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Have you also been visiting one of the restaurants that "The Michelin Club" have been to - then we would love to hear your comments and whether you agree or disagree with our view.

Trivet, visited 29/06/2024

2 Michelin Stars, Modern British Posted by CarlosPosted on Sat, December 14, 2024 10:34:50

We arrived at Trivet, early, as usual. This was my (Carl) pick and since I booked I have been slightly hesitant about the fact it was A la Carte and not the usual tasting menu. I love the theatre of a tasting menu and feel a dodgy course on A la Carte, means you don’t enjoy a third of you your meal! A real risk

The welcome was nice and we were shown to a good sized round table, perhaps a little too close to the busy Sommelier’s area and the main thoroughfare to the toilet, but comfortable.

The restaurant is informal and modern and on this lovely summer evening open and airy with the bifold doors push right back. The owners of Trivet are both ex-Fat Duck and it feels like they have made the ambience and food style deliberately miles away from the Fat Duck, which is not necessarily a good or bad thing, just an observation.

We started with the menus and the lengthy discussion with the sommelier over the important choice of wines. After a shaky start, turning up without a clue of which dishes we had ordered, the Sommelier was excellent, suggesting wines that were new to us and ultimately very, very good! We had wines from Slovenia and Greece! Wines were locked in and the food began! ,we all started with the goats cheese hors d’oeuvres, which were OK.

So to the main event, James and I started with ‘Drunken Lobster; which I really enjoyed, James perhaps less so, Annette chose ‘Cornish Wild Sea Bass which she enjoyed, and Ingrid chose the ‘Risotto ‘ll Maestro which was also good.

Now here is a break from my usual Michelin club night out! My main was excellent! I don’t say that often, in fact just a handful of times in our many nights out! Also unusually, it was chicken! A Michelin star restaurant with chicken as a main, whatever next! But excellent it was. Elsewhere around the table I am not sure the same level of pleasure was being had. Ingrid was really not impressed with the ‘Turbot Picchio Pacchio’ and James and Annette had the ‘not a crispy duck’ which I think they enjoyed, but nothing to really write home about.

Cheese came next, an optional extra, and a fairly small portion, though to be fair we did share one between four, but at £26?? The wine to accompany the cheese though, was again excellent, unusual and again something new to us with cheese, Only back in the cellar this week, a 1992 Domaine de Rancy, another big tick for the sommelier!!!

And so to dessert, and another departure from the usual Michelin Club night out! Dessert is usually a highlight, artistry, taste, indulgence all served on a plate! At Trivet however, all was not as it should be! My ‘Hokkaido potato’ Mille-feuille, yes I did say potato, was good, not great, but good. The potato played a greater part in the anticipation than it did in the taste, but I enjoyed it. James chose the chocolate and coffee tart, which was good, in James’s words, “how can you go wrong with chocolate and coffee?” That brings us to the dessert chosen by Ingrid and Annette, ‘Trivet Baba’ which was trivet with a coconut something or other. Now, in normal circumstance, if I see ‘baba’ on a menu, I’m there, fully invested! However, on this occasion, I wasn’t sure, where is the rum? It’s a baba!! Or is it? A baba without rum is like strawberries without cream! I am all for invention, but it has to be an improvement on the original, otherwise if it aint broke, don’t fix it! So back to Annette’s and Ingrid’s baba, it didn’t work, too dry and it saddens me to say, two babas returned to the kitchen! Again though, the dessert wine, a big hit!

We took the usual kitchen visit, which was great, chatting to Jonny about the restaurant, the reasons behind the menu and style.

So how would I sum up Trivet! A really nice, chilled out restaurant with nice food and an excellent wine list. They have two stars, a la carte and take walk-ins, not something you will say in the UK very often. It is certainly worth a visit, but somehow I did miss the theatre and excesses of a taster menu and opulence of some other venues. I enjoyed the wines enormously but when the bill is £1K+ the food has to be great, but with three bad plates and a couple of average ones out of the 12 that were served it was just not good enough.

Link to the restaurant…



Le Manoir, visited 11/06-2023

2 Michelin Stars, French Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Wed, December 06, 2023 16:43:11

The 8th choice by Ingrid was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Le Manoir in the countryside of Oxfordshire with a beautiful garden where they grow all their own vegetables and herbs. Therefore we also for the first time went for lunch instead of dinner – so we could fully enjoy seeing this place in daylight and make a whole afternoon out of it.

