Category: restaurant

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What is it with Nando’s?

Cabot Circus

Why is it so popular? Come on tell me why?

Now I will admit I have never actually been to a Nando’s so couldn’t tell you if it was any good or not.

I recently was in Bristol’s Cabot Circus twice within a week around lunchtime. Though there are a wide range of eating establishments in the area, each time I was there there was a huge queue for the Nando’s. Around 20-30 people queuing outside. At all the other places there were no queues. Doesn’t happen all the time, the Nando’s at Gloucester Quays never seems to have a queue!

So it’s very popular, but I am not sure why?

They do grilled chicken with a hot marinade with side orders.

Would you know if they use fresh raw chicken, or is it pre-cooked and just “flamed” on the grill?

If you are into that Nando’s what is it that makes people queue? Should I try it out? Or not touch it with a barge pole?

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Burger at the Sainsbury Cafe

Whilst getting a quick lunch at the cafe in Sainsbury, what I wanted was off the menu, so needing to make a quick decision I decided to go for a burger.

It came with chips, coleslaw and some salad. The chips were double cooked, which means they were cooked properly, went cold and were cooked again. Places do that because it is quicker and they can get food out faster to the customer. Personally I don’t like it, as the chips can be quite greasy and over cooked.

I did like the fact that they had used real cheese and not the plastic cheese you get on most burgers you can buy from fast food joints. It was quite a nice burger and had a reasonably good flavour. Didn’t think too much of the burger bun though.

Overall it wasn’t that bad, quite nice in fact, however not sure if I would get it again.

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Burrito and a Beer

Needing a quick dinner and not wanting to spend a fortune and wanting to try somewhere different. I decided that it was time to go to Chiquitos. I have been there before, but that was years ago. Not been recently as generally when I go to where my local one is, I have the children with me and they aren’t fans of mexican food (at the moment), we go to Bella Italia or Frankie and Bennys.

As I was on my own, then I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and see what it was like now.

They had a special offer of a burrito and a beer for just £7.99.

Well lets go with that then. I decided to go with the pulled pork option.

Service was really quick and even though I was having the “special offer” I also got the complementary tortilla chips.

The burrito when it arrived, certainly looked interesting.

I am not sure I would have presented it in that way, I think I might have preferred the sour cream, guacamole and salsa to be served separately.

I think I would have also preferred it to be “freshly made” rather than as I think it was, just heated through. I may be wrong on that.

Overall it was very nice and quite tasty. Spicy but not too spicy.

I will probably go back and try something different another time.

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Steak and Fries

After a series of games of ten pin bowling we decided to have a quick lunch at Frankie and Benny’s the chain of American Italian restaurants that you can find across the UK.

I decided to go simple and have the Steak and Fries.

A 6oz* strip sirloin served plain and simple with house fries and a pot of American mustard on the side. Simple but classic!

Lunch

It was as it was described in the menu, a simple steak, cooked to my liking, tender and with some flavour served with house fries.

A simple but classic dish. Maybe next time I should be more adventurous!

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Calamari Fritti

Recently in London I went out for a meal at Ciao Bella in Bloomsbury.

It was rather a crowded noisy typical Italian restaurant that you can find in London and in other cities across the UK. You are when choosing what to eat faced with a typically large varied menu covering a range of Italian cuisine including pizza and pasta.

From personal experience in northern Italy these kinds of restaurants don’t seem to actually exist in Italy. In Italy there are small family run places have smaller menus, fresh food, ever changing and delicious food.

I have been put off going to Italian restaurants in the UK in the main as I have had a couple of bad experiences. I was once at another Italian restaurant in London and I asked for Spaghetti alle Vongole, and what I got was a sauce that was from a jar!

So I glanced over the menu with a little trepidation, knowing that though it might sound nice on the menu, it may not actually be nice. In the end I went with one of my usual choices, the calamari fritti. Regular readers of the blog will know that I am a real fan of squid and it’s almost a benchmark for me on how good a restaurant is. Squid is a relatively simple dish to cook and if a place can’t cook squid properly than what hope is there for any other dish from the place.

It was a good sized portion and despite the dusting of paprika was very nice. It wasn’t rubbery and tasted good. It wasn’t perfect, but I have had a lot worse before.

