Author: jamesclay

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Uninspiring

I have stayed and eaten at various Premier Inn hotels across the UK. Sometimes the experience is quite good, sometimes it leaves a lot to be desired. So now when I am travelling and staying at a hotel, I prefer not to book a Premier Inn. Sometimes though I am only staying a night, or I can’t find something suitable (and in budget), so I end up at a Premier Inn. Having stayed two nights at the excellent Georgian Townhouse in Norwich, the next night I was at the Premier Inn in Ipswich. There was a problem with my booking, but it was sorted in the end. It’s this kind of thing that is rather stressful when travelling, so much so that I would rather stay in a different hotel than a Premier Inn.

I had booked the Meal Deal which was £24.99, which is still good value. I did wonder what the meal would be like.

Back in July 2012 I did the Meal Deal, which was £22, at a Premier Inn in Cambridge.  I had a prawn cocktail, a rump steak, and a crumble. It was a rather uninspiring meal, not awful (well the crumble was), but not amazingly delicious.

In April 2019 we were staying at the Premier Inn in Brentford, and were very disappointed with the food, as they had served a steak which was off.

In September 2021 we were at the Premier Inn in Edinburgh, the food was okay, but it just took so long to get to the table.

So, to be honest I didn’t have high expectations about the Premier Inn in Ipswich. I went down for dinner; I had booked a table. I chose a table and looked over the menu. I was informed that there were quite a few things unavailable on the menu. There was no steak, no gammon, and no mixed grill. I did quite fancy the mixed grill.

In the end I had Peri-Peri chicken wings for my starter which were a bit hot (as in spice).

These were freshly cooked, tender, and had an interesting flavour.

I then had The House Stack Burger.  Two 4oz British and Irish beef burgers, Cheddar cheese, cos lettuce, red onions, tomatoes and burger sauce. Served in a brioche-style bun with skin-on chips and house slaw.

It did look a little insipid. The burger was rather flavourless and bland. They had no coleslaw, but they did make a little side salad for me instead when I asked about the slaw. The only issue was the cold plate, as a result some chips were hot, others were cold.

I was fancying something sweet, so I had the Triple Chocolate Brownie, made with white, milk and Belgian dark chocolate chunks. Drizzled in chocolate sauce and served with vanilla ice cream.

This wasn’t very inspiring, but it did taste of chocolate, and the cold ice cream enhanced the experience.

The meal reminded me why I don’t usually book a Premier Inn when travelling away.

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Flat White at the Kitchen at Thorpeness

Travelling in Suffolk I stopped at Thorpeness on the Suffolk coast just up the way from Aldeburgh. Thorpeness was a small fishing hamlet which was developed in the early 20th century into an exclusive holiday village.  The village is full of characterful houses, including the unique house in the clouds.

At the heart of the village is an artificial boating lake known as the Meare. I remember boating here in the 1970s. This was January though and it was closed.

What was open was the Kitchen at Thorpeness.

This was a modern building serving a range of drinks and food, as well as having a nostalgic emporium in the back. When I went in, it was really busy, the village was very quiet, but the cafe was packed. I was given a warm welcome and asked what I wanted. I placed my order at the counter and took a seat at the table. I had been tempted by the cakes and scones, but I had had a big breakfast. It wasn’t long before my coffee arrived.

They serve Illy coffee, and this was an excellent flat white. I spent a pleasant time in the Kitchen, drinking my coffee and getting some work done.

Really enjoyed my coffee, and I as on my way out tempted to stay for a scone, but didn’t have the time. If I find myself in the area again, I will certainly visit, and maybe have a scone this time.

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Time for a salad

salad

I made a salad to go with some grilled lemon chicken and rice.

I used some romaine lettuce heart, butterhead lettuce, and young spinach. I added sliced tomatoes, cucumber, radish. In addition I had some sliced red pointed pepper, red onion, spring onion, grated carrot, and avocado.

I don’t generally dress the salad, allowing people to use their dressing of choice.

In addition I made a simple black bean salad, with black beans, diced red onion, and then dressed with white wine vinegar, garlic infused olive oil, salt and pepper.

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I generally don’t do sandwiches…

I may have mentioned before that I generally don’t do sandwiches. 

I was working in Bristol in early January, and thinking about lunch. I had the intention of visiting Finzel Reach street food market. However, as I walked the long way there I saw that the queue for Sandwich Sandwich was almost non-existent.

