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The restaurants I've been to!

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The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Gillthepainter » Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:07 am

Looking forward to hearing about your pub/ restaurant experiences, good, bad, and not yet had.

We are driving to France next month, where I know we shall be eating so well.
Unlike our last punt at Zizzi's at the end of the year, where I opted for the prawn linguine, which had 2 prawns in it. Honestly - for £14 you can do better than that.
Nice place tho, in a converted church. With fabulous service, so I don't really mind so much. So long as I haven't had to cook it.

Like a few people here, I don't eat out often, so please chat away, about your meals out.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Pepper Pig » Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:44 am

Great idea for a thread Gill. I don't eat out as much as I used to due to my husband's illness but last week I had a very good lunch at the restaurant atop the National Portrait Gallery. The service was good and the set lunch was excellent. The views would have been better if Big Ben wasn't boarded up at the moment.

Round here (Harrow) and the home counties there is a very good chain that have taken over a few pubs. It's called The White Brasserie and is something to do with the Raymond Blanc empire. I have yet to have a bad meal in any of them (I've tried 6).

https://whitebrasserie.com/

Fortunately we have one locally, The Hare at Harrow Weald, and it's great for a bargain lunch. We went last week, they change the menu monthly. I had a butternut squash soup, steak and chips and a delightful Seville orange and lemon posset. The a la carte is varied and excellent (the cheese soufflé is to die for). We shared a bottle of wine and had coffee. The bill including service was around £60. And, quite importantly, they are very nice people there.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Gillthepainter » Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:53 am

Good God. 60quid is excellent, Pepper.

I hoped we might have one in Cheltenham (as we had/ have Raymond Blonk's original brasserie here), but we haven't got one locally no.
Thanks for the recommendation.
You are lucky.

I love the downstairs National Portrait eating area.
It's so stylish.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Alexandria » Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:56 am

In France, I would recommend Three Michelin Star Mirazur, in Menton.

An unforgettable experience, both gastronomically and ambiance / atmosphere.
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Binky » Thu Jan 24, 2019 12:52 pm

I am sure everyone knows this, but the lunchtime menus in France are an absolute bargain. I don't know if this will help you in your travels Gill, but there is an excellent bistrot in Calais called Histoire Ancienne. We have eaten there umpteen times on our way home, and it has never disappointed.

As for eating out, the best places to eat in our area are the family owned pubs. Most do homemade meals or soup/sandwiches at least. We are visiting more regularly these days as it gives my husband a rest from catering, and we also enjoy the ride out into some nice countryside.

I used to be a member of a ladies lunch club, and we met monthly to try different eateries, many of them chains (Prezzo, Ask, Loch Fyne etc.) but we gave up fairly quickly on these as the quality was not great. There are lots of gastro pubs also in our area, so we tried those and found the dining experience to be better somstuck with that. We were paying around £20-25 per head for a meal, a drink and a coffee afterwards.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:08 pm

I mourn the passing of Pierre Koffman at the Grovesnor. Went a few time and food and service were perfect, not over fussy but thoughtful

Unlike Helene Darroze at the Connaught, where we felt that the service and presentation was so formalised it rather detracted from the enjoyment of the delicious food. They do my pet hate - fussily refolding your napkin when you pop to the bathroom. I really don’t see the advantage, and I was brought up to believe that if a napkin was precisely folded it was because it was fresh from the laundry - when not, it should be left crumpled.

I like the more informal modern chefs - Adam Byatt at Trinity, and Robin Gill at the Dairy, oddly enough both in Clapham, and the godfather of that style Chez Bruce is not far away

Having said which, the backgammon club has moved to a new pub and they serve the perfect games players supper. They do burgers in big burger buns - brioche but not sweet, best I’ve had. Not just ordinary hamburgers but someone had sat down and thought of a number of different fillings, i had the halloumi burger which came with all the right trimmings, and I fancy the buttermilk chicken.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Joanbunting » Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:02 pm

I'm entirely with Sue in mourning the closure of Pierre Koffman in London and I also miss Christian Etienne in Avignon which was in a stunning setting as part of the palais des Papes.

You are completely correct about lunch time menus in France Binky. As I prefer lunchtime eating these days that's fine by me. However you quite often find that the special cheaper menu doesn't feature at weekends or public holidays.

We usually have Sunday lunch about once a month here and we have a circuit of favourite places depending on the time of year. However right now every single restaurant is closed for their annual holidays with one exception and we may well go on Sunday.

Last year the 2 very best meals we had were at one of Yotam Ottolenghi's estanblishments in London -Nopi. The other of course had to be Anne Sophie Pic's gastronomic paradise in Valence.

For the coming year I am not sure. More of our friend Mannu's Auberge de Bartavelle and Letitia and Buno's Carillon both in the village of Goult. The latter do a fixed price lunch with a menu that changes everyday for the same reasonable price of €24.00 no matter what day. The food is lovely and the service fantastic.
Cooking for those you care about is the most profound expression of love - Anne-Sophie Pic

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Gillthepainter » Thu Jan 24, 2019 6:13 pm

Sounds perfect to me, Member 461. I've never been as far as Nice way, one day we may end up there.

At some time, I may become a lunch time/ menu eater.
But at the moment, I'm breakfast and evening meal person. It's certainly cheaper to eat out at lunchtime I'll give you that.

