Birthday celebration weekend in Chester and the Wirral

 After celebrating my 70th with friends at the Oxo Tower on the day, we are heading up North to see my brother and the rest of his clan. Due to diaries, we can't all get together on one day, so instead we have two successive lunches.

We travel up to Chester on the Friday and meet up with G&S at The Botanist near the cathedral. I'm a bit reluctant at first as the live music downstairs was very loud, and the stairs to the first floor restaurant looked rather steep. But the others were already there, so we head on up to join them. 

The music is much more manageable up here - guitar and keyboards, quite good. It's a very quirky space, with lots of side rooms. Our table had a view downstairs of the cocktail bar. I had tried to book in here for lunch on Saturday, but they said they didn't have room, which seems surprising. 

The menu is also quirky, featuring its "Famous Hanging Kebabs". B chooses the Thai Red Prawn with coconut rice, while I go for the lamb kofte and fries. G&S go for the 3 kebab sharing option, prawn, kofte and chicken. This comes with a pile of chips and some coleslaw.

Our kebabs come on a single blade, with a sauce that you could pour through some holes at the top so that it drips down over the food. B and S agree that the prawn kebabs are very good, the spiciness building as you went on. The others are good too - a fun experience.

The desserts are also unusual featuring chocolate chip dough. We decide to go for the sharing option served with strawberries and marshmallows, ice cream, crumb and popping candy plant pot. The presentation of this is fantastic too, a multi-layered basket with the dough in a hot skillet at the bottom.

B and I share a bottle and a couple of glasses of Chilean SB, while S has a South African Shiraz and G Timothy Taylor Landlord.  Service has been good and friendly, happy to take photos of us. G&S insist on paying so I don't know how much it was, but I think that  for such a good evening it was probably well worth it.

Saturday lunchtime, we are meeting B's and A's families at The Yard, literally next door to our hotel. With G&S that makes 13 of us.  B had quite a tough time making the arrangements, and when we get shown downstairs to our table it's only laid up for 12. The waitress was under the impression it had been booked for 17 and then revised down - which was never the case. Anyway, by squeezing tables together, they do manage to arrange to add another place. 

We had had to choose our food in advance, which is never ideal, but those arrangements did work well, with the right food coming out promptly. However, choosing drinks was more problematic, as they had to re-stock - no Guinness, neither of our first two choices of red wine available, and later they had run out of coffee beans!  And they had been slow to take drinks orders, as they were serving a 40th birthday group nearby.

The food, however, was said to be good by everyone.  I had black pudding with boiled egg in a crispy wrapping and spicy chutney, B had chicken salad, which came with jalapeno peppers and was on the large side. Other choices included bruschetta of salmon, gammon terrine with quail's egg, onion soup, and breads with hummus etc. 

For main course I had seafood pasta - 4 prawns, several clams - while B went for sea bass on pea risotto. Both were lovely. Others had steaks, cod, chicken and three other different  pastas. 

Several people were choosing desserts - chocolate pots, ice cream, sticky toffee pudding - so I decide to have an affogato: ice cream, espresso and amaretto. Very indulgent. 

We'd had a couple of bottles of Grillo, and a third choice Nero D'Avolo. No dishes were more than £25, so overall it was a very reasonable price. 

In the evening we head to Sleepy Panda for a Chinese.  There are just two other people in there, and it was all rather dark. Nonetheless we take a seat and order. Some prawn crackers are delivered. We start with some dim sum: prawn dumpling, pork dumpling. For mains we have crispy beef chilli birds nest - deep-fried beef, tasting just of chilli sauce, in a crispy edible basket - and mixed seafood hot pot. The latter just has a couple of prawns and a lot of yellowy parcels. When we ask it seems these are Japanese tofu, or cheese tofu. Not unpleasant but not seafood. 

With one bottle of Chilean SB and 10% service this comes to £78. Service has been fine, but it's not somewhere I'd recommend.  

On Sunday we get a taxi to the Wirral, The Ship in Parkgate. There we are seeing E's family - just E&E and three of the kids, plus close friends A&J - 11 in all. G&S booked us into a private room in the centre of the restaurant. It's very pleasant because it has windows to look out on the rest of the place, so it is light and not remote-feeling or corporate. 

Drinks service is very swift - we are into our first bottle of SB, a Pato Torronte from Chile - before the others arrive. For some reason, the specialities are Czech dishes, so I decide to go with both. The starter is Smazeny Syr - deep-fried camembert with cranberry and dill. Very nice but especially Czech really. The main course is Hovezi Gulas - beef goulash with dumplings and pickled red onion, inexplicably billed as "light bites". The beef was tasty, but I couldn't get half-way through just one of the dumplings. 

B goes for the wild mushrooms on toast, which I'd also been considering. There's a good mix of mushrooms in a creamy sauce together with a truffle parmesan crisp. Her main course is blade of beef, more like pulled beef in red wine gravy. 

The camembert was a popular choice. Others included chorizo croquettes, parsnip soup with Bombay butter, a gooey mackerel pate and some bread and oils. 

There were roasts on the Sunday menu - we had chicken, beef topside and forestiere Wellington. Also mushroom risottos and seabass. 

Desserts included limoncello tiramisu, raspberry ice cream, brownies and sticky toffee pudding.  Also a cheese board. 

Finally someone had kindly arranged for a birthday cake for me - not the full 70 candles fortunately!

Again a very reasonable bill (10% service, 4 bottles of wine and various beers and soft drinks). And very good, efficient and friendly service.  

Later, back in Chester, we cross the road and fetch up in Gate of India.  We get a very nice booth; warm feeling throughout. Overwhelming choice on the menu. Papadums come with a huge array of dips, including three types of hot lime pickle. We have a lamb tikka and a meat samosa to start.

These are followed up with chicken dhansak, prawn jalfrezi and pilau rice. Both the lamb and the chicken were in slices rather than chunks, but both were tasty. The prawn dish was seriously hot 

Total came to £95 including service and a bottle of very nice Burgundy. 

Busy week!

Monday would have been B's mother's 100th birthday so we are marking the occasion with a visit to The Ivy, the original one in West St opposite the Mousetrap. Apparently it has been on the same site since 1917; it has classic stained glass windows from the 1920s, art deco wall lights and a selection of very impressive modern art. It is famed for celebrity spotting, but there weren't any that I could see when we went, just some very earnest discussion between a creative-looking type and an unsmiling group of what I took to be lawyers. Low-volume "American songbook" music is playing in the background. 

Our table is down the far end of the restaurant - quite small, sitting "Greek style" - ie at right angles to each other. The waiter is cheerful and attentive, as we get to order our wine - as you'd expect the wine list is extensive and not cheap. There is a Trebbiano at £29, but otherwise everything is over £40. We order the French Viognier at £46. It arrives quickly, and throughout the waiter is attentive enough to keep our glasses topped up, ensuring we need a second bottle (as if there would be much doubt). 

The menu is quite wide-ranging, with lots of options in the starters that are appealing. It isn't ground-breaking or innovative, but full of classics. The bread - two styles, mini-baguette and a multi-seed roll - comes warm and tempting.  B chooses the ham hock and duck terrine to start, though she'd been thinking of the steak tartare. She's very pleased with that - the duck being a puddle in the middle. I struggled to choose, reluctantly passing on the tuna tartare, duck salad and tempura prawns in favour of bang bang chicken.  This is an excellent version, the peanut sauce with a good kick, the chicken itself juicy and tasty. 

