Le Recyclage De Luxe show and TV Dinner

Hosted by Alain du Monde, father of the "recyclage" movement, Stella Artois aimed to bring an entertaining way of increasing our environmental awareness. In their words: "Humorous and spectacular, Le Recyclage de Luxe show is a fresh, entertaining way of talking about those small steps that we can all take to help protect Mother Nature." I watched only about 1 minute of it before I cracked open the TV dinner box I'd been couriered to find the three carefully packed courses of "haute cuisine".

With the Coq Au Vin in the oven, I will take a moment to tell you about Stella Artois' efforts on sustainability. Stella bottles are made of 75% recycled glass, cans are made from 50% recycled aluminum; the corrugated packaging made out of 100% recycled paper and the cardboard packaging is certified compostable. That's not bad. Right? Armed with a piece of bread more like rock, I approached the entree with fear. Inside the brown cardboard bowl was a pink lump (pork rilette) on top of a bed of cornichons, lifeless wilted baby leaf salad with a lemon and pot mini of sauce vierge. With a poke around and a taste I was able to confirm that it was a rilette but not one I'd dare to eat without bread. The Coq Au Vin was actually edible consisting a leg portion of chicken. I could clearly envisage eating it on a plane... in economy, on a half decent airline. Profiteroles had the distinct taste of supermarket but I still ate them.

The Stella Artois campaign was supported by comprehensive media spend, from Spotify takeovers to GQ partnerships. This three course dinner was all part of a bloggers’ outreach program where they were delivered to 200 bloggers on the day of launch, 22nd November. So the food was prepared the day before, chilled and sent out to me on launch day, by Lewis Day taxis, with the instruction to be enjoyed whilst watching the premiere of the show. A truly memorable and creative marketing indeed! I enjoyed the bottle of beer.

Dragon Castle, Elephant & Castle, London

There is rarely a distance too far when it comes to matters of the stomach, however I do not often find myself South of the Thames and Elephant and Castle is just not a pretty area of London. A photographer was arrested there in January for posing an "unacceptable security risk." As a known local Artist he had been photographing the evolution of the area for 25 years. Be warned. With this in mind, Dragon Palace roars with credible recommendations - Jay Rayner (2006), Giles Coren (2006), and most recently Time Out (2009). Even heralded as the best Dim Sum in London by some and the most enjoyable Cantonese food in London by others.



Dim Sum for two had turned into six and we had well over 25 dishes, so there was plenty for all. But the dim sum was forgettable. The few dishes that I have tended to judge any Dim Sum restaurant by were either standard or below par. Fried foods should be hot, crispy and fresh. Steamed dumplings should arrive steaming and burn the roof of my mouth off and their contents should be plump, bouncy and explode with flavour. The Wu Kok arrived only luke warm and what should've been a fluffy and crispy batter, whilst light, was flabby and soft. Like most Chinese food, I want it to arrive and burn the roof of my mouth off. Prawn, char siu and fried dough fritter cheong fun were again average. The noodle had sufficient bite but the fillings weren't outstanding. Cold chicken feet really don't do anything for me at the best of times. I do however love Fung Jau, which we didn't order. The beef hor fun with black bean sauce and green peppers was just too salty and portions of Char Siu Pork and Roast Duck were average again.



Dim Sum is about convivial times over great food and good conversation was had. But there are plenty of places in London that one can get Chinese food and with the invasion of sanitised and westernised versions like Ping Pong, standards of Dim Sum have arguably been challenged. Yauatcha is good but just too expensive and in a surrounding just too sterile for spilling tea and making that mess with your chilli oil and soy sauce. Royal China is ok. Leaving Pearl Liang as the most universally applauded Dim Sum venue in London. Wherever it may be, attentive and friendly service should not be at a premium, unfortunately the waiting staff had a real problem with bringing us water and being first to arrive the staff were notably shocked with disgust that I hadn't made a reservation for my expanded group. Twenty notes a head really is quite an outlay for Dim Sum but that's just an indication of overeating. So, is this a question of value or quality? Both, and Dragon Palace hasn't won me over on either this time.





Dragon Castle. 114 Walworth Road, London, SE17 1JL. Tel: 020 7277 3388

Marmite Pop-Up Shop Launch Party and the Marmite Cereal Bar

Marmite... I don't think there's any question about it, people either love or hate it and we have to give much credit to the marketing people at Marmite for ingraining this on our minds. Even more credit to those behind the seemingly infinite number of merchandising that has been born out of that dark brown, sticky paste with its distinctive extremely salty flavour. Marmite is perhaps a good example of umami.

