Red Admiral
Hacket Place
Trowbridge
BA14 7GW
Tel: 01225 767400
http://www.redadmiralpub.co.uk/
Although the last few weeks have tended to involve eating at relatively high-end eateries such as the Crown Social in Cardiff, Pier 64 in Penarth, and L’Escargot in London, I’m just as happy checking out more budget-friendly places to eat. Indeed, sometimes a good pub meal is just what you need. This weekend saw me visiting some family in the Trowbridge area of Wiltshire where we happened into a Marston’s 2 for 1pub, The Red Admiral. It’s a newly built pub and still looks it; it’s also fairly large with a decent sized beer garden and so likely to be able to withstand hungry Sunday hoards or the summer beer garden crush.
However, I’m interested here in focusing on the food since the Cardiff and Vale area has a few Marston’s pubs of their own – the new Sand Martin by the Cardiff City stadium (not a 2 for 1 restaurant), the long-established Cayo on Cathedral Road, the Cherry Orchard in Barry and the Barn near Llantrisant. The Cherry Orchard is the only one that shares the exact same menu with the Red Admiral whilst The Barn has some of the dishes but not others.
Overall, the comments below will hopefully help you to decide if these are the sort of places for you or not.
For a starter I chose the Ham & Orange Terrine with parsley, served with salad and bread - I was pleased to see something slightly different to the usual pub starters of soup, breaded mushrooms, nachos and potato skins on offer so opted to try this tasty sounding terrine. The portion was a good size for a starter but the terrine was a little over-salted and needed a stronger citrus lift from the orange zest to balance this. A little splash of dressing on the salad leaves would also have been welcome but overall this was a fairly pleasant starter.
The Ale & Hearty pie (Beef and Pedigree Ale Pie on the Cherry Orchard menu) – with chips, peas and gravy. The pie was excellent, with perfect pastry and copious amounts of beef. A little more of the taste of the real ale in the sauce would have been good but overall, as a pie connoisseur, I was very impressed.
For main courses, we also sampled the sea bass with crayfish and haddocks in cheese sauce from the specials menu and a steak and mushroom salad which was bursting with steak but contained far too much strong raw red onion which overpowered the entire dish.
The desserts of Peach & apricot frangipane, Strawberry Waffle Cheesecake, Deep Dish Apple Pie and Chocolate Indulgence Sundae were all very nice although you can get similar fare in most pub chains. They were well presented though and made a tasty sweet treat at the end of the meal.
There are a handful of dishes containing less than 500 calories for those watching their waistline and a copious range of specials on the specials board. It was also great value for money with five 3-course lunches, three glasses of wine, two pints of real ale, and 4 soft drinks coming in at under £95.
The Marston’s group seems to be aiming for a range of clientele however, and the Cayo for example has a slightly more refined menu whilst still offering a range of deals such as £4.95 meals, £7.99 bottles of wine and sharers and a bottle of wine for £15.
Overall, based on my experience of the Red Admiral I’d certainly give other Marston’s pubs a try. It’s not haute cuisine and many of the dishes are tried-and-tested but the food quality and service is good for the price. For a bite to eat after a day out or a cheap mid-week meal out, it’s worth a visit.
Food - 7/10
Service 7/10
Atmosphere 7/10
Monday 22 August 2011
Tuesday 9 August 2011
An uneven evening: Crown Social, Cardiff
Crown Social
The Parc Hotel
Park Place
Cardiff
CF10 3UD
Tel. No: 029 2078 5593
Email: crownsocial@thistle.co.uk
http://crownsocial.co.uk/
In many ways, writing a review of the Crown Social, housed within Cardiff's Parc Hotel, seems slightly redundant. Firstly because, as most Cardiffians with an interest in food and dining will know, the partnership between the Crown group (who also run the Michelin-starred Crown at Whitebrook and the Crown restaurant within the Celtic Manor) and the Parc is due to finish at the end of the month.
Chef Martin Blunos is to look for another Cardiff location to open a Crown restaurant within the city and the hotel is to resume running of the Social. This is, apparently, all very amicable. I had hoped that this might be the place to finally bring a coveted Michelin star to the city and it's disappointing to see a place that had that promise (and managed to acrue 2 AA rosettes so quickly) has apparently not taken off.
The excellent local food blog Corpulent Capers also last week posted a thorough review of the Crown Social and some musings on the reasons for its failure. I'm not sure how much I can add to those thoughts but I'd suggest checking out the post.
