Review of #Dill Restaurant, Reykjavik, #Iceland

First night of the trip to #Reykjavik and i had booked this restaurant a few weeks before i traveled, the menu sounded very interesting and there were some great reviews on line of their offer

Well i have to say this was one of the best meals i have eaten this year (2014), i was lucky enough to sit at the bar counter, where the food is prepared right in front of you, if you go try and get one of the seats at the bar, really worth it

Service was really good with extra wine being poured a few times, attention to detail was very good but it should be for the price Kr 11.900 and Kr 11.900 for the wine. however i think it stacks up against the Michelin restaurants and i don't think it will be long before it is recognized globally.

I was very hungry nothing new there as it had been a long trip to get there so i opted for the whole 7 courses with a glass of wine per course, well it was not all wine some sherry, cider thrown in for good measure too. all dishes were perfect in size and the meal was very cleverly timed and not rushed in any way

I would rate this as a 9/10

The meal starts with 4 small taster courses to be enjoyed with a glass of champagne

Good evening 

01 Saltfish - dirt smoked lamb from Gylfi at Skutustooum and homemade mustard - tasted amazing although small this sets you up for what's coming

02 Fresh cheese - Christmas brew and ginger cake - amazing winter flavours was just like eating Christmas

03 Herring ice cream - pickled onions and rye bread - the absolute best dish of my trip, but then i am a huge herring fan and i have never had it like this before, this one dish should go down in this restaurants history books and always be on the menu

04 Barley pudding - smoked goose heart and burned butter - a real mix of flavours but surprisingly they all work together the goose heart was divine 

A novel was of serving bread that is cooked on site in large wood fired oven

Menu

01 Cod, apples, celeriac and jus from fried cod bones - raw cod had a lot of flavour and the jus / foam was amazing this dish was truly something different

02 Baked catfish, caramelised onions and Dill - again this was a great mix of flavours that all worked so well together who ever thought catfish could be so good

03 Red beets, raw, baked and juiced, cherry vinegar and crowberries - a little vegetarian thrown in, suppose you have to be good sometimes, despite this it did taste really good and was a clever mix of textures

A little crisp taster served mid-meal

04 Soft potatoes, dried auk, pickled onions, mustard seeds and Christmas tree - an extremely posh mashed potato, truly great with the dried auk on top and all those Christmas flavours

05 Salted and smoked pork fillet, crispy pork skin, Christmas spirit and rutabagas - water bath pork produced something amazing really tender falling apart with the simplest of pressure

06 Caramelised potatoes and red cabbage - more vegetarian but this one was almost as good as the herring ice cream but not quite, really clever to think out of the box and create this tempting dish

07 Mandarins, Christmas omnom and salted almonds - just has room for this and thank god it was so light

Sticks & Sushi Review - Covent Garden

Busy Wednesday night at Sticks & Sushi, been wanting to go here for ages now, followed on twitter and been loving the pictures they and customers post @sticksnsushi_UK

Service is friendly and welcoming, staff keep calling out some name as they walk you to your table, don't ask me what it was, despite hearing it many times still could not make it out. once you have sat and ordered you are then given a warm fresh towel to clean your hands, always liked this especially when next thing on is picking and eating with fingers, especially for those not mastered the chop sticks yet

non alcoholic cocktails are excellent especially the one with liquorish & berries, the calpico & yuzu also very good

started with cauliflower that had been fried and served with black sesame truffle sauce, really tasty something different and unusual, cauliflower really picks up the flavour well. Really turns a plain vegetable in to something great.

 This was followed by first plate of sushi

• Daikon Gunkan trout roe with quails egg yolk - really divine roe like popping candy with running yolk that really added to the flavour
• Seared yellow-tail with tsume soy - the searing really helps here, very delicate fish
• Beef Nigri - very tasty beef, perfectly aged and sliced, little nut on top really adds to the total flavour profile

 

First plate of our grilled sticks

• Beef with miso herb butter - perfectly marinated and tender, ate so easy, very good quality meat used
• Panko breaded duck with wasabi Caesar dressing - a stand out dish, really divine, so tender and tasty, you must try these
• Beef with crunchy chilli & garlic - packed with lots of flavour, meat here was not as tender as the beef miso but was OK, just not as tender a little bit tougher, but still a great dish

 

 Second plate of sushi cannot believe i was still going

• Hamachi - really fresh fish used, very tasty and dipped well in the soy and wasabi
• Shrimp - again very fresh and tasty, great quality ingredients
• Miso marinated black cod with tsume & sesame - the heat in this dish really helps all the flavours melt together

 

 Finally another plate of delicious sticks

• Lamb chop with miso herb butter - little bit weird to have bone in rib on sticks, you forget when first biting in to it, but soon remember, again perfect tasting, lamb was extremely tender
• Free range pork and basil - another great meat, its so nice to see somewhere using perfect quality meat in all its dishes
• Scallop wrapped in smoked bacon - absolutely divine, perfect cooked scallops, cooked almost to the point, really succulent - you must try this

Review Hix Oyster House -Lyme Regis

Really nice location , great to sit out on the deck and good old British weather did not let us down

Service is ok, maybe a little too relaxed 2.5 hours for a two course meal, maybe too long for some but it was a nice day. Could do with being a little more attentive to empty water and asking if anyone needs anything, no mid meal check backs done

Excellent starters stand out dish mackerel salad with boiled egg and herb salad, very nice, but had to search for mackerel, a little more would made this a stand out 10/10 dish. I would say in general starters little bit pricey for quantity, however all excellent flavours, average 6/7 out 10

Mains were exceptional except for the dressed crab extremely poorly presented just chucked out of a packet and on to a plate, no care to make it look appealing or appetising, come on chef, you can do better especially for £14 

Other mains in comparison were far better it's hard to believe that same chef served up these different dishes. Rack lamb with cockles was excellent, as was the sea trout with girolle and samphire salad.

