Category: restaurant

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So, no fish on the menu then!

I was staying over at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. This is a place I stay regularly when working away in London.

Went down for dinner, the menu changes regularly, and the sea bass had been recently added. I was going to have the fish tacos followed by the sea bass. However, both weren’t available. So, I had steak and chips instead.

This was described on the menu as Owton’s dry-aged 8oz rib eye steak with triple-cooked chips, grilled tomato, baked field mushroom and peppercorn sauce.

Owton's dry-aged 8oz rib eye steak with triple-cooked chips, grilled tomato, baked field mushroom and peppercorn sauce.

The plate looked good with the sauce coming separately in a miniature saucepan. The steak was excellent, and much better than some of the steaks I have had at Drayton Court Hotel. It was cooked well and reasonably well seasoned, I did add a little more seasoning. I liked the chips, tomato, and mushroom as well.

Overall it was a really nice plate of food.

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Time for Guinea Fowl at Ma Cuisine

A few weeks back I was staying in London, having enjoyed recent French style meals at Côte I did wonder if there were any (independent) French restaurants in the area. I have had over the years some really nice French style meals in various places.

I wanted to try and repeat these experiences, so I did a Google search and found Ma Cuisine in Richmond, next to Kew Gardens tube station. I looked at the menu online and it had some nice choices. I headed out there in my car and parked up. The online menu was out of date, so the dishes I had in mind weren’t available.

After a typically French frosty welcome I sat down and perused the menu. For my starter I chose the boudin noir en-croûte with pear ketchup and Dijon mustard sauce. I went with the Guinea Fowl for my main course.

After my starter my main course arrived, this was guinea fowl, roasted beetroot, merguez sausage, pear ketchup and Dijon mustard sauce. I had chosen this dish, as I liked the sound of the merguez sausage, as well as I do enjoy roasted guinea fowl. 

Guinea Fowl

It came with some potato dauphinois and seasonal vegetables.

The guinea fowl was cooked well, tender, moist and full of flavour. Alas the merguez sausage was a little overdone. I enjoyed the roasted beetroot and the pear ketchup. As with my starter I did feel the Dijon mustard sauce was a little overpowering.

With the potato dauphinois and vegetables, this was quite a substantial plate of food. Having had two delicious courses, I was quite full and as a result did not go for dessert, even if I was tempted by the cheese option

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Boudin noir en-croûte

A few weeks back I was staying in London, having enjoyed recent French style meals at Côte I did wonder if there were any (independent) French restaurants in the area. I have had over the years some really nice French style meals in various places. Back in 2013 I had a nice meal in Oxford at Pierre Victoire, an independent family run French style restaurant. The now sadly closed La Buvette in Bristol did some great dishes. In Edinburgh in 2020 I had some excellent food at Petit Paris.

I wanted to try and repeat these experiences, so I did a Google search and found Ma Cuisine in Richmond, next to Kew Gardens tube station. I looked at the menu online and it had some nice choices. I headed out there in my car and parked up. The online menu was out of date, so the dishes I had in mind weren’t available.

After a typically French frosty welcome I sat down and perused the menu. For my starter I chose the boudin noir en-croûte with pear ketchup and Dijon mustard sauce. I went with the Guinea Fowl for my main course.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, I knew this was going to be a black pudding style sausage in pastry. So the dish was quite intriguing when it arrived. I don’t know why I was surprised that these looked like sausage rolls, as what do you call sausage meat in pastry, but a sausage roll.

Boudin noir en-croûte

There were three pieces and the dish was a lot larger than I expected. The dish was well cooked and nicely presented. The pastry was nice and crisp. I did think that the boudin noir lacked the intensity of flavour that I thought it should have. I also felt it was a little under seasoned. The Dijon mustard sauce on the other hand was a little overpowering in my opinion. Despite some reservations, overall I did enjoy the food.

After my plate was cleared I awaited my main course…

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Porchetta

Cambridge

I was in Cambridge for a conference and arriving the day before looked for a place to eat. I did think about going to Loch Fyne, where back in January 2020 I had enjoyed some nice seafood. However after walking down Trumpington Street, I realised that this branch of  Loch Fyne had closed down it was now a gastropub, called the Little Rose. In the end I didn’t go there, and went to Côte, but had been intrigued by the Little Rose menu.

So when the next day, after a conference drinks reception, someone suggest that we should have dinner at Little Rose, I was happy to go along with that suggestion.

We hadn’t booked, and we were quite a large party, but we were given a warm welcome and they had space for us.

I had the porchetta. This was described on the menu as maple glazed porchetta, smoked garlic potato, puffed crackling, with apple gravy.

Porchetta

This was an impressive looking plate of food, though more pub than gastro.

There was a chunk of pork belly, the porchetta. It was glazed with maple syrup, but personally I think it was slightly overdone on the grill, resulting in a little bitterness. Not enough to send it back, but it was just over.

I liked the mashed potato, and the puffed crackling added some nice crunch. There was some slices of apple as well, which helped to contrast the rich pork.

I did enjoy my meal, but it wasn’t amazing, something I probably wouldn’t order again if I ever found myself back at the Little Rose.

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Dining in Cambridge

I was in Cambridge for a conference and arriving the day before looked for a place to eat. There is a wide choice, but having enjoyed my recent meals at Côte in Ealing I ended up at Côte wanting to try some things out I had seen on the menu before.

