Latest reviews by jennipenni's friends

Picasso - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:02:01 +0000

Picasso - review by sue

Rating: 4.0

Location: Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd South, 89109, Las Vegas, United States of America

Phone: 866.259.7111

Website: http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/picasso.aspx

Tags: romantic, mediterranean, spanish, expensive, french

The Bellagio is filled with excellent restaurants, and of the fine dining options, one called Picasso caught our eye, so we pre-booked a table for our first night in town. The restaurant is accessed via the Bellagio casino, and looks out over the lake. It has been awarded 2 Michelin Stars, and a AAA Five Diamond Award for seven consecutive years.

The dining room is grand and beautifully decorated - it is filled with Picasso paintings and ceramics. The professional but amiable service made us feel welcome and relaxed from start to finish.

The food is "French cuisine seasonally prepared with a Spanish influence". There was the choice of a degustation menu, or a fixed price, four course menu. We chose from the fixed price menu, and also opted for the Sommelier's wine pairing. This was not a cheap meal, but a memorable one.

To start, we had the Poached Oysters, garnished with Osetra Caviar, Sauce Vermouth; and the Warm Quail Salad with Sauteed Artichokes, Pinenuts. Both dishes were beautifully presented and the oysters were so good they earned a place in Alex's "Top 5 Oysters I have ever eaten" list.

Next up we both opted for the Sauteed Filet of Black Bass with Saffron Sauce and Cauliflower Mousseline - really delicious. Then for the 'main' course we had the Roasted Milk-Fed Veal Chop with Rosemary Potatoes and Au Jus; and the Sauteed Medallions of Fallow Deer with Caramelized Green Apples and Zinfandel Sauce. The deer was certainly the winning dish, I found the veal a little over-cooked.

Desserts were happily devoured, in particular my Warm Chocolate Fondant with Carmel Chocolate Ice Cream. The fondant was good, but the ice cream was exceptionally good and I could happily have eaten it all night.

Yellowtail Sushi Restaurant & Bar - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:52:10 +0000

Yellowtail Sushi Restaurant & Bar - review by sue

Rating: 4.0

Location: Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd South, 89109, Las Vegas, United States of America

Phone: 866.259.7111

Website: http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/yellowtail.asp

Tags: lively, bellagio, cocktails, sushi, japanese, expensive, romantic

While staying at the Bellagio, one evening a lighter dinner was required in-between drinking cocktails and hitting the casino, so we ventured to Yellowtail Sushi Restaurant, which is conveniently located in the casino area.

A fairly new addition to the Bellagio restaurant directory, Yellowtail is a very stylish looking place, with very attractive staff who seem to have shares in push-up bras.

We were seated at a high table in the front section of the restaurant, so unfortunately didn't have views of the lake and fountain. We weren't ravenous, so just ordered a few things to share. The stand-out item was the Salmon Nigiri - wow, the salmon was so melt-in-your-mouth that we promptly ordered another serve.

We also ordered the Grilled eggplant skewers with sweet miso, some Tuna sushi rolls, and the Popping spicy crab, which was a sushi roll with crab, cucumber, asparagus and a sprinkling of those pop-rock candies that pop and crackle in your mouth. Interesting.

Fontana Bar - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:38:39 +0000

Fontana Bar - review by sue

Rating: 4.0

Location: Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd South, 89109, Las Vegas, United States of America

Phone: 702.693.7089

Website: http://www.bellagio.com/nightlife/fontana-bar.aspx

Tags: jazz, bellagio, cool & smart, live, views, cocktails, friendly, relaxed, cool, live music

Fontana Bar is located lakeside in the Bellagio, accessed via the casino. There is a large bar area inside, with a stage and dance floor, and a terrace that looks over the lake and Strip. We visited early one evening and of course headed straight for the terrace, and a prime fountain watching position.

There was a band playing inside, and speakers outside so we could still enjoy the music. Every now and then the bands music would be replaced by the various backing soundtracks for the dancing fountains, and we would enjoy the eruptions from our seat.

We ordered mojitos (really good!) and martinis and felt pretty content. I can highly recommend the combination of a terrace table, a cocktail or two and watching the colours of the Strip change and those fountains dance.

