We have been quite lucky in having quite a nice crop of homegrown tomatoes. I have been using them in salads. I don’t recall the variety, but they are small tomatoes. They are sweet and full of flavour.
Time for some more Tapas
Last July I went to La Rueda, a tapas bar in Ealing in London. We had an excellent meal of different tapas dishes. In my review I said:
Overall the food was beautiful cooked and it was delicious. I do hope to visit La Rueda again.
It has been a while, but last month I made a return visit to La Rueda and had some excellent tapas again.
La Rueda Tapas Bar is a one-of-a-kind culinary establishment with a menu inspired by the idea of simple and honest cooking. Starting in 2000, we developed a unique dining experience for all of our guests using fresh and sustainable ingredients—taking you on a culinary journey like no other. From classic recipes to new-age kitchen adventures, each dish reflects our passion for high-quality food presented in a simple yet pleasing manner.
I was given a friendly warm welcome. I looked over the menu. I decided to go for three dishes, a salad, a fish dish, and a meat dish. I went with choices that I wouldn’t normally choose.
For my salad choice I went with the Tomate Y Cebolla – Tomatoes & Onions salad.
The tomatoes were nice and fresh, and the sharpness of the red onions was a nice contrast. The salad was seasoned well.
For the meat dish I went with the Carrilleras de cerdo ibérico – Ibérico pork cheeks braised in Sherry.
I had seen this on the menu before and liked the sound of it. There was two portions of pork cheek, the cooking sauce, and some deep friend potato strings. The pork was tender and full of flavour. The crispiness of the potato add some textural variety. I think I would have liked some bread with this dish.
For my fish dish I was tempted to have the octopus that I had last year. I also liked the idea of the grilled sardines. However, in the end I chose the Boquerones fritos – fried fresh anchovies.
This dish was similar to whitebait, but the anchovies were bigger. They were nice and crisp, and I liked the aioli, slaw, and lemon.
I really enjoyed all three dishes.
Cardiff Castle Arcade Flat White
We were in Cardiff and having visited the castle we headed into the city centre.
We walked down Castle Arcade and stopped at Coffee Barker for a drink.
Coffee Barker is a lovely place for coffee, I have been here before when I have visited Cardiff. I like the environment, the drinks, and the service. The mix of wooden furniture, leather chairs, and soft furnishings, give the place a warm calming experience.
We were given a warm and welcome and I placed our order. I had flat white.
This was a really excellent coffee, well made, and delicious.
Cortado at the Services
I will say I am not a fan of coffee at motorway services, but sometimes needs must. So, it was with a little trepidation that I stopped at the Reading services on the M4 for a coffee.
I had a cortado from costa and to be honest it wasn’t too bad, quite nice all in.
That is not Roast Beef Tenderloin
I was in London I was staying at the Crowne Plaza in Ealing and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. They have an extensive menu with some interesting choices.
I had mixed opinions about my previous meal at the Crowne Plaza, so wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this meal.
For my starter I went with the Creamy Mushroom Toast – sliced mushroom in rich creamy garlic sauce served on toasted bread with balsamic glaze.
This was an interesting starter. It didn’t blow me away. There was probably too much sauce and not enough mushrooms.
When I had looked at the menu before arriving at the hotel I was quite intrigued by this on the menu. Roast Beef Tenderloin – medium cooked beef served with truffle mash potato, roasted root vegetables & thyme gravy.
I did a google search for “Roast Beef Tenderloin” and liked the look of what I saw.
So when it came to the meal, for me it was a bit of a no-brainer, and I ordered the Roast Beef Tenderloin. You can imagine my disappointment when what was served at the table was this.
Though I don’t think this was roast beef tenderloin at all… also it had been cooked on the griddle! It was nice, but I hadn’t ordered steak
The truffle mash potato didn’t have a real truffle taste, which was a pity. I had some truffle mash from M&S a few months back and that had a really nice truffle kick to it, this one didn’t. It was though nice and smooth. I liked the roasted root vegetables.