The main course choices are more limited. B chooses the pan-seared halibut with white crab, chilli and lime.  This comes with carnaroli rice, not something we knew, but it turns out to be very creamy, a superior version of risotto arborio rice.  The dish looks very fresh and neat, two fillets of fish perching on top. The crab and chilli however are not very noticeable. She also has the minted peas and buttered broad beans, which are good. 

My choice was roasted Iberico pork chop, which came with chargrilled sweetcorn (not on the cob as advertised thankfully) and celeriac. I also ordered truffle and parmesan fries, which were excellent. The waiter had asked whether I wanted the pork well done, pausing before saying "or pink". I chose pink just as B asked what he recommended - pink. It did come lightly cooked, though not actually pink. Full of flavour with just the right amount of fat.

Although fairly full, we do decide to try desserts. B has the warm dark chocolate fondant with blood orange sorbet. The chocolate oozes beautifully, and the overall effect is very much chocolate orange.   I have to order the vanilla crème brûlée which comes, like at Chez Bruce, in a large flat dish rather than a ramekin, giving a better brûlée to crème ratio.  It's not as vanilla-ary as the CB one though, which remains my all-time favourite. 

We also fell for the truffles chocolates offer - a box of 9 for £18!

Naturally this wasn't cheap, and not helped by a 13.5% service charge. £260, though without the chocolates and with the cheaper wine it could have been a fair bit less. Hard to say whether that was "value for money", but it was all enjoyable and a pleasant experience all round.  It's one way to spend the inheritance. 

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Tuesday, by contrast, I'm meeting a dozen old Home Office colleagues at The Warwick, Pimlico. It calls itself a gastro-pub, but its special offer lunches are priced at £7.50, £11.50 with a pint of Doom Bar. I have the grilled halloumi salad, with a side order of fries (£4) - all the others have mini-fish and chips.

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Wednesday sees us meeting up with P&M back from South Africa, and another ex-BT friend S. We're at Da Mario, a cosy Italian near Covent Garden that we'd been to just once before, many years ago, though B couldn't remember it. Booking for 5 us meant having to pay a £10 a head deposit, but they bring a receipt for that at the start and need no prompting to take it off the bill at the end. The place is full, with a turnover of tables, decorated with photos of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sophia Loren playing with spaghetti, and Rat Pack music playing of the lively buzz of punters. No Chianti bottles with candles though. 

We order the Grillo at £32, ending up drinking 5 bottles plus one Barbera (£37.50). Two bottles of sparkling San Pelligrino.  The choice on the menu is remarkable and all four of us struggle to choose, changing our minds several times, and again when we realised there was a "Today's Specials" list on the last page. Unusually, the dishes are listed in price order. B and P have the scallops - four large ones with a slice of crispy bacon. S has deep-fried prawns, dry and crispy. while M and I have the mussels off the specials list - huge bowls, with light wine sauce and toast. 

P had decided in advance he wanted the tagliata - slices of sirloin medium rare, with rocket and parmesan, plus a side of chunky chips.  S has the veal chop, a plate sized slab of flattened and breaded meat - it's lightly cooked, but he says it doesn't have a lot of flavour. It comes with fried courgettes, and he orders a plate of roast potatoes and some mixed grilled vegetables. B has a main course spaghetti with prawns, another large portion, dripping in sauce. M and I have chosen the same again - saltimbocca a la romana from the specials list, with both of us choosing to have it with roast potatoes rather than the advertised mash. There is a load of potatoes - S didn't need to have ordered any himself. The veal is very tasty in a good sauce with ham. We also ordered a bowl of fried courgettes and a rocket and parmesan salad. Overall, a lot of food!

Despite that, B and P decide to have dessert. B has lemon sorbet, and P affogato (vanilla ice cream with coffee). It seems that there's been a mix-up and one of P's scoops is lemon, and one of B's vanilla. We also get complimentary limoncello or amaretto.  

The total is £510, quite a lot, though it did include all that wine. It's been a very pleasant - and filling - lunch but at over £100 a head it feels a little pricey. 

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Thursday evening we are at the Croydon Wine Club, upstairs at the Spreadeagle. Although still saying it is an "Ale and Pie House", the Fuller's pub no longer has pies on its main menu (there is one on the specials board). B has the haddock and chips, while I have scampi and chips. Too many chips! £26 a head including the wine (brought by the Club).

 

 

A Hampshire weekend

 

The train strike means a change of plans for our short flit to Hampshire; we are driving down instead.  We decide to break the journey to Lymington for a lunchtime snack. I’ve researched Alresford off the A31 near Winchester as that is about half-way. Finding somewhere to park is a bit of a pain, but we end up at the Watercress Line railway station car park.

There’s a choice between The Swan and The Bell. The Swan looks a little pricey, and The Bell does scallops, so that’s where we go.  It’s very dark inside, with only large tables remaining – they were quite happy to sit us at one of those. The other diners fit a very narrow demographic, making us the youngest in there I suspect.

As we are going out to dinner later, we just have two starters to share and a bottle of SB at £18. We are waiting quite a while – half an hour – and I’m just ready to ask the waitress where our food is when she arrives with it.  There are four scallops, with roe, but they’re a little tough, probably just been de-frosted. Our other dish is billed as lamb kebab, but it’s more of a kofta. It is nicely spiced though, so pretty good. Total bill, including optional service comes to £43.

Dinner is at Chewton Glen with J&E, a Relais & Chateau hotel and spa. The taxi drops us at the entrance, with its immaculate displays of flowers – petunias, I’m informed. We’re a little early, and as it’s a lovely evening, we decide to go for a drink on the terrace before dinner – 2 large Sauvignon Blanc and two tonics. It’s a very pretty area with a view over the croquet lawn.

Eventually we go on in to the restaurant. It’s a bright airy room with lots of windows, many of which are open in the early evening warmth. Our table is by the wall though, which is fine. The first task is to find something affordable on the wine list. At first sight this is going to be a challenge as there are several in three figures. Eventually however I do find a few at around £30-£35, and select a Sicilian Grillo at £30, and a glass of Malbec at £15 for E.

The menu is quite extensive and interesting, without being over-creative. There’s a good selection of breads. For starter I choose the Devon dressed crab, with radish and celeriac. This comes as two good sized quenelles, and is very full of flavour, with both white and brown meat. B has the salmon sashimi with edamame beans and ginger, which is good. J seems happy with her smoked salmon – another good largish portion – and E’s duck liver “pressing” disappears quickly.

My main course is lamb cutlets, three with Portobello mushroom and triple-cooked chips. Mint sauce arrives as well, rather dry actually. But the cutlets don’t really need it as they are succulent and juicy. B has the sweet and sour Asian salad with added Asian beef. This is rich and sweet, as well having something of a kick from the wasabi peanuts, sesame and chilli.

J orders the roast pork from the trolley. This is something of a theatrical performance, with the big silver hood folded back and a huge knife to carve good slices off the huge joint. She says the meat is very good, but is less impressed by the crackling which, apart from the first bite, is rather soggy. She summons the waitress to complain, who seems at a loss as to what to do. She offers to ask the chef to try heating it up, but that wasn’t likely to work, so it’s just left.

