Time for chicken and wild mushrooms

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back.  The menu changes every so often, and they always seem to have a range of choices, that means it can be difficult to choose what to have.

I generally don’t choose the chicken when ordering from a menu. Usually as it something I can cook easily at home. When out and about I like to order stuff I don’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t cook at home. However when I read corn-fed chicken supreme with truffle mash, wild mushroom sauce & crispy kale, I was like, well that’s what I am having. The idea of wild mushrooms sounds nice, and the truffle mash sounded delicious. So, it was pretty much a no-brainer to order the dish.

It looked great when it arrived.

corn-fed chicken supreme with truffle mash, wild mushroom sauce & crispy kale

The chicken was perfectly cooked, it was nicely seasoned, tender and moist and had a crispy skin. The wild mushroom sauce was excellent, creamy, nice mushrooms, and a tasty sauce. The truffle mash needed a lot more truffle but was smooth and creamy. The kale added much needed colour and texture to the dish.

I really enjoyed the dish, it was well balanced, cooked well, and delicious. This is something I would order again if I had the chance.

Uninspiring

I have stayed and eaten at various Premier Inn hotels across the UK. Sometimes the experience is quite good, sometimes it leaves a lot to be desired. So now when I am travelling and staying at a hotel, I prefer not to book a Premier Inn. Sometimes though I am only staying a night, or I can’t find something suitable (and in budget), so I end up at a Premier Inn. Having stayed two nights at the excellent Georgian Townhouse in Norwich, the next night I was at the Premier Inn in Ipswich. There was a problem with my booking, but it was sorted in the end. It’s this kind of thing that is rather stressful when travelling, so much so that I would rather stay in a different hotel than a Premier Inn.

I had booked the Meal Deal which was £24.99, which is still good value. I did wonder what the meal would be like.

Back in July 2012 I did the Meal Deal, which was £22, at a Premier Inn in Cambridge.  I had a prawn cocktail, a rump steak, and a crumble. It was a rather uninspiring meal, not awful (well the crumble was), but not amazingly delicious.

In April 2019 we were staying at the Premier Inn in Brentford, and were very disappointed with the food, as they had served a steak which was off.

In September 2021 we were at the Premier Inn in Edinburgh, the food was okay, but it just took so long to get to the table.

So, to be honest I didn’t have high expectations about the Premier Inn in Ipswich. I went down for dinner; I had booked a table. I chose a table and looked over the menu. I was informed that there were quite a few things unavailable on the menu. There was no steak, no gammon, and no mixed grill. I did quite fancy the mixed grill.

In the end I had Peri-Peri chicken wings for my starter which were a bit hot (as in spice).

These were freshly cooked, tender, and had an interesting flavour.

I then had The House Stack Burger.  Two 4oz British and Irish beef burgers, Cheddar cheese, cos lettuce, red onions, tomatoes and burger sauce. Served in a brioche-style bun with skin-on chips and house slaw.

It did look a little insipid. The burger was rather flavourless and bland. They had no coleslaw, but they did make a little side salad for me instead when I asked about the slaw. The only issue was the cold plate, as a result some chips were hot, others were cold.

I was fancying something sweet, so I had the Triple Chocolate Brownie, made with white, milk and Belgian dark chocolate chunks. Drizzled in chocolate sauce and served with vanilla ice cream.

This wasn’t very inspiring, but it did taste of chocolate, and the cold ice cream enhanced the experience.

The meal reminded me why I don’t usually book a Premier Inn when travelling away.

Truffle & Pancetta Carbonara

Kings College Chapel

I was over in Cambridge doing some work stuff and was looking for a place for lunch. I had another voucher for free main course at Zizzi, having used one recently in Bristol on a rustica pizza.

There are two branches of Zizzi in Cambridge, one on Regent Street, next to Parker’s Piece, the other on Bene’t Street. The Bene’t Street branch use to be a bank, and before that (as in before 1917) a wine merchants. It’s an impressive building with lovely ceilings and decorative walls.

I was given a warm welcome and allowed to choose a table. I looked over the menu and decided that I would have something different to pizza. In the end I chose the  Fresh Creste di Gallo pasta with wild mushrooms in a rich pancetta, pecorino & truffle-infused carbonara sauce. I have a thing for wild mushrooms and I do like fresh pasta. I checked that my voucher was valid, having had an issue with my previous experience. All was fine and dandy. No problems there then. Placed my order and waited for my food.

I wasn’t that impressed with the look of the dish, but then again it was fundamentally pasta in a carbonara sauce.