I would have scored higher had it not been for the crab main course you can get better on the Cobb for far less

Review Palomar - London

The reviews are spot on, go hunt this wonderful restaurant out, it's worth the visit and very reasonably priced

I ate far too many dishes as they tasted so good, sit at the bar table and be prepared to wait for a seat, but please wait, it's so worth it


A small free taster - delicious and great dip

Started with home baked bread (chola) with tomato coulis and tahini, really tasty mix, very cleverly done, nice and fresh and works well. Followed with some mackerel esbeche,really tasty some great flavour profiles mixed in to cut through the fatty mackerel. Raw oysters, simple but still fresh and tasty. The daily six were excellent with a stand out two being the Josper smoked aubergine and beetroot with goats cheese, sublime!!!

This was all topped off by the superior Jerusalem polenta, with asparagus mushrooms and truffle, this was so good, really rich and packed with flavour, it was worth the trip alone. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT !!! so good i forgot to take a picture, until i was half way through it.

Mains were sublime again packed with flavour and some great ideas, oxtail casserole really tasty and so unusually light, lots of textures and perfectly cooked. Deconstructed kebab again very cleverly pulled off, again so good i forgot a picture completely this time. Steak with lutka and fried egg, lots of flavour, very tender, worked very well. To top it all off the sweetbread dish was superb, my favourite of the night and something i will return to try again!!

Finished off with a superb chocolate dessert don't ask me what it was but god it tasted great, lots of amazing flavours and textures. By this time I had consumed far too much food, then to finish the equivalent of the wafer thin mint, we were given a taster of the house ice cream, very cleverly done and this did just about finish me off.

Night was made with some free alcohol shots given through night the staff entertainment is very funny and clever to get people involved, also a big win are the chefs cooking right in front of you and talking all through the meal, bad that you have to sit there and watch them plating all this divine food, hence eating far too much

Overall well done and I hope you continue to grow but as you do please please keep it real

Review Guy's American Kitchen and Bar New York

Service just does not exist, left for over 20 minutes before even a drink order was taken, then waited another 20 minutes for someone to come and take my food order, site was not even that busy!!


Food order was eventually taken some 40 minutes after being seated. If i had not been on holiday or so knackered i would have walked out long before this and gone elsewhere.

When my meal was finally delivered, everything came at the same time 2 appetizers and main course no rest, no break, no check back, rush them in rush them out and just count the dollars, such a shame when the food is so good, really ruins your night. Would not take the burger away and let me eat appetizers in peace. Dreadful customer service all round.


Somewhere not to return! Come on Guy make the whole experience worth while or repeat business will just fall away


The only saving grace for you was the joyful guy on the door, who sees you in what a character !!

Review Barbecoa - London

Second visit here and had I been paying I would have been very annoyed

Arrived nice and early for drinks in the bat, Virgin Mary very spicy but good, all wine very good. We sat about 30 minutes late as one of the party was late.

Pork scratchings and smoked nuts tried in bar, both ok although scratching needed salt

Orders taken all ok so far, pre meal bites ie breads delivered after starters not my idea of a pre lunch bite

Sweetbread starter very poor sauce too sweet and sweetbreads were tough
Pâté very good
Crab salad seen better in seaside restaurant this just looked like a plate of mess
Chicken wings and ribs all ok

Chateaubriand tender but absolute no taste, same for fillets, T-bone steak no better

All steaks were either over or under cooked, if they truly are aged then someone is doing it wrong because there was nothing different with these steaks than a standard supermarket one

Sides very poor- mac cheese no cheese and no sauce, mushrooms awful,Brussels sprouts even worse

Come on Jamie If you are selling yourself on the best steaks in London you have to do better than this- aged I am not so sure and if they are then they don't taste like it

You can get better for a lot cheaper

Katz Deli - Long waited dream visit!

Finally after many years of wanting too made it to New York, landed found hotel and went straight to Katz's Deli

Self service restaurant queue up order what you want at various food stations, see it all made in front of you, collect then go and enjoy. There are also some waited on tables

So worth the wait, not cheap but not too expensive although I did manage to pend over 50 dollars after my first visit, one soup, salt beef (corned beef) sandwich, pastrami sandwich, sides of pickles.

You could not go hungry here, look at the pictures, see the stack of meat wow I was in heaven, I looked over my shoulder to see a picture of Adam from man versus food, I think I did him proud.

Met the owner who also posed for picture and told me all about their practices, could not get better.

So good had to return before I left for home