 E has the wild sea bass, filleted with asparagus, and the two of them share a portion of green vegetable and new potatoes.

 J declines dessert, just having coffee and petit fours – some good macaroons. I have a honeycomb parfait, which is very creamy and chunky. Both B and E order salted caramel ice cream, and both opt for just one scoop – we’re not sure what the form is really, whether they expected them to have two different flavours. Both finish it off, but agree that it was more sweet caramel than salted.

 The restaurant has filled up, with several people going through to a private room. Oysters are popular, including at the table next us where a sugar daddy and his friend enjoy them with a bottle of Laurent-Perrier rosé.

 I had looked at the menu online beforehand, so when the bill comes I don’t actually have a heart attack. It is pretty eye-watering though, close to being the most I’ve ever paid. It’s not helped by the fact that the two glasses of SB on the terrace were £24 each!  At this level it’s hard to say whether that is “value for money”.  It’s been good, and service has been fine, but it’s not Michelin star quality.

 The next day we are off to Winchester to join V for her 70^th birthday celebration, along with a dozen or so others. We’re staying overnight at the Hotel du Vin, a change of plan from getting the train home that evening. Crawling along in traffic, I manage to spot the sign for their car park and try to work out the parking system. Eventually we do get in to find our allocated, named, parking space – at £10 extra.

 We then wander down to the rendezvous for lunch – The Wykeham Arms. We’re the first to arrive, order our wine (£29.50 for a NZ SB seems a bit steep in a pub) and sit at the re-purposed classic style desks in the bar. The others are at “Whethies” it seems!  When they arrive we go through to another room with one large table. It’s a Fuller’s pub, which means that on a Sunday the menu is dominated by roasts. We’d been asked to order our food in advance, and we pay for drinks separately – the very able and welcoming manager, despite looking only about 14, is confident she can manage that with us ordering at the table, but I go back to the bar for ours.

 We’re surprised to find that apart from V we are the only ones to order a starter – a shared plate of charcuterie. This impressive board includes four different meats, including bresaola and chorizo, plus olives, cornichons, bread and salad.

 B had been irritated by the limited choice for mains, and opted for a rather unusual pea and mint ravioli. She enjoys this, though it is very modest. I have the roast beef which like all the roast comes with huge a Yorkshire pudding, whopping roast potatoes, and tons of veg. On top of which there is cauliflower cheese and cabbage. The beef is fine, though not very rare, and supported by excellent proper English mustard and feisty horseradish.

 We don’t have dessert, but it seems that is more popular with the others, the BBQ pineapple being a particular favourite.  Our bill is £60 plus the wine, so that worked out rather more expensive than I would have expected for a pub lunch.

 In the evening we decide we to go Chinese. I’ve come up with a place called Shanghai Papa, but I haven’t worked out exactly where it is, so we end up walking quite a way to get to it. Winchester on a Sunday evening is not a buzzing metropolis, but it is fun to spot the colourful hare statues around the place.

 The restaurant is pretty basic, mainly doing take-aways this evening. There is one table of three Chinese girls, but otherwise it’s empty, and they leave quite soon anyway.  We have the Shiraz at £19, a bargain and then turn to the starters. Soft-shell crab (obviously) and pan-fried pork dumplings, both good.

 Then on to mains – salted pork loin, kung po prawns and Singapore rice. The pork was thin battered pieces that didn’t taste of a great deal, but were OK. The prawns gloopy and spicy and the rice was full of chicken and small prawns. The portions were massive. We took the remains away – the rice will make two portions.

 With another two glasses of house red, the total comes to just £66 for a huge tasty feast. That certainly is “value for money”, though the ambience is hardly Chewton Glen!

Another riverside pub

 We are meeting D who lives over in East Molesley, so we agree to go to the Albany, roughly half-way between us, about a half-hour walk. The pub is right on the river, with plenty of outdoor seating, overlooking Hampton Court's back garden. The sun is shining, there are swans and even a great-crested grebe swimming around, as well as a succession of passing boats, kayaks, paddle-boarders and a punt from the Ditton Skiff and Punting club next door. Idyllic.   

We're shown to a table right by the river and, as the waitress clears it, order some Craggy Range SB from Marlborough - fuller flavour than many.  D arrives and we set to ordering our food, though B once again is unlucky in that her choice of steak salad is not available. This despite several other items already having been "redacted". 

D has mushroom on a sourdough crumpet to start. Oyster mushrooms and ordinary ones.  B has scallops - three large ones plus a prawn and crabmeat ball ("bonbon") - excellent. My sticky chipotle chicken is good too, really quite spicy.  

The crab and prawn fishcakes that D has are good too (much better than ones I had recently at Hart's Boatyard - the two menus are very similar) and come, after some debate about a side salad, with skinny fries, some of which get shared with the swans. B opted in the end for pork belly (without the optional scallops), which looks a bit heavy but she enjoys. She doesn't eat the mash though.  I have another spicy dish - prawn and crab linguine (clearly there's no shortage of prawns or crab) with plenty of chilli. Quite a zing and more pasta than I can eat.  

B's quite keen for us to share a "pornstar martini Eton mess", but is unlucky again, as that's "off" too. Nothing much else appeals, so we just move on to our third bottle of wine. 

Our waitress has been cheerful and efficient throughout. With the £30 government discount, the total comes to £134 - we leave a £15 tip.  It's not been haute cuisine, but very enjoyable in a lovely setting. A bit too much of a walk to become a regular perhaps, but certainly we'd be happy to go again. 

Riverside pub in Thames Ditton

It's forecast to be a nice day, so we book a table at Ye Olde Swan, a Greene king pub in Thames Ditton.  It's a bit of a walk - 20 to 25 mins - so we don't want to be turned away when we get there.  With loads of seating outside, distancing is not a problem, and we get to choose where to sit. We go for a table overlooking the river, right by the little (private) bridge across to the island.  

It's pretty idyllic, with the views to the island, the Canada geese, ducks, swans (and cygnet), and eventually a heron - though the geese see him off. Plenty of boats pootling up and down the channel (the main stream of the river is visible beyond), some deciding to moor up for lunch. 

We have the squid to start - curly-whirly bits with a chilli dipping sauce, quite spicy, cooked well.  For mains, B ordered the seabass fillet and scallops risotto - but it's "off". That means there aren't seabass fillets for the Caesar salad either, so she has the chicken Caesar  The chicken doesn't look that great but isn't as dry as it appears. Good sauce and nice anchovies.  I have the steak and ale pie with chips. This is a proper pastry pie, with a rich and tasty sauce. Sadly, though, you have to fish hard to find any actual meat.  Chips are good and hot. 

We have a couple of bottles of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc.  Total bill just £72.  So, pretty average pub food, but a splendid setting on a lovely day.   As we leave we see there is a whole strip of tables down at water-level, ideal for boaters. 

Late January

We’re in Kingston, house-hunting, and I’ve found a tapas bar near where we’re looking. So we head down an unattractive road and find the Pottery Bar, well off the beaten track. Not somewhere people just happen upon. And as it’s a mid-week lunch, we’re not surprised to find that, apart from a business meeting going on, we are the only ones in there.

