Wednesday, January 23, 2008

2008 Michelin stars & bibs

Well done to the Westerly!

Jon and Cynthia have done Reigate proud by achieving a Bib Gourmand in the 2008 Michelin Guide for their fab modern bistro, The Westerly.

Other new Bib Gourmand entries in England were...

AROUND ENGLAND
The Pipe & Glass Inn, Beverley/South Dalton, East Riding
Pascal’s, Birmingham, West Midlands
The Royal Oak, Bray-on-Thames, Berkshire
Ginger Pig, Brighton & Hove, West Sussex
The Masons Arms, Chipping Norton, Oxon
St. Clements, Hastings & St Leonards, East Sussex
Restaurant 65, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
The Gin Trap Inn, Hunstanton/Ringstead, Norfolk
The Druid Inn, Matlock/Birchover, Derbyshire
The View, Millbrook/Freathy, Cornwall
The Talkhouse, Oxford/ Stanton St John, Oxon
The White Bull, Ribchester, Lancashire
Oscar’s, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
The Leaping Hare, Stanton, Suffolk
The Three Horseshoes Inn, Stokenchurch/Radnage, Buckinghamshire
Malbec, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Hitchcock’s, Sudbury, Suffolk

LONDON
Upstairs, Brixton, Lambeth
The Brown Dog, Barnes, Richmond-upon-Thames
Ma Cuisine, Barnes, Richmond-upon-Thames
The Narrow, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets
Kastoori, Tooting, Wandsworth
Trenta, Bayswater & Maida Vale, City of Westminster
Galvin, Regent’s Park & Marylebone, City of Westminster
Benja, St James’s, City of Westminster
Great Queen Street, Strand & Covent Garden, City of Westminster

And on the fine dining front we have the following new entries (all one star)...

AROUND ENGLAND
The Goose, Britwell Salome, Oxon
West Stoke House, Chichester/West Stoke, West Sussex
Apicius, Cranbrook, Kent
Nathan Outlaw, Fowey, Cornwall
Tean, Scilly Isle/St Martin’s, Cornwall
The Sportsman, Whitstable/Seasalter, Kent

LONDON
La Trompette, Chiswick
Rhodes W1, Regent’s Park & Marylebone
Quilon, Victoria
Hibiscus, Mayfair
Wild Honey, Mayfair

Sadly no second star yet for Tom Aikens although he was on the rising stars list with Hibiscus as a prospective future two star holder.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Say it's not so!

Word on the street is that the fiendish McDonalds is setting up shop in my lovely, sleepy market town of Reigate. I could cope with Starbucks, but not this. I thought Reigate was supposed to be the New Wimbledon? Thank goodness we still have a fantastic greengrocer, butcher and lovely restaurants!