Category: restaurant

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Railway Mixed Grill

To celebrate a birthday we headed over to Sandford for a meal at The Railway Inn. Sandford is on the A368 between Weston and Churchill. The Railway Inn  is owned by the Thatchers cider company who are also based in the village. I remember passing this many times before it was taken over by Thatchers and refurbished. I have been there before for drinks, but this was the first time I had been there for a meal.

The main part of the pub is the bar area. A large mainly wooden extension was added to provide a restaurant area. We had booked, but the place wasn’t busy, and we were given a great table.

I had looked over the menu online, but it was a sample menu. They say on the menu:

Our dishes change with the seasons and the fresh local produce that goes into each and every one of them.

So I was prepared for a different menu, however I had liked the sound of some of the specials.

The menu we had at the table was different to the one online (as expected). I did think about having one of the specials, however in the end I decided I would have the Railway Mixed Grill. The menu didn’t describe what would be in the grill, so did wonder what I would get.

The food was cooked fresh to order and my plate arrived.

On my mixed grill I had a steak, lamb chop, chicken, gammon, and sausages. Alongside was a grilled field mushroom, a herby tomato. I had chosen a heritage tomato salad as my side.

Now I wasn’t to keen on the presentation, but then again it was a mixed grill. The steak was excellent, nicely cooked, good char on the outside and pink in the middle. The lamb chop was small, but nice. The gammon was rather salty, probably a little too salty for me. The chicken was slightly overcooked.

I liked the heritage tomato salad, which was fresh and tasty.

Alongside I had a flight of cider, three small glasses of different ciders.

The Railway Inn, as you might expect had an excellent range of draft ciders. I like the idea of a flight, enabling a range of ciders to be tasted.

Upon reflection and seeing the plate of food that a neighbouring table received, I think I should have gone with one of the specials. The pork special looked really good. I do plan to visit the Railway Inn again in the future.

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French Eating in Ealing

I kind of have a love hate relationship with the Côte chain of restaurants. I really like French style cooking and the Côte menu has an extensive choice of French inspired dishes. The service at the Ealing branch of Côte has always been excellent. Welcoming, warm and friendly. The food arrives in ample time, and I have never felt rushed. The waiting staff are attentive, but not intrusive. What’s not to like? However, though the food is good, it isn’t excellent, and so I always have to temper my expectations. I like the food, but I wouldn’t say I love the food. I am not entirely sure what they could do to make things better, but I am confident that they could. However as a chain, I suspect they are constrained by the system cooking processes they use to ensure consistency across the different restaurants across the country. So the dish you order in Ealing is identical to the same dish if it was ordered in Bristol. I always think if they had a local chef, they could improve and enhance the food. Having said that, finding myself in Ealing on a somewhat warm evening, the cool air-conditioned branch of Côte was quite appealing. The fixed price menu looking tempting as well.

I was given a lovely warm welcome and I was allowed to choose where to sit, which was nice, as I was able to choose a slightly bigger table even though I was eating alone. I may have eaten outside, but it was still rather warm outside, and to be honest the pavement is rather busy and there is a constant stream of traffic running by.

Looking over the menu, I was tempted by quite a few things, but in the end, for my starter I chose the Salade au Bacon, bacon lardons tossed in a creamy anchovy dressing with endive and gem lettuce salad, cherry tomatoes, panisse chickpea croutons and crispy capers, topped with a poached egg.

The combination of tastes and textures worked. The runny yolk of the poached egg added to the richness of the salad. I was intrigued by the panisse chickpea croutons, they were crunchy, different, I think normal croutons would have worked just as well.  This was a lovely rustic looking salad, and despite my earlier thoughts on dishes, I did think this looked great. It was also delicious. This is the kind of dish that I hope they serve at Côte and this time they delivered. I thought it was fantastic. 

For my main course I went with the Steak Frites, and upgraded to the sirloin steak, which was described as topped with garlic butter and served with herbs and frites.

After a fantastic starter, this was a little disappointing. I think they forgot the garlic butter, and not having the menu to hand, I didn’t think to check with the waiting staff. The plate was a simple affair, I don’t know it looked rather plain. I am not sure what they could do though to make it better. I had asked for the steak to be cooked medium-rare, and it was. It was tender, but lacked seasoning. I generally avoid adding extra salt to my food, but this time the steak needed it. The frites were good, nice and crispy. I don’t think the herbs added anything. I would have maybe added a small rocket salad, or even some green beans instead. I think that would have improved both the look of the dish, and the overall eating experience. 

Generally, I only order a starter and a main course, and avoid having a pudding. However, this time the fixed price menu had a cheese plate on offer, a selection of three French cheeses with a fig chutney & sourdough baguette. You could choose from the following cheeses, Comté, Pont l’Évêque, Roquefort, Délice de Bourgogne, Chèvre Buchette.