 The drinks list doesn’t include any Spanish wines, so we order the house white Trebbiano at £21.  The menu isn’t especially tapas either. We order steak salad off the specials board (bizarrely itemised as lamb shank on the bill) plus garlic prawns, and chorizo, chick peas and goats cheese, plus some bread with oil and balsamic to keep us going.

 Despite there being no-one else in the food – including the bread – takes an age to arrive.  When it comes the bread is lovely, slightly warm, crusty and a good sized portion, though rather they rather skimped on the oil and vinegar.   The prawns had a hit of chilli along with the garlic, and the chorizo/cheese combination worked well. The salad is a very large portion, with tender steak and nicely dressed leaves.

 The service is friendly, and we chat a bit – the waiter describes one of their dishes as “weird”. We have two more glasses of wine. The bill (with just 10% service) comes to £78. Nice enough place, but probably only if you are in the area - not worth the detour.

 With S&S we return to our favourite, Chez Bruce at Wandsworth Common. As usual, we meet in the nearby pub, The Hope, for a drink first.  Unusually, the pub is packed, with lots of family groups and kids – we don’t normally come on a Sunday. The pub menu looks quite good itself.

 Chez Bruce is busy too, but well-organised. We have a nice table in the window.  Friendly and efficient service as always, with their lovely parmesan biscuits and excellent bread to start.   The other three all have crispy, deep-fried poached egg to start – lovely. I have the trout ceviche, very fresh and clean

 For mains, two (including B of course) have duck breast with foie gras. S has roast cod with mushrooms. After asking about how it’s done, I decide to be adventurous and order the pig’s trotter, despite being a little alarmed at twice being told that the skin will be gelatinous!  It’s stuffed with chicken mousse and chopped sweetbreads – and really tasty. Luckily I start at the right end and don’t come to the tiny bones until the end.

 Desserts are ice cream (including salted caramel), pear, and yoghurt parfait that comes with something akin to polystyrene.

 We have three bottles of Chilean Viognier for £105, some water and a coffee.  The “3 course weekend lunch” is £48.50 – considerably more than what we usually pay mid-week.  But it remains undeniably good.  So the total comes to £340 for the four of us.

 Still house-hunting, but this time in Surbiton, we return to Hart’s Boatyard, our favourite pub by the river.  We get a nice table overlooking the river.  I fail to find our usual Rothschild Viognier on the wine list, so order a Gavi.  But when the waitress comes she has the Viognier – wrong, but right!   B has the steak salad – a regular choice – and I have the pork belly.  This is quite fatty, but it comes with a crispy bacon slice and some rather good pork cheeks. A second bottle of wine takes the bill to £76.

 Then for my birthday, we book a table for lunch at The French Table, also in Surbiton. We’d been once before and had a lovely 5-course set lunch.  We get as far as Clapham Junction to find all the trains from Waterloo cancelled.  We hang around for a bit, as the information board suggests there might soon be a train, but it gets later and later, so eventually we decide to go to Victoria, and I ring to cancel.  Apparently they’d had a lot of cancellations because of the trains – such a shame.

 At Victoria we decide to go the new(ish) branch of Sticks ‘n’ Sushi in the Nova complex. On arrival it doesn’t look very prepossessing, but we are shown upstairs where it is busier, buzzier and more attractive.  The tables are close together though, so we have to fight to hear each other over the job interview next door. We order the Chenin Blanc (£28) and some edamame beans while we work what to have.  We decide to order in two phases – sushi then sticks. So we begin with beef tataki, which comes with a good spicy dip,  crab croquettes that are hot and gooey, and  scallops kataifi topped with roe.  These are closely followed by duck in rice paper (with the same dip) and spicy tuna maki roll with ginger and wasabi.  All very tasty.  Then we order a second bottle and the sticks: scallop and bacon, spicy chicken, and lamb. Again all good - though the second bottle takes a while to arrive.   Good friendly service – the waiter chats to us a bit as we are the last ones in there at 3pm.  Total, including 12.5% service, is £135 – perhaps a bit much for what it was, but then it is my birthday.

Some in the Midlands

After a grim journey round the M25 – one hour for one junction – we arrive at a regular haunt, the Bell at Clent after the kitchen has closed.  We are directed instead to the nearby Talbot in Belbroughton.  This has a little less character, but does have the virtue of serving food all day.

We are directed to the bar area, rather than the laid up restaurant,  although there are some people in that area already. We take a seat and B orders some wine from the bar.  Then we choose from the menu on the table – lots of dishes marked “NEW” – and I go to the bar to order. There’s no-one around, so our mood is not much improved.  Eventually someone appears and our order placed.

Five minutes later, the chap returns – we’d ordered from an old menu, and they were not doing the Thai fish cakes I wanted any more.  The new menu is identical apart from the fishcakes and the fact that the dishes are not “NEW” any more.  So I order the grilled prawns starter instead, while B has the duck confit salad.  The prawn dish is just three prawns (good size though, so fair enough), while B’s duck leg could have been a main course if served with lentils say.  Both are good, so we start to relax at last.  £49 is perhaps a bit steep though.

 

On the journey south a few days later, we stop at the Shrewsbury Arms in Albrighton, conveniently located near where the A41 meets the M54.  This is a large place, again with separate bar and restaurant areas, though the menu is the same. The restaurant part in particular is splendidly decorated as in an old manor house. It’s quite busy but we get served quickly. B has a starter portion of garlic prawns (a better size) while I choose the Italian “BMT” flatbread with parma ham and salami.  The topping is very nice but the bread really quite thick, so I leave that.  £43 including one bottle of Viognier.

 

We’re staying with D&B2,  and go out to dinner nearby at the Lyttleton Arms near Stourbridge.  This is in the same chain as the Derby Arms in Epsom that I’ve reviewed before, and the menu is virtually identical.  The friendly Ozzie waitress takes our order: chilli squid from the specials menu for me, scallops with pork belly for B and garlic pizzette to start for D&B2.  The squid is good, and B2 raves over it when he has a taste.

Mains are seabass fillets for me (good and moist but firm), linguine with prawns and chorizo for B; duck leg salad for D (better than the Derby Arms) and roast salmon for B2, which he also enjoys. D even has an ice cream and cookie.  £157 for four including two bottles of SB is pretty good, though it felt a little uninteresting.

December outings

After a wine tasting at Tate Modern, we drift round the corner to our new nearby favourite,  Mar I Terra.  I’ve reviewed it before, but again it did not disappoint.  This time we are there on Friday evening, and it is pretty busy, which gives it a great atmosphere. Staff are friendly and welcoming. We start with a garlic bread (to soak up our wine) and then go for garlic prawns, braised beef Riojana, pork belly, and chick peas with spinach and cumin. There’s plenty of garlic around, and a fair bit of chilli too. The beef comes with piquillo peppers, which also have a good kick. The pork belly has a good portion of crackling and is really very succulent.  The Verdejo at £21 seemed good, but maybe our palettes were a little jaded.  At £63 including service, very reasonable indeed.

