Restaurants Outside Central London

Those of you who know me well will be aware that I regard any restaurant outside the Circle line with a certain suspicion, but there may be occasions when you desire a meal outside London.  This section is just a few personal favourites, and it is no way an attempt to be comprehensive.  I would recommend that you buy a copy of the Good Food Guide (the best of the UK restaurant Guides) to get a comprehensive and up to date view of cooking across the UK.

 

Fat Duck

Gidleigh Park

Gravetye Manor

Hambleton Hall

Le Manoir Au Quat’ Saisons

Waterside Inn

 

 

Restaurant

Fat Duck  

Food rating

8/10

Address

1 High Street Bray, SL6 2AQ

Phone Number

016977 46234

Open

All week dinner only 20:00 – 20:30

Price

£65 a head with wine

 

 

Heston now has a building opposite the restaurant in which there is a prep kitchen, as well as a new “experimental” kitchen, with various devices more usually seen in a lab e.g. a centrifuge and a distillation unit.  There are 22 chefs working here, not a bad ratio for a 42 cover restaurant.  The tasting menu began with a “breath freshener” of an egg white infused with green tea and vodka and lime, which is briefly dipped into a container of liquid nitrogen.  This causes the egg yolk to form a very delicate meringue coating, which needs to be eaten within seconds before it cracks; this actually works quite well, with the meringue being extremely delicate. An oyster was served next in its shell with a passion fruit jelly, lavender and horseradish. This sounds a pretty bizarre combination but worked better than I expected, the passion fruit in particular offsetting the strong taste of the oyster.  Next nibble was a grain mustard ice cream, which had excellent texture and indeed tasted properly of grain mustard, served in with a juice of red cabbage, which I am not sure added greatly to the experience.  Next was a “homage to Alain Chapel” and for me the best dish of the whole meal: a jelly of quail was topped a with wonderfully silky parfait of foie gras, some langoustine cream adding a further dimension.  Here the ingredients worked beautifully together and the technique was flawless, the quail jelly having lovely texture and having enough quail flavour to offset the richness of the foie gras (10/10).  Dishes like this make me wish Heston would cook more classical combinations.

 

Next was snail porridge, which while the three snails tasted fine, and the ham and shaved fennel gave some extra interest, was not in the same league as the previous course.  Next was roast foie gras in an almond fluid gel, with cherry and chamomile.  This was nicely made, but I’m not sure what the cherry, for example, really added here.  Sardine on toast sorbet was preceded by a little film of oak, the idea being to sensitise your tongue to the oak prior to the rest of the dish.  Well, the sardine element worked well, served with mackerel that was reconstituted without bones, served with marinated daikon, and I felt this combination was a good one.  Salmon poached with liquorice was slow cooked and was lukewarm, which I do find disconcerting – I’m happy with salmon raw or cooked, but I just don’t think it tastes at its best lukewarm.  This was served with the last of the summer green asparagus, pink grapefruit and olive oil.  The final savoury dish was a poached breast of Anjou pigeon, the pigeon itself in nice condition having been well hung, wrapped in pancetta and served also with a pastille of its leg, with pistachio, cocoa and spices.  The execution here was very good, the pigeon tender and moist thanks to the pancetta; again, were these nuts and spices really the best possible way of presenting it though? 

 

A white chocolate disc with caviar seemed to me just a bad idea; both ingredients on their own would be better than served together in this way.  Better was an ice cream cornet (using a very old recipe from 19th century cook Mrs Marshall).  A pine sherbet fountain is part of the “nostalgia cuisine” that Heston is fond of.  This is more than can be said of mango and Douglas fir puree, with a bavarois of lychee and mango and a blackcurrant sorbet.  The sorbet was technically excellent, the bavarois very good, but the fir was one tree too many for me.  Carrot and orange tuile was delicate and had good flavour, while a beetroot jelly was in fact stunning, with perfect texture.  Here is an innovation that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Smoked bacon and egg ice cream does indeed taste of what it is supposed to, and tea jelly and pain perdu are a clever accompaniment to this.  .  There is now a more classical section of the menu, which involved a very fine langoustine ravioli (8/10) though also a rather dry sole Veronique, which had been through the same reconstitution process as the mackerel, but here did not work so well.  This aside, the menu showed a high degree of technical execution, and some genuinely clever ideas like the beetroot jelly.  I am glad that these classical dishes are available, as it shows what the kitchen can do in a way comparable with other places, as well as not involving any trees whatsoever in the food, which would be a relief to some.  Service was flawless, with a newish mature d’ previously at Le Manoir and a sommelier who worked at the Capital Hotel in the past.  I should also say that bread, both white and brown slices, had excellent taste and texture.  I do feel that Heston’s cooking has got better each time I have visited here.  A greater emphasis on seasonal ingredients would be welcome amongst all the experimentation, and would help show off all the dishes to their very best. 