Jean Philippe Patisserie - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:27:41 +0000

Jean Philippe Patisserie - review by sue

Rating: 4.0

Location: Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd South, 89190, Las Vegas, United States of America

Website: http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/jean-philippe.

Tags: quick bite, bellagio, ice cream, top food, average brew, cakes, crowded

Jean Philippe Patisserie is located inside the Bellagio, and is well worth a visit if you have a sweet tooth like me. Not only are there beautifully created (and tasting!) pastries and cakes, but there is also some very good ice cream on offer.

Also of interest is what claims to be the "World's Tallest and Largest Volume Chocolate Fountain". The photo I took only shows the bottom half of it. It certainly looked impressive, but was behind glass, so it was not the type of choc fountain you could dip marshmallows in.

We sampled a couple of the cakes - a Lemon Tart, and a chocolate concoction that had choc mousse and nutella and praline crispy biscuits. Yes, it was good. Another day we returned for a small serving of ice cream, which was creamy and full-flavoured.

The Buffet at the Bellagio - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:12:18 +0000

The Buffet at the Bellagio - review by sue

Rating: 2.0

Location: Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd South, 89190, Las Vegas, United States of America

Phone: 702.693.7089

Website: http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/the-buffet.asp

Tags: lively, bellagio, all you can eat, international, family & home feel, buffet

I don't really 'do' buffets, basically cause I can't eat that much in one sitting so I never feel like they are good value for me. Oh, and nothing compares to the brunch buffet I once had at the Delano Hotel in Miami. Anyhoo, that said, it seemed like having a meal at the Bellagio Buffet was one of the 'things to do' whilst in Vegas, so we did.

We turned up at around 11am on a Sunday and there was a queue out into the casino. Thankfully it moved quickly, so our tummies weren't grumbling for too long. You have to pay before you are seated, and they ask if you want to leave your tip in advance, or at the table. We opted for the table option, unsure how much service we wanted to pay for at a 'self-service' restaurant.

We were shown to our table and then sat there waiting till eventually our waitress arrived and took our drink orders. Service was pretty non-existent after that.

So, the buffet. There was a massive selection of food - everything from cornflakes to pizza to scrambled eggs to sushi to cakes to roast beef. There were chefs cooking dishes in front of you, so you knew that (some) things were nice and fresh.

We didn't pile our plates too high, though after a couple of visits to the buffet we were pretty much full and unfortunately didn't sample anything worth mentioning.

Canaletto - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:54:47 +0000

Canaletto - review by sue

Rating: 4.0

Location: Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd South, 89190, Las Vegas, United States of America

Phone: 702.733.0070

Website: http://www.venetian.com/Pages.aspx?id=838

Tags: italian, venetian, romantic

Canaletto is an Italian restaurant located on "St Marks Square" inside the Venetian Hotel. We had dinner there one night and opted to sit on the terrace in the square. It really did feel like we were back in Venice at dusk. The restaurant was lively and had a real Italian feel, helped along by the Italian staff, and the gondoliers and carabinieri walking past in the square.

We started with a glass of prosecco and reminisced about our last time in Venice. Then it was dinner time. We started with the Calamaretti Fritti and the Minestrone soup. Main course was the Veal shank braised in a marsala wine with porcini & shiitake mushrooms, served with saffron risotto; and the Fillet of seabass with tomatoes, artichokes, prosecco and saffron, served with organic sautÃ©ed spinach and roasted Yukon gold potatoes.

All the food was very enjoyable, and the couple of glasses of wine we had were very good value.

Carnegie Delicatessen - review by sue

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:08:29 +0000

Carnegie Delicatessen - review by sue

Rating: 3.0

Location: Mirage, 3400 S. Las Vegas Blvd, 89109, Las Vegas, United States of America

Phone: 866.339.4566

Website: http://www.mirage.com/restaurants/carnegie-delicat

Tags: american, jewish, cake, good value, deli, lively

Carnegie Delicatessen is located within the casino of the Mirage Hotel. It is apparently quite like the original Carnegie Deli in New York.

The main draw card here seemed to be the "overstuffed sandwiches" - they were so massive. Think two average slices of bread with a filling of pastrami, and when I say filling I mean a 25cm high tower of meat! Then add sides including a big stack of fries, a tub of coleslaw and a giant pickle, and you will get the idea of what a meal here entails.

