I rarely go with the chicken

When I go out to eat I rarely go with the chicken, not that I don’t like chicken, on the contrary I cook it a lot when I am at home, as you can see I have written a lot about it on the blog. The main reason I don’t choose chicken is that, it is something I do cook at home and where possible when eating out I prefer to go with something I don’t normally cook at home. I also don’t choose chicken is that often the dish is chicken in some kind of sauce, or topped with stuff. In these dishes, the chicken is not the star of the dish, merely playing a bit part to the sauce. Another reason I don’t choose the chicken, is that generally the chicken used in restaurants is bland and lacks flavour, at home I usually go with thighs and legs as they have more flavour.

So even I was little surprised with myself when I recently had dinner at the Brasenose Arms in Cropredy and I chose the chicken.

the chicken, pan fried with lemon and oregano and served with crushed rosemary new potatoes and green beans

I will say it wasn’t my first choice, I did in fact want to have the roasted pork belly that was on the specials board, but that had sold out. So I chose the chicken, pan fried with lemon and oregano and served with crushed rosemary new potatoes and green beans, it was priced at £9.95.

The chicken was delicious, beautifully cooked and full of flavour, I liked the combination of lemon and oregano. I have to admit I was less impressed with the potatoes, they were nice, but were a little dry for me. I enjoyed the green beans. Overall I was really pleased with the dish, it was tasty, fresh and cooked with style and flair.

I liked the ambinance and friendly service that I had, I will certainly go again if I have the chance.

Crab Cake Salad

Taking lunch at Frankie and Benny’s and wanting something rather light, I went with the Crab Salad.

Crab Cake

The menu describes it as “Our large oven baked crab cake served on a bed of mixed leaves with tomato, roasted red pepper and onion, tossed in our sweet chilli dressing with half a chargrilled lemon on the side.”

I was really interested to see how this was going look and taste, I did initially expect a heavy crab cake, with more potato than crab. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the crab cake was made in the main with crab. There was a good flavour and texture, I liked the subtle crispness on the outside, the soft textured inside.

I did enjoy the salad, though I think if I was going to have this again I would ask for no dressing. The sweet chilli dressing was a little too sticky and sweet for me. I think I would have preferred olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I was slightly disappointed with the salad when writing this review as the menu description talks about roasted red peppers, and there were no red peppers. I hadn’t noticed when I was eating it, so didn’t complain at the time. I didn’t see the point of the chargrilled lemon, why chargrill it, it didn’t add anything and it didn’t really need it.

I liked the crab cake, and enjoyed the dish, I would order it again.

So what about the food?

In one of my previous blog posts I talked about the quality of the service at a recent visit to Bell Italia, so what about the food?

Well my wife had ordered the Formaggio di Capra, which is described on the menu as melting goat’s cheese and red pepper tapenade on giant ciabatta croutons, with baby spinach, rocket, green beans, caramelised onions, roasted red peppers, olives and fresh basil in a rosemary balsamic dressing.

Formaggio di Capra

This she really enjoyed, it was a really nice dish. She let me try one of the ciabatta croutons, It had lots of flavour and I liked the combination of flavours and textures. The salad was fresh and colourful.

I had ordered the Double Americano this was two chargrilled Aberdeen Angus beef burgers with baby gem, tomatoes, red onion and mayonnaise.

Double Burger

The last time I had a burger at Bella Italia it was really good, to tasted great, so my expectations were quite high. Alas it was slightly overdone, not so much to send it back (what with the service we had been getting, I didn’t really see the point) but enough to slightly mar the enjoyment of the dish.

My son went with a dish he had before, Gamberoni, described on the menu as eight succulent king prawns sautéed with spaghetti, garlic and chilli in a spicy pomodoro sauce.

Gamberoni

He really enjoyed the dish, the pasta was cooked well, still al dente and not overcooked, the sauce was tomatoey and nice and spicy. He also got a lot more than eight prawns, however they were pre-cooked and not done as described in the menu, or how he had them before. As before it wasn’t reason enough to send the dish back, he also really enjoyed eating it.