 

Here is the version from my notes in 2003, which is perhaps interesting to compare to see how the cooking has moved on.   The service has certainly tightened up considerably now. 

 

We went for the tasting menu, which has several additional surprise elements.  The first amuse guele was a lime and green tea “sour” which we were advised to “eat quickly before it separates”: this was dominated by the lime flavour but had reasonable texture (5/10).  This was followed by a grain mustard sorbet with red cabbage “gazpacho” – which was nothing more than red cabbage juice.  The mustard sorbet had good texture served on a bed of tiny diced cucumber; the sorbet resonated with mustard flavour: this worked very well, but the red cabbage juice did nothing (6/10). Next was a gelee of three layers: langoustine, quail and pea – this had smooth texture and excellent concentration of flavour, the elements of the dish working well with the others (7/10).  Stella had maybe the best dish of the day, a simple glass of warm puy lentils with finely diced carrot and apple in a balsamic vinaigrette on a bed of pea puree, which worked very well indeed (8/10).   Bread appeared only now, a choice of slices of either home-made sourdough or brown bread, crusty and with good flavour, though lacking in salt to my taste. The first official part of the meal was a divers scallop, roasted and served with a single wild mushroom (announced as a morel though it was clearly no such thing), a single black grape, a solitary white sultana and cauliflower puree.  The scallop was gently cooked and was of very high quality, the cauliflower puree had considerable intensity (7/10).  I then had foie gras on a salad leaf with two crab biscuits (6/10).  Stella had cauliflower risotto topped with a thin round of chocolate gelee and cauliflower carpaccio topped with cauliflower crisps, the dish being dusted with cocoa at the table (7/10). 

 

Our main course was sea bass with wild mushrooms, sweet peppers, baby onions topped with finely chopped chives and a vanilla and rosemary veloute (which did not really taste of rosemary).  This was the only real problem I had with the whole meal, the primary issue being that the sea bass was significantly overcooked.  Vanilla with fish seems a trendy thing at present - I encountered this a couple of times recently in German 3 star places, and my view is that it is a less than ideal combination.  Notwithstanding my personal preference, the problem here was that the vanilla was too intense, smothering the other flavours in the dish.  Hence I give this dish just 4/10, given its technical errors.  Desserts also had some surprise elements.  A pomme puree topped with lime gelee was brought on a spoon by the waiter and fed to you directly: the puree was OK but this seems like a pretentious “El Bulli” like way to serve.  Next was parsnip cereal with parsnip infused milk – sort of a breakfast idea that I actually felt worked OK.  A more debatable offering was white chocolate discs served with caviar – sorry but there is no way that chocolate and salt are a viable combination in my view.  Mango and Douglas fir mousse with blackberry sorbet (with a beetroot crisp) and a beetroot gelee was a disappointment, the mango flavour being obscured so much as to render the dish strangely tasteless (4/10).  Next was a plate of basil and fennel bavarois in a sweet pastry tart, with cubes of beetroot jelly coated in sugar.  A lollipop of sweet red pepper also appeared, served on a cocktail stick.  Much better was the main dessert.  Here a chocolate sorbet had excellent flavour and texture, placed on a little biscuit.  A dark chocolate mousse was served on top of hazelnut fondant made with “cracking candy” – which has a remarkable fizzing effect in the mouth.  Here I felt the flavours were fine and the execution good (8/10).  Coffee was £3.95 and was only fair (5/10).  Petit fours were chewing tobacco chocolate and a bacon tuile – I have to say that I won’t be rushing to make either of these ideas in my kitchen.  The service was variable throughout: I had the option of wines to match the tasting menu, and yet the waiter on two occasions failed to bring the wines in time – on one occasion it was literally as I finished the dish; they also did a “needle in the haystack” routine at finding our umbrella when we left.  Certainly very innovative cooking, much of which works well, but I was concerned by the overcooked sea-bass, which was a basic technical error.  The price is hardly a bargain either.  The wine list was excellent, with a wide selection of wines by the glass and some excellent producers, though the mark-ups are as steep as in London.