But we ignored all that and just shared a giant slice of Cheesecake instead. And a pot of tea to wash it down. And tried to take sneaky photos of people with huge sandwiches.

Plane Food - review by sue

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:15:16 +0000

Plane Food - review by sue

Rating: 2.0

Location: Heathrow Terminal 5, TW6 2GA, Hounslow, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 8897 4545

Website: http://www.gordonramsay.com/planefood

Tags: expensive, heathrow, ramsay, gordon ramsay, british, international, breakfast

We thought we would start our last holiday in style - instead of the usual pre-flight breakfast at Giraffe, we would instead dine at Plane Food, which is Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Heathrow Terminal Five, airside.

The restaurant has been beautifully designed, taking advantage of the light-filled space which offers views out to the airfield. The space was much larger than imagined, and although stylish looking, the ambience was somehow more canteen like than I was expecting. Perhaps it had something to do with the large number of empty tables waiting to be cleared, meaning we had to wait around 10 minutes to be seated (eating into our valuable duty free shopping time).

Was it worth the wait. Not really. As this would be our second breakfast for the day, we just wanted something light and both opted for the Suffolk sweet-cured bacon and egg roll. It was the most boring and flavourless bacon and egg roll I think I have ever had. Next time we'll just stick to Giraffe.

Caffe Caldesi - review by Browners

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:44:56 +0000

Caffe Caldesi - review by Browners

Rating: 3.7

Location: 118 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2QF, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7935 1144

Website: http://www.caffe.caldesi.com/

Tags: italian, business, good value, crowded, brasserie, lively

Our table for 5 could barely support the weight of the contents of the entire anti-pasti menu! All 6 of their starters appeared on our table and were devoured with a combination of greed, starvation and foodie curiosity. As you'd expect all of the wonderful hams and cured beef were exemplary. But the joint stars of the show were the ball of mozerella and the cougette matchsticks with calamari - a sqeeze of lemon transforms them into little sticks of joy.

Main courses were good too. My haddock was fine, but the spinach and tomatoes stole the show. The skin on the fish could have been crispier and the flesh was well cooked but its integrity had been compromised - maybe it fell apart as it left the pan and was carefully reconstructed. It didn't affect the taste - but as we all know we do eat with our eyes.

The girls had linguine with tomato, chilli and cream which looked great. I've had it before and can testify to its depth and kick. Jess had a vast veal escalope which was large enough to feed the whole of Northern Italy. Tasty though.

My panacotta with passion fruit was perfect. I am a complete sucker for passion fruit. Handled correctly I fall head over heels for it. It wobbled sexily before disappearing inside my already bulging tummy. Yum and twice yum.

We probably didn't need any Calvados - but it added to the fun of the occasion and put me in the mood for the Pie Competition to follow!

Our only gripe was the lethargic service. They didn't get anything wrong. But they just took an age doing everything. And it didn't help that we were obviously all wearing our invisibility cloaks. Probably best not to wear them next time.

Dans Le Noir - review by Browners

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:41:19 +0000

Dans Le Noir - review by Browners

Rating: 3.1

Location: 30-31 Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7253 1100

Website: http://www.danslenoir.com

Tags: lively, dark, expensive, romantic

In a sudden fit of bravery we decided to take our wonderful Client out for an adventurous dinner. She is based in the States so we rarely get to see each other face to face.

This will now seem like a non-sequitor...

So we took her to Dans le Noir in Farringdon for a fabulous night of dining in the dark. We are working on a project that is all about sensual experiences, so it made perfect sense to finish the day's hard work with a meal that would push all of our sensual boundaries.

Arriving at the restaurant we were greeted in the foyer by a collection of very engaging maitre d's. They made us put all of our kit in a locker so that no mobile phones or watches with illuminated faces could disturb the sheer blackness of the dining room.

I don't think any of us were ready for the attack on our senese that was to follow. After a quick cocktail to instil a bit of Dutch courage in all of us, we queued up behind a blind waitress/guide and were led into the pitch black room. Some squealed. Others were a bit more stoical. We found our table using our hands and all sat down around what we all thought was a round table, but turned out to be oblong!

