Restaurants

The 8th choice by Annette was the 3 Michelin star Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, where we for the first time decided to go back to a previous restaurant, as we were celebrating our dinner no. 30 and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was until now our Top Choice.

We were all so excited to be back at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay after 12 years and it started well with the door man, who obviously did his homework and acknowledge our reservation by welcoming me by name. Unfortunately that fell apart as soon as we then entered the restaurant – as the people in reception did not do their homework and now I had to tell who I was.

We then probably got the worst table in the restaurant. Actually I was very happy to get a window seat – but I do not expect a table where one person get put in the corner and can only get out if someone else is standing up as well. That is not a 3 star Michelin experience for me as I am expecting all seats at a table to be easy accessible. Instead it feels like the restaurant is just cramping in too many people.

12 years ago the restaurant had an amazing German Head Sommelier who immediately understood the price range we were after and had no problem recommending and telling stories about different bottles of wine – but this time we barely got any help. We are normal people who love nice food and don’t mind spending a bit of money on that – but we cannot afford to spent £200 on a bottle of wine. It took a while for the Sommelier to even come up with some suggestions for a red and then I was just shown 3 bottles from the same region in Italy all around the £200 mark. When I said that this was too expensive I was given one other choice from Australia – but barely got any explanation about the wine – also it would have been nice to have a few choices as I am still not convinced we had the best red within our budget. For the white we got no help at all and again the wine list was not easy to navigate – so we were struggling but no one offered us any explanation or told us anything about how we could navigate through the wine list. The Assistant Sommelier was slightly better to explain a bit about the wine when it was served to us – but overall the Sommelier experience failed and again definitely not what we would expect from a 3 star Michelin restaurant.

We all went for the Surprise menu and I enjoyed most of it, whereas some of my friends where struggling with a few of the courses. However what we didn’t like was that we felt extremely rushed and twice we had to ask the restaurant to slow the courses down. We are going out to have a lovely experience, which we pay a lot of money for and normally we spent 4-5 hours in the restaurant as we like to have proper time to enjoy the food and each other’s company. This time the room felt more like a train station with too many people rushing around and not with a nice relaxing atmosphere, where we could fully enjoy our meal like we did last time.

While booking the table the restaurant asked if we were celebrating anything special and I told them about our ‘Michelin club’, that we have been running since 2011 and that we were celebrating our restaurant no. 30 at our so far Top restaurant. This obviously was no big deal for them – but for us this is quite a thing and we thought they would have acknowledged that. Except for a welcome back – we didn’t see anything to say that they recognised the celebration we were having. I could have told them that we were also celebrating my 50^th from last month – but thought I would just mention one thing – obviously I mentioned the wrong one as they might have been more willing to recognise a birthday celebration.

Finally when we got the bill I think we all 4 nearly had a heart attack. I know the Surprise menu was £260 per person – but we didn’t go crazy on the wine – so it never occurred to me that the total bill would be over £1700 or more than £400 per person. I guess if the whole night had been amazing then it would have been different – but we just felt there was so many things that did not match that the restaurant is still holding 3 Michelin stars and it was way overpriced for what we got.

I couldn’t help raising a complaint about our whole experience with the restaurant the following day and wrote to them a pretty similar story to what I have said above. To be fair the restaurant did send me a nice reply and said they took my feedback very seriously. We also ended up getting our 15% service charge paid back to us – so a small compensation for a very disappointing night unfortunately. Afraid we won’t be back anytime soon,

Link to the restaurant…

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…

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…

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…

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…..

The 4th choice by Carlos was the 2 Michelin star restaurant The Greenhouse, where we managed to get a table last minute. I guess I had a few concerns about this place – as most places we have to book way in advance to get a table – so why was it so easy to get a table at The Greenhouse.

We arrived in good time at the restaurant and entering the place was really lovely. I could totally see why the restaurant has got the name ‘The Greenhouse’ as we were walking through a beautiful garden and it was a bit like entering a greenhouse in the garden. We got taken to a nice round table with a view to the garden in a lovely spacious restaurant and straight away felt very welcome.

All 4 of us went for the 10 courses Discovery menu + added the additional cheese board – so we were in for a lot of food. To get us started the restaurant served 3 lovely presented tasters from the kitchen, where again you could related to the ‘The Greenhouse’ name as they had a lot of fresh green vegetables in them – very tasty. The highlight for me was without doubt dish no. 2 – the Orkney Scallop – I can honestly say that this was one of the best scallops I have tasted in my life. It completely melted in your mouth and the taste combination with the avocado, ponzu, seaweed and rice it got served with – it was honestly a true delight. The other highlight was the additional cheeseboard we added. There was a fantastic selection on the cheese trolley and we were all able to choose 4 of our favourite cheeses. The only thing I didn’t really enjoy was the Foie Gras – as it was served warm. I normally love Foie Gras but for me it has to be the cold version – but except for that the whole menu was overall very enjoyable.

The other thing that made this a really nice evening was the service and the whole interaction we had with our waiters. Were able to have a real laugh with our main waiter – who turned out to be really funny. The atmosphere was so great that for the first time we all 4 went for the kitchen tour – where we again were made really welcome and continued to have a laugh with the Executive chef and the kitchen staff as well.

In the end of the night we got treated with some extra chocolate and cheese cake and when we left the restaurant Ingrid and I got a bag with some nice cakes – but at that point I also think we were too full to fit any more food in our stomachs.

If I had concerns before the dinner – I can honestly say that they were completely gone when we left the restaurant. Now I think we were just lucky to get a table last minute and without doubt this was a true 2 Michelin star experience where all 4 of us had a very nice evening.

Link to the restaurant….

For his second choice Carlos chose the 3 Michelin star Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire.

As usual we arrived early but unusually arrived by car. Bray is a lovely village and not a car park. We were told that we couldn’t leave the car overnight but after explaining we would be back early the next day to collect the car, the Parking Valet was good enough to park the car in the vacant space of one of the rooms of the hotel.

A great start to the early bird experience which continued when we went inside. The lounge area was very welcoming and we were shown to a table for drinks and a chance to see the menu. A nice traditional touch from a time gone by was that only the person that booked the table received a menu complete with the prices. We all selected the ‘Menu Exceptionel’ and waited to be seated.

This is where the experience became a little disappointing. The restaurant was very nice and I am sure the views of the River Thames are beautiful in the summer, but it was in no way a relaxing environment. The hustle and bustle from the waiter’s station situated in the middle of the room gave rise to a frantic feeling that was compounded by the quick succession of the first four courses. The courses slowed once we were on to desserts but the frantic feel of the room remained.

The food was very good by normal restaurant standards but this is the Waterside Inn and was therefore a little disappointing. There were no stand-out dishes to challenge the likes of the Foie Gras at Marcus Wareing or the Pork Jowls at The Ledbury.

The end of the evening was where we returned to a better experience. Ingrid did not enjoy the Golden Plum Soufflé and Alain Roux, who was working the room at the time, was horrified. After asking what could possibly be wrong with the soufflé he offered to cook another dessert more to her liking, a nice touch from the proprietor. He also arranged for Annette and Carl to take a tour of the kitchen.

Fabrice has been working the pass at the restaurant for number of years, yet the stress and responsibility had not dampened his enthusiasm. He seemed to enjoy the tour as much as we did, explaining the changes that were made to the kitchen a few years ago and the roles of the different stations. Both the kitchen and the tour were the best yet. Thank you.

It was a nice evening, but did not live up to expectations or the biggest bill we have received so far.

Link to the restaurant