food, reviews and of course coffee
I was working in London and wanting a coffee so headed out to one of my usual haunts, Coco di Mama on New Square.
I ordered a double espresso and took a seat, always like it when they bring the coffee to you rather than hanging around by the counter until they’ve made it.
The coffee arrived in a real china cup with a square of delicious dark chocolate on the side.
This was an excellent double espresso and I enjoyed the chocolate too.
Great tasting coffee and friendly staff.
I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant. I had a look over their menu. There is something about hotel menus that can be rather depressing. Sometimes you find places that inspire and bring joy. Other times you think, I should have gone out to eat!
Now I will say having had steak and chips a fair few times recently at hotels, this dish was just a little disappointing in comparison.
The menu didn’t indicate the weight or the size of the steak, but I got what I felt was a rather thin piece of sirloin steak. The chips came in a small metal fryer basket. Alongside were some roasted cherry tomatoes on the vine, a roasted field mushroom and some watercress.
Having said it was a little disappointing, the accompaniments were all rather good, I think the dish was just let down by the main act. The steak was rather bland and lacked flavour. It was rather thin as well. It was cooked medium rare as ordered, but apart from that I was not impressed.
I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have stayed at for a few times now. When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities.
Looking over the menu there was a lamb dish, pan-roasted Dorset texel rack of lamb with pine nut pesto crust, Jersey Royal potatoes, crushed minted peas and anchovy & caper butter.
I did like the sound of that, so I ordered it.
The dish a bit of a mix of good and not so good. The lamb was lovely and tender and had a great flavour. I wasn’t enamoured with the pine nut pesto crust, which I think could have had a stronger flavour and a firmer crust. I enjoyed the Jersey Royal potatoes and the peas. I wasn’t sure about the anchovy & caper butter, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.
Overall it was a nice dish and I enjoyed it. It’s not the best lamb dish I have had, but it was a good plate of food.
I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have stayed at for a few times now. When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities.
That evening I really fancied the idea of fish and chips after my excellent steak starter.
The menu described this as Fuller’s Frontier battered haddock, triple cooked chips, crushed minted peas, tartare sauce, lemon.
The plate had a large portion of fish, the batter was nice and crisp and it was cooked well. I quite enjoy the crushed minted peas and it was a nice accompaniment to the dish.
Well, I was looking forward to the triple cooked chips, but what I got was fries. They were nice, but they weren’t triple cooked chips! Sometimes when I order a dish I want fries, but other times I want triple cooked chips. Having said that, these were nice fries.
Overall a great plate of food and filled that craving for fish and chips.
I have for the last few months been using the Schwartz Citrus Brazilian BBQ seasoning when cooking chicken. I had got it from the middle aisle in Aldi, so was only available for a limited time.
I liked the spicy citrus flavours that the seasoning gave the chicken, but did wonder if I could get the mix from another supermarket, or if there was an alternative.
You can get a Schwartz Brazilian BBQ seasoning in other supermarkets, so I did think about that and then using some lime or lemon with the chicken.
While I was wandering around my local Tesco I did find some Herdez Yucatan Seasoning.
This was described as:
Zingy citrus, garlic & coriander Mexican style seasoning for tacos & fajitas.
Authentic Mexican style seasoning developed with Herdez, a Mexican family business with over 100 years of experience making Mexican food.
This sounded similar to the Schwartz Citrus Brazilian BBQ seasoning, so I bought a pack.
No it was not the same, but close. It was still very good and we had a great dish. Certainly something I would buy again.
I was in London and staying again at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane.
On my last visit there I had a great breakfast and some good coffee. So I was expecting another great breakfast and the good coffee.
The breakfast was superb. It consisted of pork sausage, Mrs Owton’s bacon, Hampshire black pudding, grilled tomato & field mushroom, hash brown, Heinz baked beans, and two poached eggs.
Alas the coffee machines were broken, so they had to revert to standard breakfast coffee, which was disappointing. Well the breakfast was excellent.
I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have stayed at for a few times now. When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities.
I really liked the sound of the seared Owton’s dry-aged skirt steak with salsa verde and pecorino for my starter, so I ordered it.
The steak was lovely and tender and the chargrilling added flavour and texture to the surface of the cut of meat. The pecorino and salsa verde added some nice saltiness to the dish. The accompanying pea shoots gave the dish a little bit of freshness.
I have to say I enjoyed the starter so much that on the following night I had it again!
Once more a delicious starter which I really enjoyed. It was less chargrilled than the previous evening.
