JmVikmanis

Warning, this is a long report but I�ve tried to break it up with subheads. Info about food and restaurants is at the end. <BR><BR>My husband and I and another couple have just returned from a 6 day trip to London. Although we have traveled extensively in Europe this is the first time we�ve ever been to London and we enjoyed it thoroughly. My thanks to Ben Haines and others who have posted extensively about London and provided so many wonderful suggestions and helpful hints that made our trip so much easier and more fun. <BR><BR>We flew direct from MSP to LGW in a short 6 hours and 7 minutes�after waiting an hour or so at MSP to be deiced. Thanks to recommendations on this site, Ray Skinner and his red van were waiting for us and we enjoyed a lovely drive from Gatwick to our hotel in the So. Kensington area of London. The daffodils were blooming rampantly and Ray was as charming and talkative as advertised. <BR> <BR>Gallery Hotel<BR>We stayed at the Gallery Hotel, recommended to us by friends and booked from the London town website. It had charming d�cor in both the public and private rooms, lots of polished wood (even in the bathroom) and a regular gallery of pictures on the walls. The breakfast room was also charming, decked out in matching floral wallpapers and draperies and the price of the room (170 pounds, I believe) included a full English breakfast if you were so inclined. They also offered free internet access�a real plus, it turned out, when we used it on our last day to check our flight, learn that it was cancelled and get ourselves rebooked before we got to the airport. Another plus was that the hotel was only about two blocks from the nearest�So. Kensington�tube stop. The place was not, however, without its problems, heat being the most annoying. We slept all 6 nights with both windows open as far as permitted leaving us at the mercy of the local traffic and once a local street fight of some sort. Our friends were not lucky enough to have two windows to permit circulation and finally had to request a room change. When they did, the hotel management admitted that their initial room was regarded as the hottest in the house. <BR><BR>A surprise meeting<BR>For those of you who may recall reading my report of my husband�s 60th birthday caf� crawl in Paris last October when we drank a toast to him in each of the 20 arrondissements, you may also recall that I had planned it to include a surprise meet up with our son to help celebrate. That meet up was thwarted by our son�s inability to make the Eurostar trip from London to Paris on the day of the birthday due to the chunnel cables being salted over. Well we tried it again, this time in reverse. Our son was in Paris on business but making a stop in London before returning home to the States. He arrived in London almost at the same time we did and was waiting for us at Bibendum restaurant when we walked in�about 5 months late for the birthday surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. He was able to show us around the city for two days before leaving us on our own. <BR>

JmVikmanis

Weather<BR>Apparently this was one of the warmest, least rainy Marches on record since 1923. Lucky us. I was prepared for cold, rainy, windy weather. We got warm, sunny, partly cloudy weather with only a couple of hours of rain in 6 days and highs in the upper 60�s. So I didn�t need my gloves, ear muffs, or extra shoes but one day it was windy and I was glad I�d brought my zip in liner for my raincoat. On 3 or 4 days I didn�t even take my coat with for the day and shed my sweater preferring for lots of the time to walk about in slacks and a lycra top. It was nice, really nice. <BR><BR>Transport<BR>We took advice from this site and brought our passport sized photos with us and purchased a weeklong travel pass for zones 1 and 2, permitting us to walk through tube turnstiles without waiting even during rush hours. We found the tubes easy to navigate (never took the bus�next time), clean and often accessible by escalator�a boon for me with my arthritic knee. The South Kensington station is on the Circle, District and Picadilly lines and made it easy to get to most things we wanted to see either directly or with but a single transfer. The Central line is still being repaired and stations are coming back up one by one but its repair situation makes several typically well-located hotels not as advantageous as they normally would be so check that out if you�re planning a trip in the near future. As far as I can tell, once you have the card with your picture laminated on it for the weekly passes, you can just keep it and renew your weekly pass any time you return to London, so I would say that going to the trouble of bringing a photo and getting a pass is well worth the effort. <BR><BR>Sights<BR>As usual I�d gone overboard in planning daily itineraries to try to see just about everything. As usual we saw about half of what I�d planned and now have a long list of what else we want to see�next time. All of that means of course, that after putting off London over 30 times, we now plainly intend to return. Here�s what we saw and did this time:<BR>Walked around Trafalgar Square with Nelson Column, St. Martins in the Fields<BR>Took the pub crawl in the Covent Garden area recommended in an old Wes Fowler post I pulled up from this site, especially enjoyed Salisbury and Lamb and Flag pubs. <BR>Saw the Lloyd�s of London building and the new Swiss office building that looks like a giant upright egg being constructed in the financial district. <BR>Walked about the Leadenhall Market, a wonderful covered market with central dome reminiscent of the Galleries Emmanuel in Milan�unfortunately on a weekend when the market was not operational. Next time I�d go again on a weekday. <BR>Trekked over the Millenium footbridge to the Tate Modern. The bridge and the museum itself as well as the Turbine hall with giant �earphones� are exceptional. So is the view back to St. Peter�s from the lounge and restaurant areas. The collection is just too far out to do much for me and I�m the most fond of modern art of the four in our traveling group. <BR>Took advice from this site again and went to the changing of the guard at Horseguards rather than at Buckingham Palace. Able to see everything with ease and get good pictures. Couldn�t get over how young the guards were. Truly babyfaced kids. <BR> <BR>

