Expensive – Page 10 – No Expert …but I know what I like

Hibiscus – too much hype!

For a while Hibiscus seemed to be the most talked about place. Everyone just raved about it. We even had it recommended while in L’Astrance in Paris.

The conclusion from our visit on a Saturday evening when they only do tasting menus (a rather mercenary approach in my view), was that it was over hyped, overpriced rather boring food.

When the best dish in a £175 a head meal (food with matching wines) is the cheese course, then there is something wrong.

This restaurant is currently number 56 on the S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list. It has 2 Michelin stars and 4 AA Rosettes, so it should have been superb or a least very good, as at this level there really should be no off days.

Very disappointing

Marks out of 10

Food 4

Service 4

Ambience 7

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Petermann’s Kunststuben – visiting the Gastro Gnomes!

While visiting the famous Gastro Gnomes of Zurich, we made a reservation at Petermann’s Kunststuben.

We went for the tasting menu, the idea being to experience the widest possible range of food in what is often described as Zurichs top restaurant. I really have no complaints with the food itself, which was off a high standard, the problem was the limitations in the tasting menu. Every course in a tasting menu by its very nature, should be different. That was not the case here, several identical ingredients were used in more that one course…..a mortal sin in my book 😉

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The Ritz – putting it on!

A group of us arranged to have lunch at the Ritz.

They have a very reasonably priced set lunch menu and a comprehensive wine list that includes several “less” expensive bottles of wine (i.e., under £30).

We had the best table in the restaurant, (top right corner) as it afforded a view of the stunning room and the garden area. The restaurant is a “stickler” for the Jacket and Tie rule (they will supply ties if necessary), as is the Rivoli Bar. The bar I was not so impressed with, the decor in particular is very garish.

The restaurant in the Ritz has 2 AA Rosettes, which sounds about right.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.5

Service 8

Ambience (in the restaurant) 8, (in the bar) 4

UPDATE December 2011 – The prices have gone up since this visit and the food has really improved, see post

The Ritz – Gettting past The Glitz

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Quirinale – its got competition!

Quirinale although in a basement is light and quite lovely. I am sure it turns up on a lot of MPs expense claims, as it is very much a politico hangout.

The food is off a high standard. They have an excellent wine list and do a really good cheese course, that you select from the menu. It is served with a selection of biscuits, fruit and preserves.

The Restaurant used to only open during the week, but from September it is opening on Saturday evenings as well. This will be interesting, as this place can not afford to let its standards slip – it used to be unquestionably the best upmarket Italian restaurant in the area, now however it has stiff competition from the nearby Osteria Dell’Angolo.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.8

Service 6.5

Ambience 6.5

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Benares – the return!

It is always interesting doing return visits. My first visit to Atul Kochhars flag ship London Restaurant Benares was well over a year ago on a Friday evening.

We went for the tasting menu and were blown away by the glorious food and the subtle wine combinations. We’d been to the Cinnamon Club and our experience there with Indian Food Wine matching was scary – give the customer lots of really strong red wine, being the basic philosophy I think. Not so at Benares. Indeed the meal was close to perfect, let down only by the meat course which was fine, but not that different from the sort off food you can get at a good curry house. Ironically our dinning neighbours had the opposite reaction “finally something we recognise” they said. So I guess you can not please everyone!.

Marks of 10

Food 8

Service 8

Ambience 7

Now comes the second visit, it was like going to a different Restaurant. This time I went with friends who were experiencing the restaurant for the first time, it was for Sunday Lunch, on a weekend where Atul was not in the kitchen. One of my companions had to send her Lamb back, and when it returned (much too quickly) it was still not as ordered. We also had to redirect the waiter to a nearby table that had been trying to get his attention for ages.

Marks out of 10

Food 4

Service 4

UPDATE October 2019 – No longer has a Michelin Star

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The Cinnamon Club – Spicing it up

The Cinnamon Club is probably the most famous high end Indian restaurant in London. It’s located in a lovely building and has two bars, one in the Library that is cosy and a more flamboyant one in the basement.

Service was a bit lax initially, but it improved after we ordered. We went for a menu with matching wines, which was not very successful. Benares handles matching wines to Indian cuisine much better. The wines at Benares complimented the flavours of the very subtle Indian food. The Cinnamon Clubs Wine matches were competing too much with the flavour, all of them were really heavy and full bodied. I found the whole experience exhausting.

Some friends who visited The Cinnamon Club a few days before us, had issues with not being allowed to transfer the bar bill to the restaurant bill, which was inconvenient as the bar was busy and they ended up having to wait 15 minutes for it.

The restaurant has 2 AA Rosettes, which sounds about right.

Marks out of 10

Food 6

Service 5

Ambience 6.8

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