Overall the food was okay, it could have been better, but as I mentioned in my previous blog post, the real issue for us with the meal was the service.

Now that’s not what I call service!

Bella Italia

Maybe I am just getting old, or maybe I am getting more demanding, or maybe I just expect politeness and respect. We recently made a visit to Bella Italia at Cribbs, it’s somewhere we go quite often and in the past have had really nice meals and excellent service.

Our most recent visit though the lack of service, has really put us off visiting again. I did complain to head office and they did send a response, which I was satisfied with.

The main thrust of my complaint was that we as customers were seen as an inconvenience and were getting in the way of people doing their jobs. One example was that we weren’t shown to the table we had booked, but told it “was over there”. It wasn’t as though the place was busy, in fact quite the opposite it was virtually empty. It would have taken less than 30 seconds to escort us to our table, not much effort, but as a result a much nicer experience for us.

Here’s another example, as we waited for our food, by this time there were more people in the restaurant, the place started to fill with smoke from the grill. It wasn’t very pleasant as you might imagine.

As there was more smoke, people who hadn’t ordered started to get up and leave.One of the waiting staff did come and give us an explanation, what she said was “they had to leave the back door open as they were having a delivery, and this was blowing smoke through the restaurant”.

For me this isn’t good enough. The explanation implies that to happens often, so why not schedule deliveries earlier in the day, rather than over the peak lunchtime period? Also rather than leave the door open, why not have a member of staff at the door, who will open as and when needed to reduce the amount of smoke. You know why that didn’t happen? As it was easier to prop the door open!

Sometimes it is the little things that can make a big difference. I should point out that there were other things that we weren’t happy with during our visit including some quite dangerous serving of hot drinks, that culminated with me filling in the web feedback form when we got home.

More importantly it has made us decide that we probably won’t go there again, which says a lot.

Sunday Lunch at the Summerhouse

The Summerhouse

The Summerhouse in Weston-super-Mare is probably the place I visit most often, the reasons for this are geographical, historical and habit. It is currently owned by the Marstons chain so uses a corporate menu, though they also usually have a range of specials available too.

Though the quality of the food has fluctuated over the years, however the service has always been really good, friendly and genuine. The food is typical pub grub, nothing awful, but nothing really special, just good food, cooked well, served with a smile. They also, as they are a pub, usually have a nice range of beers on tap.

A last minute decision meant that we decided to go out for Sunday lunch and after a little hesitation and decision making, we chose the Summerhouse. The decor and furniture is quite stereotypically pub like, dark wood, dark carpets, brass fittings. You know that the place is a pub, but the internal layout means that the “actual” pub bit is on the ground floor, whilst there is a nearly separate restaurant area on the first floor (and on a mezzanine).

The menu is full of typical pub menu choices, stuff that is placed on the grill, dropped into a deep fat fryer or bunged into a microwave! Not that I expect much moe than that with this kind of place. My wife went with the pie, my son chose fish and chips, I perused the menu and plumped for the Sunday lunch which was a reasonable £7.15.

As we were quite early, for a Sunday, the food arrived promptly, I had a huge plate, covered in vegetables, a portion of cauliflower cheese in its own little dish, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, a small jug of gravy and a large Yorkshire Pudding. It took me a while to find the roast beef that was on the bottom of the plate. I did initially feel that the portion of beef was a little on the small side, but when you consider the price and the large quantities of vegetables perhaps it wasn’t so small after all.

I was hoping that this was going to be fresh hand carved beef, alas I was to be disappointed, it had been sliced on an electric slicer! The beef itself was tender and had some flavour, but nothing special. Certainly a lot better than a lot of the beef, you usually find in “cheap” roast beef dinners. The vegetables were nice, the cauliflower cheese was a nice touch. According to the menu, you can have “unlimited” roasties and vegetables, however it wasn’t very clear about how you would get more veg and roasties. Having said that, and as pointed out to me by my wife, the portions you get to start with are quite large and generous, so you would need to be really hungry to actually want more veg. When you consider that a roast beef dinner at a supermarket cafe, where y queue up to order is usually in the £4.95 price bracket, I do think that the Summerhouse meal was good value for money.