This wasn’t the dish I thought it was going to be, it was something of a disappointment. Part of my knew I should have complained at the time, but I didn’t. Part of the reason was that I knew that they probably couldn’t do very much. I don’t think they would have changed the grilled steak for roast beef tenderloin. They may have said I could have something else from the menu, but I had chosen the beef. I certainly wouldn’t order it again if I ever return to the Crowne Plaza.
Time for a Fiorentina
I had arrived in Ealing early and had some time before I could check into my hotel. I did quite fancy pizza and I had enjoyed my pizza from Franco Manca when I last had pizza for lunch in Ealing.
I went for a walk, despite thinking I would have pizza for lunch, I did walk around first. I did wonder if the La Rueda Spanish Tapas Bar had a lunch offer, having enjoyed my tapas dinner there the previous week. They didn’t.
I decided I would go to Rosa’s Thai for lunch, but when I got there, it was empty. Decided, that was a no, I don’t really like eating in an empty restaurant.
So, what was I going to have for lunch, decided I would have a pizza at Franca Manca. I went in and there didn’t appear to be any staff, I waited, and then I waited some more. I then walked out.
I headed to Reineta for lunch, this time their lunch menu matched their online lunch menu. However, I didn’t really fancy a toastie or a sandwich. I left and went back to Franca Manca. Again, I waited, I waited some more, then I walked out again.
So, I headed to Pizza Express, this time I was given a warm welcome, so I took a seat and looked over the menu. I had a special offer on the app, so I used them to have a Classic Fiorentina Pizza.
The one with the ‘egg and spinach’, plus mozzarella, tomato, Gran Milano cheese, black olives and garlic oil.
It arrived in good time. It looked really nice. I’ve had this pizza quite a few times and it is one of my favourite pizza from Pizza Express. I like the spinach, olives and egg. I was a little disappointed that the egg was cooked solid, but overall, I did enjoy the pizza. It was good value for money, I had good service and I didn’t need to wait!
Slow Greek Lunch
I have had a few meals at The Real Greek and so when I was in the Gloucester Quays looking for a quick lunch.
They have a lunch deal, so I thought I would go with that. I entered the restaurant and waited to be seated…
And waited…
True there was a member of staff behind the bar preparing some desserts, and did say it would be a few minutes.
And I waited…
I sat at the table and looked over the menu. I decided what I was going to have and I waited.
And waited…
Some people were sat on the table next to me and they had their order taken, even though they were sat after me.
And I waited…
Eventually a member of the waiting staff arrived, and I was able to place my order.
It took a while for my food to arrive.
I expected all the food to come at once, but the cold meze arrived first, and later my hot dishes arrived.
I had the santorini fava, taramasalata, and Greek flatbread.
The santorini fava was made from yellow lentils from Santorini, cooked and blended with herbs and spices, topped with a salsa of tomatoes, onions, capers and caper powder. I’ve had this before and enjoyed it then, and I enjoyed it again this time.
The taramasalata was a creamy blend with naturally undyed cod roe. As the menu says it’s not meant to be pink! I enjoyed the creamy dip.
The Greek flatbreads were soft and warm and there was plenty of it, which was nice.
The hot meze was spinach tiropitakia with chips.
The tiropitakia was three filo pastry parcels with creamy leek, spinach and feta filling. As with the calamari I had recently, sometimes I think does a dish need a salad garnish, this one did. The dish was certainly missing something fresh to accompany the filo pastry parcels. I would have chosen a salad instead of the chips, but no salad was on the lunch menu.
The tiropitakia had been deep fried, I was expecting them to be baked. I would like to have seen layers of flaky pastry. As they had been fried, they were a little greasy and crunchy. The creamy leek, spinach and feta filling was nice though. I liked the chips which were nice and crisp.