JmVikmanis

More sights<BR><BR>Toured the Cabinet War Rooms, one of the better history-type museums I’ve been to. Had trouble telling whether various signs on the walls and doors pertained to the tour or to the museum experience, i.e. were intended to apply to the staff who lived and worked in the rooms during the war. <BR>Took pictures of St. James’s Palace, Buckingham Palace and Spencer House. <BR>Toured Westminster Cathedral, an interesting amalgamation of various forms of architecture and church design, with some aspects reminding me of mosques in Turkey, some aspects of variegated marble like churches in Florence and Siena, and yet other aspects reminiscent of churches and even synagogues in Budapest.<BR>Also toured Westminster Abbey, my husband’s new favorite church in all the world, and St. Paul’s. Both have a more secular feel than most churches and cathedrals in my previous experience with statutes to generals, poets, and lay people being honored by the country for their political or military deeds rather than saints being honored for their religious deeds. <BR>Took pictures of Big Ben and Parliament and checked out the (im)possibility of getting in to see a session.<BR>Walked by the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall and marveled again at the fields of daffodils in the nearby park. <BR>Tromped onto the Tower Bridge and did the Tower of London.<BR>Saw glimpses of Smithfield meat market which I had hoped to arise early enough to see in operation (opens at 5 a.m. and is mostly closed by 8 a.m.) but never managed to do. <BR>Took in Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre and Mama Mia at the Prince Edward. Both were wonderful. It’s been several days since we saw them and the music is still turning over and over in my mind. <BR>Saw the Art Deco exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum, some pretty amazing stuff that still seems modern now some 80 or so years later.<BR>Viewed the city from great heights by taking the London Eye on a particularly pleasant day with sun and whispy puffs of white clouds—magical, but a bit tough for the one member of our party with fear of heights. <BR>Took the tube to Picadilly Circus and photographed the Eros statue but pretty much wondered “is that all there is?” <BR>Window shopped on Bond St., Pall Mall, Walton St., and Beauchamp Place<BR>Toured Harrod’s and had champagne and fabulous stilton cheese cake in their food hall. Also checked out the food at Fortnum and Mason. <BR><BR> <BR>

JmVikmanis

What I had planned to see, didn�t get to and plan to see next time:<BR><BR>More of the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert<BR>The National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery<BR>Maybe do high tea someplace as my traveling friend advised<BR>Borough Market, a foodie site open only on Saturday<BR>Southwark Cathedral<BR>Evensong at Westminster Abbey<BR>Kensington Palace with the dresses of the queens<BR>Tate Britain<BR>Smithfield Market<BR>St. Bartholomew Church and Hospital<BR>Old Bailey<BR>Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub <BR>Sir John Soane House, personal museum<BR>Somerset House/Courthauld Gallery with its impressionist paintings<BR>More of Covent Garden and Leicester Square areas <BR>More of the various wonderful shopping streets<BR>Side trips out into the countryside�possibly Kew Gardens and Greenwich, Cambridge, Brighton, Canterbury, etc. etc etc<BR><BR> <BR>