We did enjoy our meal, my son polished off the fish and chips, and my wife really enjoyed her pie. The service was excellent and friendly.

Down at the Portivo Lounge

Portivo Lounge

The last time I went to the Portivo Lounge on the quayside at Gloucester I sat outside, on a more recent visit, we sat inside and I was able to appreciate the internal decor. Every Lounge branch is different, unlike other chains where they work hard to ensure that all their branches look alike. The concept behind the interior is to reflect the location in the decor. As the Portivo Lounge is by the docks, they have gone with a maritime theme, which works quite well. The lighting for example appears to be have been taken from the corridors of a large ship (or a submarine). The furniture across the Lounge is all very different, reclaimed probably, but comfortable. I did like the look, it was calm and comfortable and it is certainly somewhere, where you could sit for a while chatting with friends, or working on something.

As for the food and the coffee, I did enjoy my coffee and though you order at the bar, they at least bring it to your table, rather than waiting around for it to be made and then spilt as you try and find somewhere to sit. I’ve not eaten at Portivo Lounge, and I probably won’t have the chance now, but the food did look good as it was taken out to other people.

The place appears quite popular, very full at lunchtimes, and even mid afternoon, when we were there it was buzzing, so it must be doing something right.

Siam Angel Cafe, Bristol

Siam Angel Cafe

Down on St George’s Road in Bristol, next to Brunel House is an old house containing an interesting fusion of a cafe, a coffee shop and a Thai restaurant. Is this a coffee shop or a Thai cafe? I’m not sure, and I wonder if even if the owners are sure.

The menu combines a range of coffee, all day breakfasts and some delicious sounding Thai food. So alongside the Pad Thai you can have fried eggs on toast with a bacon roll? The coffee, even with the regular choice of latte, espresso and so on, was not tempting at all, as it all appeared to come out of a vending style machine. On the counter was a wide selection of pre-packaged biscuits, chocolate and cakes. I didn’t notice any homemade or fresh cakes, but I may have missed them.

We were though coming for dinner, so we went for the Thai food and ordered a mixed platter starter. For our mains I went for the Prawn Pad Thai, my wife had the Prawn Kaeng Kari and my son went with the Sweet and Sour Chicken. My two youngest children decided they wanted sausages and chips!

The mixed platter consisted of prawn toast, filo wrapped prawns, spring rolls, sweetcorn fritter with a salad garnish. This wasn’t particularly inspiring. The food was deep fried and rather greasy, the individual parts lacked flavour.

The children’s food arrived first and looked really good, the sausages looked like proper sausages, the chips were properly cooked. Alas though I thought the sausages were fine, the children didn’t really enjoy their food, which was a pity.

My son’s Sweet and Sour Chicken looked very nice, he really enjoyed it, though I didn’t try it, I did think it looked a little too sugary and sticky. It was beautifully presented and was made using fresh ingredients, nicely cut up and presented.

My Pad Thai was also well presented with a good portion of prawns, I liked the touch of a slice of lime and chilli flakes on the side. It was cooked well, nice noodles, fresh prawns, crunchy carrot and beansprouts. It was full of flavour and was really nice.

The Prawn Kaeng Kari came in a bowl complete with jasmine rice on the side (in the shape of a star) and looked very nice. It was really fresh and tasty and full of flavour. The only downside was that I thought it was more soup than a curry, as it lacked substance.

The Thai chicken dishes are all priced at £4.99, whilst the prawn dishes are £5.99. I think this is really good value for freshly cooked and well presented food. There are vegetarian versions of some of the dishes, in the main using tofu.

If you are thinking about going there for dinner, you should note that it closes at 7pm and as for the weekends, it closes at 4pm on Saturdays and isn’t open on Sundays. There is no licence, so you can bring your own wine, or buy a beer from the pub next door!

