The Banter Thread / Banter Topic / Sean Bean

[Sarkster]

I always fancied the taster menu at the fat duck but I dont think I would go there now for three reasons

1) Bloke I was with at Blancs place reckoned it was a bit pap
2) Heard an absolute horror story about how a woman who tipped really well was approached by the maitre'd there and asked if that was all she was leaving
3) Hestons face and glasses infuriate me so that, despite not being a fighter, Id just keep punching im in the chops until all that was left was bone and mush

[ChrisF]

On a food tip. I ate at Raymond Blancs restaurant last week. Le Manoir au quat saison in Oxford, or something.

Was ok.

After I ate at Le Petit Blanc in Birmingham I went to McDonalds because I was still starving

[gunrock]

Massive w00t!
then flying to Barbados for 5 weeks!!!!!!

Congrats on the exams! 5 weeks? Staying with your girl's family?

[fuse]

Saw this coming out of the gym at work yesterday. Joke's been done to death, but it still made me chuckle.

[funkydan]

I saw some elderly gentleman in town at lunchtime. He was standing outside Boots with a small bible in his hand, very quietly bigging up his lord jesus christ. Bit odd I thought.

That's great Fuse, not seen that before!

[Dirty Sanchez]

I always fancied the taster menu at the fat duck but I dont think I would go there now for three reasons

1) Bloke I was with at Blancs place reckoned it was a bit pap
2) Heard an absolute horror story about how a woman who tipped really well was approached by the maitre'd there and asked if that was all she was leaving
3) Hestons face and glasses infuriate me so that, despite not being a fighter, Id just keep punching im in the chops until all that was left was bone and mush

1) I've eaten at Blancs and the food is superb, although you do have to go with a mindset that the food is going to be superb. Difficult one, but the difference between great food and really great food is fairly small, it's mostly down to the quality of the ingredients in my opinion. With great qualiy ingredients I can coo stuff that knocks most restaurants into a cocked hat.

2) Easily solved, she should have instantly withdrawn the tip and told the pompous twit to remember who pays his wages. Believe me the whole place would have known about it.

3) Is that bone and mush with a foam of vanilla and liquorice on a bed on crushed essence of bulls testicles?

[Big Seany]

No come on Dirty - the best way to mess up Heston would be the liquid nitrogen he is so fond of - to the face - and then shatter him with a punch like off of Mortal Kombat.

[Shotski]

[Rossco]

Damnit!

[Dogg Thang]

That's excellent. And it totally got me, I'm such a tit.

I've never been to a Gordon Ramsay place - does he turn up and swear at you? Because I don't think I'd be up for that at all. I'm rather senstitive.

[jimmbob]

Kill Bill's on... Am I right in thinking that this is the best game never made?
Ninja Gaiden 2 comes close with the be-headings, the limb loss and the Japan stuff. HOWEVER! There's no yellow track suit.

[ezee ryder]

It was going to be made into a game but then it got cancelled. I think the company that was developing (or going to develop) it was Black Label Games.

[Paulos G]

Kill Bill's on... Am I right in thinking that this is the best game never made?
Ninja Gaiden 2 comes close with the be-headings, the limb loss and the Japan stuff. HOWEVER! There's no yellow track suit.

Just play NGII while wearing your Ali G costume Jimmie.

[TommyG]

Thanks for the kind replies guys

Simply put Claridges was awesome

The venue itself is a stunning old historic hotel which is very posh with old pictures of the Queen and Churchill littering the foyer. In the restaurant the silver service was really slick with all silver cutlery and crystal glasses and the waiters making it all run as smooth as butter. Graham Norton was sat next to us talking to some big wig producers which was pretty cool. The best thing though was one of the maitre’d was from Barbados and Kaya recognised the accent immediately. So we ended up chatting to him for a while and then he gave us a guided tour of the kitchen, I was well impressed.

Here’s what we munched…

Starters
Fennel and ginger soup with poached sea trout, langoustines and basil

Warm smoked mackerel and charlotte potato salad, Granny Smith apple, Oscietra caviar, baby watercress

Mains
Roast rump of Cumbrian lamb stuffed with anchovies, broccoli, capers and almond fricassee

Roast rib of Casterbridge beef, cep relish, wild garlic potato purée, tapenade baked artichokes, vine tomato jus

Desert
Honey crème brûlée, hazelnut sablé, blood orange sorbet

Valrhona chocolate and honeycomb fondant, orange yoghurt sorbet

The food was amazing but one dish really stood out and that was the pre-starter. It was a parmesan mousse, which was so light as soon as it entered your mouth it disappeared to leave a really strong flavour, underneath the mousse was a perfectly cooked quails egg on a bed of something green (forgotten now) but it was amaze.

It’s great to splash out on fancy places once in a while but we both said it would be nice to have the same quality food in a more down to earth gastro-pub setting. Still, massive thumbs up from me

gunrock - yeah Kaya's from Barbados so will be staying with her family... time to get the bags packed me things!

[Skull Commander]

You know when you get 'them days' at work? I'm having one today. I was looking forward to a nice calm couple of weeks, as the boss is away on holiday, and all hell breaks loose! I'm in no doubt tomorrow will be better, but if I get ONE more rude customer today I'm liable to flatten them!