The following night we are off to a comedy gig at Union St chapel, with H.  Again we re-visit a favourite, La Petite Auberge, I’ve also reviewed before.  As we are eating before the show, the placed is quite quiet, though there is one larger group in. Service is a bit erratic, with no consistent waiter, and they seem more interested in getting the chairs in than actually bringing any wine! For starters I have the crevettes in garlic, which are more tiger prawns than crevettes, but perfectly fine.  B has bacon and chicken liver terrine – which hasn’t stuck in the memory! – and H moules mariniere.  Mains are stuffed guinea fowl for me (a bit claggy), stuffed chicken breast for H (which she thought a bit dull) and B has the gambas as before.  A couple of bottles of  Pays D’Oc Viognier at £24.50 bring the bill up to £130 including service.  But not as great a success as last time.

To complete an indulgent weekend, we are having our “131” lunch, with T&K, H and J, back from her travels.  After further unsuccessful attempts to book Dishoom again – I think I’m giving up on them for good – we are booked into Salt Yard  in Goodge St.  We are in the downstairs room, with a large, but fortunately fairly restrained, group nearby.  The charming waitress is all smiles and helpful, so we rapidly start in on the Campo Flores Verdejo/SB and a Honoro Vera (£25 and £24 each).  A first round of dishes includes grilled flatbread, sweet and spicy guindillas (big green chillies),  smoked almonds, boquerones (juicy) , padron peppers and caperberries. More substantial dishes follow: crab arancini, chorizo picante with chickpeas, marjoram salami, roast salmon, courgettes flowers and burrata. Also pork rillons (pork belly cubes), polenta with mushrooms and leeks, and paprika chicken, followed by a Spanish cheese selection.  With two bottles each of the white and red, and service this all comes to £270 for 6 people – pretty good I’d say.

The next week we meet S&L at Tiles, after their visit to “Spooky” the spiritualist.  This is a really old favourite, from before we were married. It’s midweek, but still pretty busy so we are downstairs with a couple of Xmas party groups.  The Viognier from Languedoc is £23 a bottle, and very creamy.   Starters include a baked aubergine parcel, cauliflower soup, and tuna tartare (my choice – pretty good).  For mains L and I both have pork medallions, which she is unable to finish – rich tasty, with Lyonaisse potatoes.  S has a chicken breast stuffed with roasted peppers and goats cheese and wrapped in pancetta – again too much for her. And B has the fisherman’s platter: deep-fried squid, prawns, salmon and cod with courgettes chips also too much. So we had quite a doggy basket – the portion of chips was unnecessary, but hot and crisp as they should be. Despite being busy the services has been fine – efficient rather than friendly perhaps.  Three bottles of wine and service take the total to £170

The next Monday I have a work meeting near Smithfields in the afternoon, so I stop off at St Bart’s Brewery for lunch first.  The small plates previously advertised on the website are not available in December, and a number of tables are booked for parties, so I end up in a low “comfy” chair.  Although predictably quiet when I get there at noon, plenty of people are coming in on spec, so it gets quite busy by 12.30.  I order the brisket brioche, which comes with a portion of red cabbage slaw and chipotle gravy with a surprising kick. A tin of good skin-on fries goes well. A couple of glasses of Vermentino help things along. £22 in total.

Next day we are meeting M&P in Sutton for lunch. It’s an ASLEF strike day on Southern, so it has to be a cab, which in the end means we get there early and stop off in the Old Bank for a drink first.  We catch up with our friends as we reach the restaurant – a classic-style Italian called Casa Nostra, one of their old favourites.  As well as an extensive standard menu, there is a good list of blackboard specials, which apparently contain regular dishes.  M&P don’t drink, so I order a bottle of Frascati, and B says she’ll have one too – the cheeky waiter brings both together! M&P both have the crab and avocado salad starter, which looks good, but perhaps has too much dressing on it. B has the garlic king prawns (obvs), which do seem very good, and I have squid ripieni (ie with black pudding and bacon on a bed of spinach), which is excellent – rich, flavoursome with the squid al dente. Filling though.  For main P has the turbot steaks off the specials board, M has sea bass fillets which she asks for with a passata sauce, and B has skate with lemon butter and capers off the specials too. My veal saltimbocca (with sage and parma ham) is excellent, in a good white wine sauce.  All the mains come with a selection of vegetables (aprt from B who opted for salad) which include some good sauté potatoes. Paying for the wine and splitting the food means we end up with £129 for the two of us.  It’s only Sutton and with few pretensions, but that’s still good value for what we had.

Thursday sees us at the M&G organised ex-BT Xmas gathering at the Morgan Arms  in Bow.  There are 18 of us, so we are at three tables, with strict instructions from M for the men to move around between courses.  Surprisingly that works quite well.  We have had to pre-order our food (fair enough), but the placecards have got mine and B’s confused.  She has game terrine to start, while I have confit duck leg (with red cabbage and juniper) which is close to being a full main course. For main, B has sea bass, while I have the venison steak, with sprouts and good roast potatoes. The venison is OK, but a little chewy, and again a large portion, so I fail to finish it.  For dessert I have the chocolate mousse (very runny, but tasty) and B has the trifle, which comes in a smallish glass.  I don’t know how much wine we consumed, but our share of the total came to a very reasonable £130.

As there’s another ASLEF strike on. I can’t get to a meeting on Friday, so we indulge again in a lunch in Purley at Mekan.   There’s a big table laid up for a party, but we manage to get one by the window, a little way away. The group doesn’t arrive till we’re about to leave anyway.  As usual, we have lamb’s liver and spicy sausage to start. And B has her usual Mediterranean prawns in garlic and white wine to follow. After some indecision, I opt for the lamb iskender barbequed lamb with yoghurt and pitta bread. They are out of our usual NZ SB, so instead we have a couple of bottles of Gavi at £23.  The waiter is very stern and unsmiling, but the waitress much more pleasant.  £80 all in.

We’ve no other meals planned before Xmas, though I expect we’ll fit in the tapas bar and a curry some time during the week.  So MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY READERS (if there are any!).

Good Young's pub near Kew Gardens

After leaving Kew’s “Plant Finders Fair” with S&S we walk across Kew Green, past the cricket match to look for lunch. First we look into The Botanist, which I’d thought looked nice online, but B is unimpressed by the menu. The Coach and Horses across the road is calling, with its outside tables and pretty pansies  in the sunshine.


We find a table for 4 outside – nice new wooden furniture, but a bit cramped – and I go in to get a bottle of wine. I ask for Sauvignon Blanc and get The Mission, another of our NZ tour wineries, at (as it turns out) £25.75 – they do have a Chilean at £20.  The ladies decide that despite the sun it’s not warm enough outside so we go in to the Library Bar.  It is a very attractive and characterful place. As well as the Library (with loads of gardening books), there is a good solid pub bar, and a more formal dining room with “theatre kitchen”.  It is a hotel too.

The menu is largely a standard Young’s pub menu, with maybe a couple of more interesting options, plus a modest list of specials.  The ladies both choose the gourmet burger, with bacon and cheese, while the lads both have goat curry off the specials list.  The burgers, on brioche, accompanied by onion rings and good proper chips are fine – B reckons that they were so fat free they were a little too dry.  The goat curries come with an array of accessories – papadums, naan, tomato and onion, mango chutney and an aubergine mush. The main act itself comes sizzling on a skillet, accompanied by yellow rice.  The goat is a distinctive flavour – you wouldn’t confuse it with lamb – and suitably spiced so that it the heat creeps up on you as you finish off the dish.  Very unusual and a successful dish.