I've been to Chez Bruce. A long time ago.

Our much missed restaurant that we regularly talk about was Christians, Chiswick.
The (French) chef speciality was to make omelettes to order. Whisking each one individually with a balloon whisk at the open plan kitchen window.
Always smiling.

My pet hate in a resto is little dogs on laps.
My pet love is paper tablecloths with the menu written out on them. We went to a Fish resto in Plymouth with tall ships passing the window.
Fish menu and specials on the tablecloth.

The jazzy pattern at the bottom of the photo, is my super bright trousers. :)

Image

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Wic » Thu Jan 24, 2019 6:27 pm

This isn’t fine dining by any means, but useful.

If you are crossing the Channel via Le Shuttle, the catering van in the car park where you wait for boarding usually does magnificent bacon rolls.

We are usually there quite early in the morning and it means breakfast is sorted.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Badger's Mate » Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:10 am

Gill, I hope the sprat and mussel dishes weren't really served in the singular!



Shouldn't wish my life away but we're going to the Fox & Hounds at Hunsdon tonight. :yum

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Joanbunting » Fri Jan 25, 2019 11:54 am

If you don't like pooches in restaurants then you'd be very unhappy here Gill. I can put up with a single well-behaved one but when you get yappy ones or more than one that fight :roll: :roll:

I lovely French friend's mother- who was very correct one told us that we should never ever enter a restaurant with paper napkins. I can;t imagine what she would have said about paper tablecloths :lol:

Our Sunday lunch has been called off unless we decide to go to Macdos which seems to be the only eatery open within miles -sorry kilometres
Cooking for those you care about is the most profound expression of love - Anne-Sophie Pic

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Suffs » Fri Jan 25, 2019 12:13 pm

I’ve just been told I can look forward to lunch here https://www.whitehorsebrancaster.co.uk/food-drink very soon as a birthday treat ... I’ll report back ...

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Jan 25, 2019 12:29 pm

I remember the family being intrigued by French and Spanish paper table cloths over the fabric ones when we first encountered them - usually with fabric napkins except of course at breakfast

Talking of French restaurants I remember eating at Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris in the late 70s. It was a little family run restaurant, and our waitress was a young lady clearly fresh out of school, in her first job, and loving it. We had good food and wine and good conversation with the old school Americans at the next table. It has since been closed for a few years and then reopened in a glitzier version by a group that owns a number restaurants.

For bling and glitz on that trip we went to the perfectly art nouveau Vagrnende, which was also an experience, but I enjoyed Procope more

That will be interesting Suffs!

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Binky » Fri Jan 25, 2019 2:06 pm

Speaking of old French restaurants, you have reminded me of a delightful evening spent at Polidor in Paris. It would have been around 1988/89 and we were there one October when it was freezing cold.

Entering from the street we were met with a lovely warm fug of conversations, gorgeous aromas and a general air of people enjoying themselves. It was the first time we had come across the French way of trestle-table seating, where you did not know your neighbouring dining companion. I think we both had the bourguignonne as the house 'signature' dish. It's one of the few places that has stuck in my mind for all the right reasons.

http://www.polidor.com/#top

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:10 pm

Perhaps more usefully for those travelling, and very old scroll, I definitely recommend Les Maraichers in Rouen

I’ve been a few times in the last 50 odd years and it’s my platonic ideal of a French restaurant in many ways

http://www.lesmaraichers.com/

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Badger's Mate » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:58 pm

I’ve just been told I can look forward to lunch here https://www.whitehorsebrancaster.co.uk/food-drink very soon as a birthday treat ... I’ll report back ...



You'll be handily placed to visit the Fish Shed :thumbsup

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Suffs » Fri Jan 25, 2019 9:24 pm

Badger's Mate wrote:

You'll be handily placed to visit the Fish Shed :thumbsup


Know it well :thumbsup

We have eaten at The White Horse before ... but not for a while ... it’s reputation is growing ... we first knew it when it had only two public rooms ... the building is growing too ...

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Pepper Pig » Fri Jan 25, 2019 11:23 pm

Don’t want to cast a damper Suffs but the last time we ate at The White Horse, last summer, it wasn’t quite as good as it used to be. However the ownership hasn’t changed so they may have been having a off day. I was in Norfolk today for a funeral and we had super fish and chips at a local pub that used to be part of the Flying Kiwi empire. Apparently he has moved on and sold them all but the food was good.

We were just up the road from Sandringham but I didn’t spot Phil the Greek.

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Pampy » Sat Jan 26, 2019 12:48 am

Pepper Pig wrote:We were just up the road from Sandringham but I didn’t spot Phil the Greek.

Hope you were very careful to watch for cars pulling out of side roads!! :lol: :lol:

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Re: The restaurants I've been to!

Postby Gillthepainter » Sat Jan 26, 2019 10:17 am

Should be OK, as there's no sun in the sky to speak of.

Sue - thanks for the recommendation.
We are staying at Rouen, and will try to get a reservation. Excellent timing.

Tony adores b.bourgignon. An absolute must for him when he sees it on the menu.
It's a shame we are not staying in Paris, as I would have hunted out the Polidor too.

Suffs
Yes please, report back on your birthday treat please. Looks fabulous, I hope Pepper it was just one of those days. Sorry to hear of your funeral tho.

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