We took a taxi to the restaurant that it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and got greeted as soon as we arrived – where the reception staff came outside to welcome us and show us to a table in the beautiful garden to have a drink before lunch. So a great welcome but we then had to sit nearly 20 minutes and wait for our drinks, which was a bit unexpected.

There was no rush and we got proper time to enjoy our drinks before being shown to our table in the very light and bright restaurant. Another reason why it felt great to be there during daytime. We did have a Sommelier providing a bit of help with the wine – but there was nothing about that service that stood out to me.

All of us had the 7 courses lunch menu – don’t think there was any other choice – but because I am not a huge fan of beetroot, which was the first course – I got to change that and Carlos who is not a huge fan of chocolate got to change his chocolate dessert – so the restaurant offered us some flexibility. The starters were really great – I loved the salmon and also the lobster dish, which were both really delicious. However as we have unfortunately experienced quite a few times – the main course cannot live up to the starters. We had lamb for the main – but mine was really fatty and for the first time I left some of the meat behind.

As usual we love a cheese course and did ask to add a plate from the cheese trolley. Turned out that one plate was enough for the 4 of us and we had some lovely cheeses to try. The main strawberry dessert was huge – I liked it a lot but because of the size it became a bit overwhelming. After the final dessert we were again offered to move to the garden for our coffees, which we were happy about as we also brought a cigar to enjoy in the garden with a whisky as well. The only downside about being in the garden was that once more we experienced a really slow service and had to wait ages for our whiskies.

The whole day the weather had been perfect but in the afternoon some clouds started to turn up and we decided it was time for a walk in the garden if we didn’t want to suddenly get rained on. The garden is really impressive and have got some amazing sculptures as well. It was just a beautiful walk after a nice lunch. We literally just managed to finish the walk when heaven opened up – so this time we escaped to the bar inside for a final drink before ordering a taxi back. Once more we waited for ages for someone serving us – so that is one thing that could definitely improve together with a better main course. Otherwise we spent 7 hours at Le Manoir and had a lovely afternoon in stunning surroundings.

Link to the restaurant…



La Dame de Pic, visited 01/10-2022

2 Michelin Stars, French Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Wed, October 05, 2022 22:38:24

The 7th choice by Carlos was the 2 Michelin star restaurant La Dame de Pic, which we couldn’t help being excited about as the setting for this restaurant looked proper Michelin star and not like sitting in a tent like we tried last time.

For the first time we actually went to the East side of London for one of our dinners so also got the chance of trying the nice cocktail bar ‘Savage Garden Rooftop bar’ for pre-dinner drinks where we had some amazing drinks and a great view to Tower Bridge and the Shard. When we got to La Dame de Pic our expectations of the interior for a 2-star Michelin restaurant didn’t fail. The restaurant is in the ground floor of the Four Season hotel and have got a really beautiful décor. It is slightly dark inside but it also makes it really cozy and our table was in a nice spacious corner.

The Sommelier came over to help us with the wine selection but failed judging our budget and ended up recommending some really expensive wines. Didn’t seem to be able to get him down to our level – so had to more or less pick the wines ourselves which was slightly disappointing.

We got the choice of 3 different menus but the whole table had to pick the same one – so ended up going for the 6 courses Journey menu. As usual we also added an additional Cheese selection to that – but 2 plates of cheese were enough to share between us. All the food was well presented but for me nothing specifically stood out as a favorite dish. Whereas one of my friends loved the Turbot and another one the White Millefeuille dessert.

Finally since COVID we were again allowed to do the Kitchen tour and they took us out to visit the kitchen while it was still very busy and we got to chat with the evening’s Head Chef Marc Mantovani. He showed us around and explained how they used a paper diagram and pen to keep track on where they are with all the tables. Really nice to be back getting a proper feel for the Kitchen.

We overall had a really lovely evening and the service and atmosphere in the restaurant was excellent and lived up to the 2-stars – so ended up taking a current 4th place based on our total scores of all the restaurants we have been too.