My rush to visit the Social this week was, thus, born from the fact that I was in possession of a Travel Zoo dining voucher that I wanted to cash in before the opportunity to sample the place was forever gone. The voucher offered £90 worth of food for £45 for two - including two nibbles, four starters, two mains, two sides, and two desserts. On the face of it, this sounds like incredible value but when you consider the small plate sharing ethos of the Crown Social, it becomes less of a bargain.
Nevertheless, despite the news about the imminent parting of the ways between the Parc Hotel and Crown and despite some of the less than positive reviews and comments I've read on Twitter and other blogs, my partner and I set off to try it out for ourselves.
The first thing we were suprised by was how busy it was for a Monday night. Although I've seen many people comment that the place is like a ghost town on their visits, the place was around half full when we attended. How much of this is due to Travel Zoo punters rushing to use their coupons is unclear but it did add some atmosphere to the dining room. I can easily see how a quiet evening would seriously detract from the experience of the visit.
We started with drinks - an Oriental Sparkle cocktail was surprisingly small for its £8 cost and lacked the kick of lychee and mandarin I was promised. We thus opted for a bottle of wine with our meal which was perfectly servicable (but, hey, we're on a budget!).
The sharing concept has also come in for some critique and again I can understand this. We ordered our 2 nibbles and 4 starters and agreed that these would all be brought at the same time. This allowed some sharing between the two of us but it also meant that some of the dishes were less than warm by the time we tasted them.
Cheese fondue
The cheese fondue was my favourite of the starters that we tried. I'm a massive fan of this anyway but the cheese was gooey and just strong enough. We had to order a side of bread to finish it all off but at 90p for a fairly substantial loaf (nicely presented on a bread board with a knife) it didn't break the bank.
Beer battered whiting with tartare sauce & Grilled mackerel with Russian salad
Apparently the whiting was mostly pointless, providing some nice tartare sauce but little in the way of flavour or texture. The mackerel was reported to be well cooked but uninspiring, with the Russian salad really being a tarted-up coleslaw. Not excellent on the fish nibbles/starters front at all.
Leek and potato terrine, roast garlic and toasted hazelnuts
This was another missed opportunity; cold and bland with a fairly unpleasant texture and the toasted hazelnuts didn't add anything at all to this dish. We both sincerely wished that we had ordered something else.
Welsh pork boudin and shallot piccalilli
This was tasty and, sadly, as a nibble, too small for much of a sharing experience. Nicely seasoned meat and a very pleasant mouthful.
Seared lambs liver, cauliflower and hot caper butter
This was my partner's highlight of the meal. Having never tried liver before he was impressed with the flavour and the combination of the liver with the capers and cauliflower. I hate liver but tried it and found it better than most other livers I've tasted. Well cooked and interesting, this was one of the best dishes of the night.
For the mains we went for one fish and one meat dish and ordered them with sides of a salad and chips. The chips were chunky and soft on the inside but could have done with being crispier on the outside.
Crab tortellini and crab cream sauce
The crab tortellini looked pretty but was pretty much what it said on the menu: 5 piece of pasta with a little sauce. The tortellini had a good fish flavour but my partner reported the odd bit of shell in the dish - a cardinal sin at any restaurant but especially one aiming for such high levels!
Slow cooked lamb shoulder and crisp lamb breast
My lamb dish was very good, the meat was well cooked and tender and the sauce that accompanied it was rich. Aside from the fondue, this was my favourite dish of the evening - with a slightly larger portion and some extra garnish I would happily eat this as a main course in any restaurant.
For dessert we chose the honeycomb souffle which was light and fluffy and full of delicious surprise honeycomb textures. The lime sorbet didn't really add much to it though and the flavours didn't really match up. The souffle itself more than made up for it though.
Honeycomb souffle and coconut lime sorbet
The salted caramel chocolate slice was also very good. My only critique was the presentation - no matter how you look at it, a brown smear on a plate is not attractive. It's one of my pet hates. But the slice itself was both salty and sweet and a good size for the end of a meal.
Salted caramel chocolate slice
Overall, we enjoyed the experience at the Crown Social but there were a number of flaws. We both agreed that whilst there were flashes of excellence (the fondue, liver, the lamb dish, the desserts) there was also a great deal of mediocracy (the shell in the crab dish!, the bland lifeless potato terrine, the whiting) which made the food quality very uneven. I can see how the concept of sharing such small dishes might also be off-putting to some people and how the usually high prices also seem to jar with the concept. If we hadn't used the Travel Zoo voucher the meal would have easily set us back nearly £150. At that price, it just isn't worth it.
