face-pricing

The pictures look like solid evidence to back up his words. Those stuffed vine leaves are most unappetising.

I clicked through one of the links to another more positive review. This place sounds right up my alley. I want to go there right now:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/feb/03/monsieur-le-duck-london-its-like-the-first-night-of-your-french-holiday-restaurant-review

"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #121 on: 07 March, 2019, 11:44:20 am »
Oh god, I can't unsee that leaf mulch patty. It looks like something you might step in on a country walk.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #122 on: 07 March, 2019, 12:43:16 pm »
Oh god, I can't unsee that leaf mulch patty. It looks like something you might step in on a country walk.

You have to wonder what they were thinking allowing it out of the kitchen, especially with a photographer present.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: a resturant review I enjoyed
« Reply #123 on: 07 March, 2019, 12:59:44 pm »
The beef thing doesn't look a lot better. Actually, none of it does. It's all a bit Wetherspoons plating, which would be fine if you were in a Wetherspoons and not paying £17 for two scallops.

All a bit of a shame, I love Turkish food, and I can't say I've ever been served anything that looks that bad, even in the most basic ocakbasi and at price-point somewhere below £5.

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tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark