Went there again and again was impressed.
Probably my favourite place in Cribbs Causeway at this time.
Bristol Zoo Gardens
Sometimes you wonder why the catering establishments in various tourist attractions act surprised when they get busy…
Today at Bristol Zoo Gardens when buying lunch, the catering team seemed surprised that a lot of people were visiting the zoo.
It’s August!
It’s the school holidays!
It was a sunny day!
What do you expect?
I also think that it is very cheeky to serve okay or ever poor quality food at expensive prices – service stations on the motorway have the same philosophy.
Today I ordered a pizza meal deal and though it was still quite early they had run out of garlic bread! So that I had to wait for.
The pizza was freshly baked, though for my liking too much tomato sauce and not cooked long enough.
Coleslaw was okay, but having made my own I didn’t think too much of it, but it was much much better that coleslaw from other places.
Generally I think it is to be recommended to take a picnic, rather than rely on the catering at the zoo. True you have to contend with the wasps, but the food will probably be nicer.
I do wonder if there are decent places to eat at visitor attractions?
John Lewis Espresso Bar
John Lewis, the retail chain, has been at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol for ten years now.
Their restaurant at the top of the store has always been one of the better places to eat at the shopping mall, away from the KFC and Burger Kings.
True their original outside eating area was rather windswept, but at least the majority of the hot food was cooked to order, the salads were fresh, the cakes scrummy and the service was pretty good too (when it wasn’t too busy).
Over the last few months, John Lewis has revamped their eating places, making their top floor restaurant larger and by adding an espresso bar in the basement.
The espresso bar is rather nice and cosy and despite no windows did not feel claustrophobic.
The coffee was good, the tea was good, the scone was good and the service was excellent. It was even reasonably priced as well.
I was very pleased and will go there again.
Theory Cafe, the theory is flawed
In theory the Theory Cafe, part of the at-Bristol complex should be the perfect place for families visiting at-Bristol, however that theory is flawed on a few levels.
The Theory Cafe does have a kids menu, which for a city centre location and at a location for a family day out, are reasonable priced at £3.95 – the macaroni was only £2.95. The food is not just kiddes food and comes served with salad.
However first flaw, no high chairs!
If you are a toddler, sitting on a proper chair and eating dinner is not an option. Sitting on a sofa is fun, but pity the poor customers who have to sit on the sofa after the toddler has gone!
China plates are nice to eat off, less nice when they fall on the floor and smash – not that happened to me, but it is possible.
Final big flaw is, yes we sell food for children, but we don’t sell drinks for children!
The Theory Cafe is a nice environment, and a huge improvement over the Nescafe cafe it replaced. The food is good and not processed. However it needs to do a few more things to make it a place to take the family.
Chesters
I do wonder why a Mexican themed restaurant is called Chesters?
Regardless of the name, I went there for lunch today and was quite impressed.
I had the house specialty burrito.
A 10″ flour tortilla, crammed with cheese & onion and your choice of filling, served with salsa, sour cream & guacamole, complemented with a Chesters combi salad.
From the choice of fillings I went for the mexican chicken.
I was expecting it to be very spicy, but it wasn’t, it was spiced, but not so spicy to be uncomfortably spicy – as happens in some Mexican chain places I have been to in the past.
The salsa, sour cream and guacamole were nice as they tasted fresh and most certainly did not taste processed or out of a jar.
I thought the side salad was excellent, which was full of interesting salad type things, including shoots, cabbage, potatoes as well as other delicious stuff.
The coffee I had alongside was very nice too.
Overall I did enjoy my meal and thought it was very good value for lunch. My dining colleague enjoyed his risotto.
I would go there again (and more often) alas it is in Worcester and I don’t go there very often!
Dockyard Café Bar
Today I was in Bristol and after a walk on the Harbourside I went to the Dockyard Café Bar.
From their website:
The Dockyard Café Bar is located alongside Brunel’s SS Great Britain and offers superb views on to the ship as well as across Bristol’s historic floating harbour.
Enjoy delicious light meals, snacks and drinks throughout the day; soak up the atmosphere on the waterfront terrace or inside literally watching the world sail by.
On offer daily are delicious soups, special dishes, Italian-style paninis and sandwiches freshly prepared on the premises.
Okay that’s the marketing spiel, what was the reality like?
The place is really quite nice and despite the fact it was a hot day, it was very cool inside. You could have chosen to sit outside if you wanted to.
It’s nice and open inside with lots of space, so it never feels crowded.
That’s the good stuff, however overall it was a bit of a disappointment.
First service, we sat inside and went to the counter to order… Despite there been about six or seven staff at front of house, only two seemed to be working! They had two staff who were taking orders, money, making the drinks and getting the orders together. Moving around these two were other staff who seemed to be doing nothing more than getting in the way.
There was quite a queue and as a result quite a wait to get served. It would have made more sense to me to use some of the staff to speed up the service.
Secondly the quality of the food was quite poor.
I was going to get a coffee, however the cups seemed very small, and though I don’t mind small portions of coffee, these were very much on the small side – like large espresso cups! So I went for a diet coke and it came in a glass bottle which is nice and I much prefer this over the post-mix you usually find in these kind of places.
I ordered sandwiches, a child’s meal and some chips.
The sandwiches were taken from the fridge, whilst we had to wait for the children’s meal.