I think the concept of 'fine dining tapas' could work if prices were lower, portions were larger, or both. I also do hope that the Crown finds a suitable location in Cardiff although I'd wager that this won't be in the city centre. The success of more 'high-end' restaurants such as Bullys, Woods and Oscars outside of the main areas suggests that punters don't always associate the city centre with this type of place. I may well be proven wrong though (and the recent buzz around the Potted Pig does offer a counterpoint) and I'm interested to see whether that is the case.
At the moment, though, the search for a restaurant to bring Cardiff its first Michelin star goes on...
The Parc Hotel
Park Place
Cardiff
CF10 3UD
Tel. No: 029 2078 5593
Email: crownsocial@thistle.co.uk
http://crownsocial.co.uk/
In many ways, writing a review of the Crown Social, housed within Cardiff's Parc Hotel, seems slightly redundant. Firstly because, as most Cardiffians with an interest in food and dining will know, the partnership between the Crown group (who also run the Michelin-starred Crown at Whitebrook and the Crown restaurant within the Celtic Manor) and the Parc is due to finish at the end of the month.
Chef Martin Blunos is to look for another Cardiff location to open a Crown restaurant within the city and the hotel is to resume running of the Social. This is, apparently, all very amicable. I had hoped that this might be the place to finally bring a coveted Michelin star to the city and it's disappointing to see a place that had that promise (and managed to acrue 2 AA rosettes so quickly) has apparently not taken off.
The excellent local food blog Corpulent Capers also last week posted a thorough review of the Crown Social and some musings on the reasons for its failure. I'm not sure how much I can add to those thoughts but I'd suggest checking out the post.
My rush to visit the Social this week was, thus, born from the fact that I was in possession of a Travel Zoo dining voucher that I wanted to cash in before the opportunity to sample the place was forever gone. The voucher offered £90 worth of food for £45 for two - including two nibbles, four starters, two mains, two sides, and two desserts. On the face of it, this sounds like incredible value but when you consider the small plate sharing ethos of the Crown Social, it becomes less of a bargain.
Nevertheless, despite the news about the imminent parting of the ways between the Parc Hotel and Crown and despite some of the less than positive reviews and comments I've read on Twitter and other blogs, my partner and I set off to try it out for ourselves.
The first thing we were suprised by was how busy it was for a Monday night. Although I've seen many people comment that the place is like a ghost town on their visits, the place was around half full when we attended. How much of this is due to Travel Zoo punters rushing to use their coupons is unclear but it did add some atmosphere to the dining room. I can easily see how a quiet evening would seriously detract from the experience of the visit.
We started with drinks - an Oriental Sparkle cocktail was surprisingly small for its £8 cost and lacked the kick of lychee and mandarin I was promised. We thus opted for a bottle of wine with our meal which was perfectly servicable (but, hey, we're on a budget!).
The sharing concept has also come in for some critique and again I can understand this. We ordered our 2 nibbles and 4 starters and agreed that these would all be brought at the same time. This allowed some sharing between the two of us but it also meant that some of the dishes were less than warm by the time we tasted them.
Cheese fondue
The cheese fondue was my favourite of the starters that we tried. I'm a massive fan of this anyway but the cheese was gooey and just strong enough. We had to order a side of bread to finish it all off but at 90p for a fairly substantial loaf (nicely presented on a bread board with a knife) it didn't break the bank.
Beer battered whiting with tartare sauce & Grilled mackerel with Russian salad
Apparently the whiting was mostly pointless, providing some nice tartare sauce but little in the way of flavour or texture. The mackerel was reported to be well cooked but uninspiring, with the Russian salad really being a tarted-up coleslaw. Not excellent on the fish nibbles/starters front at all.
Leek and potato terrine, roast garlic and toasted hazelnuts
This was another missed opportunity; cold and bland with a fairly unpleasant texture and the toasted hazelnuts didn't add anything at all to this dish. We both sincerely wished that we had ordered something else.
Welsh pork boudin and shallot piccalilli
This was tasty and, sadly, as a nibble, too small for much of a sharing experience. Nicely seasoned meat and a very pleasant mouthful.
Seared lambs liver, cauliflower and hot caper butter
This was my partner's highlight of the meal. Having never tried liver before he was impressed with the flavour and the combination of the liver with the capers and cauliflower. I hate liver but tried it and found it better than most other livers I've tasted. Well cooked and interesting, this was one of the best dishes of the night.
For the mains we went for one fish and one meat dish and ordered them with sides of a salad and chips. The chips were chunky and soft on the inside but could have done with being crispier on the outside.