 

Last visited June 30th 2005.

 

Restaurant

Gidleigh Park  

Food rating

8/10

Address

Chagford, TQ13 8HH

Phone Number

01647 432367

Open

All week 12:30 – 14:00, 19:30 – 21:00

Price

£75 a head with wine

Web site

http://www.gidleigh.com/

 

My favourite spot for a weekend away in the country.  It is in a remarkably tranquil setting near the village of Chagford (for those coming by public transport, a taxi from Exeter station is the best bet).  The dozen or so rooms are each different, beautifully furnished, and you feel very well looked after by the charming Katherine.  Chef Michael Caines excels at complex starters and main courses, the desserts never quite making it to the same level.  For example, a Jerusalem artichoke and truffle soup was wonderfully fluffy and light yet intensely full of flavour.  A pithivier of pigeon was expertly executed, sitting in a pool of Madeira sauce with a little truffle and wild mushroom mousse to add an additional texture.  A main course pigeon was beautifully presented, the pigeon slices arranged in a sphere shape (rather like a Terrys chocolate orange) atop an excellent potato galette, with a little pan fried foie gras crowning the pigeon, all resting in a pool of Madeira sauce, with some excellent spinach and a few root vegetables at the side of the centrepiece.  This tasted as good as it looked, the sauce deeply rich, the pigeon perfectly pink, the vegetables (grown in the gardens here) perfectly cooked.  The cheeses are mostly from Somerset and are in very good condition, with just a French goats cheese a nod to the continent.  A hot tart with vanilla ice cream was prettily put together and was excellent, but without ever achieving the heights that the starters and main courses hit.  The starters and main courses here are consistently 9/10 and at times 10/10, the desserts mostly 7/10 or sometimes 6/10.  Service is very fine if Steve is around, it can slip a little when he and owner Paul Henderson are absent.  The wine list is a delight, as there is a maximum £30 mark up per bottle, on a sliding scale starting at £12.  hence you may as well order some nice wine from the vast cellar here, as you are not going to be ripped off.  For this particular meal we indulged with some Kistler Vine Hill 1991 and some Chateau de Fargues 1983. 

 

Last visited October 2004.

 

 

Restaurant

Gravetye Manor

Food rating

7/10

Address

Vowels Lane, East Grinstead, Sussex RH19 4LJ

Phone Number

01340 810567

Open

All week 12:30 – 13:45, 19:30 – 21:30

Price

£80 a head with wine

Web site

www.relaischateaux.fr

 

The gardens here are lovely, with a fine formal garden and a lovely terrace to sit out in the summer.  This extends up the hill into a “wild garden” and then into a walled kitchen garden containing vegetables, herbs and the flowers used in the hotel.  Service was very capable throughout.  The dining room has two parts, and even in the smaller room the service did not falter.  The menu of a half a dozen choices for each course is appealing enough.   Here are notes based on two meals here over a summer weekend in 2000.  Medallions of lobster were of the non-chewy variety so rarely found in restaurant dining rooms, served with a basil crème fraiche and some essence of tomato (7/10).  Ballotine of wild salmon had excellent texture and flavour, decorated with a rosette of smoked salmon that was clearly home-smoked with full flavour.  Similarly a piece of ahi tuna was lightly seared and served with a chilli sauce.   All these starters worked well. 

 

Consistency of cooking continued through a poached breast of free-range chicken (whether one of the ones near the garden I am unsure) served with excellent asparagus and a chive-flavoured light creamy sauce.  Seafood was also handled well, with a lasagne of Hebridean scallops garnished with parsley and a clam butter sauce.  The cheese board was in good condition, with high quality Stilton and ripe Munster.  The only slip over two dinners was a mediocre summer pudding that had cardboard-like bread encasing very good fruit.  I would have to say that desserts are the weakest link here, with a competent chocolate soufflé but generally desserts in the 5/10 range, whereas the starters and main courses are clearly strong 7/10 standard.

 

 

Restaurant

Hambleton Hall   

Food rating

9/10

Address

Hambleton LE15 8TH

Phone Number

01572 756991

Open

All week 12:00 – 13:30, 19:00 – 21:30

Price

£90 a head with wine

Web site

www.hambletonhall.com

 

A wonderful place for a weekend away in the country.  If the weather is good you can have drinks on the terrace overlooking the beautiful gardens and Rutland Water.  The wine list is extensive and has an especially wide selection from Eastern Europe, but the mark-ups are fairly steep.  We had an excellent Austrian Riesling, followed by an Austrian Eiswein, that were both more fairly priced than the classics.  Service is excellent here.  Here are notes from a recent meal. 

