Fine-Dining

I’ve been looking forward to visting Pollen Street Social since it opened, I’m a big Jason Atherton fan and had an amazing time at Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Maze’ whilst Jason was the head chef there. Pollen Street Social is located on Pollen Street which is a tiny little backstreet between Oxford Street & Regent Street, just around the corner from Maze. …

I tried to get a reservation at Dinner By Heston during it’s open weeks in 2011 only to miss out on the last table by seconds. It was then booked up for the next 3 months, after that for various reasons it took me almost a year to finally get a reservation. During that time Dinner has gained it’s first …

I’ve always considered Ramsons to be a bit of a ‘hidden gem’ although it really isn’t as it’s won countless awards. Just last year it was voted Restaurant of the Year in the 2012 Manchester Food & Drink Festival Awards as well as 43rd best restaurant in the country in The 2012 Good Food Guide who also gave their all Italian Wine list …

Restaurant Sat Bains situated in Nottingham is the most ‘Northern’ of the 13 Two Michelin Star restaurant in England (there is 1 in Scotland) and is just a 90 minute drive away from me which was a welcome change from having to travel to London/South East. The restaurant has 8 of it’s own rooms and since it’s actually located a couple miles outside …

After two previously successful visits to Michael Caines @ The ABode Manchester I was very much looking forward to sampling the new Grazing menu. It didn’t live up to those previous visits though and whilst I appreciate it was much cheaper than the regular menu it still has Michael Caines name behind it so I would still expect the food …

This year Lisa Allen of Northcote starred again in BBC2’s Great British Menu. The concept this year was to create ‘sharing dishes’ with an emphasis on creating diner participation and interaction. For the second year Lisa was announced the North West regional winner enabling her to cook through to the finals. Unfortunately, despite Lisa’s high scores her dishes were not …

Wherever I ate on Noma-eve was going to have to be good if I had any chance of remembering it after eating at the best restaurant in the world. It was a hard decision as there are loads of interesting places to eat in Copenhagen, eventually I decided on Restaurant Krebsegaarden. Although i’m not particularly interested in art I was …

Ever since I first heard about Noma a few years ago I was desperate to go. My biggest culinary regret is not getting the chance to eat at the legendary El Bulli in Spain before it closed down; Noma seemed to be approaching that level of specialness so I couldn’t risk it happening again. I’d been trying to get a …

I arrived at Vertigo knowing very little about it other than they claim on their website to be a ‘fine-dining/modern cuisine’ restaurant and the reason for my visit, that they were nominated for 2 awards in the Manchester Food and Drink Festival 2011 awards. For ‘Best Newcomer’ and their head chef Ian Armstrong was nominated for the ‘Chef of the …

I don’t often have much luck when it comes to weather but choosing to visit L’Enclume in the pretty Lake District village of Cartmel on by far the best weekend of the entire year was certainly very lucky indeed. It’s a beautiful place anyway but with clear blue skies and 30degrees heat it was absolutely stunning. It was still hot …

* This review was written at a time when I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos of food in restaurants. That has all changed now so I hope to revisit with my camera at the ready soon! * The more I heard and read about Aumbry before I arrived the more excited I got. The head chefs are Mary-Ellen McTague & …

* * Please note: this review is from a time when I (stupidly) didn’t feel comfortable taking photographs in restaurants. Some photos have been kindly borrowed from other blogs (credit given) * * This was where it all began for me. Almost 4 years ago, in 2006, my love of fine-dining started with my first visit to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. …

Maze is a very modern fine dining restaurant, in everything from the ambience and dress code right through to the food. The menu is a ‘tapas’ style tasting menu with individual dishes costing between £8 – £15 each. The chef recommended selecting 2 or 3 starter dishes and 2 main courses. I chose 3 starters and 4 main courses, being …

Whilst  visiting London in April I desperately wanted to eat at Petrus (a modern French cuisine in Knightsbridge, part of the Gordon Ramsay group) but I had left it too late and there were no tables free, luckily Gordon has another restaurant in the same building The Boxwood Café that had room for me. The reason for this was because …

* Please note that this review has been written retrospectively and was of a time when I didn’t feel comfortable taking photographs of food in restaurants. * My first genuine fine-dining experience was at 3 Michelin starred flagship restaurant of Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. At the time it was considered to be the second best restaurant in the country by …