Category: review

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So, that’s not on the menu, nor that!

We were having a meal at The Landing Light and I was looking over the menu.

I decided I really liked the sound of 

Our Roasted Lamb Rump & Mini Pie Duo – Roasted rump of lamb, recommended served pink, mini minted lamb pie, rosemary & garlic-roasted potatoes, honey-roasted carrots, kale, peas, green beans & mangetout, gravy

Alas, when it came to order, I was told it wasn’t available. So, ah well in that case I will go with the similar sounding

Our 4oz Fillet Steak & Mini Pie Duo – Two fillet steak medallions, recommended served pink, mini British steak & malbec pie, served with rosemary & garlic-roasted potatoes, honey-roasted carrots, kale, peas, green beans & mangetout, gravy

No that wasn’t available either! So, I had to choose quickly, what should I have, I thought, I went with the sirloin steak.

Though I asked for medium-rare, my steak was cooked to medium, if not on its way to well done. It was a little dry and I thought lacked flavour. I didn’t enjoy my tomatoes either.

It wasn’t awful, it was just okay. I guess I was a little disappointed that what I had my heart set on wasn’t available. I would go again, but I don’t think I would have the steak again.

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Celeriac Soup

I was staying at the Quy Mill Hotel & Spa just outside Cambridge. I had chosen Quy Mill Hotel as not only was it within budget, but also had a really interesting restaurant with an intriguing menu. I was a little disappointed to find out, when I arrived, that it had closed the day before.

We would like to inform you that The Waterwheel Restaurant will be temporarily closing as we embark on some exciting plans for the future.  

If I had known that I probably would have chosen a different hotel. As a result I was limited by the bar menu, which was not as exciting as the restaurant menu. I decided  I would have the soup followed by the grilled chicken.

The choice on the menu was quite limited and there were only a few starter options. I decided I would have the soup as I usually wouldn’t have soup. Also I am not  fan of celery, which implies to me I am not really a fan of celeriac. The soup was described as celeriac soup with truffle croutons. I guess the truffle sold me on the soup.

The soup felt like typical hotel soup, it was okay, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t really anything to write home about (even though I am writing home about it on the blog).

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Rigatoni Pasta

Close to my office in Bristol is La Panza, now an Italian restaurant, which use to be Chatterton’s Cafe.

They have a £10 lunch deal which consists of pasta, focaccia, and a drink. I liked the idea of this, so decided I would try them out. I have been meaning to try out for a while, but I quite like a walk at lunchtime, so as it’s practically next door to the office, I often give it a miss. However this time, I went there after my walk.

Upon arrival, I wasn’t really given any kind of welcome, I had to wait a while before being seated. There is no seating downstairs, all the tables are upstairs. There is outside seating, but it was quite chilly for that, even with table heaters. The place was busy, which is probably why I had to wait a while to get my table sorted.

With the lunch deal, you have no choice about the pasta, they serve the pasta of the day. This time they had a rigatoni pasta dish with tomato, ham, and chilli. I am not sure what they would do if you were vegetarian, but there are some nice sounding pasta dishes on the main menu (but they’re not as cheap as the lunch deal).

Though I had to wait for the table, it wasn’t too long before my meal arrived.

Alongside the pasta was a slice of focaccia. I have to admit I was expecting a chunk of focaccia, but that’s on me, not the restaurant. The pasta was excellent, cooked to perfection and a delicious sauce. The bread was fresh, light and fluffy. As part of the deal you get a drink, and you have the choice of a coffee, a soft drink, or a glass of house wine.

I will take a little annoyance with the 10% service charge, I don’t mind paying for service, but for a lunch deal, couldn’t you just include the service charge in the price? To be honest the service wasn’t that good, however I paid the service charge. I much prefer it when the prices you see on the menu actually reflect the price you pay. It’s much worse in London where everywhere feels they can charge 12.5% or higher service charge. I am not sure what they’re thinking, yes pay for service, but make it part of the price of the food on the menu. It feels a little fraudulent to have “lower” prices on the menu, but these aren’t the prices you are going to pay. 

The key question, despite that 10% surcharge, will I go again for pasta? Yes I will. 

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Seafood Ramen

I don’t always write up all the meals I have, this can be because I didn’t take a photograph, it’s something I have written about before, I didn’t enjoy the meal. Sometimes its just because I was busy or forgot.

A case in point is the delicious Seafood Ramen I had at Wagamama back in September 2017.

I never wrote about it, but did write about other things I ate at that time.

This was a typical Wagamama ramen of the time, with noodles, vegetables and a lovely selection of seafood, including prawns, squid and other stuff.

It has been a while since I ate it, but drawing on old memories I did enjoy it. I had eaten this dish before, which is probably why I ordered it again. Sadly Wagamama no longer have the seafood ramen on their menu, which is a pity. I do like it when places add or change their menus, but sometimes this means dishes I like disappear.

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Tempura Prawns in a Lobster Sauce

One of the hotels I stay at in London is the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. I was there in January staying just the one night. The last time I had been there was in May 2024. Since I was last there, they had done a load of refurbishment. There was a new larger reception area, and the rooms had been refreshed.

The food menu though was very similar. For my main I went with a pizza with buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil which I have reviewed here. For a small plate alongside I went with the tempura prawns in a lobster sauce. Now this sounded like a real treat.

Tempura Prawns in a Lobster Sauce

Alas it wasn’t.

