Fine dining

Pollycat

edwink wrote: »

What puts me off of Fine Dining is the fact that the chefs handle the food too much. I used to like watching Master Chef. Have you seen how much the chefs handle everything? Yuk!! Not for me.

It puts me off too.
I also got the email from Tripadvisor and took a look.
I recognised some of the restaurants/chefs from Masterchef or Saturday Kitchen (Sat Baines, Simon Rogan (L'Enclume) and of course Michel Roux).

Too much touching food for my liking - and the amount of salt they seem to chuck in :eek: I'm absolutely sure I'd find it far too salty for my palate.

And the idea of putting garnish on wth a pair of tweezers.....

But that's just my opinion (and that of the OP) - everybody doesn't have to agree.

theoretica

VfM4meplse wrote: »

To me fine dining is a nightmare, so why are people so willing to pay a fortune for it?

There are probably things you consider worth the money that other people would consider a nightmare. Life would be boring if we all liked the same things.

Gigs or nightclubs for me - why pay that much to be somewhere so unpleasantly noisy and crowded and risk hearing damage? But I would be delighted to go to PenguinofDeath's ballet or opera (though thankfully I have never needed to spend hundreds for the tickets I want) - even if it is loud at times.

SailorSam

I wonder when i see McD advertising their 'restaurants' is it an attempt to move up-market.

Goldiegirl

When I go on cruises, there are fine dining restaurants that you can book and pay a bit extra for.


I've had some hugely enjoyable meals in those restaurants -delicious food, perfectly cooked and beautifully presented. Also the surroundings are quiet and relaxed, so the whole meal is a calm affair, and you can take as long as you like about it - the table is yours for the whole evening.


Like most treats, you don't do them that often, and it is fun to do something different to what you do in your normal life.


I'm on a low salt diet, so I pre order my food the day before, and it's cooked with no added salt. They also cater for other special diets. I'm sure land based restaurants would also be able to cook food to the customers dietary requirements as well.

Andypandyboy

I used to enjoy it, and have eatern at L'enclume, Ormer, Le Manoir, etc, but I have moved past it now. I still like good food, but am less interested in the "arty plate compositions" that fine dining now means.

I am happy to pay for a meal that exceeds what I could produce at home, but now I am less happy to pay for miniscule portions of artistically arranged, ever more obscure, food items.

VfM4meplse

Goldiegirl wrote: »

When I go on cruises, there are fine dining restaurants that you can book and pay a bit extra for.


I've had some hugely enjoyable meals in those restaurants -delicious food, perfectly cooked and beautifully presented. Also the surroundings are quiet and relaxed, so the whole meal is a calm affair, and you can take as long as you like about it - the table is yours for the whole evening.

I particularly dislike cruises, and formal dinners / fine dining experiences, to me the food is not that great (I'd rather eat judiciously from the buffet). But the real reason I hate cruises is because of the disgusting excess and wastage, combined with the laziness of the guests.

Imagine cruising the Med and coming across starving asylum seekers on makeshift vessels. That might just concentrate people's minds.

[Deleted User]

We like good food, we like locally produced food if we can find it and we like it cooked nicely but not fussily. All the razzmatazz of celebrity chefs and their restaurants leaves us unmoved, the food is not particularly appealing to us and all the 'Jus', 'Foams', 'sorbets' etc is just really not to our taste at all but, a nice piece of locally made cheese with a local coxs' apple, some good quality game from a local game butcher, strawberries picked from a local 'pick your own' and pork sausages from the local farm shop where you can drive past the pigs in the field to buy the sausages from source now that really hits the spot. Besides I really, really like to cook the good quality things we can get here and it's much more comfortable to eat them in the peace and comfort of our home. It's just a choice that we'd make, no one is wrong to like fine dining but it's not everyones taste.

Caterina

I have enjoyed a fair amount of fine dining when I was mystery shopping, not paying in money but in hours of report writing of course.

Today DH and I had lunch at a supermarket cafe, shared a veg pie and mash, salad and carrot cake, and had a hot drink each for a total of £11. It felt more of a treat then some "fine" establishments I have visited in the past, and no need to write about it (apart from here LOL). And the customer service in this humble canteen type cafe in a shopping centre was as good, if not better, than I have encountered in some fancy restaurants. I was so impressed that I asked to speak to management and congratulate them on their amazing staff. It was not just one, but all the ones we had anything to do with. I hope they get a bonus of sorts, they really deserve it.

Goes to show, sometimes you find the best service in the most unexpected places! And great value for a decent if a bit plain meal.

meritaten

I used tripadvisor to warn people about a diabolical dining experience my family had. so at least it can tell you places to avoid! (it wasn't a fancy 'cheffy' place but a chain pub where you at least expect a certain standard of food and service). I don't go for poncy food either - don't like paying £50+ for food that's so messed around with you cant taste the original ingredients and served with stuff you cant eat on the plate - just to make it look pretty. if it goes on the plate it SHOULD be edible.

downshifted

For our 25th wedding anniversary over 15 years ago we went to Le Manoir. It was eye wateringly expensive, but we could afford to treat ourselves. We had a fabulous time and I still remember one course in particular - a single ravioli, stuffed with spinach and a soft boiled quails egg and served with a truffle jus. You put your knife through the perfectly cooked pasta and it sank through the spinach and opened up the miraculously soft boiled little egg. The tastes and textures were divine and it was something I could never be bothered to do at home.

Each to their own but memories are worth paying for.... choose the kind of memories you want to make and enjoy doing it