Expensive – Page 9 – No Expert …but I know what I like

Sant Pau, Sant Pol de Mer – a breath of fresh air

To get out of the city for a day, we went to Carme Ruscelleda’s restaurant in Sant Pol de Mer (about 40 minutes on the RENFE train from Barcelona).

Interesting location overlooking the sea and the train station.

Very good, beautiful and amusingly presented food.

There is also a rather interesting shrine on the way out, see if you can spot the tribute to the Michelin Man.

Looking forward to Spains top-ranked female chef opening an outpost in the not too distant future at the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona.

UPDATE – Closed

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Le Bristol, Paris – oh la la

Visited Eric Frechon’s restaurant Le Bristol (www.hotel-bristol.com) last Summer, and am so pleased to hear that it now has its third Michelin star, it’s the only restaurant in France to get one this year apparently. We had the summer tasting menu, which was in a class of its own, everything was perfect. Unfortunately I was so into the food I did not take enough pictures to truly capture the experience.

It was very expensive last year and now with the Euro exchange rate and its third star, it’s way out of most peoples price range (gents also require jacket and tie….argh).

This is my benchmark for culinary excellence, no wonder it is rumoured to be Nicolas Sarkozys favorite.

For more on Le Bristol, check out this video:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABMyH2-UuYk&NR=1

Marks out of 10

Food 9.5

Service 8

Ambience 8

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L’Astrance – a little bit strange!

The S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list rates this place as the 11th top restaurant in the world, it is certainly one of the hardest to get through to on the phone. I managed to get a reservation via a contact in the industry, but found I had problems reconfirming it, eventually after numerous attempts at different times of the day I managed to reconfirm.

It is quite a small room with a mezzanine area. Every table was taken, this was so obviously the place to be.

The service was first rate, but we found that the food was a bit hit and miss, which is surprising for a 3 Star Michelin.

Some courses worked, others tasted either a bit odd or bland, the desserts were in my view the highlight.

They also finished off the meal by serving tomatoes! L’Astrance was definately a bit strange.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.5

Service 8

Ambience 6.5

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Eleven Madison Park – Sweet success!

I enjoyed Eleven Madison Park, the place has style.

On the food front I especially remember a sharing dessert platter.

It was way too big for us to finish, which may have been the idea, as they were only too happy to box it up for us to take back to our Hotel. It was absolutely yummy, just thinking about it gives me a sugar rush!.

UPDATE February 2010 – It seems like Eleven Madison Park is not loosing its touch, Andy Hayler gave it very high marks in his recent review.

See 11 Madison Park Review

UPDATE : September 2011 – Danny Meyer may be selling Eleven Madison Park, see http://www.tinyurls.co.uk/1q1 for details.

UPDATE : October 2011 – Eleven Madison Parks has been awarded 3 Michelin stars. It is also definitely being sold, for details see Eater artical.

Marks out of 10

Food 6.9

Service 7

Ambience 7

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Craft – Short sighted? No, just don’t see the attraction!

Tom Collichio’s Craft restaurant in New York is the epitome of style over substance. Not clever to make the menu font so small, to justify the gimmick of giving out reading glasses to the “short sighted”.

My main problem with the meal was that you are meant to mix and match the elements that you order. Excuse me but surely that is part of the art in preparing a course and one that the chef should take care of. He or she should be the expert in matching the ingredients on the plate. That’s what I’m paying you for.

This video explains why they choose this mix and match concept:-

Did not work for me, not surprised it lost its Michelin star.

Food 5/10

Service 0 (the man at the next table was choking and was ignored! – eventually with a lot of effort his wife managed to get him a glass of water).

Ambience !! (not important if everything else is wrong).

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The Fat Duck – OTT

The Fat Duck in Bray is the complete opposite of its near neighbour the Waterside Inn, The Waterside goes for old fashioned comfort (old money clientele), the Fat Duck does “flash” (new money clientele).

The room is minimalist in style and the food is excellent with very over the top presentation.

We visited before the recent alleged food poisoning problems, and experienced all the trade mark gimmicks – Dry Ice, Dragons Breath, IPods and the obligatory Snails Porridge. We also went for a matching flight of wines. There are two price options here, expensive and extortionate. We restrained ourselves and kept the wine bill under £100 per person.

It was an experience, but I have to admit I missed the warmth of the Waterside Inn as once the meal is finished, there is no way you would want to hang around or indeed be encouraged to hang around in the rather cold room. Then again I guess that is why Heston Blumenthal’s Hinds Head is only a few yards away.

The Fat Duck is currently number 2 on the S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list.

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