Crab tortellini and crab cream sauce
The crab tortellini looked pretty but was pretty much what it said on the menu: 5 piece of pasta with a little sauce. The tortellini had a good fish flavour but my partner reported the odd bit of shell in the dish - a cardinal sin at any restaurant but especially one aiming for such high levels!
Slow cooked lamb shoulder and crisp lamb breast
My lamb dish was very good, the meat was well cooked and tender and the sauce that accompanied it was rich. Aside from the fondue, this was my favourite dish of the evening - with a slightly larger portion and some extra garnish I would happily eat this as a main course in any restaurant.
For dessert we chose the honeycomb souffle which was light and fluffy and full of delicious surprise honeycomb textures. The lime sorbet didn't really add much to it though and the flavours didn't really match up. The souffle itself more than made up for it though.
Honeycomb souffle and coconut lime sorbet
The salted caramel chocolate slice was also very good. My only critique was the presentation - no matter how you look at it, a brown smear on a plate is not attractive. It's one of my pet hates. But the slice itself was both salty and sweet and a good size for the end of a meal.
Salted caramel chocolate slice
Overall, we enjoyed the experience at the Crown Social but there were a number of flaws. We both agreed that whilst there were flashes of excellence (the fondue, liver, the lamb dish, the desserts) there was also a great deal of mediocracy (the shell in the crab dish!, the bland lifeless potato terrine, the whiting) which made the food quality very uneven. I can see how the concept of sharing such small dishes might also be off-putting to some people and how the usually high prices also seem to jar with the concept. If we hadn't used the Travel Zoo voucher the meal would have easily set us back nearly £150. At that price, it just isn't worth it.
I think the concept of 'fine dining tapas' could work if prices were lower, portions were larger, or both. I also do hope that the Crown finds a suitable location in Cardiff although I'd wager that this won't be in the city centre. The success of more 'high-end' restaurants such as Bullys, Woods and Oscars outside of the main areas suggests that punters don't always associate the city centre with this type of place. I may well be proven wrong though (and the recent buzz around the Potted Pig does offer a counterpoint) and I'm interested to see whether that is the case.
At the moment, though, the search for a restaurant to bring Cardiff its first Michelin star goes on...
Monday 8 August 2011
Restaurant review: L'Escargot, London
L'Escargot
48 Greek Street
Soho
London W1D 4EF
Tel:(0) 20 7439 7474
Web: http://www.lescargotrestaurant.co.uk/Lescargot/HOME.html
Over the weekend, a very hectic and tiring daytrip to London to meet up with a visiting friend from overseas led to a surprising and very welcome trip to Marco Pierre White's once Michelin-starred L'Escargot restaurant in Soho. A friend has been raving about the combination of fabulous food, atmosphere and the reasonable prices for a while so we took a chance on tables being available and managed to get in for the pre-theatre menu on Saturday evening.
Fortunately, we were not disappointed and my expectations were more than met. The restaurant is unassuming from the outside, located in a street just off the bustling Old Compton Road.
Inside, however, the place is tastefully decorated and intimate; the only moment of over-the-top opulence was a gold dinosaur with glittering teeth located in one corner of the dining room. I'm sure it's worth a fortune but it did elicit some bewilderment on our entry.
Of the four in our party, three of us opted for the pre-theatre option at an amazing £15 for two courses or £18 for three. Our vegetarian companion went for the veloute of carrot soup, ginger and creme fraich which was reportedly smooth and sweet but with a nice punch of ginger. We chose the duck rilette served with cornichons and pickled onions with melba toast. As a bit of a duck fan (in all its forms) this was, for me, the standout course of the meal. The duck rillette was full of texture and flavour, and the pickled accompaniments added a sharpness and a tang that complemented the richness of the duck perfectly. I could easily have eaten another of these and been more than happy.
The person in our party who chose from the a la carte menu selected the Carpaccio of Scottish Beef Fillet with Parmesan, with Aged Balsamic Dressing (£9.75) and we were all surprised by the size of the plate which was full of beef and a generous portion of Parmesan.
The mains were equally outstanding; the slow roasted pork belly with fricassee of peas, beans and carrot that I chose boasted the best crackling I have ever tasted; crisp and salty with real bite, whilst the pork belly was soft and melted in the mouth. The sauce was also rich and strong but didn't overpower the taste of the meat itself; a genuinely delicious and well presented dish.
The other dish of roasted vegetable and mozzarella tart with balsamic reduction from the set menu was apparently also very good whilst the a la carte diner decided to push the boat out and opt for half a lobster. This dish was smaller than the others but looked amazing. However, the accompanying chips were the only disappointment of the meal, lacking crunch and texture.