We groped around the table looking for water glasses and bottles. The only way you can pour everyone's wine is to put your finger in the glass and keep pouring until your finger gets wet! Not very hygenic. But great fun.

We all spoke very loudly to begin with as we acclimatised to the dark. Towards the end of the meal our voices became more calm and we shouted a lot less! It's bizarre just how reliant we all are on our sense of sight.

I found it really hard to determine what I was eating and to be honest can't quite remember. Memory works very badly when you remove the sense of sight. My starter may have involved something resembling spring rolls filled with what I thought was minced chicken and somebody else thought was tuna - which turned out to be duck.

Likewise I got terribly confused by my main course which I still swear to the this day was lamb, but turned out to be a mixture of ostrich fillet on one side of the plate and venison on the other. But we all recognised the distinctive smell and flavour of the truffled risotto that acted as a division between the two meats.

Personally I loved the whole experience. There is something very liberating about being in the dark. It may have been the amount of wine I was drinking because I was thirsty and couldn't find my water glass... but I found myself saying things at a work dinner that I would never otherwise have said. I've never had so much fun chatting a joking around a (now clearly rectangular) table. Everything seems funnier in the dark.

Be careful about coming here if you know people are claustrophobic or are a bit strapped for cash as it isn't cheap. But remember you are coming here for an experience and not simply a meal. In many ways this is the idea of a restaurant pushed to the extreme. It's not about the food. It's about opening your mind and having an entertaining time. We learnt a lot about each other during the course of the meal and feel like we all bonded along the way.

Will any of us return? Unlikely. But not in a bad way. We've all been talking about the experience ever since and won't ever forget that crazy meal we all had in the dark! It's a great place to come if you want to break the ice.

Santa Lucia - review by HORSCHECK

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:23:44 +0000

Santa Lucia - review by HORSCHECK

Rating: 4.0

Location: Marktgasse 21, 8001, Zurich, Switzerland

Phone: +41 1 262 36 26

Website: http://www.bindella.ch/

Tags: italian, good value, lively

Santa Lucia is a Swiss restaurant chain, which offers Italian cuisine. It was founded in the mid 1960's and belongs to the Swiss Bindella group of restaurants.

In December 2007 we visited the Santa Lucia restaurant in the Marktgasse 21. It seems to be frequented by locals and due to its central location also by many tourists.

The large wooden interior is divided into a smoker and a non-smoker section; the latter one can be found at the end of the room. The tables are located very close to each other, which makes people watching easy, but is probably not recommended for a romantic dinner.

The menu offers a wide variety of pizzas as well as homemade pasta, fish and meat dishes. I chose a Pizza Santa Lucia which was covered with ham, mushrooms and paprika. To drink I had two Calanda shandies, which in Switzerland are often called "Panache".

The pizza was very delicious and with 21 CHF reasonably priced.

DIRECTIONS:
Zurich is home to at least two Santa Lucia restaurants. We visited the one at Marktgasse 21. It can be found right in the heart of Zurich's old town in the pedestrianised part of the Niederdorf area on the right side of the river Limmat.

Caffe Bar Dolce Vita - review by HORSCHECK

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:42:21 +0000

Caffe Bar Dolce Vita - review by HORSCHECK

Rating: 4.0

Location: Porat bb, , Supetar, Croatia

Tags: relaxed, outdoor seating, friendly

In September 2008 we travelled through the southern part of Croatia. On this trip we spent three days on the island of Brac, where we explored Bol and Supetar.

After a 70 minutes bus ride from Bol to Supetar we wanted to take a drink in a local cafe and enjoy the view of the quaint town. The harbour with its Austrian style buildings and the many cafes with outdoor terraces looked like a perfect place.

We sat down in a place called "Dolce Vita" and sampled the list of beverages which offered a large variety of drinks from soft drinks to cocktails.

As on this trip I had already drunken quite a few beers and as it was still before noon, I opted for a Cedevita drink. Cedevita is a refreshing Croatian instant vitamin drink. With 10 Kuna it was relatively cheap.

DIRECTIONS:
The Caffe bar Dolce Vita is located right in the heart of the harbour area, just in the middle of the eastern side of promenade.