JmVikmanis

Food<BR>Any of you who have read any of my previous reports know that this is my favorite aspect of European travel. In fact, it’s because England has always had such a bad rep in the food department that we’d put off travel to London for 30 years, Well, let me be the first to admit it—we were wrong! Food was one of the most enjoyable aspects of our trip. We had 12 meals in our 6 days there and fully 10 of them were ones we’d repeat and recommend to others. Here’s where we ate and drank:<BR><BR>Bibendum<BR>This is I believe the first restaurant of Sir Terrance Conran, the design and style guru of London who now has probably 10 or so more restaurants to his credit in London. It’s also generally credited with starting the revolution in London food and it was everything I’d expected. It’s in the Michelin building (Bibendum is the name of that funny little white lumpy marshmallow tire guy who is their mascot/logo) on the second floor. The first floor is an oyster bar and adjoins a Conran shop, a kind of upscale Pottery Barn d&eacute;cor store. It has tiles depicting various motor races in Michelin history in Art Deco style. The upstairs is open, airy and very light with stained glass windows in various shades of blue featuring the portly Bibendum figure. Lots of tall and wide stargazer lily bouquets as well and blue slipcovered chairs. I had mackerel with ratatouille and pesto for an appetizer, fishy but tasty, then fish and chips and a tarte au citron for dessert. All very well done. <BR><BR>Lundum’s<BR>This was probably my favorite, at least for its perfect, romantic d&eacute;cor. It is a Danish restaurant not far from our hotel, small (around 40 covers), narrow but with perfect, elegant, candlelit d&eacute;cor. Every flower in the place—and there were lots of them—was white, lilies, roses, orchids. The wall facing the windows was table top to ceiling enormous mirrors that picked up and dispersed the candlelight. Our only problem was entry. Our reservations, made a month or so in advance, had been canceled in error, either by someone else, or by an error of the staff in taking someone else’s cancellation. One of the gentlemen in our party was firm in requiring the proprietor to make good on the problem and after agreeing to return a half hour later, we were seated. Glad we were. The food was interesting and good. An appetizer of salmon layered with potato salad and pork filet with potatoes caramelized in sugar. Others had Danish meatballs which were very, very good. When we return to London, I will surely want to eat again at this restaurant but I will have a hard time deciding when. Evenings are surely superior for the candlelit ambiance but the evening menu is a more traditional service. Lunches appear to really show off the Danish type of food preparation with a variety of herrings and other typical Danish foods on the menu. They also offer a Sunday brunch with a smorgasbord approach which might be perfect in the food department, but then again, it’s hard to give up the idea of spending another perfect, romantic candlelit night in their lovely space. <BR><BR>Red Lion Pub<BR>We had Shepard’s pie, fish and chips and Chicken and leek pie. All were tasty and certainly acceptable but since this was our only pub meal we weren’t in position to compare it’s standards to others. <BR>

JmVikmanis

Club Gascon<BR>Located not far from Smithfield market, this place was mentioned in several fairly recent magazine articles I’d read on new, trendy places to eat in London. It was my friend’s favorite meal of the trip and all in our party were suitably impressed. The room is also small and fairly narrow with gigantic floral arrangements featuring branches of flowering spring bushes/trees. All food is in small portions served on/in non-traditional pieces like slate slabs rather than plates or bowls for the most part. The staff encourages you to order 4 courses. We were first served house starters of cucumber foam then tiny thimbles of basil and grapefruit sorbet, the latter was eye-openingly refreshing. I followed with duck pie then fois gras slices on seaweed crisps, then smoked bay scallops in seafood foam with peas served in a long, narrow olive holder type dish. I finished with cassoulet which featured excellent duck, good sausage and somewhat mediocre beans. Though we didn’t order dessert, we were brought peppery lollipops and sambuco marshmallows with our espresso. A very interesting dinner. <BR><BR>Just St. James<BR>…or perhaps, St. James the Just, couldn’t really tell from the signs on the windows. This place is a very trendy looking two story hall with a sculpture of a fish riding a bicycle but an otherwise mostly Asian look. We only had a drink but the Asian menu looked excellent and I could imagine the space filled on a weekend night with the trendiest young things in London sipping cosmopolitans. <BR><BR>Wilton’s <BR>This wasn’t on my list and we had no reservations. We’d tried to get into Quaglino’s, another trendy Conran place in the St. James area, but had been turned away and stumbled on this. It turned out to be one person’s favorite place, so veddy, veddy British. Though we had no reservations we were greeted warmly and whisked into a lovely semi-private booth in a place that seemed totally proper, and it was. A gentleman attired in a white coat and stooped over his trolley presented the roast beef for inspection and told us it would be served with the standard Yorkshire “puds”—too cute! I started with kipper pate then chicken, leek and mushroom pie and the world’s creamiest mashed potatoes. Finished with raspberry cr&egrave;me brulee. My friend had welsh rarebit, something we’ve determined must be an acquired taste. The cheddar atop the toast was not yellow as we’d expected but brown, apparently from the brown mustard with which the cheese was paired. The worschestire (sp?) sauce served with it helped, but not that much. The best part of this meal (besides the creamy carrot soup that one member of the tasting team will remember forever) was the service. At one point we must have had six people hovered over the table each spooning something else onto one plate or another and no one bumping into us or each other—absolutely amazing, and flawless and unpretentious. The bathrooms at this place were also the best of the trip. Perfectly color coordinated little gardens of green wallpaper and white towels and wonderful smelling soaps. If you want a really traditional English meal, perfectly served in a most pleasant environment, this is the place to find it. <BR> <BR> <BR>