Finally, desserts were ordered and I decided to sample the selection of cheeses with raising bread and chutney. At first the sweetness of the bread tasted odd against the cheeses but as I continued with the dish, the tastes and textures worked well, especially when paired with the chutney.
The other desserts of summer berries and elderflower jelly with sauce cardinal and a creme brulee (£7.50) looked pretty and were reported to be very good. Sometimes I curse my lack of a sweet tooth.
Overall, the bill for 2 three-course dinners, 1 two-course dinner, a starter, main and dessert with three glasses of wine, a kir royale and a glass of champagne came to £137 including service. We were not charged for coffee and the service throughout was faultless. In an experience earlier this year at Michel Roux at Parliament Square I found the staff to be efficient but cold, whereas the staff at L'Escargot were more friendly and the atmosphere was slightly more relaxed.
The website promises fine dining and affordable glamour and it certainly delivers both. If slightly limp chips and a strange gilded dinosaur are the only issues I can find with the place, then that's fine with me.
48 Greek Street
Soho
London W1D 4EF
Tel:(0) 20 7439 7474
Web: http://www.lescargotrestaurant.co.uk/Lescargot/HOME.html
Over the weekend, a very hectic and tiring daytrip to London to meet up with a visiting friend from overseas led to a surprising and very welcome trip to Marco Pierre White's once Michelin-starred L'Escargot restaurant in Soho. A friend has been raving about the combination of fabulous food, atmosphere and the reasonable prices for a while so we took a chance on tables being available and managed to get in for the pre-theatre menu on Saturday evening.
Fortunately, we were not disappointed and my expectations were more than met. The restaurant is unassuming from the outside, located in a street just off the bustling Old Compton Road.
Inside, however, the place is tastefully decorated and intimate; the only moment of over-the-top opulence was a gold dinosaur with glittering teeth located in one corner of the dining room. I'm sure it's worth a fortune but it did elicit some bewilderment on our entry.
Of the four in our party, three of us opted for the pre-theatre option at an amazing £15 for two courses or £18 for three. Our vegetarian companion went for the veloute of carrot soup, ginger and creme fraich which was reportedly smooth and sweet but with a nice punch of ginger. We chose the duck rilette served with cornichons and pickled onions with melba toast. As a bit of a duck fan (in all its forms) this was, for me, the standout course of the meal. The duck rillette was full of texture and flavour, and the pickled accompaniments added a sharpness and a tang that complemented the richness of the duck perfectly. I could easily have eaten another of these and been more than happy.
The person in our party who chose from the a la carte menu selected the Carpaccio of Scottish Beef Fillet with Parmesan, with Aged Balsamic Dressing (£9.75) and we were all surprised by the size of the plate which was full of beef and a generous portion of Parmesan.
The mains were equally outstanding; the slow roasted pork belly with fricassee of peas, beans and carrot that I chose boasted the best crackling I have ever tasted; crisp and salty with real bite, whilst the pork belly was soft and melted in the mouth. The sauce was also rich and strong but didn't overpower the taste of the meat itself; a genuinely delicious and well presented dish.
The other dish of roasted vegetable and mozzarella tart with balsamic reduction from the set menu was apparently also very good whilst the a la carte diner decided to push the boat out and opt for half a lobster. This dish was smaller than the others but looked amazing. However, the accompanying chips were the only disappointment of the meal, lacking crunch and texture.
Finally, desserts were ordered and I decided to sample the selection of cheeses with raising bread and chutney. At first the sweetness of the bread tasted odd against the cheeses but as I continued with the dish, the tastes and textures worked well, especially when paired with the chutney.
The other desserts of summer berries and elderflower jelly with sauce cardinal and a creme brulee (£7.50) looked pretty and were reported to be very good. Sometimes I curse my lack of a sweet tooth.
Overall, the bill for 2 three-course dinners, 1 two-course dinner, a starter, main and dessert with three glasses of wine, a kir royale and a glass of champagne came to £137 including service. We were not charged for coffee and the service throughout was faultless. In an experience earlier this year at Michel Roux at Parliament Square I found the staff to be efficient but cold, whereas the staff at L'Escargot were more friendly and the atmosphere was slightly more relaxed.
The website promises fine dining and affordable glamour and it certainly delivers both. If slightly limp chips and a strange gilded dinosaur are the only issues I can find with the place, then that's fine with me.