The bar staff have been charming and helpful, and the food arrived pretty promptly. There’s been a fair turnover of people in, but it’s never been busy.  With three bottles of wine and two coffees (they do soy milk) the bill is just shy of £150 without service – maybe pricey for one course (2 at £14 and 2 at £16.50) though you could get away with less with some cheaper (or less!) wine.

Easter eats - country pub lunch, Islington bistro and regular pub haunt

It’s Good Friday and we’re a bit at a loose end, so we decide to catch the train and head to the White Hart in Chipstead.  It’s a 10 minute train journey to the station from Purley, but another 20 minute walk uphill to the pub – so you feel you’ve earned your lunch.

I reviewed this place two Easters ago, when I railed against unruly kids. This time the two kids there are very well- behaved, the little puppy being more of a handful – but even that is pretty good, just lively.

We had booked, and although it was quite busy it probably wasn’t entirely necessary. We have a table in the bar area – which we prefer – as the restaurant was already pretty full.  We start by ordering a bottle of Rare Vineyards Marsanne Vigonier (£19), and settle down to choose our food. 

There’s a pretty fair selection of pub staples with some more interesting dishes, like venison rump – but as we’d seen a deer near the path on the way up from the station, that option seemed a bit indelicate!  We decide to have the cheese stuffed peppers as an appetiser – they are somewhat spicy and come in a vinegar which detracts from the wine.
For starter, B has the scallops, which come with a thin sliver of crackling and sesame seeds. The scallops are very lightly cooked, so are very rich.  My duck spring roll comes with a gooey plum and a salad enlivened by star anise.  It’s good, though perhaps not quite as meaty as the one at Ping Pong the other day.

B has the sea bass fillet main course, with a tomato and rocket salad on the side. The fish is good, with nice crispy skin. The fish is supplemented by beetroot which colours everything around it, and a rather nice crisp fennel salad.  The rocket in the salad is wilted, and the dressing very vinegary – well I think so, B quite likes it. 

I choose the salt beef hash of the “light bites” section, so decide to supplement it with chips. In fact, the hash has loads of potatoes in it already, and I end up with a carbs surfeit.  Tasty enough though.

Service has been fine – no problems, nothing stand out. We’ve had a second bottle of wine, and as there is time to kill before the train back, opt for a couple of glasses of Nieto Malbec too.  That brings us up to £107 – with optional service to add. 

On Saturday we have tickets for a comedy night at the Union Chapel, Islington, doors opening at 6.30pm. So we need somewhere for a late lunch/early dinner in Upper Street.  I’ve done some research but not decided on anywhere specific, so when we emerge from the tube, we walk down to see what’s what.  

We head on down initially towards Ottolenghi. They don’t take bookings until the evening session, so we know we will be lucky to get in. And indeed there is a big queue, which we’re not interested in joining.  Just a few doors along is a French bistro – La Petite Auberge – whose menu looks interesting and reasonable, so we plump for that.

There’s a lovely warm atmosphere inside, and lots of classic French style – wooden beams, art deco travel posters for Cannes and Nice, Piaf on the soundtrack. It’s just this side of clichéd. The place is something of a rabbit warren, with several tables on the ground floor, more on a mezzanine level, some lower down – used for staff meals mainly- and a separate section for their speciality crepes.

It’s pretty busy, but we’re offered a nice table (for four – “all for yourselves”) fairly close to the front.  There’s a table of Arsenal supporters celebrating a win over Liverpool – but in a restrained Islington sort of way.  There’s also a birthday party group upstairs – the slowest and dullest rendition of “Happy Birthday” I’ve ever heard!

The charming chunky French waiter (down girls!) takes our order – a bottle of Viognier from Pays D’Oc (£21.50), and sparkling water initially.  The menu is a startling range of all the classic bistro dishes you can recall – even down to the frog’s legs. There’s a special lunch menu at £8.95 for 2 courses, £10.95 for 3 (but with an extra £1 at weekends), which has plenty of dishes worth trying.

But we go a la carte.  B has the salade de volailles – chicken livers and bacon; the salad is secondary and the sauce delicious, a definite success.  My “crevettes a l’ail” are in fact king prawns with more of a chilli hit than a garlic one, but again very good.
Which is all the more confusing because B’s main course “gambas” are virtually identical, just more of them served with rice.  Still very good though.  My main course is the most expensive on the menu: filet mignon – char-grilled beef medallion on grilled smoked pork belly in a brandy and shallot sauce, served with potato gratin – all of £16.95!  Served medium rare as ordered, this is a lovely classic dish.

As crepes seem to be their speciality – and most other tables have been ordering them – we go for a crepe suzettes to share.  Good large crepe, excellent orange, lovely vanilla pod ice cream – but it could have done with some flamed brandy, making the crepe a little crispier.

Service throughout has been good. The second bottle of wine has taken the total up to £103 – with just a 10% service charge (where else does that these days?).   I know there are loads of restaurants in Islington but you’d be hard pushed to find better value for money than this.

Easter Monday is sunny, so we head off to Epsom Downs, and after a short walk, back to a regular haunt, the Derby Arms.  It’s normally a reliable place, but the last time we were there they had an off day, so we’re not sure what to expect this time. We had booked, but surprisingly it was fairly quiet, much less than a usual Sunday.

We order the Rothschild Viognier (£22) from one waitress, then after a little pause a second one brings us a Cabernet Sauvignon.  Sent away, she returns a little later with a Shiraz Viognier – getting closer!  Third time lucky we get our wine – by which time the starters had arrived.  She has to go back a final time to get the ice bucket too.

After this dodgy start, things began to improve. B has the crab and crayfish pot, served in an attractive little kilner jar accompanied by two crisp pieces of lightly toasted soda bread. It’s perhaps a little too cold to begin with, but the flavours do come through and it is very enjoyable. My starter of black pudding cake with poach egg and hollandaise is also good – there’s enough black pudding in amongst the potato, and the hollandaise is good and sharp; the egg wasn’t runny unfortunately as having it soak into the potato cake would have been excellent.

For main course I order the roasted sea trout, but the waitress’s little pad device tells her straight away that there’s none left. So good intentions defeated I fall back on beef and ale pie and chips!  It comes in a metal pie dish with puff pastry topping, which really should have been crispier. Inside it’s full of air, and at first I struggle to find any beef.  But as I press on I do find several tasty chunks – it’s just that the dish was larger than it needed to be.   The chips are OK – no more than that – more like fries; and the accompanying carrots al dente.

B chose the pork belly with scallops, because their usual special scallops starter came with an unattractive sounding parsnip puree.  The pork belly is a large, tender piece of meat with good crackling and accompanied by a lake of sauce. The scallops are juicy, but rather dominated by the sauce. I know scallops and pork is a popular combination, but usually the ratio of ingredients is the other way around – this doesn’t quite work as well.

The restaurant end of the pub has a nice atmosphere, with photos of horses on the Downs for sale. There are a lot of people out enjoying the sun in the garden, but this means the back door is open and we get a very chilly draught through most of the meal.  A second bottle of Viognier takes our bill to £89, with service left open. Despite my quibbles I thought that was reasonable for a filling and enjoyable meal.

To, at and from the Wirral

Just a few quick words about some places we came across during a trip up North for my niece’s 40^th birthday party.