The Marmite Pop-Up Shop opened under the Christmas lights of Regent Street on the 3rd November with the launch party just over a week later. How do you make marmite glamourous. You can't. But you can have fun with it. Give me another Love It Or Hate It Poire William liquor Martini served with delicate Marmite crème foam. The shop offers over 100 Marmite branded products up until the first week of January. Just in time for Christmas...

I LOVE Marmite. I have it on hot buttered toast, with pasta with butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano, in congee, and even marmite soup (one and half heaped teaspoons of Marmite with boiling water in a mug). So, the idea of a Marmite Cereal Bar sounds somewhat appealing. Made with oats, wheat and rice, rather than masking the taste of cardboard with fruit like other cereal bars, there is obviously a hearty fullsome kick of Marmite. Certainly a good alternative to sugary cereal snacks... Nutri Grain quelle horreur!

Marmite Cereal Bars

The Marmite Pop Up Shop

Marmite Canapés - Roast Pigeon with Marmite and Caraway Chutney on a Marmite, Beetroot and Chilli Risotto

The Marmite Pop Up Shop

The Marmite Pop Up Shop Launch Party

The Marmite Cereal Bar is available in packs of 6 from Morrisons and Waitrose, and other outlets from January 2010.

Marmite Pop-Up Shop, 82 Regent Street, Quadrant Arcade, London, W1B 5HH

Konstam at the Prince Albert, Kings Cross, London

I recently met Oliver Rowe from Konstam and I never got round to writing up a full post about dining at his restaurant. Konstam at the Prince Albert famously claims that it sources 80% of its produce from inside the M25. It's far too long ago to think about a retrospective post but I can say that whilst we had a good time it took almost 45 minutes to get our main course. We were the first table at dinner service that night and there no more than 10 covers by the time we got our main. We did not have an entrées. The pork chop was beautifully cooked. So the recent blagger banquet auction of a chance to cook Pork Belly with Oliver Rowe was a big win for sure. Worth a revisit.

Here are some photos taken with my late Panasonic DMC TZ-5... it was a great point and shoot camera...










If you got this far, perhaps you might be interested in checking out my flickr set here.

Konstam at the Prince Albert, 2 Acton Street, London WC1X 9NA
020 7833 5040 princealbert@konstam.co.uk

Blaggers Banquet, Sunday 15th November 2009

Get this widget at roytanck.com

On Sunday 15th November, I took photographs for the Blaggers Banquet and here's a write up by tehbus. All the published photos can be found here but a quick pick of 20 of those photos can be found here. I was very honoured to take photos for the event and it was great to meet lots of great bloggers and guests alike all contributing towards a great cause. I am happy for the photos to be used and shared to non-commercial purposes such as on blogs on the understanding that you use the original photos with link back to the original image and credit to me as "Photograph by Mark N - www.foodbymark.com". Clearer information on this Creative Commons Licence can be found here. If you have any other uses for them please contact me here (you will need to correct the email address).

Some write ups after the event are already up, please do check them out:
Smell My Kitchen
Urban Foodie
Gin and Crumpets
Gourmet Chick

32 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London

Whilst searching for a venue for Sunday lunches in Central London, I came across a mention by TimeOut on their London's best Sunday lunches article earlier this year. However this debut visit to 32 Great Queen Street, was called by tehbus, who just really wanted to have steak that week. I would of course join him. After unsuccessful attempts to get reservations at Goodman's and being shrugged off for suggesting Angus Steakhouse, we managed to get a reservation at thirty-two at a sociable hour.



32 Great Queen Street is the newest cousin of the infamous Anchor and Hope in The Cut, SE1. The Anchor and Hope being one of the great gastropubs of London and one that I haven't eaten at. I read that thirty-two is like The Anchor and Hope except that it is bookable. I'm as much of a fan of queuing as the next punter. Let me book. The Grand Lodge of the Freemasons, a monumental, Art Deco building is directly opposite but it's easy to miss thirty-two. Red walls, wooden tables and wooden chairs. Plain, plain and plain. No frills. Nothing fancy to see there. The clientèle isn't young and trendy and are well into their 30s. First to arrive I sit at the long wooden bar towards the back and order myself a lilliputian glass of Merlot.





The menu is a single sheet of A4, with 20 to 25 items listed including hors d'oeuvres, entrees, sides and desserts. A list including snails, ceviche of haddock, gnocchi and roast partridge. And of course, the Hereford beef, where the menu has three options sprouting from it, a minute steak, a steak and mushroom pie for two, and finally the rib, chips and bearnaise for two at £46. We were also given the option of a couple of specials for starter and entree.