Link to the restaurant…



A. Wong, visited 11/06-2022

2 Michelin Stars, Chinese Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Mon, August 29, 2022 18:11:36

The 7th choice by Annette was A. Wong with 2 Michelin stars and I was so excited about trying this restaurant as this is the only Chinese restaurant in the world that hold a Michelin star and not only 1 but 2.

The restaurant was not easy to book and when I realised the tables were always released at midnight exactly 3 months in advance – I had several trial runs to see how successful I was. At the time of booking you also have to pick the menu you are going for and we really wanted to try the whole Taste of China. However every time I did a trial run – and even if I was on their web site precisely at midnight – I always ended up on the waiting list – so decided that was never going to work. When I was ready to book the real thing – I therefore booked the menu 5 movements, which secured me a table and then afterwards emailed the restaurant and asked if we could change it to Taste of China, which they allowed me to do if we would turn up 15 mins earlier – so all good. Unfortunately a few hick-ups happened before our dinner as a month before I received an email that the Taste of China menu had gone up from £160 to £200 per person – quite a significant increase of 25%. Did think that they should have honour the guests, who already booked when the old price was advertised – but couldn’t be asked to fight about it. A week before I suddenly received another email that my reservation had been cancelled – so I nearly had a heart-attack. Luckily I saw the email straight away and phoned them up. The woman said they received a cancellation email from me, which I never sent – so still not quite sure what happened – but at least she was able to sort me out on the phone and gave me my booking back.

Finally the day had arrived where we were going to try this exotic place so we were all very excited. Wasn’t the easiest place to find but also because I think the entrance was nothing like we expected. Basically we entered via an outside extension, which was really just a tent and turned out that our table booking was also in the tent, which was definitely not where we expected to eat a 2 star Michelin dinner. Tried to ask for a table inside, but it was already full and after seeing how crowded the inside was, we realised we were probably better off in the tent. The other thing that was not Michelin star were the toilets. The toilets were Unisex and not very nice at all – so again a massive surprise – so the look and feel were nothing like any Michelin restaurant we had tried before.

Because the price of the menu had increased that heavily we decided to save money on the wine and just went with some cheaper options that we picked ourselves. However again it was a surprise how slim their wine list was as we thought with 2 Michelin stars you had to have a significant wine cellar – but maybe the rules have changed.

With everything else said – the real highlight and the only thing that was feeling like proper Michelin – was the food. That was for sure an amazing treat and I have never tasted any Chinese food like it. Our first dish – the scallops – were so beautifully done and so tasty. I loved the memories of Peking duck too but my absolute favourite were the ‘Shaanxi pulled lamb ‘burger’ with Xinjiang pomegranate salad’. It was so full of flavours and the meat so tender and delicious as I could have eaten more than one. We basically had 16 dishes and there were nothing I disliked. The other big highlight of the night was of course that Andrew Wong himself was in the kitchen and stayed the whole night – so we managed to say hello to him and compliment him on the food.

If you are going to this Michelin restaurant solely for the food – I can only say you will get one of the best experiences ever. However if you are going for the whole Michelin experience – then this is not a place I would recommend. Cannot help wondering what this would have been like if the restaurant itself have had a nice décor and with a nice atmosphere – then it would have been truly amazing. Not sure how they got away with getting 2 stars in their current settings and also their prices are a bit too steep.

Link to the restaurant…



Core by Clare Smyth, visited 12/09-2020

2 Michelin Stars, British Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Mon, September 14, 2020 15:35:56

The 6th choice by Carlos was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Core by Clare Smyth, which we were all very excited about. Clare is the only female chef that have ever run a 3 Michelin star kitchen in the UK – when she worked for Gordon Ramsay in his flagship restaurant at Royal Hospital Road.

The restaurant is very spacious and nice looking and our evening started really well when Clare herself greeted us from the kitchen when we entered the restaurant. We got a nice round table in the middle and were spoiled for choice by 2 different excellent 7 courses menus. We ended up with 2 of us going for the Classics menu and 2 of us went for the Seasons menu. All the dishes were so beautifully represented and you could really see a lot of effort went into every single course. Don’t think I can say which menu was the best as we all had some delicious food. For us who had the Roasted Monkfish – that was definitely one of the highlights.