Overall I liked the Siam Angel Cafe, the food was great, the decor was nice, it was a nice place to go out and eat Thai food. I am not so sure though if it works as a coffee place.

Breads and Cheeses

Sometimes you find really nice places in the most unobvious of locations.

I don’t go to Cabot Circus in Bristol that often, but when I do I am somewhat surprised by how busy the restaurant places are. There are loads of people queuing to eat at Nandos, Bella Italia always looks packed, as does Yo Sushi.

Though I have to say I was somewhat surprised to find out the other day that La Tasca at Cabot Circus had closed (and will be replaced by a Wagamama). I went to La Tasca last July and said back then:

It wasn’t awful, it was just okay, nothing special and I do think that the restaurant could have done a lot better.

I finished off by saying:

I think it might be a while before I go to La Tasca again…

I wonder if my experience was similar, as a result there was a lack of repeat custom and if you are losing sales, it makes sense to close.

It might be more that people have fallen out of favour with tapas and have moved onto other things… Nandos judging by the queues if you were to ask me.

We went to La Tasca back then, as we didn’t want to eat at the restaurant in Harvey Nichols, as my wife put it “she didn’t want to have a celebrationary dinner in an upmarket BHS or Primark!” So it was somewhat strange that on our most recent visit to Cabot Circus we did end up in the bar at Harvey Nichols.

This was a really peaceful haven from the hustle and bustle of the shopping quarter and it was nice to just sit down, relax and be waited upon.

We weren’t there for a meal, just a glass of wine and a snack. The wine list was comprehensive and interesting, and I thought very reasonable, a lot cheaper than I was expecting and anticipated. It was also very nice wine.

In terms of snacks we ordered the rustic homemade bread with Harvey Nichols olive oil and balsamic vinegar was a nice bar snack at just £3.50.

 rustic homemade bread with Harvey Nichols olive oil and balsamic vinegar

We also splashed out and went with the cheese board, artisan cheeses, served with Harvey Nichols chutney and homemade bread, which was a little more pricey at £8.00.

 cheese board, artisan cheeses, served with Harvey Nichols chutney and homemade bread

The breads were really nice and interesting. There were ciabatta style breadsticks, focaccia, and some very unusual gingerbread style bread (not quite gingerbread, but similar). The cheeses were really nice, there was a farmhouse cheddar, a type of brie and a hard Spanish cheese. The chutney was nice, not too strong, but still full of flavours. Alongside came some celery and apple. Both snacks were really tasty and complemented the wines we had chosen.

Now they do that thing, which I don’t really like “a discretionary 10% service charge will be added to all bills” and to be honest I don’t understand. Either include the “service” in the prices or let the customer make the choice about rewarding good service. Using a term like “discretionary” implies that it is a choice, but unless you had really terrible service, you wouldn’t likely say that you were going to not pay it. I also think it stops people tipping more!

Just as an aside really, what I did notice was that (even with the discretionary 10% service charge) many of the prices were quite reasonable. The different coffees available were cheaper than those you would find in a high street chain nearby, and unlike those where you would have to wait at the counter for your coffee, here you would have a waiter deliver the coffee to your table. Much more civilised, wouldn’t you say?

Overall this was a peaceful respite from the hustle and bustle that is Cabot Circus and recommended for a quiet drink, whether that be wine or coffee.

The Green Coffee Machine in Cheltenham

The Green Coffee Machine

A colleague at work had recommended that I visit The Green Coffee Machine, an independent coffee place quite close to Cheltenham Railway Station. I had seen it a fair few times as I travelled to and from work by train, but until recently had never had the chance or the time to pop in.

I much prefer independent coffee shops to the high street chains, I find that they have more personality, the staff care about the coffee and the food is usually better and more tasty.

Having arrived much earlier into Cheltenham than I normally do, I took the opportunity to give The Green Coffee Machine a try. I was pleased to find that it opened early, it was 7:45 which isn’t that early, but I know other places that don’t open until 9:00am or even later. I was on the Gloucester Road in Bristol the other morning and I wanted a coffee, the local independents were closed, so I had to go to Costa for a coffee. The other morning in Gloucester I was going to grab a quick espresso at the Portivo Lounge in the Quays, but it didn’t open until 9am. So to be honest I was expecting The Green Coffee Machine to be closed, so was pleased to find it was open.

