Happy New Year 2010 from No Expert
No Expert published 120 posts last year, looking forward to providing more this year. There are just so many restaurants out there, click here to see our restaurant visit wish list.
NO EXPERT ANNUAL AWARDS FOR 2009 – Other Categories
Best Service
1. The Foliage – London.
2. Number One at The Balmoral – Edinburgh.
3. du Parc des Eaux Vives – Geneva.
Worst Service
1. Craft – New York. Choking man at next table ignored.
2. Abobe – Canterbury. Dinning room empty of staff on more than one occasion, forgetful waiter, customer repeatly having to shut the door to keep out the draft.
3. Benares – London. Guests having to make a real effort to attract the waiters attention.
Funniest excuse for bad service
“I am so sorry, but your wine order did not get to me” from the waiter who took the order : Abobe – Canterbury.
Fastest Napkin folding time
1. Craft – New York. All they were good at, unfortunately.
2. The Foliage – London.
3. San Pau – Spain. They don’t fold them they bring you a new one on a silver tray!.
Best Bread
1. Number One at The Balmoral – Edinburgh
2. Tom Aikens – London.
3. du Parc des Eaux Vives – Geneva. Formally number 1, but they no longer do the seaweed bread.
Best Dessert
1. Tom Aikens – London. Prune delight.
2. Semproniana – Barcelona. White chocolate infantile.
3. RSJ – London. Poached pear and Perkin ice cream.
The Portrait Restaurants Peanut Butter Cheese Cake would have been up here too, if they had not taken it off the menu. Hate when that happens 🙁
Worst Dessert
1. Harveys – Ramsgate.
2. Abobe – Canterbury.
3. Alkima – Barcelona.
Most disappointing – Places where the hype was really out of step with our experience.
1. Hibiscus – London.
2. Harveys – Ramsgate.
3. Alfie’s – London.
4. Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley – London.
Best value for money
1. Bistro de I’Hotel de Ville – Vevey.
2. The Foliage – London. Fixed price lunch.
3. Tram Tram – Barcelona.
Worst value for money
1. Hibiscus – London.
2. Abobe – Canterbury.
3. Harveys – Ramsgate.
Best View
30|40 at the Gerkin – London.
Best for Afternoon Tea
1. The Berkeley, Pret a Portea – London.
2. The Athenaeum – London.
Best Advertizing Video
Eleven Madison Park – New York.
Best Web site for a Restaurant
1. Eleven Madison Park – New York. Simple to navigate, easy to book, stylish with very appetising pictures.
2. Cinc Sentits – Barcelona. Stylish, easy to find key information, good on-line booking facilities.
3. Per Se – New York. Provides a lot of information, uses a simple format.
Worse Web site for a Restaurant
1. Sketch – London. A complete nightmare to navigate. What were they thinking when they choose this?. A good design is one that is both stylish and practical, this one is just downright silly.
2. El Celler De Can Roca – Girona. Another navigational nightmare, although not in the same class as Sketch.
3. Mugaritz – San Sebastian. You have to put your cursor over flying images to see tooltips and access key parts of the site. Not very practical at all.
For an interesting artical on this subject see:-
Most pretentious, but in a bad way!
1. Beau Rivage Palace (La Rotonde) – Lausanne. This restaurant fortunately is gone, its been replaced by Anne-Sophie Pic’s new restaurant.
2. La Dama – Barcelona. See also the La Dama entry in the post :- Worst of the Worst .
See also :-
The Kitchin – Sunshine (& Snow) on Leith
We had watched Tom Kitchin on BBC’s Great British Menu and admired his ability to follow the brief and not merely repeat his normal repertoire. So it was with some anticipation that we made our way to a beautiful snowy yet sunny Leith. After our visit to Number One at The Balmoral the ambience was disappointing in comparison but then again not every restaurant can be located in a 5 star hotel. The Kitchin is a more modern colder affair located in a converted warehouse. However all was not lost, as course after course we were treated to some of the best food we had experienced this year with perfectly matched wine.
Again the highlight of this meal was the Monkfish, specifically Monkfish tail wrapped in pancetta with an amazing broccoli puree and pumpkin gnocchi.
The service was excellent and if we were ever in Edinburgh this would be one restaurant that we would happily visit regularly. If was also nice to see that even on a day so close to the Xmas holiday Tom was busy in the kitchen.
Number One at the Balmoral – Well Bread
So can the top restaurants north of the border hold their own against the top London restaurants? Based on our experience at Number One Restaurant at The Balmoral Hotel, the answer is a resounding YES. Indeed they could teach some other Michelin establishments a thing or two about service and the importance of good bread. Bread is normally something we have found that a lot of the very best restaurants tend to dismiss. Not so at Number One, they have a “loaf trolley” and serve up world class bread baked on the premises by their Pastry Chef a former French Baker.
We really liked the dining room, the décor is warm and certainly in the evening very effective for a basement restaurant. There is a large bar area and two larger rooms with well spaced tables and curved booths that allowed everyone a good view of the room.
We went for the tasting menu with matching wines, which was all of a very high standard. The standout course being the Monkfish. The New Zealand wines were also very good indeed. I also really enjoyed the fois gras course with pineapple relish and pineapple bread. At the end of the meal the sommelier discreetly slipped us a small present in the shape of a full loaf of the wonderful walnut and raisin bread.
We also had pre dinner champagne cocktails in the lively Bollinger Bar at the Palm Court, which is a popular new venue for afternoon tea.
Joseph Pearce – Scotland meets Sweden
Joseph Pearce’s is a great find for Brunch, it is a quirky and relaxing venue just a short walk from Princes Street, far enough away to avoid the usual tourist traps. The menu has a strong Swedish influence that is just right for the Scottish weather.
Locals tell me that this is a lively bar in the evenings, especially in the Summer.
The Wheelhouse – good food and a Tourist attraction!
If you are doing the tourist bit in Scotland you may well make a trip to see the Mega-structure that is the Falkirk Wheel (It is used to lift and lower barges from the lower to the upper canal). The purpose build Wheelhouse restaurant is located nearby to attract the passing visitors, and based on our recent visit, it is streets ahead of the type of venue you normally find in Tourist locations. The Restaurant has an eclectic menu, and provides good quality, well cooked food.
The Wheelhouse is a bit more expensive than other local restaurants, but worth it for what it delivers. The menu is split into large and small plates, we shared several small plates as starters and went for the large plates as main courses and finished with dessert.
The small plates included a light goats cheese tart with sun blushed tomatoes, a delicious seafood tempura and a selection of Pakoras.
The large plates included lamb chops with mint pesto – 4 small nicely cooked chops. Chicken Balmoral – Chicken breast served on a bed of Haggis with a choice of Whiskey or Caramalised Onion gravy.
They also have a reasonable wine list with a small selection of wines by the glass and serve the award winning Speyside Glenlivit sparkling mineral water, which I had not had before and will now look out for, as it makes a pleasant change from the more common Highland Spring or Perrier water.
The conclusion was that the Wheelhouse was worth a visit even without the attraction of the nearby “Wheel”, which to quote the locals “Disnae look like a Wheel!”.