The Sommelier was also really knowledgeable and helpful – so supported us in picking some excellent wines for the 2 different menus. Overall the service and staff were really good and the whole place just had a really good vibe.

Again because of COVID restrictions we couldn’t get into the kitchen itself – but when we left the restaurant Clare came out to have a chat with us and we managed to get a few pictures with her. Amazing to see the Head chef staying longer that we did – as we are normally the last ones to leave – so have never experienced that before.

Can only say we had a fantastic evening and Core ended up being voted as our current 2nd best restaurant that we have ever been to. We were also very pleased when 6 months later Clare received her 3rd Michelin star – can only say this is fully deserved.

Link to the restaurant…



Kitchen Table, visited 07/03-2020

2 Michelin Stars, British Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Wed, June 10, 2020 13:04:44

The 6th choice by Annette was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Kitchen Table, which only got 20 seats in a U-form around the Kitchen – so was very exciting about getting a table at this restaurant.

The restaurant is hidden behind the bar Bubbledogs – so when we arrived early as usual we just got asked to stand in the middle of the Bubbledogs with a glass of water until someone was ready to take us through to the restaurant – which felt a bit awkward. Would have liked to either be offered a proper drink or to be taken through to our seats straight away. Eventually we got taken through to the room in the back, which was basically the restaurant – so very tiny and quite unique where you definitely feel you are part of the whole cooking experience. The chairs are of course all next to each other – so we were pleased when we got 4 seats at the corner, which made it easier to have a conversation.

Basically we had the choice of going for 12 courses for £150 or 15 courses for £190 – all decided each day by the chef. However we thought the 12 courses and the price for them were enough – so we all 4 went for the standard menu. No doubt the focus was on the food here – so did feel a bit like the whole matching drink experience was missing. Took a while before we got a chance to ask for a Gin & Tonic as an aperitif – but then we ended up basically getting our Gin & Tonic with the first course which was not really the idea. The wine menu was also a bit limited and although we did get some recommendation – it was clear that wine was not really the main thing here, which I hope they will try and improve in the future.

The highlight of the night was definitely the atmosphere being so close to the kitchen and also the master chef James Knappett, who you could follow closely doing the cooking and who was also happy to chat to you in between the courses. Additional the food was a true delight – I was a huge fan of the Sardine dish and the Brill with the foie gras, which I thought both had so many flavours – whereas Carlos really loved the Bigusto Ravioli.

Their web-site was saying to allocate 3 ½ hours for the dinner, which we even thought would be slightly rushes as we normally spend between 4-5 hours at a Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately they cut the time down to just below 3 hours – so honestly we felt very rushes and at one point they even started serving the next dish before Ingrid finished the previous one – so we were not happy about that part as they could clearly see she was still eating. Ended up that we took part of the service charge off the bill – as we didn’t feel the service was up to the standards we normally get. Also if they haven’t rushed us so much – we would have bought more to drink – but they missed out on that opportunity.

We had a nice evening – but I was so much looking forward to try this restaurant – so have to admit that except for the food I thought everything else was lacking and was actually quite disappointed.

Link to the restaurant…



Claude Bosi at Bibendum, visited 28-04/2018

2 Michelin Stars, French Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Fri, August 10, 2018 11:17:13

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The 5th choice by Annette was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Bibendum in a very unique building, which used to be an old Michelin garage – so the Michelin name and man was represented in many places.

We therefore also started with admiring the building from the outside and take a few pictures – that this was quite special. The restaurant is on the 1st floor and again really impressive from the inside with beautiful stained glass windows with pictures of the Michelin man. It was also really spacious and we got a nice round table with a view to the action in the kitchen behind some big glass windows. We also found out later that the Michelin man was being used in many places – so we both saw him on the napkins and the plates with the butter.

We all 4 quickly decided on the 6 courses surprise menu + the additional cheese board, which we didn’t want to miss. The Sommelier helped us to choose the wine and we watch with interest when he poured the red wine into a carafe over a candle – not something we had seen before and made the pouring quite interesting.