We started by sharing Artichoke Vinaigrette. A whole beautiful plump Globe Artichoke served with a sharp tangy piquant vinaigrette. Eaten by way of the ritual of tearing off the leaves one by one with your fingers and raking the meat from each with your teeth, to eventually access the sweet, dense heart. We also shared the Pork and Game Terrine with Gooseberry Chutney, a very course, chunky and obviously gamey terrine with a contrasting sweet and sour gooseberry chutney. A "classic" gastropub starter well executed. Here's a photo of it.





And that then brought us to the Hereford Beef Rib, Chips and Bearnaise. Strangely the rib only comes medium rare. Which to me is acceptable although I do prefer my steak juicy rare. Fortunate then that when it did arrive, it arrived clearly pinker than your average medium rare, and already carved into chunky slices with rib bone to the side. It was a fantastic couple of slabs of meat that certainly met my demands of succulence and flavour. The chips were huge wedges of golden deep fried potato sprinkled with rock salt. Rather good but not great although certainly up there (Hawksmoor's was rather disappointing).

Only one street away is Parkers Wine Bar, a place that serves up Eastern European delicacies much more exotic than thirty-two. But you don't eat there. What Thirty-Two offers is no frills English food made with quality produce, served by knowledgeable friendly staff in an unfussy setting. English food as we want to think back and remember it as being - whenever that was. And no... it's doesn't have a website.

32 Great Queen Street, 32 Great Queen Street, London WC2 Tel: 020 7242 0622

More photos here on my flickr.

Food Blogger Connect 2009

I am attending the Food Bloggers Connect 2009 on November 28th 2009. The event for anyone, not just long-term food bloggers, is being put together by Beth of Dirty Kitchen Secrets, Jamie of Life’s a Feast, Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry and Mowie of Mowielicious. It's taking place at the Lebanese restaurant Levant, on Wigmore Street, which I've not been to before.

* WHAT: Food Blogger Connect
* WHEN: November 28th, 2009, 1 PM to 5 PM
* WHERE: Levant Restaurant, London, W1
* WHO: Everyone who is or wants to be part of the Food Blogosphere. Food Blogger connect is open to all, and you don’t have to be a long-time blogger to attend. Are you thinking of starting a food blog? This is the perfect time to come and learn how. This event is open to Non-UK Food Bloggers as well.
* HOW MUCH: £30 for food and 1 glass of wine. This is the only fee and it covers the meal.
* WHERE CAN I RSVP: Go to www.rsvpit.com. The event code is 2009.

This should be quite interesting and friend Kang L, of LondonEater, will be doing a talk on Food Photography and Styling and Creative Marketing and Social Media. Good luck to him!

Wilton's, Wilton Way, Hackney, London

Although I live in East London, and more precisely in Bow, I just don't know a great deal about it. Two years in East London so far and I'm still discovering so many places. Having opened earlier this month, Wilton's is the latest venture from the owners and managers of the Notting Hill Arts Club, David McHugh and Dominik Prosser. Along a row of shops on Wiltons Way, just north of London Fields (and 5 minutes behind the Hackney Empire), sits Wilton's in a tiny single shop unit. Space being a premium, the interior has been cleverly designed by Broadway market-based design duo The Dog and Wardrobe with the restored scaffold bench, clever hidden away fruit crate tables/seats/storage boxes, and corrugated steel cylindrical pod serving tables inspired by simple coffee cup shapes. Their coffee is also locally roasted by Climpson & Sons, on Broadway Market. Wilton's is also the home of London Fields Radio.

Alongside coffee they also freshly prepare to order a number of open and closed sandwiches including the avocado on sourdough (which could've been slightly more seasoned). Serving velvety Antipoden flat white coffees and smooth macchiatos, I am certainly a fan of their coffee and their part in the mini invasion of Melbourne, Sydney and Wellington café cultures.

A flat white

Preparing black tea with fresh peppermint

Macchiatos on fruitboxes

London Fields Radio

Avocado on toasted sourdough

More photos here.