 

My starter was a simple but excellent set of fried morels and asparagus - the morels were in perfect condition, the asparagus excellent, both sitting in a simple sauce which had been fluffed up by a hand liquidiser just before serving.  This was very fine - 8/10.  Stella had an excellent ravioli of crab, with ravioli having excellent texture, the crab delicate and tender, offered with some shredded and lightly stir-fried ginger, topped with shreds of deep-fried leeks..  Unlike at various recent meals in Scotland, they understand here how to have a light touch with the stir-fried vegetables, which were enhanced with a pool of crab and ginger sauce (8/10).

 

For main course I had a wild salmon, which was timed to perfection, moist and full of flavour, served with some beautifully cooked new potatoes and in a butter and chive sauce (easily 7/10).  Stella had some excellent turbot, sitting on a bed of home-made noodles and spinach, surrounded by morels, other wild mushrooms, diced tomato and sitting in a pool of slightly too lemony butter sauce (7/10).  All other components of the dish were very well timed.  Cheeses were offered on a large board, and they had perhaps tried to offer too many choices, as a few were a little past their best and a tad dry e.g. the Colston Basset Stilton. Still, a good board (3/5, 5/10 overall) and most cheeses in decent condition.  Ones tried as well as the Stilton were Epoisses (in perfect condition), a Wellington, a Lancashire, a Camembert and a Somerset goat’s cheese.  

 

For dessert I had a magnificent passion fruit soufflé, offered with a perfect passion fruit ice cream on the side in a little tuile.  The soufflé was divine, the texture could not be faulted and the passion fruit flavour came through beautifully.  I don’t know to mark this other than 9/10.  Stella had caramelised apple tart, comprising very finely sliced apples on a good, rich pastry, sitting in a pool of caramel sauce, the top of which had been browned with a blow-torch rather than caramelised in the cooking.  In the centre of the tart was a scoop of perfect vanilla ice cream surrounded by five blackberries, which added some welcome tartness to the dish (7/10).  Coffee was not quite as good as one would expect, though still very decent (5/10).  The large espresso was pleasingly generous in measure.  Petit fours were: a Chinese gooseberry, a baby lemon tart, raspberry tart, tuile and a mini chocolate log, and were all of a very high standard - 8/10 overall, with the raspberry tart 10/10.

 

 

Restaurant

Le Manoir Au Quat’ Saisons  

Food rating

9/10

Address

Church Road, Great Milton OX44 7PD

Phone Number

01844 278881

Open

All week 12:15 – 14:45, 19:15 – 19:45

Price

£140 a head with wine

Web site

www.manoir.co.uk

 

I have been going to Le Manoir for a long time (indeed, we had our wedding reception there) and it is nice to see it return to form after a (relatively) poor patch in the mid-late 90s.  The place is like a well-oiled machine now, producing top-notch food on one recent visit even though neither the head chef nor Raymond Blanc were there.  As well as the fine setting, the service is exemplary, and the quality of ingredients superb.  The attention to detail shown towards the incidentals (coffee, bread) is a characteristic of a restaurant that is striving for the best.  The only problem is the bill - £285 for two, with half a bottle of wine (plus two glasses of house wine) and only one pre-meal alcoholic drink, with the cheese course at a little matter of £17 (one person only).  This must be the most expensive place in the UK now.  Here are notes from a recent meal.

 

These days there is a large car park with a separate driveway, as well as the gravel drive down to the front of house, as this is a large-scale operation.  The gardens are as immaculate as ever, and on this perfect summer’s day we had drinks on the lawn.  The manor house itself has attractive climbers – wisteria, clematis and others, growing up its elderly walls.  The pace is certainly leisurely: we arrived before 13:00 and our starter arrived at 14:28, while we finally left at 17:00, so nobody could be accused of rushing.  The menu is elaborate, with plenty of emphasis on the perfect vegetables that are grown in the gardens here.  One minor quibble is that, of six meat main courses, two were for two people minimum (tricky when one of us does not eat meat).  The wine list is 38 pages long, closely typed, so no difficulties with choice here, though finding value is another story.  The list is mostly French, though with a respectable smattering of bins from elsewhere e.g. Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 1995 from South Africa at a full £39 (I remember drinking it at the vineyard at £2, though this is not a fair comparison).  One example of the high mark-ups in the UK can be seen with the classic 1981 Vega Sicilia Unico – I drank this great wine at the 3 star Michelin El Raco del Con Fabes in Spain last summer at £140, but here it is £355.  Fortunately there are some cheaper choices e.g. from Alsace.  Water is Hildon, Perrier, Badoit or Evian, all at £3.50. 