Thursday 4 August 2011
Recipe: Green nachos
One of my closest friends is visiting this week from Mexico and I'm thrilled to see her for the first time since January. I also miss her amazing Mexican cooking; via her I've tried octopus ceviche, the hottest chipotle spaghetti ever, sopa di lima, and a range of other wonderful things.
In her honour, I share with you my absolute favourite dish of hers; the famous Green Nachos. Very simple and easy and incredibly tasty and all with ingredients you can pick up in the supermarket or easily order online.
This is great as a snack and also works wonders for a hangover if you have it at breakfast. Also, you can use half or low fat crème fraiche and cheese if you’re watching the pounds (as I am).
Ingredients
Cooking oil (vegetable or sunflower)
2 bags of plain nachos (plain Tesco Value nachos are perfect for this – and under 30p per bag)
1 pot crème fraiche
1 medium sized mild cheddar cheese, grated
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves
2 green chillies, roughly chopped (if you like things really hot, leave the chilli seeds in)
Dona Chonita - Available online at Mex Grocer
Dehydrated Salsa -Available online at Mex Grocer
Coriander (fresh or dried)
Fry onion in some oil until golden, add garlic and fry for a little longer, until both are soft. Add chopped chillies. Add Dona Chonita sauce, and a pint of water. Wait for mixture to boil before adding dehydrated salsa and coriander. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes,
In a Pyrex dish, mix nachos and grated cheese (you can add some shredded chicken at this stage if you like).
Pour over the salsa mixture. Cover with crème fraiche and a layer of cheese.
Bake in oven until cheese has melted and is golden.
Serve warm or cold.
Done.
In her honour, I share with you my absolute favourite dish of hers; the famous Green Nachos. Very simple and easy and incredibly tasty and all with ingredients you can pick up in the supermarket or easily order online.
This is great as a snack and also works wonders for a hangover if you have it at breakfast. Also, you can use half or low fat crème fraiche and cheese if you’re watching the pounds (as I am).
Ingredients
Cooking oil (vegetable or sunflower)
2 bags of plain nachos (plain Tesco Value nachos are perfect for this – and under 30p per bag)
1 pot crème fraiche
1 medium sized mild cheddar cheese, grated
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves
2 green chillies, roughly chopped (if you like things really hot, leave the chilli seeds in)
Dona Chonita - Available online at Mex Grocer
Dehydrated Salsa -Available online at Mex Grocer
Coriander (fresh or dried)
Fry onion in some oil until golden, add garlic and fry for a little longer, until both are soft. Add chopped chillies. Add Dona Chonita sauce, and a pint of water. Wait for mixture to boil before adding dehydrated salsa and coriander. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes,
In a Pyrex dish, mix nachos and grated cheese (you can add some shredded chicken at this stage if you like).
Pour over the salsa mixture. Cover with crème fraiche and a layer of cheese.
Bake in oven until cheese has melted and is golden.
Serve warm or cold.
Done.
Wednesday 3 August 2011
Life is like a box of chocolates....
I have to confess: I'm not a massive lover of chocolate. This, along with my relative lack of interest in ice cream, has subjected me to many confused looks over the years. However, I stumbled across this image and thought it was an interesting way of looking at chocolate differently.
These are American 'candy bars' but there's a meme going round about how many of them you can recognise. I can spot a Mars bar, and that's about it...
Via A Cup of Jo
These are American 'candy bars' but there's a meme going round about how many of them you can recognise. I can spot a Mars bar, and that's about it...
Via A Cup of Jo
Tuesday 2 August 2011
Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used: Some foodie treats from Stratford-Upon-Avon
If there's one thing I enjoy as much as trying new eateries and drinking spots, it's travelling and exploring new places. I suppose the two are very closely intertwined since the memory of a good dinner or even a suprising snack can evoke strong feelings; the smell of certain foods or colours can be incredibly evocative (I'm thinking of a food memories series of posts at some point).
There is also something nice about returning to the same places again and again, developing routines and habits and I recently returned from a weekend in Stratford to see 'Midsummer Night's Dream' with one of my closest friends. It's an annual jaunt and we tend to visit the same lovely places for food. This year, however, we branched out a little and found two very good restaurants to try if you're ever in the area.
Shakespeare himself had a lot to say about food and drink (the quote that forms the title of this post is from Othello: act 2, scene 3) and dining out is always a big part of our trips away.
This time we opted to try the new RSC Rooftop restaurant in the recently renovated RSC Theatre.
