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!

Rick Stein Barnes

 A guest posting from a loyal Chompers follower.

KB invited me to a birthday bash at Rick Steins at Barnes last week.  He wanted something French so chose RS! 

We arrive in good time so decide to have a pre-prandial G&T at the White Hart a Youngs pub overlooking the Thames.  It was a lovely sunny day and the Bombay Sapphire and Fever Tree ...a good start to the proceedings...so good in fact we have another at RS, a short walk from the pub.

The restaurant is in a courtyard off Mortlake High Street.  I’m don’t know its previous use but the area has recently been renovated  and has a very upmarket feel in keeping with the area.

On arrival the reception desk took a few minutes to find our booking...language problem I think.  We were eventually shown to our table in the conservatory overlooking the river.  So far so good.  The restaurant is almost empty but it is a Monday.  We have 2 hours but clearly this will be ignored.

We order 2 G&Ts, KB again choosing BS, I have the Rick Stein variety.  Very good.

We get stuck in to the menu.  There’s a 2 courses option but given Rick’s reputation for quality we go a la carte.  On recommendation I opt for sea  bass with beurre blanc at £24 whilst KB goes for the pricier troncon of turbot with hollandaise sauce at £45.  We share green beans and new potatoes.  We nibble goujons of plaice as a taster.  Both of us choose the fish and shellfish soup with rouille parmesan and croutons as starter which I’ve sampled before at the branch in Sandbanks and thought to be excellent.  

KB summons the sommelier...it’s his birthday after all so he wants the expensive stuff ..and despite sauvignon being recommended and another wine he opts for an Italian Saove at £51.  I wonder about that choice...and by her looks so did the sommelier. But it’s his call.

Wine and goujons arrive promptly.  Wine is smooth, pleasant not over chilled but lacks character.  Goujons are nicely done.  The soup arrives with accompaniments which I add in full, creating what for me is a tasty thickish mix. Much better all mixed...

After a little while I note the adjacent table arrived after us but get their mains first. The 2 course set lunch I reckon. Then our seabass, turbot and sides arrive. 3 fillets of seabass on spinach bed but the beurre sauce is bland and watery looking.   KBs £45 turbot looks underwhelming and absurdly overpriced. Sides are perfectly cooked and generous.

We decline sweets.  I have a double espresso (more single than double).

The total bill including 12% service charge comes to around £180 of which about £70 is drinks.

How to sum up my 2^nd Rick Stein experience?  Delightful views of Thames,  attentive service, smart presentation.  Generally good food.  But I wonder...this is London after all, and it's a great position by the river. However I’ve recently eaten several times now at Sobofish Bournemouth, a fish  bistro half the price and in my view twice as good ...but no views of the Thames!!  In conclusion I like Rick Stein’s but if you like what’s on the menu, the 2 course option is much better value for money.

Some recent visits

 ESHER TAPAS BAR

We get the bus into Esher to visit Don Luis, a fairly new tapas bar. We have been there once before, but that was very early days. When we arrive at 2pm there is only one other table occupied. so we get a nice table by the window.

Wines are not cheap, so we go for the house white, Espeto Blanco, at £24.  As well as tapas, they do paella and steaks. We choose the paella mixta, but since this will take a while, precede it with a few tapas - sourdough with a really sharp ali-oli, squid tentacles, hot and crispy and a quite light chorizo tortilla. All very acceptable. The paella when it comes is a huge portion, mainly featuring chicken and mussels, though there are a couple of large prawns and a surprising amount of squid.  We fail to get through it, but they happily bring a pot for us to transfer the remains. 

Very chatty waiter - they're not busy. With second bottle this comes to £124 (including 12.5%). Worth a visit.

WARWICK

We have decided to break our journey to Wirral with the night in Warwick. We're staying at the Warwick Arms which is nice enough but nothing special.  It is central though, so it's easy for us to walk into the market square for a late lunch. We sit outside in the sun at the Tilted Wig. The menu looks interesting and we choose between the fish board or prawns, squid and ham croquettes, finally going for the latter.