I was tempted, though first I checked out St Nicks and Finzel Reach first. I then returned to Sandwich Sandwich and looked over the menu.

I decided I would have the rare roast beef sandwich, along with a scotch egg.

I was asked what I wanted and ordered my food. They have a range of sandwiches and I went with the beef sandwich. On granary bread I had  overnight roasted sirloin of beef, red onion, tomato, and horseradish mayo. I believe you can add extra fillings (or take some away).

I have read many reviews of the sandwiches from Sandwich Sandwich and one thing that many have said is the size of the fillings. Even so I was still surprised by how much filling I had in my sandwich.

I’ll be honest I had to eat it with a knife and fork. There was so much beef that it did in many ways overpower the rest of the sandwich. I felt the bread just disappeared into the beef. The beef was tasty, and I enjoyed the salad and mayo.

Alongside I went with one of their scotch eggs. It looked great, had a runny yolk, but I wasn’t totally enamoured with the surrounding pork sausagemeat. I did have quite high expectations about the scotch egg, so it was probably very nice, I was just expecting something outstanding.

Overall it was an interesting sandwich experience. I can understand the popularity of the place, and I might go again, but only if there was a short queue.

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Atlantic Village under new ownership

Atlantic Village

I saw on my lunchtime walk that the Atlantic Village fish and chip shop at Clover Court has a huge handwritten sign in the window, proclaiming that it will be opening soon under new ownership.

Over the last few years the Atlantic Village fish and chip shop has reduced their menu and their opening hours. I remember when it opened I was quite pleased. The reality is that I don’t eat fish and chips that often. So I wasn’t a regular customer, and if I was going to have chips, I was more likely to go to Sea Salt.

It will be interesting to see what the new place will be like.

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Truffle & Pancetta Carbonara

Kings College Chapel

I was over in Cambridge doing some work stuff and was looking for a place for lunch. I had another voucher for free main course at Zizzi, having used one recently in Bristol on a rustica pizza.

There are two branches of Zizzi in Cambridge, one on Regent Street, next to Parker’s Piece, the other on Bene’t Street. The Bene’t Street branch use to be a bank, and before that (as in before 1917) a wine merchants. It’s an impressive building with lovely ceilings and decorative walls.

I was given a warm welcome and allowed to choose a table. I looked over the menu and decided that I would have something different to pizza. In the end I chose the  Fresh Creste di Gallo pasta with wild mushrooms in a rich pancetta, pecorino & truffle-infused carbonara sauce. I have a thing for wild mushrooms and I do like fresh pasta. I checked that my voucher was valid, having had an issue with my previous experience. All was fine and dandy. No problems there then. Placed my order and waited for my food.

I wasn’t that impressed with the look of the dish, but then again it was fundamentally pasta in a carbonara sauce.

I did enjoy the pasta dish, but felt it lacked the depth of flavour of mushrooms and truffle I was expecting.

Overall a really pleasant place to eat, good service and nice food.

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Time for truffle chicken, no, a burger, no, okay bang bang chicken then

I was attending a belated Christmas meal at the Brunello Lounge on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare.

I planned to park in Carlton Street. There was a long queue due to roadworks by the Town Hall, I popped by the station and managed to bypass the queue. However, upon entering the car par, I found the council had closed the upper levels and the rest of the spaces were filled. A conversation later I found out that there had been some anti-social behaviour on the upper levels of the car park, so as a result the council had closed them. Not sure how that encourages people to go out in the evening in Weston, if it’s challenging to park

I headed to the Sovereign Centre and parked there instead, which cost me three times as much.

We had booked a table, which was great as the place was super busy.

As it was January, we didn’t have access to the festive menu, so we had to make do with the regular menu. There is a wide choice on the menu, but if you exclude the brunch and breakfast items, and the sandwiches, there are a few main course items and a range of burgers.

I wanted the Rose’s Truffle Chicken, pulled chicken breast in a creamy truffle & mushroom sauce, with crispy bacon, fried potatoes, veggie parmesan and parsley, served with tenderstem broccoli. However, that wasn’t available. My second choice was the beef brisket burger, but that also wasn’t available. So, in the end I went with the Bang Bang Chicken. This was buttermilk fried chicken with noodles, pak choi, tenderstem broccoli, mushrooms and sugar snap peas topped with bang bang coconut sauce, sesame seeds and chilli.