Just off the M42/M5 on the way to Stourbridge, turn off for Clent. There you will find the Bell and Cross, at Holy Cross, county dining pub of the year for Worcestershire. It has a fair sized garden, but the weather was a bit iffy so we sat in one of the many little dining rooms, close enough to the open door to get a nice breeze.  B has the skewer of king prawns with chorizo – a nice skewers of 3 prawns and 3 pieces of spicy chorizo; the “Catalan salad” is nothing special, but the garlic dressing is good.  My choice of sticky shredded black bean chicken seems to be missing its pickled ginger (replaced by beansprouts and sliced carrot) and the accompanying “frazzled noodles” are like pieces of Styrofoam and simply make a mess on the table. All served on trendy slate of course.  With some wine and water, this makes it £42. It’s a handy stopping off point for an interesting lunch – not sure what a full evening meal would be like.

At Parkgate on the Wirral is The Ship.  A friendly pub by the riverside, it has a better than average pub menu. G has the lemon chicken stir fry, B has seafood red Thai curry (good) and I have beef rillettes in a “horseradish crust”.  The crust doesn’t really taste of horseradish, so I leave most of that, and the beef is a little dry, so I’m glad to share some of B’s curry sauce.  About £70 for the three of us with wine.

Lunch next day is at Sheldrakes, further up the coast.  As we arrive we can see there is a wedding party gathering, so we are shown upstairs. It’s a gloriously sunny day so we sit outside. The wedding party is gathered outside, and it turns out to be the actual ceremony, not just the reception.  B has the beef, pine nut and parmesan salad – excellent rare beef, and good accompaniments. G really enjoys his scallops and chorizo, while I have the confit duck tian with pineapple and coriander – also good.  For main G just has a duck tortilla wrap, while B and I share the summer paella – chicken, chorizo and mixed seafood. Plenty of protein and masses of rice, really enjoyable in the sunshine.  The service charge is a bizarrely reasonable 7% - never seen that before! So with 2 bottles of SB and a pint of lager the bill comes to £107 for the three of us.

On the way home, having stopped in Bromsgrove with friends overnight, we decide to stop for lunch at the Greyhound, Besselsleigh near Cumnor, outside Oxford.  It’s a very pretty spot, with lovely flower baskets out the front and an extensive garden out back.  We’re just grabbing a quick lunch en route – B has the salmon niçoise salad and I have a (warm) ham hock salad. Both are very good, and with some drinks we pay £45.  The place was heaving (it was a Sunday lunch), but the service at the bar had been excellent and the food arrived very promptly.

Hampton Court bistro – new incarnation

We’re meeting D for lunch in Hampton Court and have yet to decide exactly where.  So we take a look at the menu for the Mitre first (we went there back in July).  The riverside terrace is still closed after the floods and the restaurant menu doesn’t look that special. So we turn our attention to the Mute Swan, now occupying the space where Blubeckers used to be.

Their website describes it as 'English-dining-pub-meets-wine-bar', whatever that means.  We sit in the downstairs “bar” ( as opposed to the tablecloths upstairs), which is all stripped pine and eclectic chairs.  They’ve moved the bar to the other side of the room from before, but the central spiral staircase to the restaurant  and loos is still there.

There are specials on the board – mains, bar snacks (interesting-sounding, with black pudding scotch eggs),  wines and beers (a good range for real ale drinkers).  Service is very attentive, so we get “quick wine” – a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc at £18 – and have to send them away a couple of times before ordering food because we’re gossiping too much.

When I do go to the bar to order, I decide to move on to a French Marsanne Viognier at £19. For starters, D has the chicken liver pate with an odd-sounding rhubarb, apple and ginger chutney. This came as two good-sized slices of coarse pate,  and D thought the chutney was fine. B has seared  scallops with chorizo chips, with some mushy sauce – tasty, well-cooked scallops. My choice is the char sui pork belly which comes with pickled ginger salad. This is served as three attractively displayed chunks of meat surrounded by sauce and salad – very good.

The main course options are a combination of pub classics such as sausage and mash, steaks, and haddock and chips, and some more adventurous dishes like calves liver “saltimbocca”, spicy Vietnamese king prawn and rice noodle salad and open vegetable samosa.   D plays safe with smoked haddock and salmon fishcakes and a side order of mixed vegetables (a rather tedious standard selection).  OK but nothing special.  B goes for the prawn salad which comes with toasted cashew nuts, lime and chilli dressing – very nice, good-sized prawns, with some flavour, crispy noodles and interesting salad.  My five-spiced duck from the specials menu, also came with ginger (well, I like it) but was otherwise rather dry and uninteresting.

We finish off sharing a pudding plate of chocolate and hazelnut tart, salted caramel ice cream, lemon and passion fruit meringue and orange polenta cake, which was the highlight.  It seems we had 3 bottles of Viognier, taking the bill to a tad over £150. Service has been very friendly and attentive, so it was generally a pleasant lunch – maybe not one to win awards, but fine if you’re in the area. (It seems I said much the same about Blubeckers!).

Short tour round Wales and the Cotswolds

We’d planned a few days away visiting friends and relatives, first to Cardiff, then to Bala, and back home via the Cotswolds. So one Wednesday we set off to South Wales along the M4. A couple of hours in, it’s lunchtime, so we find a pub in the Good Food Guide, the Neeld Arms in Grittleton  and leave the motorway at Junction 17. The village is a little way from the motorway, with buildings composed of very attractive Cotswold stone.

The pub itself is a 17^th century  building, proclaiming to be “proud to be a proper pub”, although it also has accommodation.  There is a simple open bar, moderately busy for a midweek lunchtime, so we find a seat near the back, with a less than attractive view over the back sheds.  There is quite a selection of interesting dishes on the specials board – fish, black pudding – and the standard menu has some unusual options too.  B is attracted by the antipasti selection with wild boar salami while I go for the pie special: steak and ale.  The landlord later tells us that they don’t have any wild boar salami, but B goes ahead anyway.  It is a very good antipasti plate, with three different meats and salamis, plus a range of salad. Some bread is served with it (though we’re not sure if this is extra – it is listed as such).  My pie is very good to, lots of meat, hot, and with a classic short-crust pastry- a proper pie.  With some wine and water, this comes to £37, pretty good value.

In Cardiff that evening, we recall a Thai restaurant we’d been to in the Brewery Yard, and return there – to find that is was an Indian, and had been when we’d visited before!  This is the Spice Quarter, with attractive contemporary  decoration, in a dimly lit series of rooms upstairs in the modernised block.  The menu has many unusual dishes, claiming to be “Authentic Indian Cuisine” – a selection of different poppadoms is the first sign of this. (We think we’ve ordered two portions, but in the end are charged for 4 – at £1 each).  To start B has Haryali fish – a crispy, pan-fried fish with interesting spices.  Normally wary of curried fish, B is pleased to find this a well-balanced and tasty dish. I kick off with the Peshawari lamb boti, a more conventional kebab style dish, despite its claims to “exotic spices”.

Main courses are a good if standard prawn jhalfrezi  and "Jalandhari duck” from the chef’s specials: roast duck in spicy sauce with cashew nuts, which comes with “lacche dar parantha”  - mint-flavoured bread. We also have “malai kofta” (cottage cheese dumplings), a dal, and mushroom rice.