The prawns were terrible and the so-called lobster sauce was horrible. The prawns did have a crispy batter, but it was quite greasy. The sauce did not have any flavour of lobster and tasted like tomato puree.

I did not enjoy the dish and did not finish it. 

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Wagamama in the heart of the city

I do like the food at Wagamama, though I like trying new things, I also like having what I had before. On a recent visit to Wagamama in the City of London,  I went with two dishes I had before. For my starter I went with the crispy otsumami. 

This is six squares of crispy fried rice soaked in a soy + yuzu dressing, topped with pulled shiitake mushroom, smashed avocado + edamame and sriracha mayo, garnished with coriander cress.

I had these before when I went to Wagamama in Basildon. I did think this time they were even better. They are tasty morsels of yum! I like the different textures and the flavours combine to create an extravaganza of different tastes within your mouth.

 For my main I went with the silken tofu gochujang rice bowl. I had this before in Ealing in 2023. This is silken tofu in a spicy gochujang glaze on a bed of sticky white rice, bok choi, pickled cucumber, snow onion slaw, red and spring onion, red chilli, sesame seeds.

I like the contrast between hot and cold ingredients in this bowl. There are a diverse range of complementary flavours within the bowl. Overall a tasty dish.

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Dirty Fries

food stall

One of the regular stalls at the Bristol Street Food scene is Big Nath’s BBQ. I haven’t had food from them before, in the main as their menu consists of rolls filled with BBQ meat, brisket or pulled pork. I think if they did a BBQ box then I probably would have tried them out. I usually avoid what I would call sandwich meals, as I generally don’t do sandwiches, and burgers are a kind of sandwich, well I think they are.

However this time, while I was at the Finale Reach street food market, I thought I would give it a go, and I went for the dirty fries.

These are fries with mac and cheese, pulled pork, BBQ sauce, pickles and mustard.

They do a regular size and a large, having seen them produce a large portion, I went with the regular size (which is still huge).

It looked great. It was very tasty, never sure about pasta and fries in a single dish, but this is an American thing, and this was a very American plate of food. There were some tasty seasoned fries, the aforementioned mac and cheese, tender and delicious pulled pork, with a really nice BBQ sauce. I liked the addition of the mustard and pickles as well. Overall a really fun and delicious box of food, also very filling.

Now the only thing that I would say is that I thought there would be some brisket on there as well, as the chalk board said “yes, it has everything on it”. Well there was no brisket, but not to worry, the fries were still delicious.

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Time for Wagamama in Basildon

I was on my way to East Anglia and was staying over in Festival Leisure Park in Basildon at the Travelodge.

Across the retail park are various places to eat. I did walk around looking at various outlets, thinking about what I wanted. In the end I went to Wagamama with the plan that I wouldn’t have what I usually have at Wagamama. For a starter (or is it a side) I had the pulled shiitake crispy otsumami. 

This is six squares of crispy fried rice soaked in a soy + yuzu dressing, topped with smashed avocado + edamame and sriracha mayo, garnished with coriander cress.

These were really interesting and tasty. They were also very pretty. They were quite an intense flavour, but I liked them.

For my main course I went with the (new) crispy chicken sambal fry.

Described as lightly battered chicken coated in garlic + red pepper powder, mild tomato sambal, vibrant pickled slaw. coconut rice. chilled turmeric-stained egg, amai sauce on the side.

I wasn’t as impressed with this dish as I thought I would be. The chicken was disappointing, and I didn’t really like the mild tomato sambal sauce. I enjoyed the plate of food, but I wasn’t blown away by it. Think I should have had my usual mushroom yaki soba.

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A different Bento Box

When I buy a bento box from She Sells Sushi in Bristol I usually go for the beef donburi and a chicken hirata bun. On a recent visit to the Finale Reach Street food market I went with the bento box, but this time I went with the beef donburi and for a change the chicken katsu.

The chicken katsu was tasty. There was crispy chicken with katsu sauce on top of rice with pickles and crispy onions.

The chicken freshly cooked had a crisp coating. The katsu sauce was nice, not too spicy, but with a hint of fruitiness.

The beef donburi was slow cooked teriyaki beef rib on a bed of rice, topped with crispy onions and pickles.

This was delicious as usual, with tender beef and great flavour.

Overall I think there was too much rice for a light lunch,  but the rest of the box was delicious.

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Burger and Tacos in Leeds

Avoiding a hotel meal in Leeds, myself and a colleague headed out for something to eat. We didn’t go to far and went to the Editor’s Draught, a pub that sells food on Wellington Street.

I was hungry, having missed lunch, so I went with their big burger, The Triple Threat.

It’s the biggest and baddest of the stacks, and it’s piled up with triple beef patties, triple bacon, triple burger cheese slices and triple onion rings drizzled with cheese sauce, in a toasted bun with ketchup, burger sauce, iceberg lettuce, chopped onion and gherkin, with skin-on fries and BBQ sauce.

It was only a couple of pounds more than a standard burger and came with onion rings.

For a starter, well probably a side dish I had the chicken tacos which came with salsa, guacamole and sour cream.

I enjoyed both dishes, they weren’t out of this world, but I wasn’t expecting an out of this world experience. The burger was a nice burger, good flavours and if anything impractical to eat with your hands, as it was so tall.

The chicken tacos were a nice snack.

Overall a quick tasty meal, just what I needed.