 

We sat in the conservatory today, which suffered from an air-conditioning unit that was taking it easy, and eventually the staff gave up and opened the windows to avoid completely suffocating.  The conservatory has been extended since I last came here, and has dark wood floors, lots of natural light supplemented by directed spotlights hanging from a metal frame, and canvas blinds.  Each table has cream tablecloth and napkins, while the chairs are covered in the same cream-coloured cloth.  Crockery is Villeroy and Boch.  Each table had a display of kolanchoe, with salt and pepper in an open wooden dish.  Various large plants give some colour to the conservatory, in addition to the view over the gardens.  Service was extremely capable, with bread and wine topped up faultlessly, and the New Zealand waiter we had (ex the Ivy) a bit more friendly than some of the staff here.  This seemed to be a chef’s day off, as on the next table was Michel Bourdin of the Connaught, and on the other side was the manager of Kensington Place – Raymond Blanc was similarly absent from the premises.

 

The nibbles were first rate – a perfect salt cod (10/10), a little goats cheese on tapenade (9/10) an excellent escabeche (8/10), a delicate crab tartelette (9/10) and a tomato and olive tart with melting pastry (10/10) as well as an anchovy stick (8/10).  Instead of nuts on the table, there is a dish of little bread-based biscuits (8/10).  When we were seated at the table we were greeted by a further complimentary dish: a superb gazpacho with very intense tomato flavour (though maybe it could have had a little more pepper to give some bite) that had small-diced aubergine and courgettes.  I had a fine terrine of suckling pig, the jelly very clear and with excellent carrots to supplement the meat (9/10 for the amuse guele).  Breads are very good here, though the dazzling country bread I had a few months back was missing.  Today’s offerings were bacon bread, beer bread, wholemeal, raisin, rye, pecan and baguette.  The breads are made fresh and are of a very high standard, served cold but with very full flavour, great texture and the right degree of saltiness (breads are 10/10). 

 

Stella’s starter was a confit of salmon, shaped into a parcel sitting on flakes of salted cod, atop a layer of mouli, an Indian vegetable that has some resemblance to horseradish and so gave an excellent foil to the salmon, as well as a little slices of cucumber.  Around the edge of the plate were baby cauliflowers and an artistic smear of horseradish sauce that was very, perhaps too, subtle.  Still, the wild salmon had great depth of flavour and the vegetables were perfect (10/10).  I had macaroni in a truffle jus, the macaroni heaped into the centre of the plate with a pile of superb asparagus and courgette pieces.  Around the central pasta tubes were three beautifully cooked langoustines, while there were generous shavings of black truffle on top of the pasta.  The flaw in this dish was the pasta itself, which was distinctly harder than it should have been.  Otherwise the vegetables were again magnificent, and the langoustines very tender (9/10).

 

Stella had roast monkfish, which can so often be chewy but here was delicate and full of flavour, served on a rectangular plate in two pieces, framed at either end of the plate by a scallop on a ring of courgette, atop a led of potato puree.  The monkfish was accompanied by a magnificent watercress puree, the whole sitting in some of the roasting juices and a beurre meuniere, supplemented by further diced vegetables.  The scallops were exquisite, sweet and delicate, of the highest quality, perfectly timed.  This was very impressive cooking, with the elements of the dish working well with each other, while to make watercress taste this good takes talent (10/10).  I had poached breast of Landes chicken, topped with a sliver of truffle and served with a slice of perfect pan-fried foie gras.  The chicken rested on a nage of vegetables – peas, baby broad beans, asparagus, carrots, green cabbage, baby turnips and broad beans, with a simple white wine sauce.  The chicken was delicate and had that taste of chicken that seems to elude most of its brethren these days, while the vegetables were again stunning (9/10). 