Before we started on the Surprise menu we got some nice tasters and one of them particular stood out when we had a mushroom compote served in an egg shell. I am not normally a big fan of mushrooms but this tasted absolutely delicious. When we started on the menu the Vegetable Nosotto was really special but the smoked French green asparagus just made me laugh. Looking at a big asparagus with a spoonful of Hollandaise sauce served right at the end – I am sorry but that just gave me associations to something completely different – I say no more but definitely brought at smile to my face. The other thing that was really special was the dessert the Tarte Tatin Parfait, which got served looking exactly like an apple so really beautiful and tasted good as well.

Despite being able to follow the action in the kitchen through the glass windows – we still asked for the kitchen tour since really just wanted to say hello to the kitchen staff and also just feel the action from the other site. Therefore Carlos, James and I went out there and had a good chat and laugh with the Head chef who could be proud of the very modern kitchen.

We all had a really great evening and a good interaction with the staff but unfortunately things got ruined a bit when we got the bill. The bill was over a grand, which was not surprising but we noticed that they charged us £20 per person for the additional cheese board whereas in the menu it was only mentioned as an additional £10 per person. We pointed this out to the waiter, who said she would check with her manager – but she ended up coming back saying that the £10 was only if you have chosen the a-la-carte menu – so we had to pay the £20 each. We could have gone in to a big discussion at this point since no one told us up-front about the £20 per person and that price was not mentioned anywhere. However I decided it was not worth the discussion – but since they were not willing to take £40 of the bill – there was no reason to pay the optional service charge, which was £140. Felt badly for the staff who lost out on the service charge – but it became a principle and I was just a bit shocked that the restaurant was so
stubborn about the additional £40 on such a big bill.

Yes we had a good evening but unfortunately it is the last impression that you are leaving with – so where this could have been a real highlight we now left with a bit of a bad taste in our mouth instead – such a shame.

Link to the restaurant…



Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, visited 27/05-2017

2 Michelin Stars, French Posted by Annette JorgensenPosted on Sun, October 29, 2017 09:21:05

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The 4th choice by Manuel was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, one of the rare Michelin restaurants we have been to with a woman head chef.

The evening started with some really nice cocktails in the Connaught Bar. The bar was really stylish and offered some delicious cocktails, which was all well presented. We then got taken to our table in the also nice and stylish restaurant where we again had a great start. This time each of us got presented with a board game with marbles, where you first of all had to decide whether you wanted 5 or 7 courses and then you left either 5 or 7 marbles behind each representing a course with the name of the main ingredient you liked the most. A fun and different way to start the evening.

The 2 things all 4 of us went for were the Scallop and the Rum Baba. The Scallop was really delicious and another thing that stood out for me was the John Dory – so couldn’t real fail them on the fish dishes. However the Rum Baba was a big mistake. I don’t know if this was because it was at the end of the evening but they basically drowned the Baba in Rum and it didn’t taste nice at all. Another thing that we didn’t enjoy was that we never got the same courses together. Of course we understood that based on what we have chosen – things were served in a specific order – but we specifically asked to all have the Rum Baba together since we wanted to share that experience – but that request just got ignored, which was just irritating.

The whole evening started on a high but finished on a low – it was like in the beginning there were a lot of attention to details and the waiters were there to provide an excellent service. However the further we went through the evening the attention started lacking and we were even struggling to get them to our table at the end. The Sommelier was there to help with the wines – but again did miss some enthusiasm and we didn’t get any fantastic recommendations. Also meant we ended up having less to drink than usual – since there was no temptation to try another glass.

The really low point was the toilet experience. I know this restaurant is part of a hotel and that the toilets are shared between the other restaurants and bars at the hotel – but still this is a posh place so how can this be so bad. First of all I cannot stand that there is a service person at the toilets expecting a tip to keep the toilets clean. When I am paying that amount of money for dinner I am totally expecting that the toilets are always kept spotless but also that a visit to the toilets are free of charge. Also the guy in the men’s toilets started commenting on how many times the guys have been to the toilet. Completely unprofessional and just showed totally lack of manners – so put the overall experience down.

Carlos and I did our usual kitchen tour, where we saw the very hot kitchen in the basement in their busy hours – so at least that part was nice. Also all of us got a nice cake to take home when we left the restaurant. However overall we were not impressed and Hélène Darroze at The Connaught ended nearly at the bottom of our list.

Link to the restaurant…..



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