I was out for a meal at Bella Italia at Cribbs Causeway. It’s being a while since I was last here, but I do remember have an excellent meal here back in June 2021. I did notice that Bella Italia at Cabot Circus which has been closed for a while, is now going to be a Bao Burger. I found that branch lacked character and atmosphere, whereas the Cribbs Causeway branch has a little more character and charm. They’ve updated it over the years and though at some time it had a classic Italian trattoria feel to it, today it is slightly more of a Italian inspired funky look.
We had booked, which having arrive, made sense, as the place was rather full. We were given a friendly welcome and we were shown to our table.
I looked over the menu. I didn’t think it was as interesting as it was back in June 2021, but there were some dishes I did like the sound of. In the end I went with the set menu, and I had a starter of Mushroom Crostini, which I enjoyed.
For my main I did initially think about having their new(ish) Pinsa Pizza.
With a bigger, thicker, crispier base, this traditional premium Italian Pinsa is hard to beat
I suspect if they had a white base pizza with mushroom and truffle then I would have gone for that. In the end I decided I would go with a pasta dish and I chose the Pollo Cacciatore – Roast chicken, pancetta, chestnut mushrooms and red onions tossed with pappardelle pasta in a white wine and tomato sauce. I did look at the image on the online menu and liked the look of the dish.
The dish which arrived didn’t quite look like the picture on the online menu!
This is what I received.
This is what the online version looked like.
Having said that the pappardelle pasta was cooked well, and I liked the mushrooms and red onion in the dish. I could have quite easily lost the chicken though. The sauce was tasty and I had some extra parmesan added which enhanced the dish.
For dessert I had the Tiramisu.
Overall I did enjoy my food and I enjoyed all three dishes I had from the set menu. I think after having such an excellent meal back in June 2021, I was a little disappointed. I think that it didn’t help that the dishes I received on my table didn’t reflect what was on the menu. Maybe they shouldn’t publish photographs of the dishes on the website. I probably will visit again at some time.
I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have stayed at for a few times now. When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had an excellent breakfast.
The breakfast plate was beautifully presented. The three rashers of bacon were cooked to my liking, not overdone, full of flavour. I enjoyed the sausage and the black pudding. The poached eggs were perfectly cooked, and had runny yolks. The field mushroom was delicious, though I would have liked my tomato a little more cooked. The beans and hash brown were nothing to write home about, but did help complete the breakfast plate. I really enjoyed the breakfast and is one of the best breakfasts I have had at a hotel.
I did make one criticism of this otherwise excellent breakfast, which was about the coffee.
However one criticism, was the quality of the coffee, which was standard filter coffee, and not very good.
I would have appreciated better coffee to go with such an excellent breakfast.
So when staying at the Fox and Goose, part of the same Fuller’s chain, I knew (and hoped) I would have a similar excellent breakfast.
Upon arriving in the breakfast room, I was given a warm welcome and shown to my table. I ordered the full English breakfast and they also cooked the toast, so no need to mess about with the breakfast room toaster that I normally have to contend with.
Coffee was from a machine, but was so much better than the filter coffee that was on offer at Drayton. I could have my morning double espresso.
I also had a nice pot of Greek yoghurt before the main event, and dressed with some honey, delicious.
The breakfast arrived and it consisted of pork sausage, Mrs Owton’s bacon, Hampshire black pudding, grilled tomato & field mushroom, hash brown, Heinz baked beans, and two poached eggs.
Well as with Drayton Court, it was excellent. It was a great start to the day.
If you are a regular visitor to the blog then you will know I am a fan of the bento box from She Sells Sushi, one of the regular stalls at Finzel Reach (and Temple Quay) street food markets.
On a recent visit to Finzel Reach, it was raining, so the queues were shorter, but hey ho, I really did fancy a bento box for my lunch.
The last bento box I had from She Sells Sushi I had decided against the hirata bun and had some delicious Takoyaki. The reason was, way back in April I had eaten a panko crumbed Katsu chicken hirata bun.
I have to say I was a little disappointed. I found the chicken rather dry and lacking flavour. Compared to the tempura chicken hirata bun, the Finzel Flapper I’ve had in the past, this new version of the hirata bun was nowhere near as nice. I think if I order again I will go for the Takoyaki instead.
Which on my next visit I did.
This time though they had a different kind of chicken, so why not. So I ordered a bento box with the chicken hirata bun and my usual beef donburi.
The beef was as usual, excellent. It is tasty tender beef rib on a bed of sushi rice and served with pickle and spring onions.
The chicken hirata bun was also really good, though it was slightly “drowned” in accompaniments.
It was delicious, yes back on form and something I would order again.
A lovely box of food, which I really enjoyed.