Michael Moore

Great food, great service. Everything else has already been said. Was it worth the money? Absolutely.
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Inasson
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, June 06, 2008

a tough review to write. should it be a 3, 4, 5 or 6 rating? Before booking had read some generally good reviews of this place. Maybe we were unlucky…

anyway, first the good - fun and drinkable Brazilian sparkling wine, nice relaxed neighborhoody place, informal and professional staff. started with an amuse bouche cold leek and potato soup. way too creamy - tasted like a small jug of cream with butter added, though the chives were fresh and crunchy. still, as a soup lover, and avid soup maker, i would have been very disappointed if I had turned out something like this. a warning sign perhaps? anyway, the appetizers came - a duck with crispy salad, and a terrine of snow crab. duck was decent, though my wife found it chewy and the sauce unconvincing. my wife had the terrine, and she was barely able to avoid spitting it out. I then tried it, and had to concur that it was not easy on the palate - bitter wine in the aspic rendered the whole dish into a weird chemistry experiment (note to chefs - don’t use bitter white wines in terrine aspic). worse still the avocado layers were unripe, which means not just a woody texture, but a bitter bad taste. To cap off the strange bitter dish, the snow crab could not even be tasted. What a waste of decent ingredients. the waiter noticed our discomfort and gamely asked to change it, but my stupid English politeness and middle class parsimony made me choose instead to refuse his polite offer and fight on with the dastardly concoction. bad call.

Anyway, the main courses duly arrived and I thought both were decent - the Wildebeest was well cooked (rare) and the taste was light and lovely. the potato mustard foam was good, though the bell pepper coulis was too bitter for all but the most perverse of palates. my wife’s fish and scallop dish was also decently executed, though she found the sauce bland and disappointing. In fact her main criticisms were of the sauces in general, which she found too samey, and not rich or sophisticated enough given close to £30 main courses (veggies cost extra). Fair point. Maybe the seasoned (apologies for the pun) old sauce guy was on holiday? Needless to say we passed on dessert (on pure risk management grounds - why risk further disappointment). So much for our romantic (first time away from the kids in 3.5 years) weekend in London. Luckily we managed to laugh about it back at the hotel as we tucked into some (reliably tasty) Danish chocolates from the airport. So given the above, why not 1 or 2 stars? Well, i guess I have a soft spot for independent small business chefs trying to do something memorable and different in the UK - such places can really make a neighbourhood. So on the basis of the potential of the place, the decent wildebeest main, and the service, and the ‘benefit of the doubt’ vote, (maybe we were just very unlucky?), I’ll give it 3 stars. I just don’t know if I have the heart to risk another try there - its not just dropping £120-150 on dinner for two, its the commitment of a rare evening of freedom that loads up the opportunity cost. If anyone from MM ever reads this, just please, please TASTE your dishes before they go out - that Terrine was straight from Ramsay’s kitchen nightmares - and you guys should know better.
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james winter
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sixteen of us dined in the private dining room last month and all in all we had a good experience. The service was polite and inobtrusive, though there were no particular efforts put in to ensure the evening was extra special, which was a shame given that it was an important celebration which we made them aware of when booking. The maitre D only made an appearance at the end when we paid our four figure bill, and it would have been nice if someone had come down to enquire if all was well at some stage. Mr Moore was not available to say hello, as we were hoping for.

That said the food was beautifully presented and there were more than a few sighs of satisfaction on eating, especially the elk. Food portions were indeed small. The barracuda, however, had to be sent back for being undercooked and oddly chewy and the replacement plate was only marginally better, and the kitchen had run out of side orders to go with it.

Not sure if we would rush back.
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S.P. - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Monday, May 26, 2008

We had booked Michael Moore's based on the reviews from this site to celebrate my birthday.so we had high hopes and we were not disappointed.

We were a little surprised at the size of the restaurant but the service was excellant and the food even better.

The atmosphere of the restaurant improved as it filled and the arrival of Michael Moore made the evening more memorable with him chatting to all the clients.

Highly recommended for that special occasion
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valdes - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, May 18, 2008

Although I live and work in the area and have walked by many times in the past, I only started going to Michael Moore's late last year by recommendation of one of my colleagues. In the meantime it has become one of my London favourites. The staff are great and always recognize you, which is a nice touch. Most importantly however, the food is adventurous and totally different from the usual run of the mill restaurants, where you pay over the odds for fancy decor. By now I consider myself a regular and bring my friends, who bring theirs and so on. The food is as colourful as the owner's personality and it's great to see that someone dares to be different.
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Jonesy
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, May 02, 2008

Had a fantastic evening at Michael Moores the elk was devine very reasonably priced,

From Peter and Anita George

Cornwall
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Anita George
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Friday night had a fabulous dinner with three mates.

Food was out of this world, good portions. We were well impressed by the presentation & quality of food. Service attentive without being pushy and a good vibe around the place. Having read previous reviews, we had high expectation and were happy they were met. Two of my mates are vegetarian and even they were full of praise, which in itself is not a mean feat!

It’s not necessarily a restaurant for a quick bite, but a great place if you want to make it a bit of a night to remember. It definitely was for us.
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K Shah - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 31, 2008

I took my wife to the Michael Moore Restaurant for our anniversary dinner. The restaurant was very small, but the setting turned out to be perfect for our romantic evening. The portion sizes were just right for the three courses we had. The elk was a first for my palate and I really enjoyed it. The bill came in just over £ 90 for the two of us and a great bottle of wine. It was money well spent.
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Dr MW
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Visited last Friday and had the salmon trout for starters followed by a meltingly delicious Barracuda. Food and service were top-notch.
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Sal, Amersham
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, March 14, 2008

Went to Michael Moore's this evening for dinner and we were bowled over by the food. The menu was interesting and the combination of tastes in each dish superb. The service was great too - Michael came round to every table to check how everything was. They gave us a pre-starter starter of a mouthful of red snapper which was a nice touch. Bread wasn't charged for (as it often is in some restaurants) and a couple of chocolates at the end all enhanced the whole experience. The wine list was also excellent. Contrary to what some other reviewers have said: if you like good food, this IS the place to come.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, March 08, 2008