Wilton's, 63 Wilton Way, Hackney, London E8 1BG

Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant, New York, USA

I love the Lower East Side. I've always tried stay in the general area since I started visiting New York for work (hello Soho Grand, Tribeca Grand, Thompson Lower East Side and Rivington Hotel) although I do also love Soho House, in the meat packing district with its awesome suites. There's so much eat and shop (Reed Space, ARC, the shopping centre of Soho itself). I'd wanted to eat at Clinton Street Bakery, but as consistent winner of accolades such as best breakfast, best brunch, best pancakes and so on, inevitably means that there are often queues of 1-2 hours on weekends. Clinton Street Bakery, which opened in 2001, is the genius of a husband and wife team, Neil Kleinberg and DeDe Lahman



A warm September Monday morning seemed like the perfect time to give this place another go. Nevertheless when we arrived there was still a 30 minute wait at 10am. We were sat right at the back of the restaurant, sandwiched between the toilet wall and neighbouring foursome of Danish ladies. There didn't seem to be a single group there without a camera snapping away at the food and the clientele. The menu is sizeable featuring their award winning famous Blueberry Pancakes and the mammoth Po' Boy sandwich for lunch. Drinks range from shakes made with flavours from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory to Root Beer Floats, which I had to order. My girlfriend went to college in Ithaca, and strangely she'd never heard of the drink company. In the world of floats for me, nothing beats a root beer float. Perhaps not normally accompanying breakfast though.



With my various intolerances unfortunately I can never bring myself to ordering a whole portion of pancakes to myself. I chose the farmer’s plate, a dish of soft scrambled eggs, farmhouse cheese, herb roasted tomatoes, and sourdough toast. The scrambled eggs are indeed soft, the only way I ever expect them to be cooked. The cheese is a hard cheese with a light nutty taste and drier than cheddar. I have no idea what it was. It was a good choice at the time, enough to satisfy my egg craving.



When you come to Clinton St for breakfast it is really all about the pancakes. At almost any time in fact. Whether it be served with Maine Blueberries or Banana and Walnuts, it is both delicate and substantial. Like all American pancakes, portions are gargantuan but rather than being cloying, they are moist and tender from start to finish. The warm maple butter, that some have been known to drink straight from the jug, is rich and extremely sweet.



The Pancakes at Clinton St. are probably the best I've ever eaten... so moist they barely even needed the luscious warm maple butter. The trick to Clinton St. is to pick a weekday morning to avoid the masses of regulars that hit this place on a weekend. No one really likes to queue but 30 minutes is more manageable than the 1-2 hours you might have to wait on a weekend. Another great brekkie in New York.

Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant, 4 Clinton St., nr. Houston St., New York, NY 10002 646-602-6263

HIX, Brewer Street, London

I was intrigued to read BooinLondon's recent blog about HIX on Brewer Street having noticed it a week or so back when going for a drink after work at The Glassblower. HIX opened at the start of October this year on the site of the Aaya which closed sadly before I was able to go. Here's the Giles Coren article. Apparently Mark Hix chose the site because of its very central location and its recent refurbishments while as Aaya. HIX is the third and most recent of the chef Mark Hix's restaurants, which include Hix Oyster & Chop House in London’s Smithfield’s Market and also Hix Oyster and Fish House in Lyme Regis. The head chef at HIX is Kevin Gratton, formerly of Le Caprice.

I arrived during a very busy lunch service although I was able to book the table for 2 about an hour prior to my 13:15 seating for a lunch meeting. The white-ceiling front of house is bustling and noisy and I was lead to our small wooden dining table. We had already been served our own personal sliced mini bloomer and butter and a jug of filtered tap water. The menu read like a British menu with the kind of things I'd like to see in modern British menu - examples including Pollack Fish Fingers on Mushy Peas, Roe deer chop with celeriac mash and sea buckthorn berries, Heaven and earth (a black pudding hors d'oeuvre with apples and potatoes). I knew that I was going to like this place.

(A collage made with picnik using photos taken with a Blackberry Bold)

We started with the Blythburgh pork crackling with crab apple sauce. This is hardcore stuff and quite the jaw workout. Crunchy is one thing but I can imagine a couple of clientele losing a crown or two over this. I think they needed to keep a bit more of the soft fat to help with flavour but the accompanying crab apple sauce works very well with it.

My first course is an entree of Rabbit and crayfish Stargazy pie. As it turns out a traditional Stargazy pie is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards, covered with a pastry crust. The pilchards are arranged with their tails toward the centre of the pie and their heads poking up through the crust around the edge, so that they appear to be gazing skyward. In this instance the rabbit has been carefully slow cooked and the crayfish added to give a fantastically rich, sweet flavour. The pie crust is a traditional suet crust pastry (like a great steak and kidney pie) with the heads of two crayfish arranged in the Stargazy fashion. If you'd like to recreate this at home, here is Mark Hix's BBC food recipe. My only ever so minor grumble is that there were perhaps one or two many little rabbit bones. What is the elegant way to remove them from one's gob? I had a side of very simply seasoned Purple Sprouting Broccoli.