Now I am a sucker for a cheese course, so of course I said yes. I chose the Comté, Pont l’Évêque, and the Délice de Bourgogne. 

I liked the fact that the cheese plate came with bread, however this was toasted sourdough baguette, which though nice, wasn’t quite what I wanted with my cheese. I do remember visiting Côte many years ago and the bread was a “proper” French baguette, none of this fashionable sourdough business, it was proper French bread. I miss that.

The cheeses though were excellent. I have had Comté and Pont l’Évêque before, so enjoyed those. I haven’t had Délice de Bourgogne, before, but this was nice and tasty.

Overall I did enjoy my food at Côte, the service was excellent, and I had a lovely dining experience. It wasn’t perfect, but it was nice, and with the fixed price menu, I thought it was value for money.

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Time for some Tapas

Went out for Tapas at La Rueda Spanish Tapas Bar in Ealing. We were there in the early evening, so it wasn’t busy, and we could sit in the (open) window area looking out onto the street. With the hot weather, we weren’t that hungry, so we had only a few dishes.

We had the Patatas Bravas, triple fried potatoes, spicy brava and infamous Spanish aioli garlic mayonnaise sauce. Not sure if the triple frying helped, as the potatoes weren’t that crispy. However they were nice, I liked the spicy brava, and the mayonnaise was an interesting addition. 

Another of our dishes was the Pollo a la Plancha, described as grilled spicy boneless chicken thighs served with Spanish alioli garlic mayonnaise sauce. Now the photograph in the online menu shows whole chicken thighs, so I was a little surprised when we were served with chicken skewers. They were served on a flat bread, well more of a wrap than a flat bread. The chicken was moist, tender and full of flavour. 

Alongside the chicken we had the Pinchos Morunos, grilled spiced lamb skewers, chimichurri served with humus. These were tender chunks of lamb with peppers and onions. Like the chicken cooked well and full of flavour, as well as being served on a flat wrap. It came with a small portion of hummus, I probably would have liked more hummus, but then I probably needed to order hummus off the menu.

Out final dish was the Calamares, fried squid rings in batter. Lovely crispy batter and tender squid. Delicious.

Completely forgot to take photographs of the dishes, which is unlike me.

The service was excellent, I liked how they served ice with their tap water, I also had an alcohol free beer. If I wasn’t driving I would probably have had a red wine.

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Seafood Bibimbap

I was in the mood for something more than just a sandwich for lunch. I was working around Ealing to see what was on offer. Yori was a Korean place on The Green which has a lunchtime deal of a main dish, a side dish, and accompaniments.

I went with the seafood bibimbap. This was hot rice, vegetables, seafood, with an egg yolk on top.

 It was a tasty bowl of food, though the contrast between hot and cold ingredients was surprising at times. Seafood was a little disappointing, but only a little disappointing.

Alongside was some cold accompaniments and some chicken gyoza dumplings.

These were tasty.

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Glazed Pork Belly Burger

I enjoyed the mixed grill I had eaten at the Landing Light in Weston-super-Mare.

The Landing Light is a Marston pub. Though very close to where we live, prior to my previous visit, I think I had been there only once before, for a meal, and even then I am not sure I actually had. The Landing Light is not an old pub, it opened ten years ago, it has a modern retro feel to it.

I was tempted to have the mixed grill again, but in the end decided I would have something from the specials menu. Sometimes the specials at places are dishes to be avoided, but I was confident here that these were not what was left over, but extra dishes added to the menu.

I went with the Glazed Pork Belly Burger, two 3oz charred beef patties, maple glazed pork belly, Monterey jack cheese, smoked streaky bacon, burger sauce, pickled red onions, and seasoned skinny fries. Though I was tempted by the other two specials, the oven baked cod loin and the pan roasted chicken.

My burger arrived, it was huge and nicely presented.

This was an interesting combination. The pork belly was very tender, but not as flavourful as I thought it would be. The beef patties were nice, and had a good flavour. 

There was a side portion of coleslaw, which though obviously not homemade, added crunch and freshness to the dish.

I did enjoy the burger and it was very tasty.

Service was excellent and everyone else around the table enjoyed their food.

Did I have pudding, in the end I did. I had the chocolate brownie sundae. Warm brownie, ice cream, fresh cream, and a flake, what’s not to like! 

Decadent and indulgent, but also very nice.

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Master Bao Buns

When I am at Westfield and having lunch, I usually make the decision to go to Master Bao for a couple of bao buns. They are cooked to order and are always delicious.

This time I went with the Shiitake Mushroom Bao, which was teriyaki Shiitake mushrooms, pickled onions, and miso.

A little big and messy to eat with your hands, but the bun was soft and fluffy, and the filling was intense and delicious.