I did enjoy the pasta dish, but felt it lacked the depth of flavour of mushrooms and truffle I was expecting.

Overall a really pleasant place to eat, good service and nice food.

Time for truffle chicken, no, a burger, no, okay bang bang chicken then

I was attending a belated Christmas meal at the Brunello Lounge on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare.

I planned to park in Carlton Street. There was a long queue due to roadworks by the Town Hall, I popped by the station and managed to bypass the queue. However, upon entering the car par, I found the council had closed the upper levels and the rest of the spaces were filled. A conversation later I found out that there had been some anti-social behaviour on the upper levels of the car park, so as a result the council had closed them. Not sure how that encourages people to go out in the evening in Weston, if it’s challenging to park

I headed to the Sovereign Centre and parked there instead, which cost me three times as much.

We had booked a table, which was great as the place was super busy.

As it was January, we didn’t have access to the festive menu, so we had to make do with the regular menu. There is a wide choice on the menu, but if you exclude the brunch and breakfast items, and the sandwiches, there are a few main course items and a range of burgers.

I wanted the Rose’s Truffle Chicken, pulled chicken breast in a creamy truffle & mushroom sauce, with crispy bacon, fried potatoes, veggie parmesan and parsley, served with tenderstem broccoli. However, that wasn’t available. My second choice was the beef brisket burger, but that also wasn’t available. So, in the end I went with the Bang Bang Chicken. This was buttermilk fried chicken with noodles, pak choi, tenderstem broccoli, mushrooms and sugar snap peas topped with bang bang coconut sauce, sesame seeds and chilli.

It was busy, and we were a large group, but I didn’t think it took too long for the food to arrive, I certainly wasn’t made to feel I was waiting. The dish actually looked rather good.

However, I had anticipated that the fried chicken element would be fried chicken pieces. What I got was sliced buttermilk chicken steak on the bed of noodles and vegetables.

There was a fair amount of chilli in the dish as well, I don’t mind some heat, but there was a little too much for me, luckily it had been sliced quite thinly and not chopped, so was easy to remove some of the chilli from the dish.

I did enjoy the food, but it wasn’t amazing, and I felt it could be much better. Looking over the menu, it would appear that there are quite a few menu items there that are based on the buttermilk chicken. Would I have the dish again, probably not.

Skirt Steak Again

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back. 

The menu changes every so often, and they always seem to have a range of choices, that means it can be difficult to choose what to have.

I was pleased to see that the seared Owton’s skirt steak with salsa verde and pecorino was back on the menu. I had it last year and really enjoyed it, so I ordered it again.

This was a nice piece of chargrilled skirt steak served with a tasty salsa verde and shavings of pecorino.

skirt steak

The steak was nice and tender and tasty in its own right, but I the pecorino and the salsa verde added to the dish.

Did the steak frites deal

I was up in Glasgow staying overnight as I was attending a conference, and did quite fancy steak and chips. 

I looked on Google maps in the surrounding area to see what restaurants were local to the hotel. Chateau-X which was not too far from my hotel did an early week special where they do steak and frites for just £10. I thought, that will do the job.

I booked online and walked up to the restaurant. It wasn’t too far from the hotel, and luckily it wasn’t raining, even though it was November. The place from the outside looked quite inviting. It wasn’t really busy, but there was a fair few people inside.

I was given a warm welcome and was shown to my table. I really liked the atmosphere of the place, the decor, the ambiance, and the lighting.

I liked the plain wooden tables with the leather benches and wooden chairs. At one end was the (looking like a well stocked) bar and you could see into the kitchen on the far side. Despite the chandelier, I didn’t think it was a pretentious place to be in, and was looking forward to seeing what the food would be like.

There wasn’t much to the menu, they had the ten pound deal, with a choice of extra sides or sauces.

I ordered the steak frites, which was a flat iron steak and chips, decided not to order a sauce, but did order a side of Tobacco Onions. Wasn’t quite what that was, but was intrigued.

Later in the week there is a more substantial menu available, with more choices of steaks and prices to match.

It wasn’t long before my food arrived.

The steak was nice piece of flat iron steak chargrilled and sliced. It came with fries and some green leaves.

The steak was very nice, tender and full of flavour. I liked the fries as well. I could easily cut through the steak.

I would have preferred a plate to the skillet it came in. I do wonder sometimes if the people who decide to serve the food in these items, ever actually eat out of them, themselves. It certainly wasn’t the worse thing I have eaten off, but not sure what the advantage of it was over a normal plate. As it was smaller than a plate, I wonder if it was to make the dish look more substantial than it actually was.