I go in to order to find they don't have any more ham croquettes, so revert to the fish platter at £17. The Chilean SB is £17 too. We notice dishes coming out to other tables are quite large, and indeed our platter doesn't disappoint. There's chilli and garlic prawns, a pile of squid, a big dish full of whitebait, and several slices of smoked salmon.  These are accompanied by an interesting salad and several slices of attractive herby bread (which we don't touch as we're going out to dinner).  Very good value indeed.

I have booked us into 7 Square for dinner. We wander by to check on location and see it's attached to a wine bar - looks quite nice. We are shown in to a rather dull looking back room, with cheap looking tables. There's some interesting trompe d'oeil wall painting, merging into actual pictures. 

Looking at the menu, I wonder why on earth I'd booked here. It's a very limited choice of heavy-sauced French dishes. We choose a Muscat Viognier at £24, which is fine. B decides against a starter, and I have the goat's cheese bruschetta.  This is very good, with peppers, and excellent bread.

For main B has duck a l'orange. There are several slices of pink duck, but the sauce is too much. I order my rump steak medium-rare. It's a big thick chunk of steak, too tough to get through. So I ask for it to be cooked more, which does make it more tolerable, but again it is drenched in sauce - peppercorn.  Overall a disappointing experience for £100. 

BURNT TRUFFLE

We've been to the Burnt Truffle in Heswall before. It's a place for special occasions, so for this first meeting up with G&S since 2019 is a good place to go. 

It's quite a short menu, so it turns out that the girls order the same things, and G and I also have the same. 

Starters were a gorgeous terrine.

And a slightly more ordinary sea trout.

Mains were cod loin - excellent - and an equally good large portion of roast pork

Service is friendly and slick without being intrusive.  Total bill (several bottles of Viognier at £27) comes to a substantial £300 for 4, including tips, but it does feel like it was well worth it. 

PARKGATE

Lunch at The Ship in Parkgate is a last-minute decision. We'd gone in for a drink and to look at its refurbishment - including a lovely upstairs terrace.

Bur unfortunately it is a bit too chilly to sit up there. Instead we have a nice table in the window downstairs.  After last night's dinner we only want snacks so choose from the starters menu - potted salmon with sauce gribiche, and five spiced wild mushroom and water chestnut pancakes. Both VG. G&S have wild boar sausage roll and haddock arancini. 

Richmond tapas bar

 We're meeting S&S in Richmond again, but this time instead of our usual favourite Chez Lindsay, we going to Tapas Brindisa overlooking the river. We'd been there before in a previous incarnation as Jackson and Rye, but just for drinks. Brindisa is of course a small chain of places that spun off out of it's Borough Market branch and food shop. 

It's a lovely day, and we get a great table in the corner by the window, with fine views of the Thames. It's quite full, and a bit noisy, but overall this feels good. The wine list accelerates rapidly, so we settle for the house Macabeo at £25. 

The menu is wide-ranging, and as always at tapas places the challenge is to guess how many dishes to order. We eventually narrow it down to 7 dishes plus bread. Whether deliberately or not not, they end up serving us them in two courses, which is great as otherwise dishes can go cold, or you stuff yourself trying to eat them before they do.

The first round of dishes consists of the croquettes of the day (prawns), Iberico ham croquettes and gambas al ajillo, along with the bread and oil and vinegar. Both croquettes are very soft and gooey, but also full of flavour, and identifiable protein. The gambas comes sizzling, with loads of garlic slices - the sauce is ideal for mopping up with the bread.  

Next up comes the "pollo picante" - chicken thighs with a spicy sauce and hazelnuts, also good for dipping. Accompanied by the chorizo on toast with peppers and rocket, and two potato dishes. The patatas bravas come with spicy sauce and alioli quite separately so you can decide your preferred proportions.  The other was Huevos Rotos - potatoes with fried eggs. It's supposed also to come with Mallorcan black pig sobrasada (sausage) but that's not in evidence.  The chicken and chorizo are great; the patatas bravas good, and the huevos rotos fine, but a step too far - we couldn't finish that.

After a decent pause, we decide against desserts in favour of the cheese plate. Two ewe's cheese, one goat's and a blue - not enough biscuits. 

Service has been good: attentive, not familiar, alert to our need for another bottle of wine. We manage 4 in all. So with the usual 12.5% service, the bill gets up to £210 for the 4 of us, which seems pretty fair.  Seems we have another Richmond favourite. 

