Originally Posted by Manc
Here's what I had:
"A Moon Shaped Pool" from Great British Menu 2023 - Lobster tail with Thai Green Veloute, salty fingers, marinated cucumber and Exmoor caviar.
English Lamb Cutlet with new season morels, malt vinegar ketchup and wild garlic veloute.
"Balloon Girl" from GBM 2023 - Raspberry and rose cheesecake with chocolate raspberry torte and blackcurrant pate de fruit.
It was excellent. Also, the bread they gave at the start was amazing, especially the treacle soda loaf.
I also got to see the head chef (he was on the phone) and Jamie Carragher who was dressed up like a waiter and it took me a second to realise it was him.
'Food inspired by Banksy' might be the cringiest thing I've ever heard.
Food like this makes me unjustifiably angry.
I love this shit
The meat thing looks good. Lol at everything else.
Pic 1 is a scene from Waterloo Station toilets at 6am on a Sunday morning. Good brand activation from Armitage Shanks.
Looks like the sarlaccs gaff.
How much did this performative display of disposable money cost you, Monghow?
It cost me £0. It was my birthday meal so my Mum and Sister split the bill
It's because Great British Menu (which those dishes won) - which used to be really good - ruined itself by every series having a "brief" and the chef's getting panned for producing dishes which didn't fit "the brief".
Like I've just stuck it on and the brief this year is the Olympics and Paralympics.
One of the desserts is going to have the diners wear a pair of glasses which simulate 90% blindness as a nod to the V1 class of disability in the Paralympics.
It's absolute wank, but if the chefs don't entertain this rubbish they don't win.
Michael Caines seething he's not in it this year.
This Dish was cooked by a chef in the one hand category . . .
Anyone been to Röski in Liverpool?
Also what kind of prices are these Michelin places?
I'm a twit
Varies.
Meadowsweet which is a (very good) 1* near me is £135 a head for food, which is a tasting menu. This is fairly typical price.
Pea Porridge which is a 1* in Suffolk is a la carte and is around £15-20 for starters, £25-30 for a main, £10-15 for a dessert. I believe it's one of the cheapest 1* places around.
Dinner by Heston is 2* and their tasting menu is £160. Closest 2* to us is Midsummer House in Cambridge and their tasting menu is £250. Ynyshir is a 2* is Wales and is £380 I think.
Core by Clare Smyth (which is the only 3* I've been to in the UK) was £225 for the tasting menu we had I think. The Fat Duck changes the price depending on how popular the time slot is you book - ranges from £275 to £395. L'enclume is £250.
Martin Berasategui which is the 3* we went to in San Sebastian was €375 I think.
Alchemist in Copenhagen is one of the most expensive I've seen at >£550 a head but I'm sure there's pricier ones.
You can spend nothing on drinks or you can easily spend thousands. The wine pairing we did at Core was £125 I think (which is a small glass paired with each course).
Last edited by randomlegend; 13-03-2024 at 09:52 PM.
That ended up being a longer post than I realised.
They missed a chance to put your age on the balloon.
And you swear you leave feeling full and like it was worth it?
I'm a twit
You don't go there to "feel full." You go there to take pictures.
Did Radiohead have to provide a license for that first dish?
I have never come away from one not feeling full.
It's worth it to me because I love food and the experience. I am sure not everyone would get as much out of it and it wouldn't be worth it to them. In the same way as I would not get enough out of going to an amazing Opera or Ballet for it to feel worth it to me.
Of yourself?
The arrogance of daring to enjoy something.
I love literally every aspect of the poncy tasting menu. I love that people have created them, love that people enjoy them, I love the photos, also think the photos are hilarious, also enjoy lolling at it as the final stage of human decadence before civilisational collapse. It's a win-win-win. I must have extracted about 6 hours of total enjoyment from the concept in my life without ever having experienced it.
They did give me a little cake/pudding on the side which said Happy Birthday too. No age or candles like Keeks sadly.
I'm assuming so.
Have done a few Michelins over the last few years in London – Texture was superb, but has now shut. The Glasshouse was good, as was Alyn Williams at The Westbury (also now shut), and we've done a couple of starred Indian places – Veeraswamy and Trishna, both great. I'm not big on tasting menus though, I much prefer going to places where we're going to get a really high standard traditional three or four-course meal. There are some really reasonably priced ones out there.
Never been to a Michelin. Best meal I've ever had was here: https://moro.co.uk/
Absolutely outstanding quality in normal proportions at a high, but not exclusionary price. This was ten years ago now but I had something very similar to the pork that's on their menu now and have yet to top it.
I don't really understand the ire for tasting menus. It's just an opportunity to try lots of different things. The "I'd still want a burger after" brigade really are just wrong in my experience. My wife was so full after Martin Berasategui that she had to go and stand outside to compose herself
Traditional 3-4 courses can be great too, obviously. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw was 4 courses and is in my top 3 meals ever. At Dinner we are doing 3 courses.
There's room for all such things. Suck them all and see. You might just end up liking it. Even if you don't, why care that others do?
Then there's stuff like Pintxo bar hopping in San Sebastian
Is Dinner the one in the mandarin oriental, if that still exists? I remember going there when it first opened and they did that pineapple spit roast type dessert and things made to look like oranges but they weren't oranges, they were duck liver parfait or something. I remember thinking it was good but not great and it probably set me on course to not liking the whole star scene and coming round the the what I once thought to be heretical views of the people who ran the Wolseley - essentially that those people where knobheads. It is very much each to their own though and I would imagine in the, probably, 15 intervening years things have probably got better albeit far more expensive.