RSC Rooftop Theatre
Tel: 01789 403449
http://www.rsc.org.uk/visit-us/stratford/rooftop-restaurant/menus.aspx
The theatre itself is a beautiful building, with faithful use of the older elements and some intruiging new design features. There's a lovely little tribute to Shakespeare near the Riverside Cafe part of the building which was especially interesting to me, as a big Shakey fan.
We opted to eat in the Rootftop restaurant because of the ease of getting from there into our seats for the performance and also because the online pre-theatre menu had sounded both intruiging and value for money. The restaurant itself has amazing views of the river and the park in Stratford and also boasts a round room for private hire. The bar is also worth a visit for one of the lovingly made cocktails (I sampled a very fine and very peachy bellini).
Menu
We both chose the three course set menu, and plumped for the confit duck with peach and shaved fennel to start. The duck was tender and well cooked, moist but not greasy, and the taste combination of the sweet peach with the aniseed taste of the fennel was a new one for me. As a starter it was perfect; light but with enough different tastes and textures on the plate to keep you interested.
As both of us have foodie interests (my companion is more of a baker and cake maker than I) we opted for different main courses to better sample the menu. I went for roast hake which came on a tower of crushed potatoes and with a gorgeous creamy pea, lettuce and bacon sauce. The other main was corn-fed chicken with turnip, broccoli and wild mushrooms which recieved glowing praise for the tenderness of the chicken and the general quality of the dish.
Hake
Chicken
We were encouraged to order sides by our server and went for french fries and vegetables. These were very tasty but not really necessary and in future, I'd avoid the tendency to fall for the encouragement of the waiting staff to add a few sides to the order.
For dessert, we went for different forms of cheese based dish; I went for a selection of local cheeses which were served with some unusual crackers, a fruity and spicy chutney and some small shards of fruity marmalade. My friend (a confessed lemon addict) went for the lemon cheesecake with raspberry compote which was wonderfully presented with a tuile and some creme fraiche.
Cheese
Cheesecake
Overall, the set three courses for £18.50 is an absolute bargain. The service is attentive and polite, the views are lovely, and the food is good quality but with a few extra details that make it something a little special. There's also a good range of wines and a premium wine and champagne list for those celebrating a special occasion.
A quick visit to the website shows that the set menu has now changed with the season but, either way, the dishes on the new menu sound equally delicious as the ones we sampled on the weekend.
Moons Restaurant
9 Chapel Street
Stratford-upon-Avon
Tel: 01789 267069
Foregoing our usual Sunday lunch at The Dirty Duck (see below) we tried out Edward Moon's Brasserie , foregoing the assumption that this was in any way related to David Essex's character in Eastenders. This branching out from our usual routine turned out to be an excellent idea - Moon's offered a reasonable set lunch of £11.99 for two courses and its a la carte menu is also very well priced with starters averaging at £5 and mains starting at around a tenner for sausage and mash and rising to £15-£16 for steak or duck.
The Sunday lunch menu was concise but tempting and I opted for a goats cheese and beetroot salad to start whilst my companion forewent the starter option. The salad was light and fresh with a slightly acidic dill dressing. The cheese was soft and plentiful (I always worry with a cheese-based salad that I'll be faced with two slices and that's it!) and worked well with the beetroot. It's a tried and tested combo and this one did not disapppoint.
For the mains I went with beef and all the trimmings which was also very good. The portions were'nt huge which was a relief and contained two well cooked and still pink slices of roast beef, a lovely herby yorkshire pudding, perfect roasties and a selection of vegetables. The other dish sampled was roast pork with crackling and roast apple which recieved equally high praise from my friend.
There are no photos of this meal, sadly, but for a well-priced and well cooked Sunday lunch with friendly service, we'd certainly return there on a future trip.
Other recommendations:
The Dirty Duck - a lovely old-fashioned pub which serves huge Sunday lunches and can often be a watering hole for the actors from the RSC. David Tennant was spotted here several times during his tenure as Hamlet in 2008.
Will's Place -The restaurant of the outstanding Legacy Falcon hotel, this place offers some excellent food and good pre-theatre set dinners.
Ettington Chase Not strictly in Stratford but only a short drive away (around 7 miles) this is a stunning country house location that offers some divine and reasonably priced afternoon teas (with or without champagne but, let's face it, why say no to champers?)
There is also something nice about returning to the same places again and again, developing routines and habits and I recently returned from a weekend in Stratford to see 'Midsummer Night's Dream' with one of my closest friends. It's an annual jaunt and we tend to visit the same lovely places for food. This year, however, we branched out a little and found two very good restaurants to try if you're ever in the area.