These were not cheap at £3.50 each and were of a very poor standard. They tasted as though they were made with yesterday’s bread. Now that could be because they were made with yesterday’s bread, or had been left out for too long. Whatever the reason the bread did not taste fresh. Now if I make a sandwich from yesterday’s bread at home, that’s my choice, however when I go out to a cafe I expect my sandwich to be made with fresh bread.
The fillings were not generous, whilst the salad (if you can call five leaves and a slice of tomato a salad) looked as though it had seen better days.
It felt as though the manager doesn’t have children or understand that children don’t always like waiting, and like waiting even less if mum and dad have their food.
Though I felt overpriced, the children’s meal, at least the sandwich was fresh, though not quite sure what the balloon was doing in there!
So could they mess up the chips?
Yes they could.
They double-cooked them!
Basically the chips were cooked twice, so at some point the chips were cooked, left, and then when I placed my order, they were cooked again.
Overall I liked the ambience and the environment, however the food was plainly awful. I am glad I didn’t try the cooked meals.
This place has the potential to be so much better and I hope it can improve. Key steps are, use fresh ingredients and cook to order.
They should create and deliver a menu which reflects the legacy of Brunel and the SS Great Britain.
National Trust Cafe
I had an excellent meal yesterday at the National Trust cafe in Swindon (next door to the STEAM museum and the Swindon shopping outlet). It’s part of their headquarters.
I ordered the pork chop with tomatoes and mushrooms served with vegetables and seasonal potatoes.
The chop (which was boned or boneless) was grilled to perfection, too often with this kind of dish you find some cafes cook it in advance and keep it warm which usually means that the pork dries out and is very tough. This pork chop was full of flavour, tender and delicious. The chop was covered with a chunky sauce made form tomatoes and mushrooms which was well flavoured and for me perfectly seasoned (which means it wasn’t salty).
The vegetables were okay, the carrots tasted as though they were cooked from fresh, but I have a suspicion that the peas and sweetcorn were cooked from frozen (which isn’t surprising and they tasted fine).
The potatoes were roasted new potatoes which were well cooked and very tasty.
My other half went for the red pepper flan (okay read quiche) which was served warm with potatoes and salad. She said the flan was really nice, I was almost too focussed on my pork to ask her for a taste.
For afters I had the treacle tart, too often these can be over sweet, but this was just right in terms of sweetness, but I did find the pastry somewhat tough.
The pork chop dish was very reasonable at £5.95, the flan was only £4.95. I did think the treacle tart was sightly overpriced at £3.25 (especially as other cakes were only £1.50). However overall it certainly was value for money.
Compared to the food offerings in the shopping outlet, if you are out Swindon way, pop over to the National Trust cafe and enjoy a delicious meal in peaceful and pleasant environment.
Crab
I like crab, especially fresh crab.
Recently I had a very nice fresh crab salad at the Shoreline Bistro on Paignton beach.
Unfortunately it can be difficult to find fresh crab at your local supermarket. I have noticed that Marks & Spencers have started selling whole cooked crab, don’t know how fresh it would be.
The crabs in the picture above were taken at a fantastic fish market in Gloucester.
Awful tea, just like British Rail use to make…
I had a terrible cup of tea. It was on a train and was reminiscent of the tea that British Rail use to make!
It was on the buffet car on a South Devon Railway train from Buckfastleigh to Totnes.
I always think preserved railways have a real opportunity for on-board catering, however I am virtually always usually very disappointed.
The tea was foul and served in a depressing polystyrene cup. The milk was that awful long life milk in spring loaded containers; what’s wrong with serving fresh milk?
I was so disappointed that I decided I wouldn’t eat in the station tea rooms as I expected it to be just as bad, but on reflection that may have been a bit premature, as I was told the menu looked interesting and the food looked really nice.
Bella Italia
I quite like Bella Italia, yes I know it is a chain and they use a range of pre-made ingredients in their cooking and it’s all systems and less about flair and passion. Even having said that compared to other places I enjoy the food, the service, the atmosphere and the Italian’ess.
I was there on Monday for lunch and had an enjoyable meal. I started with the calamari and unlike other places which serve pre-cooked rubbery squid rings, at Bella Italia they do use the whole squid. However they do seem to overcook it, it would be much better if they cooked for half the time that they do. Still nice, but not how I like it. It arrived with lemon and mayonnaise.
I had pizza for my main course, a Quattro Stagioni, the four seasons; pepperoni, smoked ham, roasted mushrooms and artichokes. It was quite nice, I prefer the pizza from Pizza Express, but this is so much better than the pizzas you can get in other (so-called) pizza eateries. The smoked ham was too salty for me, so that went off, but the mushrooms and artichokes were done well. The pizza base was just right, thin and not too crispy or too soggy. The tomato sauce was slightly too salty, but did taste of tomates. I would have liked a little more cheese.
The pasta dish ordered by my other half was very nice as well, Penne Funghi Pancetta. which was pancetta bacon, mushrooms and penne pasta sauteed in a creamy cheese sauce.
We had soft drinks and left before we could have coffee as we were pushed for time.
The service was fine, though it did take a little time for our main courses to arrive, and it felt like they had been waiting for a while.
Overall it was a nice place for lunch and I would make a return visit.