 

The cheeses were all French, and I tried Picodon de l’Aideche goat, Rouelle du Tarn, Brie de Meaux, a slightly below par Reblochon (not quite ripe), an excellent Tomme de Vache and a good Bleu de Bresse.  Apart from the Reblochon these were very good indeed, in excellent condition (8/10).  A trivial service slip was that they forgot to offer any bread with the cheese, but this was soon remedied.  This is the most expensive cheese-board in Britain, though.

 

I went for a familiar classic for dessert, the ice creams and sorbets arranged on a palette biscuit, with a spun sugar brush.  I just went for a chocolate ice cream and passion fruit sorbet rather than the wider choice, and both were utterly perfect.  The passion fruit sorbet had perfect balance of sweetness and acidity, faultless texture and intense flavour, while the chocolate ice cream had great velvety richness combined with smooth texture; the biscuit palette was also lovely (10/10).  Stella had a caramel dish with caramel ice cream (fine texture) resting on a superb tuile, with a magnificent crème caramel of striking delicacy; so far so good.  On one end of the dish was an apple tarte tatin, which had a caramel topping but had apple that had not been fully caramelised inside.  The kitchen used a dessert apple that had descended into a mush, which did not help matters. The tatin element was really only 4/10, though everything else was around 9/10.  Overall 8/10 for this dish.

 

The coffee here is very fine indeed, an example to others.  Dark roast arrabica beans are brewed to perfection in both the filter and espresso versions.  Accompanying the coffee were petit fours: a pistachio sponge topped with strawberry (10/10), a frozen chocolate with almond ice cream inside (9/10), orange jelly (8/10), a choux bun with rum-flavoured crème patissiere (10/10), a lemon meringue pie topped with redcurrant (10/10) and a perfect chocolate truffle (10/10).  Overall I’d give these petit fours 10/10; hardly anywhere in the UK produces ones of this standard.

 

The bill, hardly small, is left with the credit card slip open.  Moreover, if you ask for a copy of the menu, you are told you may buy one for £7.50.  This is just sheer greed, and leaves a sour taste in the mouth after such fine cooking.  Last visited August 2004.

 

 

Restaurant

Waterside Inn  

Food rating

9/10

Address

Ferry Road, Bray SL6 2AT

Phone Number

01628 620691

Open

Wednesday – Sunday lunch 12:00 – 14:00

Tuesday – Sunday dinner 19:00 – 22:00

Price

£120 a head with wine

Web site

www.waterside-inn.co.uk

 

A lovely setting for lunch on a summer’s day, overlooking the river in the pretty village of Bray.  Here are notes from my last meal here.  Amuse guele such as a tender piece of raw salmon on a little pastry base, a tapenade and a quail’s egg also on a pastry base were of the highest standard.  I began with a fine tart of crab with langoustines, both of which were very delicate, served cold with just a herb emulsion for garnish (9/10).  Stella had some summer roasted vegetables, which were lovely but not to the standard that one gets in a top restaurant in France (8/10).  My main course beef was extremely good, with an excellent vegetable galette featuring several baby vegetables e.g. carrot, broad beans, asparagus and a fine red wine reduction of the cooking juices (9/10).  Stella’s lobster was of the non-chewy variety, with a port and ginger sauce (8/10).  The cheese is of an unusually high standard for the UK, and the cheese waiter knew both these cheeses and plenty about cheese in general.  Reblochon was in fine condition, a Bresse Bleu was good, Munster was fine, and goats cheeses are excellent.  The brown bread served with it had been cut into almost absurdly thin slices, and was none the better for it. 

 

Desserts are the high point at the Waterside, and they did not disappoint tonight.  Roasted wild cherries were served with a Kirsch sorbet on a biscuit tuile, and were superb (10/10).  The only problem is the price (of course female diners aren’t allowed to see prices, and I must admit I cam over all faint, so maybe this archaic practice has some logic).  With a half bottle of white and a half bottle of red, one £20 and one £25, and a half bottle of Novembre dessert wine for £40, plus an orange juice and a glass of champagne (£14 together) just note the price.  The drinks were £99 in all, not counting water, but the bill still came to £365 for two.  Cheese alone was £15.50 each.   It is certainly a mystery to me while Michelin gives this three stars but Le Manoir Au Quat Saison two stars.  Service was a little slipshod at times by these elevated standards e.g. we asked for some sparkling mineral water from the sommelier but he forgot, and we had to ask for the bill three times.  Perhaps they were having trouble fitting it on to one sheet of paper.  Last visited May 2001.

 

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