Overall I did enjoy my lunch, but was slightly annoyed with how slow the service was. The place wasn’t busy and they seemed to have plenty of staff, so it wasn’t clear about why the service was slow.
Nice chicken, shame about the squid!
I was in London I was staying at the Crowne Plaza in Ealing and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. They have an extensive menu with some interesting choices.
I always think that the way in which a restaurant cooks and serves calamari gives you an insight into what kind of cooking they do, and food they serve.
So seeing Spiced Squid Rings on the menu I thought I would give them a try. They were described as battered calamari dusted with paprika served with garlic and lemon aioli.
Now I will say at this point that I didn’t think that these would be any good, the description of the squid as battered calamari said to me that these was not going to be freshly cooked squid. This would be frozen calamari rings cooked off in the deep fat fryer.
When it arrived, it was as expected.
The batter was thick and doughy. The squid wasn’t tender, but then it wasn’t chewy either.
Sometimes I think does a dish need a salad garnish, this one did.
I was expecting to me disappointed, and yes I was disappointed.
For my main course I went with the Garlic Butterfly Chicken. Normally this is something I wouldn’t choose, but decided I would go with something different. The hot weather also meant I did actually fancy a salad.
This was marinated chicken served with Panzanella Salad & grated parmesan cheese.
This was a much more impressive looking dish.
The chicken was cooked well, it had been cooked on the griddle, but was still moist and tender and full of flavour.
Now as for the Panzanella Salad. Well if you search online you can find a description of Panzanella Salad.
Panzanella or panmolle is a Tuscan and Umbrian chopped salad of soaked stale bread, onions and tomatoes that is popular in the summer. It often includes cucumbers, sometimes basil and is dressed with olive oil and vinegar.
The salad I got wasn’t quite that, but it was a nice salad. There was stale bread, tomatoes, onions, but it also had quite a bit of sweet peppers as well. I liked the use of grated parmesan cheese. The bread was a little too stale, but did add crunch to the salad.
I liked it, but I think that Florentine traditionalists would disapprove.
So despite the disappointing starter, I did enjoy my main course.
Not my first choice
Heading to Finzel Reach street food market in Bristol for lunch, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to have. I did see that King Fin has their calamari, which I had enjoyed the other day. However first I walked down the market to see what was on offer. Decided I would go with the calamari, only to find when I got back to the King Fin stall they had sold out of the calamari.
Though I hadn’t been totally impressed with the soft shell crab burger when I had it before, I went with it this time.
The burger was a soft brioche bun with a deep fried soft shell crab, and a coleslaw. I added a side order of rosemary chips as well.
The twice cooked rosemary fries with sauce were very tasty, and crispy.
The burger was as I was expecting. The bun was lovely and soft, and the spicy coleslaw added heat and freshness. The deep fried soft shell crab was crispy, but didn’t have the crab taste intensity I would really like to see in this dish. I also felt the crab got lost in the spicy coleslaw as well. However, as I was expecting the food to be like this, I wasn’t really that disappointed.
Time for some calamari
I was working in Bristol and went for a walk at lunchtime.
I wasn’t really thinking about getting some lunch, but knew that I was out that evening, so might be a good idea to have a bigger lunch. I had brought a packed lunch, but did think that I might get a portion of something to add to it.
I decided to head to the Finzel Reach. There I wasn’t sure if I wanted anything, or what to have. In the end I got some calamari from King Fin. I’ve had some lovely food from King Fin in the past.
This time I got it without fries, you can add fries for another three pounds to make it a more substantial dish.
This was a decent portion of calamari. It was served with a chunk of lemon, garlic aioli, and some slaw.
It had been cooked to order, so was lovely and fresh. The coating was nice and crispy, the squid was tasty and tender. I liked the slaw, could have had more of that to be honest.
I think my only real criticism was that there was slightly too much added salt for my liking. I think in the future I will ask for no salt, and then add my own.
Overall I really enjoyed the food and it was excellent again.