JmVikmanis

Zafferano<BR>This is a Michelin one star Italian restaurant not far from Harvey Nichols department store near a nice residential square. Pleasant if unremarkable d&eacute;cor and worthy service. Tasty food and excellent wines—we had a Verdicchio and a 1997 Brunello Montalcino. <BR>For food I had octopus and warm potato salad (I love anything with potatoes, especially if in oil and vinegar), ravioli stuffed with guinea fowl and finally Chilean sea bass with artichokes. Good. <BR><BR>Royal China<BR>My husband would rather have Chinese than any other food so each trip we must hit at least one Chinese restaurant wherever we are. We all like dim sum so this place was chosen in advance. It has dim sum daily. There are 4 Royal China restaurants in London. This one was the first. It’s near the Green Park tube stop. The d&eacute;cor is not the typical red and gold but rather black and gold with flying ducks and fluffy waves painted on mirrors. Glitzy but fun. Among other dishes we had Cheung chow fun needles and chicken feet with garlic pork ribs over rice. Not bad. Good even. <BR><BR>Rules<BR>This is listed as the oldest London restaurant and it, too, is very British. Tables are set close together and walls are covered with caricatures (sp?) and prints of the famous who have dined there or perhaps just a who’s who of famous Brits. In the spirit of the place, I had a proper British dinner, starting with black pudding (aka bloodsausage) salad with poached eggs and potatoes then lamb chops with potatoes dauphinois. Both I and another in our party did the sticky toffee pudding for dessert—amazing! A sticky cake apparently made of dates in a muffin shape covered with butterscotch sauce then doused in vanilla cream with a bit of ice cream/whipped cream on the side—a gooey blob from heaven. <BR><BR> <BR>

JmVikmanis

St. John<BR>I�d read about this place in several places, including something by Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and a Cook�s Tour. I was super excited to actually get there and it didn�t disappoint me in the least. It�s close to the Smithfield meat market in a building that was formerly a smokehouse. Fergus Henderson, the chef/owner, is a proponent of what he calls �Nose to tail eating� using all (and I do mean all) edible parts of the pig, cow, whatever. You enter through a bakery housed in a two story atrium with the most wonderful smells imaginable, then walk up a few steps to an all white room with tables set in rows under plain hanging black lights�all very stark, but interesting. The menu changes daily. Squirrel was on it on our day as was oxtail, both of which I�d like to have tried, but whole leg of kid goat was also available and since goat is my favorite meat and my husband was willing to have it with me, it being served only for two or three, goat it was. But I started with their signature dish of bone marrow with parsley and caper salad. The marrow was as wonderful as I�d been led to believe from the accounts of others I�ve read on foody sites. Our friends had cauliflower drenched in white sauce with cheese and a veal shank with fabulous carrots. The leg of kid my husband and I shared had crispy skin which we both liked a lot and was done fairly rare, which I liked but which he�d have preferred be a bit less pink. It was served with mushy fennel. Fennel is one of my favorite vegetables but I�ve never had it mushy like this and it is now my favorite preparation�if only I can figure out how to duplicate it. No room for dessert. If I had, I�d have just kept on eating the goat. Henderson�s style of cooking and selection of what to cook is unique perhaps in the world. If you like organ meats or just quirky offerings this place is unbeatable, surely the most interesting food in London, or perhaps almost anywhere. <BR><BR>L�Escargot<BR>This is a Michelin one star in the theatre district with, as you might imagine from the name, a French flair. We were seated at 6 p.m. and done by 7:15 in time to go next door to collect our tickets and be seated for a 7:30 p.m. show. Even so, we didn�t feel hurried and the overall mood was relaxing. The d�cor is light yellow, peach and moss green in very muted tones. I selected the pre-theatre menu of two courses for less than 20 pounds. Starting with a refreshing tuna tartar with dill and then a gnocchi with tomato and arugula, my food was good but another person who started with the supposedly signature escargot found his snails not up to standard. So overall our experience here was uneven. <BR><BR>Four Regions<BR>This time my husband got not one but two Chinese restaurants on the trip. This one was a lucky break for him as he spotted it just as we were getting hungry upon debarking from the London Eye so he got no resistance when he suggested we dine there. It�s in the Saatchi gallery where we�d seen a Salvador Dali exhibit on a previous day. It occupies a semicircular space facing the Thames with nice views back to Parliament and has an upscale d�cor for a Chinese restaurant. My husband preferred the food here to that we had at Royal China but the rest of us thought the reverse based primarily on a poor wonton soup offering we had that he didn�t. The best I can say is if you have a Chinese food freak in your party this isn�t a bad place to permit him to indulge his habits. <BR><BR>

