Season Kitchen and Dining Room

ChangN4N6

Lovely place I agree and good food always and I have found the service friendly. That might change when neighbourhood award-winning penguins Chrisn4 and Chode start as waiters from hellnext week as part of Be A Prat Week. The banter, the poison, the sadness. Ah yes the service. (sorry SG-ers!just woke up this is a very bad dream! !The waiters there are excellent really ...! )

therattle

We had a lovely evening there on Friday night - our first night out together since the baby arrived in late July. Char-grilled purple-sprouting broccoli with ticklemore cheese and a poached egg was very good, my beef short rib was delightfully tender and rather good, but my wife's sea trout with cucumber, fennel and almonds was sensational. The chocolate rosemary pot remains one of the best puddings I've ever had, and the poached rhubarb with frozen custard in a fine ginger biscuit basket was really delicious too. The soda bread served at the start of the meal is still amazing - last time I was there I got the recipe, and I MUST make it. With two glasses of wine, the bill, including service, was £55. This is not cheap, but it is decent value. <br><br>My only issue is that we were right next to the door, and some twats would go out and leave the door open, which made Hulk MAAAAD. The waitresses were very good about trying to keep it closed, though. It was more an issue with the clientele than the staff. <br><br>Overall - still a firm favourite, and the fact that it is within walking distance is a huge bonus. <br>

SimonB

I was back on Saturday as a treat for my girlfriend ... the food was exceptional (as per usual). <div><br></div><div>No, it's not cheapest, but I would argue that it's fantastic value.</div>

Brodiej

Lets get the important stuff out first.....we had a very good meal here and the service was excellent. Food quality and technical skills are obvious. We had a good experience.<div><br></div><div>.....however, i've got an issue with this place. When you read the menu, it comes cross as unnecessarily pretentious...almost like it's trying too hard. I guess every restaurant must have its USP, and in the case of Season maybe its about the unusual, but i dislike having to get a menu translated for me. Maybe its about educating customers about the intricacies of cooking techniques and ingredients. Id understand this if perhaps each dish was annotated by an explanation on the menu, but at Season you end up having to ask a lot of questions. I don't think any business wants to confuse customers, so i can only explain it as either being pretentious or trying to encourage dialogue between the waiting staff and customers. I'd be interested to know as it would change my opinion of the place.</div>

djmattyoung

I wish they would update the menu on their website at the turn of every month it always seems to be behind and has put me off going... 

Season Kitchen

Dear All,<div><br></div><div>I just wanted to check in after a little absence and thank you all/ respond to your comments and feedback. It's extremely insightful to read your views. Thank you for all the positive feedback ( tharobc, simonb, ChangN4N6, amongst others (i'm conscious not to turn this into a bad oscars speech)), it's really lovely to read and definitely adds fuel to our fire.</div><div><br></div><div>And also I'd like to respond to some of the other points raised and offer explanations/ apologies (delete as appropriate!).</div><div><br></div><div>djmattyoung, thanks for all your lovely comments and spreading the word, and ref web menu updates you're absolutely right I'm aware we  can be a little slack at this and I will make more of an effort to keep the website up to date.</div><div><br></div><div>therattle, again thanks for your positive feedback, I'm grateful that you took the time to let us know how much you appreciate our efforts, it's genuinely inspiring. With regard the tables close to the door, we're aware that on occasion if sat on those tables during busy nights it can be extremely disturbing when other guests come in and out of the restaurant, and I'm sorry that you experienced this annoyance when you last eat with us . As you noted the waiting staff are all trained to be vigilant and try and keep the door closed at all times but I'm aware this only goes so far in mitigating the problem which is particularly disturbing during the winter months. We have engaged a joinery company to erect a small discreet screen between the door and the tables affected by this issues and will endeavour to have the problem rectified shortly.</div><div><br></div><div>brodiej, once agin thanks for your mainly positive comments and again your informed feedback is really uplifting. And your comments regarding how our menu reads are of great interest to me as it's a subject that</div><div>I wrestle with myself. I absolutely regret that at times our menu may come across as pretentious as I'm sure you're aware it really is our intention to be a quality led, yet relaxed and accessible neighbourhood restaurant.</div><div>We certainly welcome and encourage dialogue between waiting staff and customers and aim to inspire intrigue when wording the menu and would certainly not want to alienate. Both the staff and customers enjoy discussing the menu and it's certainly not my intention  to position ourselves like some old school, snooty, peering over rim of glasses fine dining waiter. Part of my agenda is to make good food more accessible and I would like to reach a wider audience within the local community than we currently achieve. I'd like to think great minds think alike and I certainly understand your point and welcome how it's further informed my opinion. When naming a dish we aim to be honest, while maintaining some intrigue and story around the dish with the intention of heightening people's enjoyment of the dish. I genuinely welcome this kind of feedback as it challenges me as a restaurateur, I will certainly have your feedback in mind as I develop dishes in the future with the kitchen team.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm sorry for such a tardy response to all your most welcome feedback, and I will make an effort to check back more frequently to the forum (although given my long-winded and verbose responses I'm sure you're thinking one post every 6 months is more than enough thank you very much!). </div><div><br></div><div>Again, I welcome all your feedback and look forward to seeing you all soon at Season.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Neil</div>

ChangN4N6

Can a restaurant try too hard ? It's a great, keep up the good work.

andy

You're trying to start a conversation about food. I'm keen to talk about food and wine with people who care about what they do and know what they are talking about. The menu is one way into that. I love what you're trying to do.<div><br></div><div>To use just one example, I had never heard of a Daube before trying one at Season.</div><div><br></div><div>Last night I cooked my own (4 hours in the pot!). It was delicious. I wouldn't have done this if you had called it Beef Stew.</div>

Brodiej

<P>You can achieve both scenarios. People that only want a dialogue, and those that want to be educated via the menu AND via a conversation with their waiter/waitress. </P> <P>Choosing the dialogue option works for people like Andy. Thats fine. Choosing the menu option together with dialogue works for people like Andy and me. </P> <P>For example..</P> <P><STRONG>Daube of Beef - £14 </STRONG></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><EM><STRONG>Daube is a classic Provencal (or more broadly, French) stew made with beef braised in wine, vegetables, garlic, and herbes de Provence. Traditionally cooked in a daubière a braising pan.</STRONG></EM></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">As a customer i'd now know what a daube is, and whether its something that i'd want to choose because id been told. I could ask more questions from my waiter/waitress if i needed to.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">  </SPAN></P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN>

Season Kitchen

Hi Guys,<div><br></div><div>It's really good to get some other views on this topic.</div><div><br></div><div>My inclination is to simplify and therefore omit the requirement for explanation which would make the menu a little too wordy. I would therefore list the daube dish as:</div><div><br></div><div>Ox Cheek Stew w/ Parsnip Puree</div><div><br></div><div>However, for other dishes, for example Roast Cod w/ Buttered Leeks & Romesco Sauce would be harder to anglicise. As romesco sauce would translate to roast peppers with hazelnuts, almonds, saffron & a touch of chilli which is a bit long winded. The Catalonians obviously thought so as they came up with "romesco" in the first place.</div><div><br></div><div>I appreciate all your feedback as it helps inform our decisions and helps us evolve and improve which is our objective.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Neil</div>

gardener-joe

Fair enough for Catalans, but most of your customers speak English, no?

Season Kitchen

Yes, but evidently <strike>not</strike> all of them can spell it. ;0)