And so there was pudding... Bramley Apple Pie and Custard. Good old english pudding. A cute round little pie with a creamy light custard that perhaps needed just one more egg yolk for colour but was perfectly sweet. The pie pastry tasted almost like a digestive biscuit. I really enjoyed this.

So, Mark Hix's signature sees him take British classics and update them with fresh ingredients and modern gourmet-fied recipes. I feel like a bad foodie for having missed an entire season of Great British Menu when it turned out that he won the main course with this very Rabbit and Crayfish Stargazy Pie. He did also win the dessert with a perry jelly and summer fruits with elderflower ice cream. Other things on the menu definitely struck a chord with me including the 65 quid Porterhouse Steak for two, a behemoth 1kg bone in steak that no less than two steaks in one (Sirloin and Ribeye). Also the Roast Wooley Park Farm free range chicken with toasted garlic sauce, supposedly a dish for two to four, although rarely has there been a roast chicken that I haven't been able to devour wholly by myself. At £50, this could be the best roast chicken I've ever eaten, or not. I love my Bresse chickens... I really enjoyed my meal and despite service being a little slow (a 25 minute wait for our main and yes, Jay Rayner, I did complain), I can definitely see myself coming back here with friends...

HIX, 66-70 Brewer Street, London, UK +44 (0)20-7292-3518

Balthazar Restaurant, New York: Notes by photograph...

What makes the ideal brasserie? For breakfast? In New York? Keith McNally has the answer with his Balthazar Restaurant in Soho. As you step into Balthazar, it feels as though you have stepped within a baguette's throw of the Seine complete with enormous bowls of chocolat chaud and baskets of freshly baked hot croissants. The only downside to this place, as a testament to its popularity perhaps, is that tables are so close together it is almost claustrophobic. Service is friendly and well executed. Just ensure that you book if you plan on going for breakfast or brunch on a weekend. As a regular visitor to Soho, this is my favourite breakfast spot within easy reach of the hotels, and no culinary tour of New York could fail to at least mention this place. Keith McNally's extremely noisy at night Schillers may be his current hotspot but Balthazar is still his masterpiece.

Here are photos from various visits over the past 9 months.

just like home...

Roasted Pepper and Caramelised Onion Quiche with gruyère cheese and mixed greens.

Soft boiled organic egg with soldiers

Omelette with herbs and gruyère, with home fries and a side of cumberland breakfast sausage

Eggs Norwegian - poached eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise on an English muffin.

Buckwheat Crepe with scrambled eggs, ham and gruyère.

Balthazar Restaurant, 80 Spring St., at Crosby St.; 212-965-1414

Pierre Koffmann, Restaurant On The Roof at Selfridges

Pierre Koffmann, a name synonymous with the very finest french food in England in the past 37 years. A man who once cooked alongside Michel Roux at the Waterside Inn in Bray. Pierre Koffmann. A grand chef that then held no less than 3 michelin stars at the legendary La Tante Claire, also the most romantic of restaurants in London. I didn't know this. Well... ok I needed reminding after I'd committed to going. When it closed it doors I had just entered my twenties and pretty much unaware of this man and his cooking. Finding the entrance to the restaurant was easy enough, when I walked in, the Selfridges store guide actually walked with me to the designated elevator and introduced me to the accompanying statuesque guest list lady stood opposite the brightly lit Chanel perfume concession at the front of the store. Clearly, if your name (or your host in my case), wasn’t on the list you didn’t have the privilege of riding in this elevator. Being first to arrive, I was joined by a property tycoon, who I can thank for the invitation to join his table, a Viktor and Rolf foot model, and later a 70s photography book collector.



The elevator jerkily whisks you to the 5th floor. I assume this is normally a staff only floor, which for the pop up restaurant has been white cloth draped from floor to ceiling. A corridor leads to the entrance and steps lead up to the front of house, essentially a temporary structure with a bouncy seagrass covered floor. Hospitality is promising tonight already. I like it. We’re made to feel welcome. 