Hands down best 'tasting menu experience' I ever had was the first, which was at Tetsuya's and it was ridiculously good and, yes, very filling. Think it was probably around hundred aussie dollars a head as well at the time for the 12 courser.
Might try to go to Plates when it opens although that guy blitzing Great British Menu is probably going to make it quite tough to get in.
That is the one, yeah.
Ah yeah, menu's still the same I see. Money for old rope.
Think I went Meat Fruit - Ribeye - Tipsy Cake off the a la carte.
Which, in retrospect, were shit choices.
Oh, hang on, looks like you'll be on much the same journey on the tasting menu.
Last edited by niko_cee; 14-03-2024 at 10:14 AM.
The tapas / tasting menu hatred is something very deep in the British psyche I think. I've been out for tapas with my brother, genuinely amazing food but he was physically upset by the idea of not having a big plate with meat and potatoes on it, viscerally could not deal with the idea of many small portions adding up to the same or greater amount of food, spent the rest of the evening in a foul mood.
I quite like tapas but in the sense of having them as tapas rather than as some sort of sit down clusterfuck where 55 dishes arrive simultaneously, which, in my experience is the British way of doing it.
Tasting menus are fine as long as they don't take the piss. I had one once where one course was a solitary mussel. It felt like some sort of experimental theatre.
Reminds me, I'm off to San Sebastian later this year
It's so fucking good. We did a Devour tour on one of our first nights to get a handle on the Pintxo bars, which I thought was very worth it.Reminds me, I'm off to San Sebastian later this year
Ta, that's handy to know.
Cafe Anduluz is the worst for that. Sat at a tiny 2 seater table and they stick 6 plates of food down at once with no room for drinks even plates.
I'll tell you my problem with them.
I've been to plenty of Michelin places over the years. Tasting menus have always been around obviously but they weren't as widespread even a decade ago. For example, I've been to Tommy Banks' Black Swan twice; first time was about 10 years ago when he first got his Star (or just before, maybe) and the menu was fairly standard three courses or so. The skills were a cut above most top restaurants, hence the Star, but it was down-to-earth and didn't give off the snobby vibe you get from most at that level. Second time was a few years ago after his GBM fame and it was tasting menu only, £150pp for the privilege, plus all the extras and the final bill wasn't far off double the first visit. Still great food but not any better than the first time. And that's my problem, instead of seeking out the odd place here and there to get a tasting menu, they've all pivoted in that direction because it's an easy way to fleece insane prices from people who either have no concept of money or those who like to take pictures of their food as much as eating it. It's resulted in a clientele where those who actually go to sample great food for an occasion and not broadcast it to the rest of their social circle are now a tiny minority.
I'd also say the tasting menu culture has resulted in laziness from some chefs as you often see the same recycled techniques disguised by fancy character names. But that's a more subjective opinion.
Last edited by Ben; 14-03-2024 at 12:50 PM.
People say this but it's not my experience. Where I've been the majority of people aren't taking photos. One of us usually does because I like to keep them, along with the menus. I don't have any social media to post them to. Other than here, where I mostly do it because it winds people up and because it's a bat signal to Luca to come and talk about wanky food with me.
I also haven't felt a "snobby" vibe anywhere we've been, but classic-French-style stuffy places are not what I'd be into so we've never been anywhere of that ilk.
There is a definitely a degree of truth to this, but it's about taking the time to pick wisely where you go. Martin Berasategui and Core were both ostensibly wanky 3 Michelin star tasting menus, but the food was vastly different between them. I also think that unless you're super rich or a food critic you're unlikely to be dining in such places often enough to really be able to moan about the fatigue of sameness.
Last edited by randomlegend; 14-03-2024 at 01:04 PM.
I think there's also a degree of prices having massively gone up in general, but because tasting menus have become more widespread on roughly the same timescale, people assume causation.
I paid that £150 pre-COVID. I just checked his website and it's "only" £175 now.
That will be as much to do with his getting a star and doing well on GBM though.
If you find places that do both a la carte and tasting menus, the latter do tend to be a bit more expensive but the difference isn't drastic. Given the work that goes into doing loads of courses, I doubt they are much different as a "value" (lol) proposition.
I've seen a few people in the industry claim these places make virtually no money on the food and are kept afloat by drinks sales, but I've no idea how true that is.
There was a Michelin star place in Belfast that closed recently. The owner/head chef said there wasn't the same demand for tasting menus now because of the cost of living etc and was expanding his steak place next door into the former tasting menu place. Tbf that's Belfast where there won't be as much money floating around as in the south of England.
Regular places that do "small plates" always feel like a rip off to me.
How charitable those chefs, working for free. It is their love for food that keeps their Lamborghinis running.
The Belfast taster, with equal amounts fish and steak on every single plate until they both taste like shit.
What are you on about.
Can someone explain different steaks to me and/or tell me what I should get from here, including sauce.
I'm a twit
Rib eye and peppercorn sauce remains the king.
If peppercorn is genuinely the best sauce, I’d rather go without. I swear nobody like that stuff but it’s just ground into tiny minds (no offence, I don’t mean you specifically
I'm a twit
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