For my starter I went with the steak tartare, hand-cut raw beef, cornichons, mustard dressing, toasted sourdough baguette.

I’ve not had tartare before, but not sure that was this the best introduction to the dish. I felt it was both under seasoned and overpowered by the vinegar in the dressing. Though, as I’ve not had tartare before I couldn’t really tell you if this was “normal” or not.

For my main course I had the roasted lamb rump with ratatouille, harissa, tapenade and basil.

The lamb was done rare, and though I quite like it like this, I felt that the lamb needed a couple more minutes cooking time. The ratatouille was nice addition.

Despite some reservations, I did enjoy the food. Along with my meal I went with a basket of bread and butter.

The service was efficient and friendly.

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Enjoyed that pizza

I was fancying pizza for lunch so I headed to Franco Manca. I have had pizza from here before, but have not written about it.

I went with their £10 lunch deal of a pizza and a soft drink.

You can choose from five pizzas and I went with the sourdough pizza with roasted cured ham, mozzarella, ricotta & wild mushrooms. The menu states that this comes with little tomato. This is more a white pizza.

The place wasn’t busy, so my pizza arrived very quickly.

It was a really nice pizza, I liked the mushrooms. It was a much better pizza than on my previous visit, but that time I had also enjoyed the pizza.

Service was excellent and friendly.

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Minute Steak and Fries

We headed to Cabot Circus to have a celebration meal. The place that was chosen was the Coal Kitchen.

Though it took me a while to work it out, the last time I had been to Coal, was over ten years ago, in January 2013, when it was called Coal Bar and Grill and I had a burger.

It is now called the Coal Kitchen. We had booked, but were still given a choice of tables. They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu and started with the chicken tacos.

This was followed by the Steak Frites from the set menu.

Minute Steak and Fries

A 5oz minute steak served pink, garlic butter, with skin on fries.

The steak was cooked well and was pink. The garlic butter was quite strong, but complemented the steak. The fries were nice and crispy.

I finished the meal off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and an espresso. The ice cream was nice, the coffee, not so much.

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These weren’t the tacos I was expecting

We headed to Cabot Circus to have a celebration meal. The place that was chosen was the Coal Kitchen.

Though it took me a while to work it out, the last time I had been to Coal, was over ten years ago, in January 2013, when it was called Coal Bar and Grill and I had a burger.

It is now called the Coal Kitchen. We had booked, but were still given a choice of tables. They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu and started with the chicken tacos.

two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt

This description from the set menu shows what it was supposed to be, two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt.

However not sure where the tomato, chilli and yoghurt went, I certainly didn’t have any on my tacos.

As a result they were a little dry, but I did still quite enjoy them. 

Obviously they took the menu away after we ordered, so didn’t realise until I was posting a photograph of my food to the Instagram and copying the description, that I realised three components of the dish were missing. If I had known I would have probably asked about it.

Checking the Coal Chicken Instagram feed they actually had a photograph of the dish from the (new) set menu.

two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt

Well mine certainly did not look like that!

I do find it frustrating when restaurants (usually) chains, don’t follow the recipe for their dishes, resulting in this kind of experience. Had a similar experience with a hotel in Salford.

The real result is that it puts me off going back to the restaurant again. It had been ten years since I last went to Coal, it might be sometime before I head there again for something to eat.

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Breton Fish Stew

I was staying in Ealing and having been disappointed that Reineta was closed I went to Côte. Reality was I did walk around Ealing to see what else was there and looking at various menus. So, in the end I ended up at Côte.

I had the Crab Maison for my starter. I stayed with seafood and I had the Breton Fish Stew for my main course.

This is a traditional coastal stew from Brittany with mussels, prawns, squid, seabream, in a tomato, white wine and chilli sauce. It was served with some French baguette.

There was a lot of seafood in this dish, yes it was mainly mussels, and there was only a single piece of seabream. There were plenty of prawns and squid rings.

I enjoyed the sauce, it was though similar to a soup rather than a sauce. The seafood was cooked well and wasn’t overcooked, which I did think it might be.

The bread was two slices of sourdough baguette. I think I would have preferred a more traditional French flute type baguette over the sourdough slices. 

I had wanted to try this dish for a while, and I enjoyed it. However it wasn’t amazing, so it probably wouldn’t be a dish I would order again.

To accompany my meal, rather than wine, I had a bottle of Meteor lager, which was crisp and refreshing.

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Crab Maison

I was staying in Ealing and having been disappointed that Reineta was closed I went to Côte. Reality was I did walk around Ealing to see what else was there and looking at various menus. So, in the end I ended up at Côte.

I had seen the Crab Maison dish on the menu before, so was likely to be my first choice. I did consider the Steak Tartare, which was hand-cut raw beef, cornichons, mustard dressing, toasted sourdough baguette.

However I decided to go with the Crab Maison.

crab maison

This was crab, avocado, cucumber, capers, shallots, mayonnaise, toasted sourdough baguette.

I thought the dish was beautifully presented, even if the crab was a little hidden away under the salad and sliced radish.

It was nice, but I was hoping for an intense crab flavour, which I felt was missing, and what crab there was, was overpowered by the mayonnaise. It was nice with the toasted sourdough baguette, which provided a nice crunchy texture to the dish.

I did enjoy the dish, but it probably isn’t something I would order again.