It was busy, and we were a large group, but I didn’t think it took too long for the food to arrive, I certainly wasn’t made to feel I was waiting. The dish actually looked rather good.

However, I had anticipated that the fried chicken element would be fried chicken pieces. What I got was sliced buttermilk chicken steak on the bed of noodles and vegetables.

There was a fair amount of chilli in the dish as well, I don’t mind some heat, but there was a little too much for me, luckily it had been sliced quite thinly and not chopped, so was easy to remove some of the chilli from the dish.

I did enjoy the food, but it wasn’t amazing, and I felt it could be much better. Looking over the menu, it would appear that there are quite a few menu items there that are based on the buttermilk chicken. Would I have the dish again, probably not.

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Skirt Steak Again

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back. 

The menu changes every so often, and they always seem to have a range of choices, that means it can be difficult to choose what to have.

I was pleased to see that the seared Owton’s skirt steak with salsa verde and pecorino was back on the menu. I had it last year and really enjoyed it, so I ordered it again.

This was a nice piece of chargrilled skirt steak served with a tasty salsa verde and shavings of pecorino.

skirt steak

The steak was nice and tender and tasty in its own right, but I the pecorino and the salsa verde added to the dish.

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Did the steak frites deal

I was up in Glasgow staying overnight as I was attending a conference, and did quite fancy steak and chips. 

I looked on Google maps in the surrounding area to see what restaurants were local to the hotel. Chateau-X which was not too far from my hotel did an early week special where they do steak and frites for just £10. I thought, that will do the job.

I booked online and walked up to the restaurant. It wasn’t too far from the hotel, and luckily it wasn’t raining, even though it was November. The place from the outside looked quite inviting. It wasn’t really busy, but there was a fair few people inside.

I was given a warm welcome and was shown to my table. I really liked the atmosphere of the place, the decor, the ambiance, and the lighting.

I liked the plain wooden tables with the leather benches and wooden chairs. At one end was the (looking like a well stocked) bar and you could see into the kitchen on the far side. Despite the chandelier, I didn’t think it was a pretentious place to be in, and was looking forward to seeing what the food would be like.

There wasn’t much to the menu, they had the ten pound deal, with a choice of extra sides or sauces.

I ordered the steak frites, which was a flat iron steak and chips, decided not to order a sauce, but did order a side of Tobacco Onions. Wasn’t quite what that was, but was intrigued.

Later in the week there is a more substantial menu available, with more choices of steaks and prices to match.

It wasn’t long before my food arrived.

The steak was nice piece of flat iron steak chargrilled and sliced. It came with fries and some green leaves.

The steak was very nice, tender and full of flavour. I liked the fries as well. I could easily cut through the steak.

I would have preferred a plate to the skillet it came in. I do wonder sometimes if the people who decide to serve the food in these items, ever actually eat out of them, themselves. It certainly wasn’t the worse thing I have eaten off, but not sure what the advantage of it was over a normal plate. As it was smaller than a plate, I wonder if it was to make the dish look more substantial than it actually was.

The Tobacco Onions was a dish of deep fried onion pieces. 

It was a nice accompaniment to the steak. I liked the crisp onions, and though at first glances wasn’t a huge pot, it was quite a large portion and would certainly have been enough for two people.

This was an excellent meal, and great value for money. I certainly would go again. In the end I did, a couple of days later and had lunch there.

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Scarsdale’s shoulder of South Coast lamb

Scarsdale's shoulder of South Coast lamb

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back. 

The menu changes every so often, and they always seem to have a range of choices, that means it can be difficult to choose what to have.

One thing that I did like the sound of, which I hadn’t seen before was the Scarsdale’s shoulder of South Coast lamb, served with a rosemary potato rösti, sautéed kale, red currant gravy.

It was one of the more expensive items on the menu, but I did like the sound of it, so I ordered it.

It did look quite impressive, this was a big portion of lamb shoulder.

However I will be honest I was a little disappointed, I wonder if that was because I had quite high expectations. The lamb was lovely and tender and did have a lot of flavour. However, though it had been slow cooked, it was obviously reheated for my plate. I think it could have done with a little more caramelisation, which would have added more flavour.

The rosemary potato rösti was also disappointing, it was packed with flavour, but it needed to be more crispy. It was quite soft. I did enjoy the kale and the gravy was nice.

Though it wasn’t perfect, it was nice, however I don’t think if it was on the menu again I would order it.