I also had the Mr Bao, this was slow braised pork, house pickles, and roasted peanut.

Same fluffy bun, and some tasty pork with the added crunch of peanuts.

Really nice food which I enjoyed.

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Time to visit the Pelican State

When visiting London earlier this year I had gone for a walk around Bloomsbury before heading back to my hotel for steak and chips. On that walk I had noticed the brand of Pelican State and added it to places I thought I might like to try.

So on a more recent visit to London I decided I would head to the Pelican State and try out their food. I went with the Crispy Seafood Lunch Deal. This was prawns, green-lipped mussels, squid rings, red potatoes, large portion of fish and a sauce of my choice. I went with the aioli. 

It was served very quickly.

plate of crispy seafood

It was quite a substantial plate of food. I found the crispy coating more crunchy than crispy. It was a nice selection of seafood. I liked the prawns and squid, the mussels could have been better, as the crunchy coating made the mussels difficult to shell and eat. There was a large portion of fish. I think I should have had a side of coleslaw with it.

Overall I did enjoy the dish. They also do a Prawn Boil lunch deal, but I did think that it might be a bit messy to eat.

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Time for a Mixed Grill

The Landing Light is a Marston pub. Though very close to where we live I think I have been there only once before, for a meal, and even then I am not sure I actually had. So I was looking forward to going there when we went there for a birthday meal. The Landing Light is not an old pub, it opened ten years ago, it has a modern retro feel to it.

I looked over the menu and there were lots of things I liked the sound of. I decided I would have the mixed grill. This was a 4oz rump steak, a 6oz gammon steak, a pork chop, a lamb chop, a pork sausage with a fried free-range egg.

It took a while for the food to arrive, and my mixed grill was a large plate of food. Alongside all the meat, the plate came with chips, grilled tomato, mushroom and a green leaf garnish.

The meat was cooked well, the steak was delicious. Nice char but pink inside. I liked the lamb chop and the gammon. I wasn’t that impressed with the sausage, and the pork chop was less of a chop and more of a loin steak.

I did enjoy the plate of food and would certainly visit the Landing Light again.

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Slow slow dinner

We had a team dinner at The River Station in Bristol. I was quite looking forward to the meal, as I have never eaten there before. It’s a lovely venue and we were given a warm welcome.

We had chosen our menu choices well before we sat down for dinner. I am not a fan of that, as what I like the look of when I am choosing from a menu, may not necessarily what I want to eat on the actual day of the dinner. 

After sitting down we had to wait a while for our food to arrive. For my starter I had harissa glazed carrots, roasted pears, beetroot hummus and watercress.

harissa glazed carrots, roasted pears, beetroot hummus and watercress

I liked this dish, though I thought the watercress spoiled the look of the plate of food. The carrots had bite and the harissa added a nice element of spice. The hummus was tasty. I couldn’t taste the pears! I am not even sure there were any pears.

There was quite a delay before the main course arrived, I had the chicken supreme, sautéed Cornish new potatoes, roasted romanesco cauliflower, truffle cream and salsa verde.

chicken supreme, sautéed Cornish new potatoes, roasted romanesco cauliflower, truffle cream and salsa verde

The chicken was cooked well and I liked the sauce and the potatoes.  Though I had no romanesco cauliflower, just plain old regular cauliflower.

Due to the lengthy delays in getting our food, I ran out of time and left before the dessert arrived. I had ordered the  apple, fig and chestnut crumble, with a lemon thyme custard. Sounded interesting, but wasn’t that disappointed I never got a chance to try it.

I did enjoy the food, but the long service was a little disappointing.

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Time for a Soho ’65

Staying in Loughborough and having had an interesting meal at the Harvester previously in Loughborough close to the hotel, I decided I didn’t want to make a return visit there and headed to the centre of Loughborough to see what was around.

After walking around for a while I decided I would have pizza at Pizza Express. It had been a while since I had been to Pizza Express. They had a new addition to their menu, the Soho ’65.

A slice of our heritage – tomato with garlic, fresh buffalo mozzarella, olives, rocket and shaved Gran Milano cheesSe.

So I ordered the Soho ’65 and a side order of halloumi bites. It wasn’t too long before my food arrived.

This is a rather simple, but tasty pizza. It’s also a square pizza. 

I think they forgot to add the shaved Gran Milano cheese, this I didn’t notice at the time. However I did enjoy the pizza and did like the combination of fresh mozzarella, olives, and rocket. The base was baked well and was crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, and tasty.

Alongside (as I had a free side in the app) I had a portion of halloumi bites, this was crispy coated halloumi with Italian tomato dip and parsley.

Didn’t think much of these, the halloumi was okay, but I didn’t like the tomato dip. I think as it was (probably) from a jar and didn’t taste very fresh.

I did enjoy my meal and the service was excellent.