[Food] Restaurant Thread 2022

Herr Tubthumper said:

I’m glad you decided to dip into this thread as this sounds right up my strasse and I’m planning a return trip to Copenhagen sometime next year as well.

PS the IPAs in the city are great aren’t they?

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Goldstone1976 said:

Coombeshead Farm, Lewannick, East Cornwall

Number 2 of 4 Cornish restaurants to be reviewed on this thread following our trip to the West Country.

Founded by Tom Adams (Pitt Cue) and April Bloomfield (River Cafe, Bibendum, and, ahem, Spotted Pig), this is a 66-acre farm and restaurant with (5) rooms.

We only ate there, as we were staying at the Endsleigh 35 mins away. We did however wander into the main house in our search for the dining room and saw two couple who were staying enjoying preprandial drinks; they said the rooms were great.

Prior to our allotted dining time (in fact there is only 1: 7pm) we had a drink in the local pub. I’m not saying it’s the worst pub in England, but… actually I am. The 18 punters stopped talking as we walked in and turned to stare at us. The two 14-year olds playing pool sneered, the 10-year old playing darts started throwing them with real venom, and the 6-year old turned his back on us and farted. We sat at a table in the corner with our two drinks (a pint and some non-alcoholic nonsense, since you ask) about 5 yards from the end of the bar.

‘Can you smell that BO?’ asked the GLDHI
‘Yes. I thought it was you’
‘You’re so funny’ said in a voice that could be mistaken for sarcasm

We moved tables - it was that bad.

I would put the name of the pub, but I have no desire to publicise it. There is only one in Lewannick - don’t drink in it.

Anyway… we find the restaurant building: a long room in a barn with 6 tables for 8 all set for 2 - the 5 couples staying and us.

‘You could get a lot more people in here’ I say to the waiter (there are 2 chefs, 1 waiter, and 1 kitchen skivvy)
‘Yes, but we don’t want to. We like it as it is’

Here’s the menu:

I see the new site manages to rotate images just as easily as the old one - apologies.

View attachment 153969

‘That butter’s made here’ opines the GLDHI
‘Shirley not?’
‘Is it?’ I ask the waiter
‘Yes. There’s an old woman up the road with 6 Guernsey cows. We get all our milk from her and make all our dairy products here’

It’s that type of place. Raise, slaughter, butcher, and cook their own meat - mostly pork; cure their own ham and bacon, lots of foraging - you know the sort of place.

The food quality was superb - easily 1 star cooking.

5 courses, £72. Plus a free loaf to take away with you.

Fabulous.

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MattBackHome said:

I can't read that menu, but it may be my eyes.

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Herr Tubthumper said:

“Chef Dave Mothersill, who has worked in some of Brighton’s best-known restaurants including the Salt Room, the Gingerman and Terre a Terre, is to open his first solo venture in the city. Furna, on New Road, will have just three dozen seats and will serve a decidedly upmarket tasting menu at £90 a head. Dishes will include mushroom agnolotti with black garlic, chestnuts and Wiltshire truffle, veal sweetbreads with kabocha, maple sherry and a roasted chicken sauce, and mirin meringues with clementines.”

Furna

Furna restaurant, Brighton

furnarestaurant.co.uk

Interesting.

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amexer said:

Brave move. Another restaurant Tasting Menu only. Appreciate many will try for the experience but surely a limit to number of people willing to pay for a meal out for 2 at £230 plus

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Herr Tubthumper said:

I feel opening any restaurant is a brave/madness move at the moment. That said, I do feel there is sufficient money in Brighton for this to work, as long as the quality is there. The venue looks great, if the food and service matches then it could work.

Am I correct in thinking it's where Fatboy's sushi place used to be?

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Machiavelli said:

No, it's further up New Road, more or less opposite the two pubs.
FWIW, I'm sceptical that it'll work, but if there are extremely positive reviews from restaurant reviewers, or multiple positive ones on here, I'll give it a go. At the moment, will give it a miss: funds are tight, and the prospect of a tasting menu doesn't appeal.

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Springal said:

Was it where Polpo was ?

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Machiavelli said:

No, it's further up New Road, more or less opposite the two pubs.
FWIW, I'm sceptical that it'll work, but if there are extremely positive reviews from restaurant reviewers, or multiple positive ones on here, I'll give it a go. At the moment, will give it a miss: funds are tight, and the prospect of a tasting menu doesn't appeal.

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thedonkeycentrehalf said:

Opening a high end restaurant, tasting menu only, lack of staff across the sector, just before the new year when restaurants are historically quieter for the next couple of months and during a time when almost everyone has their budget being squeezed.

I wish the guy all the best but sounds like him (or his backers) have more money than sense.

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Westdene Seagull said:

Kindling, East Street, Brighton

Had been planning to go here for ages based on the very good reviews online and when friends said they were coming down to Brighton it seemed like the ideal opportunity.

Looked at the drinks menu and was pleased to see a couple of 0% beers on there - a pilsner and what the restaurant called an IPA. I was rather disappointed to be told they only had one pilsner left so ordered that and decided I'd switch to the IPA later - thankfully the IPA was in fact a Blonde beer and was very good.

On to the starters. A couple of us has lamb shoulder which was OK, rather small, and nothing to write home about. One person had the bread and butter and the bread was "like cardboard". Finally Mrs WS had a King Oyster mushroom with aerated potato and truffle. The mushroom was minute and the truffle virtually non-existent. The aerated potato is something to be avoided at all costs. It was a dish that made no sense and appeared to have been put together to be clever rather than a coherent tasty dish.

We all hoped the main would live up to the reviews. How wrong we were. One of us had beef rump - it was nicely cooked but clearly hadn't been rested for long enough, possibly even at all, as it was swimming in blood. One of the specials was a Barnsley chop - it didn't really resemble a Barnsley chop at all. We all know lamb is fatty but this chop consisted mostly of fat ( some of it almost raw ) followed by bone. There were two mouthfuls of actual meat and they were chewy. The final two mains were Hake with sorrel. The sorrel sauce was good but the cooking of the hake was, shall we say, unusual. Both hake fillets were half cooked - i.e. each one had a cooked side and a raw side. We duly complained about three of the dishes. The hake was removed from the bill after being closely inspected by the manager. The chop on the other hand was apparently perfect - it was just the diner's taste that was at fault. We didn't bother complaining about the vegetable sides that seemed as though they had just been picked and put on the plate bypassing cooking. So far not a good meal at all.

We all hesitated about ordering dessert. In the end I opted for another 'IPA' to be safe and one of our friends had a coffee ( a luke warm coffee ). Two foolish souls decided to brave dessert with only partial success. The goats cheese with blackberries was very nice but the chocolate dessert ( I forget the actual ingredients ) was pretty dire, summed up by our friend saying "that's the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth".

A very disappointing meal all in all. The service was very slow and the servers very confused. The 'discussion' about the faults wasn't very appreciated. Kindling seem to want their dishes to be fine dining but they appear not to have the skillset to achieve this. Score 2/10 - one point for the three edible dishes and one for the 0% beers ( the highlight for me ). None of us will be returning.

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