Indian "tapas" in Twickenham

 It's Varsity match day - in April, a major change in tradition. None of the usual gang can make it, so B says she'll come with me - another break in tradition. This means that the normal all-day breakfast at the Wetherspoon's before the game won't hack it, so I research some other options. 

I was looking for tapas, but the only one I could find was Indian "tapas" at Tsaretta Spice at the far end of  chi-chi Church Street.  When we arrive at 1pm, we are the only ones in there - later two other tables arrive. I had expected them to busy on a match day, so was pleasantly surprised to be offered the choice of tables, including ones for four. 

We order a French Viognier at £26 and settle down to choose the dishes. There is a wide selection, tapas and mains. So in the end we settled on just having the chef's meat tapas tasting platter, with a few extra additions - scallops, pappadums, dhal makhani and garlic naan.  

The pappadums come first - smaller, curly ones - with three dips, which are all interesting and quite spicy.  Could happily just munch on those all day. The platter is four dishes - grilled tiger prawns, tilapia fish fingers, fried chicken pieces and lamb meatballs in a particularly spicy and gooey tomato sauce. The scallops are small queen scallops, but served nicely in a shell with garlic lemon and shallots. The dhal is good and thick and creamy, and the naan visibly and nasally very strong on the garlic. 

All very good and served in a good friendly style. It's a modern style place with big windows and it seemed that there would be tables outside in the summer. Modern inoffensive music at low volume.  There's just a 10% service charge, so with a second bottle of wine it comes to £115. Not cheap but worth it. If you were local, then this would be a regular haunt I imagine. 

Quirky, quality local

 No. 97 is just a short walk away, looks interesting and I've often thought we should give it a try. But when I've looked online at the menu, it always seemed rather limited and a bit odd, so we had never actually been there. Then our friend gave us a gift voucher for the place, so we decided it would be a good place to go with another friend D. 

After I've booked a table for three, D says she'd like to ask her friend C along. Naturally, we say fine, but then have to wait a week before C decides whether he is coming or not. But we assume upgrading a table for 3 to one for 4 should be easy enough.  On the day before the booking, we hear that yes he would like to come. I try to modify the booking on Open Table, but it only offers me ones "outside" and much later than our previous booking. I wait until the restaurant opens and ring them up. Indeed, they can't fit us in as a 4 in the restaurant, but can put us in the Conservatory - fully under cover and heated, we are assured. So we go for that. We wonder how tight a squeeze the table for 3 would have been.

Then on the day, C decides that he won't come after all! But we leave the booking as it is. When we go along, the restaurant does seem full and we are walked through, outside a little way and then into the Conservatory, where apparently we will be the only ones there. It has heaters blasting away. The waiter explains it had been cold earlier, but that if gets too much they can turn some off. 

We're a little concerned that being out on our own, the service might not be very good.  But the waiter returns quite quickly with complementary sparkling water, and we can order our wine - a South African Chenin Blanc at £34. This comes quickly too, followed shortly by focaccia slices with flavoured butters - smoked paprika (quite spicy) and caramelised garlic - when he then takes our food order. 

There is a set menu with only three choices per course (in the evening I think there are four choices). D chooses the Barbary duck. This comes as a pink piece of duck breast, together is a sort of croquette of duck leg. Not a large portion, but pretty rich and full of flavour. B has the kimchi cured salmon, with blackened sesame seeds. She is very impressed, and this is a good size too.  She remarks on it when the waiter clears the plates, and he says it's his favourite that had only just been put on the menu. I have the third option - curried sweet potato dhal. This too is full of flavour, with coriander and coconut and a warming lentil taste. I mop it up with the last piece of bread, so it's quite filling too.

One of the three choices for main is harissa aubergine, but that's not hacking it. D and B both have the katsu chicken. This also is pieces of breast together with a croquette, and is served on a bed of cauliflower rice, with pieces of cashew nut. The katsu sauce is a puddle on the side, rather than drenching the meat. B thinks the dish is very good, though she finds the sauce a little salty. I have the pollock topped with caviar, on tenderstem broccoli. The waiter suggested that I order potatoes with it, and he's right, the portion would have been a bit small on its own. The fish is delicate, but just right, the broccoli al dente, but the potatoes are on the soggy side. 