Magdalen - review by Browners

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:12:14 +0000

Magdalen - review by Browners

Rating: 4.2

Location: 152 Tooley Street, SE1 2TU, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7403 1342

Website: http://www.magdalenrestaurant.co.uk/

Tags: lively, british, expensive, romantic

My parents are obsessed with Mark Rothko. A bit like how Peter Stringfellow is obsessed with girls in plastic high heels and bikinis. It's a sort of pseudo-sexual thing. All encompassing and fascinating. So it was with great excitement that we went on a Brown family outing to the Tate Modern for their hugely anticipated "Rothko - the late years" exhibition on Friday for a private viewing. It didn't disappoint. It just served to reconfirm, if that was needed at all, that Rothko's work is as moving and haunting as Bach and Mozart. It was more like an existential philosophy exhibition than a gallery of paintings.

We returned on Saturday to be in the audience for the all afternoon seminar connected to the exhibition. We were surrounded on all sides by people with even more emphatic Rothko fetishes than Mum and Dad! Not that I thought this was possible. I guess it's a bit like thinking your pretty good at football having scored a few goals for your school side and then going off to the regional trials - only to see all the other boys can kick the ball miles and have all the kit! But I am pleased to say that the Brown family held their own. Mum has vowed never to wash her right hand again having shaken hands with Mark Rothko's son, Christopher!

Still buzzing from 4 hours of in depth intercourse about the ins and outs of the world of Rothko, we strolled along Bankside up towards Tooley street where we were delighted to find Magdalen. It's from the Anchor and Hope school of cookery. Or if you are from Bristol, it's similar to The Albany. The deep maroon walls made us feel like we were eating with the Seagram Murals hanging around us!

The menu excited me more than the others. I loved the 3 part simplicity of it all. But on the downside it means that it reads less flamboyantly than menus tended to a few years ago. Beds, jus, tranches and so forth are gone. Now it's all about guess work and trust. It's the sign of a confident restaurant.

I was in two minds about what to have. The devil inside me was whispering in my ear... telling me to have the grouse... but at Â£26 I couldn't. Instead I was delighted with my choice of potted crab which was as silky as a silkworm's sleeping bag, followed by an unctuous combination of shoulder and leg of pork - served with a mustardy sauce and the lightest crackling I have ever had. This was top class cooking. And brilliantly British.

The others had a very good cauliflower soup with walnuts and other earthy autumnal bits and pieces... and Dad had a Rothko coloured maroon on black seared haunch venison. The fish soup, slow cooked shoulder of lamb and halibut that followed were equally memorable. All bore the hallmark of a kitchen that is at ease with itself. Don't get me wrong - it was all very good food. But I wonder what they are capable when they push things a bit further?

I shared a blindingly good lemon tart with a burn sugar crust which was top class The pastry was thin and crumbled at just the right moments when you showed it the spoon. And the lemon custard was still warm and silky.

Our only criticism concerns 3 embarrassments.

1. The step at the bottom of the stairs is not the same depth as the other stairs... I almost tripped over twice in the middle of the dinning room.

2. I had to queue to get into the gents in full view of the restaurant. It didn't really feel right.

3. Dad had an altercation with the manager about their policy of automatically adding a gratuity of 12.5%. Our waitress had been fantastic all evening - so we wanted to give her a tip... but we disagreed severely with their tipping policy. Surely if the gratuity is at the discretion of the person paying... it is not up to the restaurant to behave like this. It leaves a very sour taste in the mouth and we hope that Magdalen changes their policy.

Tremendous food. The perfect place for a Rothko inspired dinner. O... and how are you supposed to pronounce the name?

The Stonhouse - review by Browners

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:12:32 +0000

The Stonhouse - review by Browners

Rating: 3.0

Location: 165 Stonhouse Street, SW4 6BJ, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 7819 9312

Website: http://www.renaissancepubs.co.uk/SH/index.htm

Tags: posh, gastro pub, excellent pub food, young professionals, beer garden, independent pub, young and fun, friendly

My first house in London was a horrific ground floor flat with cracked lino floors, a terrifying gas oven and a serious mouse problem. Our moving in party on November 4th 2005 caused chaos. Someone hot boxed our landlord's car. Someone was sick over the fence into our lovely next door neighbour's sand-pit. Someone then fell through the same fence and propped it up with a super-market trolley. Then we let off enough fire-works to make our local community wish they were living in the Helmand Province. Then the police arrived to ask if any of us had witnessed the assault that had been committed in the pub opposite our house - in the Stonhouse.