Shakespeare himself had a lot to say about food and drink (the quote that forms the title of this post is from Othello: act 2, scene 3) and dining out is always a big part of our trips away.
This time we opted to try the new RSC Rooftop restaurant in the recently renovated RSC Theatre.
RSC Rooftop Theatre
Tel: 01789 403449
http://www.rsc.org.uk/visit-us/stratford/rooftop-restaurant/menus.aspx
The theatre itself is a beautiful building, with faithful use of the older elements and some intruiging new design features. There's a lovely little tribute to Shakespeare near the Riverside Cafe part of the building which was especially interesting to me, as a big Shakey fan.
We opted to eat in the Rootftop restaurant because of the ease of getting from there into our seats for the performance and also because the online pre-theatre menu had sounded both intruiging and value for money. The restaurant itself has amazing views of the river and the park in Stratford and also boasts a round room for private hire. The bar is also worth a visit for one of the lovingly made cocktails (I sampled a very fine and very peachy bellini).
Menu
We both chose the three course set menu, and plumped for the confit duck with peach and shaved fennel to start. The duck was tender and well cooked, moist but not greasy, and the taste combination of the sweet peach with the aniseed taste of the fennel was a new one for me. As a starter it was perfect; light but with enough different tastes and textures on the plate to keep you interested.
As both of us have foodie interests (my companion is more of a baker and cake maker than I) we opted for different main courses to better sample the menu. I went for roast hake which came on a tower of crushed potatoes and with a gorgeous creamy pea, lettuce and bacon sauce. The other main was corn-fed chicken with turnip, broccoli and wild mushrooms which recieved glowing praise for the tenderness of the chicken and the general quality of the dish.
Hake
Chicken
We were encouraged to order sides by our server and went for french fries and vegetables. These were very tasty but not really necessary and in future, I'd avoid the tendency to fall for the encouragement of the waiting staff to add a few sides to the order.
For dessert, we went for different forms of cheese based dish; I went for a selection of local cheeses which were served with some unusual crackers, a fruity and spicy chutney and some small shards of fruity marmalade. My friend (a confessed lemon addict) went for the lemon cheesecake with raspberry compote which was wonderfully presented with a tuile and some creme fraiche.
Cheese
Cheesecake
Overall, the set three courses for £18.50 is an absolute bargain. The service is attentive and polite, the views are lovely, and the food is good quality but with a few extra details that make it something a little special. There's also a good range of wines and a premium wine and champagne list for those celebrating a special occasion.
A quick visit to the website shows that the set menu has now changed with the season but, either way, the dishes on the new menu sound equally delicious as the ones we sampled on the weekend.
Moons Restaurant
9 Chapel Street
Stratford-upon-Avon
Tel: 01789 267069
Foregoing our usual Sunday lunch at The Dirty Duck (see below) we tried out Edward Moon's Brasserie , foregoing the assumption that this was in any way related to David Essex's character in Eastenders. This branching out from our usual routine turned out to be an excellent idea - Moon's offered a reasonable set lunch of £11.99 for two courses and its a la carte menu is also very well priced with starters averaging at £5 and mains starting at around a tenner for sausage and mash and rising to £15-£16 for steak or duck.
The Sunday lunch menu was concise but tempting and I opted for a goats cheese and beetroot salad to start whilst my companion forewent the starter option. The salad was light and fresh with a slightly acidic dill dressing. The cheese was soft and plentiful (I always worry with a cheese-based salad that I'll be faced with two slices and that's it!) and worked well with the beetroot. It's a tried and tested combo and this one did not disapppoint.
For the mains I went with beef and all the trimmings which was also very good. The portions were'nt huge which was a relief and contained two well cooked and still pink slices of roast beef, a lovely herby yorkshire pudding, perfect roasties and a selection of vegetables. The other dish sampled was roast pork with crackling and roast apple which recieved equally high praise from my friend.
There are no photos of this meal, sadly, but for a well-priced and well cooked Sunday lunch with friendly service, we'd certainly return there on a future trip.
Other recommendations:
The Dirty Duck - a lovely old-fashioned pub which serves huge Sunday lunches and can often be a watering hole for the actors from the RSC. David Tennant was spotted here several times during his tenure as Hamlet in 2008.
Will's Place -The restaurant of the outstanding Legacy Falcon hotel, this place offers some excellent food and good pre-theatre set dinners.
Ettington Chase Not strictly in Stratford but only a short drive away (around 7 miles) this is a stunning country house location that offers some divine and reasonably priced afternoon teas (with or without champagne but, let's face it, why say no to champers?)
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