B is too full for dessert, and neither D not I fancy the rhubarb. So we both have the white chocolate with coconut and mango sorbet. The chocolate is OK, and the mango excellent. 

All the dishes have been very attractively presented - ideal for Instagram. The service continued to be good throughout, though for a while the waiter was replaced by a waitress - both were chatty and friendly. When the waiter returned, he explained he'd been called into the "most bizarre" 15 minute team meeting!

We had three bottles of wine, so the bill got up to £220 for the three of us (£27 for 2 courses, £32 for 3).  We have all enjoyed the meals, and they were definitely quality, and unusual. We'd happily go back, but wonder how often the limited menu changes.  The restaurant is part of a small group which includes Hideaway, a small riverside bar at the end of our road with a lovely terrace. That too has an odd menu - brunch dishes ("bennies") and more whipped avocado you would ever need at lunchtime, and a limited range of tapas (small plates) from 5.30pm.  It's also linked to the "Good Life" gin company (get it?) and has a gin bar.  

Definitely glad we got there in the end. 

High in the Sky

 Our friend S had commented that he thought the restaurant at the top of the Gherkin was pretty good, better value for money than the Oxo Tower Brasserie. So when it came to finding somewhere to go for 6 of us for my birthday, I thought it worth a try.  The restaurant is called Helix and is run by Searcey's. The nearest I could get a table was a few days before the actual day, and it then transpired the others couldn't make that date, so I changed it to just the two of us.

At the ground floor reception we have to go through an airport style security check, then take a lift to the 34th floor. There we are relieved of our coats, and take a second lift to the 39th floor. There is a bar on the floor above with a 360 degree view apparently, but we go straight to our table, a nice one by the window. Unfortunately the weather isn't very good, so the view is a bit limited - and the window isn't very clean either, which doesn't help. There are also quite a few tall buildings nearby. Nonetheless, we can see the top of Monument, some of the river and views down to the towers at Nine Elms, and in another direction the Barbican and St Pancras station.

Most of the tables by the window are for two people - there is one for 5. If there had been 6 of us we may have had to sit further inside with less of a view.  When we arrive only two of the other tables are occupied, but there is something about the music playing (upbeat 80's) and the hard surfaces that makes hearing difficult.  But surprisingly as it fills up that seems to improve. It does get very nearly completely full, with all the window tables and most of the second row taken. Many of these are people having afternoon tea and champagne. 

The friendly waiter takes our order for wine - the best I could find was a SA Chenin Blanc (Kleine Zalze) at £46!  He then brings some bread - two rolls, with butter on a slate.  The set menu options are very limited - just 4 dishes a course. So avoiding the heritage beetroot and pumpkin soup, we choose chicken liver parfait (me) and smoked salmon (B). The parfait is unremarkable, coming with "soldiers" of brioche, but B is more impressed with her salmon, which comes with a good sharp horseradish cream.

There's "heritage" on the main course options too - cauliflower with gnocchi. Instead I have the beef and oyster sauce, with some chips (triple cooked, obvs).  The sauce comes in a smart copper jug, with actual pieces of oyster.  There's a nice onion compote too. But the beef itself is seriously unimpressive. It's more like pulled beef or even a tin of braised beef. B has the Goosnargh chicken which comes with lentils and kale. The chicken is tasty and moist, with some good skin. It is however just a simple roast chicken, nothing special. 

So far, so disappointing. But things brighten up with the desserts. My chocolate and malt tart is lovely bitter chocolate on a crisp base, well supported by candied orange.  B eventually chooses the Black Forest pavlova, when she realises it isn't the gateau. This with its kirsch cream and cherries is also a success. 

The set menu is £54 a head (the sparkling afternoon tea is £56), so with a second bottle of wine, the chips and standard 12.5% that brings the bill to a whopping £230.  Staff have been friendly and fairly attentive (though this dropped off a bit as the place filled up - there seemed to be more supervisors than servers).  But overall not value for money I felt, despite the view, and I was glad in the end that it hadn't been the 6 of us.