It was the grottiest pub you can imagine. The most hostile atmosphere that makes being a Liverpool fan in Istanbul seem like a romantic holiday. My housemate at the time and I went to have our inaugural pint in our local and couldn't have felt more uncomfortable... the pool table had no baize, the walls had no paint, the toilets had no toilets and the walls were riddled with bizarre holes. It was horrific. Then mysteriously one night it conveniently caught fire and almost over night transformed into a very smart gastro-pub.

So it was with great fondness and no less curiosity that I returned to Stonhouse Street for a pre-cinema meal on Friday. I arrived feeling very warm and fairly full having been treated to some fantastic prawns and white wine at Wright's in Borough Market on the way back from the brilliant Rothko exhibition.

The transformation from ugly duckling to sauve, urbane swan is really hard for me to cope with. But in a good way. Somebody has done a fabulous job of resurrecting this phoenix from the flames.

The Â£12 fixed menu was tight but generous... whilst my crab cakes could generously be described as poor, the steak was as good as you'll get for the price. It came with a very commendable basil and lemon mayonnaise and enough chips to put a smile on Mr McCain's face.

The girls probably did better than me. Victoria's chicken liver and mushrooms on toast was delicious and extremely plentiful. I'm not one to take off marks for large portions... but it did dent her appetite for a few minutes! Cowie junior's smoked salmon pate was very smokey and beautifully coarse. Good honest food. Really tasty. Far tastier than my lump of crispy edged deep fried mashed potato with ghost of crab.

They both couldn't resist having fish pie on a Friday being the good Catholic school girls that they are. I didn't even get a sniff of it so it must have been good.

Our Chilean red was robust and good value. I certainly left with a good ready brek glow... ready to battle through 2 hours of Keira Knightly plodding her way through another period drama.

Hats off to the Stonhouse. It was completely packed when we left. We will definitely be back next time we go to the cinema - especially if they keep their Top Table offer going.

Harrison's - review by Browners

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:38:30 +0000

Harrison's - review by Browners

Rating: 4.5

Location: 15-19 Bedford Hill, SW12 9EX, London, United Kingdom

Phone: 020 8675 6900

Website: http://www.harrisonsbalham.co.uk/

Tags: lively, brasserie, french

It's not every school night you get to meet Rick Stein! We whizzed down to Balham in a nick of time to find Rick sat at a low round table, slightly awkwardly making small talk and signing books. After a brief chat with the publicist about Rick's forthcoming TV series and book called Coast to Coast Victoria and I siddled over for a chat.

Our chat was derailed pretty quickly when both pieces of infomration the publicist had told us turned out to be emphatically wrong! There is no TV series. And the book is about his travels around the world and not just the UK.

Perturbed by the sudden end to our conversation... I grabbed a conversational topic from nowhere and landed up asking Rick Stein whether he had ever cooked a fish meringue!!! As it turned out he was really interested in the idea and I explained that it's like baking fish in salt. Essentially you stuff a whole fish such as a sea bass with fennel, lemon and other goodies... and then pour over 6 or 7 whipped egg whites. Pop it in the oven for enough time to cook it and then serve your gobsmacked guests the most moist fish you'll come across. I first read about it a really cool book called "The Daily Italian" by one of Jamie Oliver's proteges.

So look out for this badger featuring on Rick's menu sometime soon!

We broke off from the book signing and settled in for dinner. Ignoring the special offer that had drawn us in the first place... we loved our raw salmon with soy, ginger and chillie. Although it may have been a bit feisty for some. But the star of the show was the liver and bacon... Having never had liver and bacon before I was twitching with excitement when it arrived and became increasingly anxious as I saw it drying out on the pass. But I needn't have worried because it was blissfully awesome. Soft and moist. Meaty and slightly charred. The mash was brilliant and the pancetta and onion rings didn't let it down either. I feel like a smack addict. I'm now gagging for the next hit.

Having had a few OK experiences at Harrison's we are now big fans - keen to pop in for dinner more often.