I received a friendly greeting and I ordered a flat white and some toast. I had considered ordering an Americano, which is usually my way of comparing coffee from different places, but I really felt like drinking a flat white. What was really nice was after ordering I didn’t need to wait around, I was told I could sit down and my coffee and toast would be brought to my table.

Sitting down I was able to take in the asthetics and design of the environment. It’s quite eclectic in terms of furnishing and decoration. It in my mind mashes together two different styles that doesn’t quite work. There is a design asthetic that takes slate with (usually lime green) plastic. If you have ever been to the Tea Monkey in Bath you will know what I am talking about and it works quite well, modern, clean and ever so slightly futuristic. The other design style is what you find in somewhere like Coffee#1, wooden floors, reclaimed wooden furniture, comfortable relaxing sofas (preferably weathered leather). What The Green Coffee Machine has done has mashed those two styles together, so you have the modern fresh slate floor complete with lime green plastic chairs, alongside really nice leather Chesterfield sofas and weirdly cable drums as tables.

The Green Coffee Machine

As a result, for me, it doesn’t work. I think a slate and lime green look would have worked really well, likewise a retro wooden design would have worked equally well.

They are not alone in mashing styles together, Portivo Lounge in the Gloucester Quays has done something similar, wooden inside, and green (and also orange) plastic chairs outside. That doesn’t work either!

So what about the real stuff, the main reason for going, the coffee?

Flat White at The Green Coffee Machine

Well I really enjoyed the Flat White, it was great coffee and the milk was exactly the right consistency, not too foamy and not too milky. There was no feather, but let’s be honest that’s just trying to be flash. I really enjoyed the coffee and it tasted of coffee.

Toast at The Green Coffee Machine

The toast, though nice and hot, with generous portions of butter and jam (and no little packs of butter either, which I do prefer) I was slightly disappointed that they were using a standard loaf of Hovis. They had just bought it from the Tesco next door! Okay, so toast is toast, but some proper artisan bread would have been so much more preferable than sliced bread from the supermarket. It looked like they were using rustic French bread on the menu, so not totally out of the question. In a traditional British cafe (as in caff) you expect them to use sliced bread, but in a place like The Green Coffee Machine I had expectations, especially as it was Cheltenham, that they would use proper bread.

Overall I did quite like the atmosphere, the service was excellent, the coffee was great, if you don’t mind a slighty confused design and decor and avoid the toast, then it’s a really nice place to spend time drinking coffee.

Portivo Lounge

A new cafe has opened in the Gloucester Docks and it’s rather nice.

Portivo Lounge

I really liked the design of the place. They have taken notice of the building they are in and its location in the docks. The interior, fixtures and fittings reflect that. It’s calming and relaxing. Having said all that I am not sure about the bright orange and lime green chairs outside…

Now I’ve only had coffee and a pastry, but both were very good. The double espresso was strong and smooth, the pain au chocolate was fresh and flaky. What I did like was, I was able to have a glass of iced water with my espresso.

I am not sure which coffee they are using, there were no signs for Illy or Lavazza that you sometimes see at places like this. I did enjoy it and the next time I go I might try an Americano as a taste comparison.

The service was also excellent, well with one minor exception. The welcome and service was friendly, calm and professional. The minor exception was the “keenness” of one member of staff to clear our table. We hadn’t finished our drinks or food, but she wanted to clear some of our cups and plates. Yes this is useful if you are ordering more food and drinks, but we were nearing the end of our drinks. What it felt like was that what she actually wanted was either for us to go… or they had run out of cups in the cafe! As a result we felt rushed and in the way. For me the reason I go to a cafe to drink coffee, is for the whole calm experience, a chance to drink, think, chat and reflect. It has to be said this was a really minor point and the rest of the service was excellent.