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Duck Gyoza

You don’t really have starters at Wagamama there are side dishes that arrive when they are ready. Out with friends we ordered a few alongside our main dishes.

Though generally I enjoy most items I have eaten at Wagamama I was less impressed with the deep-fried duck dumplings served with a spicy cherry hoi sin sauce.

Not that they were bad, more for me the dumplings in themselves lacked flavour and the hoi sin sauce was very overpowering. The texture was good and they were crunchy.

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Teriyaki Chicken Donburi

Having to stay overnight in London for a meeting I needed somewhere to eat and as I had enjoyed my last meal at Wagamama decided to go to the branch in Covent Garden.

I did consider having a ramen, but thinking that I always go with ramen so time to go with something different I thought. I looked carefully over the menu and in the end I went with the Teriyaki Chicken Donburi.

Rice

Grilled juicy chicken glazed with orange teriyaki sauce, sticky white rice with thin sliced carrots, pea shoots, spring onions and sesame seeds and a side of spicy kimchee.

I really did enjoy the dish, the combination of chicken, sticky sauce and rice combined with the freshness of the carrot and pea shoots worked well. The sauce has sweetness and sourness and though I expected strong orange overtones, but there weren’t any.

In case you were wondering I decided to give the kimchee a miss…

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Pork Dumpling Soup

I was up in Leeds earlier this month and with some old friends we went to Wagamamas. I have enjoyed my previous visits to the noodle chain and was looking forward to the meal, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was tempted to go with the Seafood Ramen that I had on a previous occasion, but in the end went with one of the specials, a pork dumpling soup.

Pork Dumpling Soup

Somen noodles with sweet and spicy char sui pork dumplings in a pork, coriander and lemongrass broth with sichuan spicy sausage, tea stained egg, bean shoots, leeks, baby spinach, garnished with spring onions and garlic chive.

The broth had flavour though for me was a little salty. I really liked the char sui pork dumplings which had a great flavour, good texture and weren’t overpoweringly spicy either. I was expecting the sausage to be more spicy than it was, but it was just okay. Most interesting was the tea stained egg, which at first glance appeared to be weird within the dish, but did in fact work well.

Overall I enjoyed the dish, it looked fresh, appetising and tasted delicious.

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Chilli Squid from Wagamama

I was up in Leeds earlier this month and with some old friends we went to Wagamamas. I have enjoyed my previous visits to the noodle chain and was looking forward to the meal, and I wasn’t disappointed.

You don’t really have starters at Wagamama there are side dishes that arrive when they are ready. We ordered a few alongside our main noodle dishes (I will cover mine in a later blog post). One of the first dishes to arrive was the squid.

Deep-fried squid seasoned with sea salt and shichimi. Served with a chilli and coriander dipping sauce.

This looked fantastic, was beautifully cooked and tasted delicious. I really liked the squid and the dipping sauce added to the dish without overpowering it.

Regular readers of the blog will know that I am a real fan of squid and it’s almost a benchmark for me on how good a restaurant is. Squid is a relatively simple dish to cook and if a place can’t cook squid properly than what hope is there for any other dish from the place. At Wagamama the squid was excellent.




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Lamb Kebab Baguette

The last time I went to Caffe Gusto at the Mall I was impressed with the quality of the food and friendly staff. Back then I ordered I ordered the Shish Kebab in Pitta Bread with an Americano.

The lamb was reasonably tender, nicely cooked and well flavoured. The fries were really nice and the salad was fresh. Overall I had an excellent meal and was pleased with what I had. I would go again.

So when I was at the Mall recently and looking to get some lunch I decided once more to go to Caffe Gusto. This time I ordered the Shish Kebab in a Baguette with an Americano.

The lamb again was cooked nicely and was tender. As before the fries were nice and the salad fresh. However I don’t think the dish really worked for me, but that wasn’t the fault of Caffe Gusto, more mine for ordering what I did. I think the problem was that the baguette was quite crusty and as a result the lamb fell out as I ate it. Might have been okay with the bread on the side, but as a sandwich type meal it didn’t work. So if you are going to order this dish, go for pitta bread and don’t go for the baguette!