First on the agenda... Cocktails. I opted for Beefeater 24 special cocktail. Of course, I forgot to make a note of exactly what the concoction was. And so did my waitress the first time around. It was also time to get some photos in and so out came the multiple cameras. We struggled to cope with the poor lighting conditions as the sun set. A blonde lady spotted me and shot me a friendly smile as she started to walk towards our table. I thought she was going to sell us to stop taking photos but instead she spoke about her lack of photos herself and how she was surprised that were number of younger diners. Only then did she introduce herself as Claire Harrison, Pierre Koffman’s partner/wife. I do hope that she likes some of the photos we’ve taken! Onto wine, guided by LondonEater (one-time wino) and an equally knowledgeable Sommelier - Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot Volnay 2006 from Burgundy. Described as feminine. I’m learning.




The amuse bouche provided to kick start our palates was the Pigs Head and Celeriac Remoulade. A few slices of salty pigs head on a bed of the celerica remoulade with some truffle shavings and dressing. The remoulade was creamy and well balanced against the saltiness pigs head meat. The truffle shavings were perhaps there for visual rather than palate impact, as I was unable to get anything from them.





For my hors d’oeuvres I chose the Pressed Leeks and Langoustines with a Truffle Vinaigrette. A superbly light and fresh dish which I thought was great but somewhat overshadowed by the guest chef’s Langoustine Bisque with a Herb Crème Chantilly. It turns out that there are several guest chefs including the likes of Tom Kitchin, Eric Chavot and Tom Aikens and tonight was the turn of Bruno Loubet, who holds a Michelin star in his restaurant “Baguette” in Brisbane, Australia. Bursting with depth and hitting every taste bud on my tongue, that was a great dish.




Onto the entree which unfortunately due to mix up of table orders arrived almost an hour later. I suppose this would normally be an issue but Jay Rayner was sat next to us so we let it slide. My choice of Royale de Lièvre with Red Cabbage was made before I’d even arrived (after studying the menu that was forwarded to me a couple of days prior and deciding not to go with the signature "Pig’s Trotter stuffed with Veal Sweetbreads and Morel Mushrooms"). I was simply intrigued as I’d never eaten hare before and I had read a long time ago that this was a haute cuisine classic. I just didn’t know what it really was. It wasn’t as gamey as I thought it might be, but it was quite tart. I learnt today that the dish itself was once called a culinary masterpiece... In 1898. Apparently the detail required in making this dish is such that the multiple and diverse flavours (the saved blood of the hare, goose fat, bacon, vinegar, huge amount of garlic and even more shallots, and stock vegetables) are so harmonious that neither flavour dominates. Liver with the texture of sausage meat. That’s what I thought. The lovely hare meat was tender too.



I finished with the Gascon Apple Pie. By name that only dish directly inspired by his Gascon grandmother. A caramelised tart with sweetness beyond my usual tolerance for sweet things. It really needed the accompanying vanilla cream to take the edge off it. Apparently this was supposed to be one of the highlight dishes, it was just too sweet for me. The Pistachio Souffle was simply the winner when it came to the desserts on our table. I love pistachios but that aside, the souffle and the ice cream were both simply amazing.



So what did I make of the experience? Most of all I had fun, from arriving, the spectacle of the restaurant having it’s own lift to the top floor of my favourite department store, the imposing pieces of art that adorned the entrance, the friendly always smiling waiting team, sometimes bumbling but always forgiveable, Claire Harrison’s hospitality, and the food. I can not personally say what I feel is the difference between 1, 2, or 3 Michelin Stars but I enjoyed my food and the food that my dining companions that were kind enough to share. But £75 for a 3 course set meal is expensive. I feel that tehbus hit the nail on the head. I feel that by the sense of occasion, bringing a retired master chef out of retirement, and perhaps exclusivity by temporary nature of the event that this in fact justifies the price. If this was a permanent restaurant I would be expecting to pay perhaps two-thirds. I’m definitely pleased I went and this is an experience I won’t forget. At least now I’ve written this...

Pierre Koffman - Restaurant On The Roof at Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, London, W1A 1AB UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7318 7778



UPDATE (15/10/09): Here are some bloggers who were also at the restaurant on the same night:

• A Rather Unusual Chinaman
• Cheese & Biscuits
• Eat Like A Girl - Lunch Service
• Silverbrow on Food

UPDATE (17/10/09): Jay Rayner emailed me...

Hello Mark

Nice write up but I am baffled. Why in god's name should my presence at a neighbouring table have, in any way, inhibited your complaint about your dishes taking an hour to arrive? I'd have bloody complained. I almost did when
our mains took 30 mins.

jay
--

My reply:

Hello Jay,

Allowing for some comedy and quite poor storytelling, we did actually complain after 45 minutes. We are apparently very patient people. Almost saintly... (edit) and so on...