The prawn dish featured good size prawns which actually had some flavour, and the duck was a deep, intense flavour, but lacking very many nuts. The cottage cheese had been a bold choice – which failed – but the other accompaniments were good. 

Service was understated,  just efficient enough, certainly not intrusive.  With two bottles of Sangiovese Malbec at £16.95 each the bill came to £95 including service, rather more than your average curry.  For the change from the ordinary you could regard this as reasonable – it felt just a little high in retrospect.

For the following day’s lunch  we’re at the Nant Ddu Lodge on the way to Brecon.  Situated in the National Park, near the reservoirs and with plenty of walking nearby, this is an attractive hotel and spa.  There is a restaurant area, but we eat in the bar, a small but pleasant space with stripped pine tables. There are plenty of specials on the board, and the standard menu is extensive with some unusual combinations.  B has the scallop linguine, which is very rich with too much sauce, while I have the stuffed trout, which is excellent. The bill is £57 including a bottle of Chenin Blanc.

Dinner the next day is at the Brytirion Arms, Llandderfel near Bala – “The Bryn”, my brother’s local.  It’s a simple, traditional pub in the Dee valley, with a couple of rooms. The restaurant area is only open in the evening, so we’re in the cosy bar which has a lovely wood fire in winter.  Of the five of us, only three have starters – Thai fish cakes for G&S, and a Thai trio for me – fishcakes, prawn roll, scallops.  All pleasantly cooked in a light batter, with a good spicy chilli sauce.  B has the grilled Gressingham duck with plum sauce for main – lovely pink slices in a balanced sauce.  I’m talked into having their signature dish the ‘Bryn bara’ – a mountain of bread  (literal translation) filled with local Welsh Black beef, mushroom and ale casserole.  Very rich and warming and no chance of finishing it!

Three ice-creams were also ordered which together with a range of drinks took it to £122 for the 5 of us – excellent value.

Our lunch stop on the way home was at the Lamb Inn in Burford, just down from Stow-on-the-Wold, another selection from the Good Pub Guide.  For a change it’s a lovely sunny day, we go through the lovely old building out into the extensive and attractive garden. I’m usually concerned about service when eating outside, but here there are staff in abundance, willing and eager to help. We’re late arriving so are lucky to get a table, as it’s obviously a popular summery spot.

B starts with asparagus and poached egg – fresh and well-executed. I have eggs benedict, also good, but perhaps more than I need. For main B has the dressed crab, which is also very good, but my crayfish risotto which, although tasty enough to begin with, is rather heavy and stodgy, and eventually a little dull.  A bottle of Chilean Luis Felipe Edwards Lot 66 Sauvignon Blanc at £19.00 and some water means the bill reaches a modest £67. With the lovely setting, the attentive service and generally good food, that’s a good result.

 

Two Easter meals - a Chipstead pub, and a Covent Garden brasserie

RETURN TO A COUNTRY PUB

Not being a parent, I have decided views on kids in pubs, none of them favourable. I appreciate that those of you who have decided to perpetuate the human race may feel it unfair to be limited in where you can take your little darlings, but the effect on the rest of us can be startling.

So it was on a recent revisit to the White Hart in Chipstead.  On Easter Saturday, we braved the flurries of snow to walk up the country lanes from the station, and were pleased to see the fire roaring, a good few people in chatting amiably and a convenient table awaiting us.  The pub has a cosy bar, an adjoining restaurant doing a very good holiday trade, and an outside patio, which unsurprisingly was not that popular that day.  The menu extends beyond the standard classic pub meals into more challenging offerings, but it doesn’t claim to be a “fine dining” experience.

It’s understandable that on a holiday weekend, families will gravitate to the White Hart – most, however were accommodated in the restaurant, leaving the bar to the drinkers and the child-free, as it should be.  Fortunately we’d just finished our meal (of which more below), when the genial calm and sense of well-being that good food and plenty of wine can induce was shattered by the arrival of a double family group – 2 sets of parents and four kids.  

The atmosphere was transformed instantly. Two of the kids squabbled over some toy;  one wailed and one whined.  The parents chatted as if the kids didn’t exist, neither responding to them nor restraining them.  All serenity had vanished,  as the volume increased. We rushed to finish our drinks and leave.

This was a shame, as we had just enjoyed a leisurely and high quality lunch, with smooth and amiable service.  Admittedly it was a tad on the pricy side – 2 scallops with pork belly and pea puree were £10, and the total soon rose to £86 before tip.  But the scallops were very good, as were the spicy crab cakes with tamarind mayonnaise we shared with them.  B’s main course of poached chicken salad (a “light bite”) was enlivened by the orange slices, though the chicken itself was a little ordinary. My main course was an unusual pheasant kiev. The garlic filling was not as runny as I’d have liked, but there was a good kick to it; the pheasant itself maybe a bit on the dry side, though the accompanying gravy coped with that.  The vegetable selection it came with was extensive: red cabbage, curly kale, broccoli, parsnips, sweet potato fondant and far more butternut squash than any sensible person could eat.

We’d enjoyed a bottle of Chilean Viognier with that, and started on a second to go with our cheese – chosen from a selection of 6, we had Ragstone goat’s cheese, Blackstick’s Blue and  Lincolnshire poacher, a crumbly cheddar.  All very warming, satisfying and pleasurable – until the assault on the senses which drove us away.

COVENT GARDEN STALWART

We’d only discovered PJ’s Bar and Grill in Wellington Street about 18 months ago, and had held a 21^st birthday party for K there last November which went very well. However it’s been a long-standing feature of the Covent Garden scene since 1982, and has an air of permanence and history, bolstered by the celebrity photos you pass on the way to the loos.

We’d been looking for somewhere for a late lunch or early dinner before going to Ronnie Scott’s, and PJ’s came up on lastminute.com with a 50% off food offer for London Restaurant fortnight – sorted.  We arrived ahead of our friends M&G, and had started in on the Argentinian Viognier  Triviento (£20) by the time they arrived.  Mid-afternoon of course it was hardly busy, but there were enough people in to make it feel alive.

The menu choice is not huge, but interesting;  the roasts and steaks were excluded from the offer.  B dithered between at least three different options per course, before settling on the ham hock terrine with crispy poached egg to start, as did Gerry.  The terrine was very meaty, the egg just runny, though perhaps not as much as it could have been.  M had the soup of the day, celeriac and something, which was good and warming.  I had the salt and pepper squid, which was excellent, coming with a spicy chilli sauce and a good array of finely chopped vegetables.

For main course, Gerry had the calves liver and bacon with mash, which disappeared from his plate with alacrity. B had the pan-roasted sea bass with calamari and sweet potatoes and was impressed with that too.  My pork belly was a fine example, with exemplary crackling (not too tooth-threatening, but interestingly crisp), and the meat flavoursome. Sadly, M’s choice of 8-hour braised rib of beef was less successful: lots of bone, and the meat very fatty.

We’d had a second bottle of Viognier, and M&G had each had a glass of La Chamiza Malbec  also from Argentina.  Overall we’d had an enjoyable time and were happy to pay the £176 including service. Then as we were leaving we suddenly realised we hadn’t received the 50% off offer, so queried it. The manageress was very apologetic and quickly re-calculated the bill, handing us the £43 rebate in cash.  So we left with a warm glow at what (at least for three of us) had been a really good value meal.