JmVikmanis

Real Greek<BR>Unfortunately our last big meal of the trip was a real disappointment. I’d read good things about this place in magazines and Time Out guide named it best new restaurant in London in 2000. Selecting it in the first place was a mistake. It was probably as far from our hotel as you can get and still be in London proper. It’s in the Clerkenwell area and it took forever and nearly 30 pounds of cab fare for us to get there. To top that off the cabbie who is purported to be unfoolable when it comes to addresses in London can’t find the place even though I had the correct address. Apparently the name Real Greek means that it has none/little of the kind of food we traditionally consider Greek like gyros or tabbouleh or even roditis wine so ordering became a challenge. But worst of all we seemed to wait forever for our entr&eacute;e only to have the veal stifado three of us ordered come out quickly when we complained to the waiter followed a fairly long interval later by my husband’s duck which was plainly underdone to the point of being near raw. The owner took the duck dish back and offered something else but by then my husband was so steamed that we just asked for our check and a cab to get us back to the hotel. A dreadfully disappointing experience from a restaurant from which I’d been so expecting good things. To be fair I’d have to say that the stifado was very good. Unfortunately the overall dining experience was not. <BR><BR>Caviar House<BR>I guess that this was really our last meal in London. We ate it at the counter seated on stools at Gatwick airport and it was really good, the second best airport food we’ve had next to the wonderful seafood available at the Oslo airport. My husband had a smoked salmon plate and I had the seafood sampler—an oyster, herring, large and baby shrimps and two types of salmon with a mayo and a mustard/dill sauce, all washed down with a bottle of champagne, a great way to fortify ourselves for the flight home—through Detroit rather than our originally scheduled flight direct from Gatwick to MSP which had been cancelled. <BR><BR>One last food related incident<BR>While at Harrod’s I found a large (somewhere around 3+ pounds) tin of ox tongue. I have a friend who has been instrumental in introducing me to various eccentric foods who had only recently commented on the lack of availability of good tongue so I became very excited and bought it for her even though I knew I’d regret having to carry such a heavy souvenir home. On exiting Gatwick I was quizzed about the bomb-like object in my carry on but had no further problems when I identified it as tongue from Harrod’s food hall. I expected a similar round of queries in Detroit but to my shock and amazement instead had my tin of tongue confiscated and was threatened with a $250 fine and a demerit on my passport as a known tongue transporter or other such infamous type of traveler. I was truly taken aback being firmly of the opinion that anything canned was acceptable and did not even need to be declared. I guess I also expect that a place like Harrod’s would not be in the habit of selling contaminated meat products to its customers. My tin of ox tongue has by now been incinerated at some phenomenal temperature and I shall be giving my friend an empty plastic bag with the Harrod’s logo upon it telling her it’s the thought that counts. C’est la Vie!<BR><BR>

JmVikmanis

Impressions <BR>My son who has traveled to London several times told us that London is not like the rest of Europe, it�s just London, a unique kind of place�and so we found it. Some of the architecture reminded me of that we�ve seen in Amsterdam and a lot of the neighborhoods seemed like Georgetown in DC. In six days we saw fewer than 5 dogs, very different from Paris. We only saw two or three musicians in the underground and only one or two people begging. We were enchanted by the British sayings, in particular one found in a newspaper article on some sporting figure who was pronounced tickety boo. Ray Skinner informed us that that translates roughly to something like A-ok. And that was how we found London overall�tickety boo. <BR><BR>Note: My apologies for the problem translating my word document to this site that seems to turn every apostrophe into a box. Next time I post I will try to omit contractions. <BR>