The Tobacco Onions was a dish of deep fried onion pieces. 

It was a nice accompaniment to the steak. I liked the crisp onions, and though at first glances wasn’t a huge pot, it was quite a large portion and would certainly have been enough for two people.

This was an excellent meal, and great value for money. I certainly would go again. In the end I did, a couple of days later and had lunch there.

Scarsdale’s shoulder of South Coast lamb

Scarsdale's shoulder of South Coast lamb

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back. 

The menu changes every so often, and they always seem to have a range of choices, that means it can be difficult to choose what to have.

One thing that I did like the sound of, which I hadn’t seen before was the Scarsdale’s shoulder of South Coast lamb, served with a rosemary potato rösti, sautéed kale, red currant gravy.

It was one of the more expensive items on the menu, but I did like the sound of it, so I ordered it.

It did look quite impressive, this was a big portion of lamb shoulder.

However I will be honest I was a little disappointed, I wonder if that was because I had quite high expectations. The lamb was lovely and tender and did have a lot of flavour. However, though it had been slow cooked, it was obviously reheated for my plate. I think it could have done with a little more caramelisation, which would have added more flavour.

The rosemary potato rösti was also disappointing, it was packed with flavour, but it needed to be more crispy. It was quite soft. I did enjoy the kale and the gravy was nice.

Though it wasn’t perfect, it was nice, however I don’t think if it was on the menu again I would order it.

Time for a Roast Beef Dinner

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back. 

The Fox and Goose is part of the Fullers’ chain of hotels and pubs. I have stayed before at Drayton Court in West Ealing, and have had their Sunday Roast before and enjoyed it. I have though not had the chance to try the Sunday Roast at The Fox and Goose.

The plate arrived and it was a huge pile of delicious goodness. 

Roast beef dinner

There were roast potatoes, roasted parsnips, roasted (heritage) carrots, buttered kale, peas, cauliflower cheese, a good portion of pink roast beef, and topped with a huge Yorkshire pudding.

It looked very impressive and I was glad I was hungry. It was just as good as I remember it, possibly a little better.

The star of then plate was the roast beef, there was plenty of it and it was tender and tasty. The roasted vegetables were delicious, well seasoned, with the potatoes being crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. I liked the kale and peas. The Yorkshire Pudding was really nice as well.

It can’t be easy serving a roast dinner to order over an evening, but I think that the time did a really good job and I enjoyed my food.

Open Turkey Sandwich

Portwall Tavern

A few weeks ago I had a delicious open sandwich from the Portwall Tavern.

This was a substantial open sandwich. There was a slice of ciabatta with salad and a good sized portion of the slow cooked (pulled) lamb. The lamb was garnished with some mint yoghurt.

When it comes to lunch, I generally don’t do sandwiches. I understand why people like eating sandwiches. I actually do like eating sandwiches, when I say I don’t do sandwiches, what I really mean is that I am not a fan of retail sandwich packs. 

The sandwich I had at Portwall Tavern was so much more than a sandwich. So it wasn’t much surprise when deciding what to have for lunch, I headed back to Portwall Tavern.

Having had the lamb, I chose to have the second sandwich on the menu, which was described as slow cooked turkey, stuffing, pigs in blankets, roasted potatoes, cranberry sauce and a jug of gravy.

I didn’t get the roasted potatoes or the jug of gravy. I did though get potato wedges and the whole dish was covered in gravy.

This was a nice piece of turkey and I liked the pigs in blankets. The gravy obviously made the bread soggy. I think it needed some greenery, some sprouts perhaps, or some coleslaw. Despite that I enjoyed the sandwich and generally I don’t do sandwiches.

Italian Stallion Pizza

I hadn’t planned on eating at the Raddison Red Hotel in Glasgow when I was staying there, but after having drinks and chat, it was getting late. So rather then head out to the restaurants on Argyle Street up the road I decided to eat at the hotel restaurant, the OUIBar + KTCHN.

The menu reminds me of the type of menu you would find at Frankie and Benny’s. 

I had the Italian Stallion pizza, which was a white pizza with Italian sausage, cubes of roasted potato, and parmesan crisps. 

It came promptly. It certainly was a different kind of pizza, I do like a white pizza and the mix of sausage and potato was interestingly different. Wasn’t so sure on the green parmesan crisps.

I did enjoy the pizza, and the service was excellent.