review Archives - Time for a coffee

May 28, 2023

Ye Olde London

This was not a planned meal, I had been attending a training course in London and a few of us decided to head out for a beer and a meal.

We ended up at Ye Olde London, a Greene King pub situated on Ludgate Hill in the City of London close to the spectacular St Paul’s cathedral.

We went downstairs and I looked over the menu, lots of pub food. I chose the 28-day aged flat iron steak served with rosemary & sea-salted fries, blistered vine tomatoes and salsa verde.

The steak was pre-sliced and was was cooked well. I quite like a flat iron steak. Not sure if there was any rosemary on the fries, but they were nice and crisp. The salsa verde was fresh and zingy.

Overall I liked the plate of food and we had excellent service.

May 22, 2023May 21, 2023

It was a little disappointing

We had made the trip to Lynton and Lynmouth. A place we have been to many times.

We went to the Coffee Mill for a drink and something to eat. We thought we had been there before, which is the main reason we went. There was no indoor seating so we sat outside and I went to the counter to order.

We had some tea, a scone and a sausage roll. Even though we were eating on site the tea came in disposable card cups.

Though there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the tea and food, it was more we were charged, what I felt would have been for eating in and we had china crockery. However for what was basically takeaway I thought it was quite expensive.

May 21, 2023

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.

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.

May 19, 2023May 18, 2023

Beef Short Rib Bao Buns

I was staying over at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. This is a place I stay regularly when working away in London. The menu changes regularly, though I couldn’t say how often it changes.

On a recent visit there was a new addition to the menu, beef short rib bao buns with Bourbon maple glaze, aioli, coriander, and peanuts.

I do like a good bao bun, so it was no surprise that I ordered this dish. I was intrigued as this was quite a fusion style dish, I don’t see Bourbon maple glaze as something you would find in Fujian cuisine.

I was pleasantly surprised to get two buns, I was only expecting one. It was nicely presented.

The beef was nice and tender, and I quite liked the Bourbon maple glaze. It was a good plate of food.

On a following visit I ordered them again, as I had enjoyed it the first time.

It did look a little different, also the beef was not as good as before. Not sure of why there was a difference.

May 18, 2023May 17, 2023

Time for Tau Yew Bak

I was in Bristol and popped down to the Finzel Reach street food market. Though I do visit other street food markets, the Bristol scene as one of my favourites. My personal challenge though when visiting is that I usually default to stalls I’ve been to before, and don’t necessarily try something new. So on this visit, I was going to go to King Fin, however they had sold out of their calamari, even so I was tempted by their soft shell crab burger. I then thought, there are lots of stalls that I’ve not tried before, so lets try something new.

So I looked around and I decided to try out the Fat Rice stall which sells Malaysian comfort food.

There were three choices on the menu, a beef rendang, kunyit chicken, and tau yew bak. I went with the tau yew bak. This was pork belly slow-cooked in soy sauce and spices. Served with basmati rice, fried onions and pickled salad.

This was a good sized meal and there was a decent portion of the main part of the dish, the pork belly. Sometimes I have found that you order a dish and the amount of the *star* of the dish makes you feel like you’ve been short-changed.

The pork itself was nice and tender and full of flavour. I liked the chilli sauce that was served with the pork. The salad added zing to the dish and the rice was nice. Overall a delicious bowl of food.

The service was efficient and friendly. Thought it was interesting there was no vegetarian (or vegan) options. I certainly think I would visit the stall again and try out some of their other options.

May 15, 2023May 12, 2023

Time for Guinea Fowl at Ma Cuisine

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.

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

May 14, 2023May 12, 2023

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 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.

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…

May 13, 2023May 15, 2023

Time again for a Samba Box

Back in July 2021 when I was working in (what was then) a very quiet London I went to the Leather Lane street food market and after queuing in the rain had a delicious Brazilian Samba Box.

Though since then I have been to the Leather Lane street food market many times, I hadn’t had a chance to repeat the experience. Mainly as there is a lot of choice in the market and I like to try different things, also, the queue for the stall is often very lengthy.

So on a return visit to Leather Lane street food market I decided I would have another Samba Box. I joined the queue and waited, no rain this time, and the queue moved quite fast. I chose the chargrilled chicken thighs which were served with Rio rice, black beans, coleslaw and lettuce. I also had some additional halloumi with my dish.

It looked great and was very tasty.

The chicken had lots of flavour, but this time was a little dried out compared to my previous visit. I liked the salad and the rice was nice as well I had mine served with chimichurri which was a nice accompaniment.

I really enjoyed the whole box and it was so nice to have something, fresh and tasty.

May 9, 2023

Porchetta

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.

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.

May 7, 2023May 6, 2023

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.