Kate

Great report! You're clearly a complete foodie, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the food in London (although you did eat in some pretty upscale places!) You've mentioned a number of restaurants here that I know and love, but rarely recommend as they're a bit off the tourist trail (St john's and Club Gascon for instance) - it's great to see a first time visitor venturing into the areas some Londoners love but tourists rarely find. You obviously did your research really well.<BR><BR>Next time you come, you'll have to eat at another Farringdon restaurant that's one of my favourites - The Bleeding Heart.<BR><BR>Kate<BR>London

Scarlett

What a great report!<BR>Thanks! I for one can read aboutother peoples dining experiences with pleasure, especially about the odd kind of dish that I might never try (goat) so this was both interesting and entertaining.<BR>Being a London lover myself, it was fun reading of your enjoyment of the city<BR>What a treat to have your son surprise you with a visit together, that is a dream of mine, although my son would have a much longer trip to make...he lives in Japan~

JmVikmanis

Kate, thanks for the restaurant rec. I'll hold it in my London--next time folder. And Scarlett, I hope you get the chance to be surprised by bumping into your son from Japan in some unexpected place. There really is something very special about finding someone you love in a place you're not expecting them to be. Well worth the effort and logistics to arrange.

JamesL

Kate, I've tried to chase down info re the Bleeding Heart. I see there's a tavern, a bistro, and a restaurant. I suspect the reviewers on Londoneating.com have mixed their comments re the 3. Can you provide more information, particularly re the bistro (fixed price, right?) and the restaurant? Quality comparable? <BR> The only website I can find (www.bleedingheart.co.uk) is a placeholder.<BR> Thanks very much.<BR><BR>JamesL

missm

I work for the head office for Just St. James Restaurant. Good to see you guys had a great time dining there. Although by the sounds of your descriptions, you probably had food at Just Oriental, which would explain the menu.

ben_haines_london

I am glad you had such a good time. I agree that the Abbey and St Paul's are pretty secular, and am glad to see that next time you plan to see Southwark Cathedral, which is less famous, more religious, and free. If you check their website you can find the time of sung evensong.

[email protected]

Kate

JamesL, sorry I've only just found your message.

You're right that the Bleeding Heart is in 3 parts.

The Tavern is a pub, and is in a separate building from the eateries - it's small and is more like a wine bar than a typical pub - very popular with the City crowd for after work drinks. I think you can eat in there (probably good for a light lunch), but it's more like bar food.

The restaurant is the upscale bit, and is my favourite. It's very cosy, quite chic, and great for either a romantic meal for two or with friends. Meals would typically cost about &pound;40-&pound;45 per head with wine and water.

The Bistro is more rustic and casual, but the food is still excellent (it's the same kitchen after all), and slightly cheaper than the restaurant. On warm summer evenings you can dine outside in the courtyard attached. Not sure if it's fixed price, it's a long time since I ate in the Bistro, as I tend to eat in the restaurant.

A review from the excllent Harden's Guide:

Bleeding Heart EC1
Bleeding Heart Yd, Greville St MAP&nbsp;&nbsp;7242 8238
This ?charming?, ever more popular ?hideaway? ? a rambling warren of rooms and basements ?in an historic yard?, off Holborn ? combines a bistro, brasserie and restaurant; it offers ?a fantastic all-round experience?, combining ?true French cuisine?, ?super wines? and an ?intimate? setting that suits business or romance.

Kavey

JmVikmanis

Thanks for your report which I enjoyed reading very much. Lots of restaurants for me to try, though I know that most are quite expensive so I'll either have to opt for the pre theatre dinner menus or save them for special occasions. I loved reading your reports on them all and pleased you included dishes.

Glad you enjoyed visiting my home town.

PS I think most people I know tend to use the abbreviation of Yorkshire &quot;puds&quot; rather than puddings...

Tickety boo is just as you describe - a somewhat old fashioned, quaint and quirky way of saying &quot;fine&quot; or &quot;A OK&quot; - but it's a term that's not used often these days...

JamesL

Kate, very helpful. Thanks so much. We'll do the restaurant during our June 12-28 visit. I'll find out tomorrow whether they will book this far in advance. I've already learned that both Gordon Ramsey and Zafferano won't--one month and 14 days in advance respectively is the furthest out they'll book.

JamesL