london Archives - Time for a coffee

January 26, 2026

Slightly happier

I recently blogged about my experience of the set menu at Côte in Marlow. At the end of the day was I happy? Well I wasn’t unhappy. It was a pity there was limited choice for the starter, I had my heart set on the potted crab, and I also liked the sound of the charcuterie. However with the set menu choices it was restricted to the soup and the beetroot. I did enjoy the meal and it was nice to sit down, be served.

It wasn’t an amazing experience, but the food I did have I enjoyed. I thought I might try and give that Côte menu another go. This time though my experience would be at the Côte branch in Ealing. My last experience eating in that branch was very positive.

Overall I did enjoy my food at Côte, the service was excellent, and I had a lovely dining experience. It wasn’t perfect, but it was nice, and with the fixed price menu, I thought it was value for money.

I did write in that blog post about how I feel about the chain.

I kind of have a love hate relationship with the Côte chain of restaurants. I really like French style cooking and the Côte menu has an extensive choice of French inspired dishes. The service at the Ealing branch of Côte has always been excellent. Welcoming, warm and friendly. The food arrives in ample time, and I have never felt rushed. The waiting staff are attentive, but not intrusive. What’s not to like? However, though the food is good, it isn’t excellent, and so I always have to temper my expectations. I like the food, but I wouldn’t say I love the food. I am not entirely sure what they could do to make things better, but I am confident that they could.

Since I wrote that, I did visit Petit Pois in Brighton, which is an amazing little French restaurant where I had some excellent food including a delicious cassoulet, a wonderfully tasty bouillabaisse, and a exquisite skate wing.

So, I kind of know what a great French bistro in the UK can be, Côte is not quite there, but despite that I do enjoy the food and the cooking.

I booked a table through the app and headed off to the restaurant. I was given a friendly and warm welcome and was shown to my table.

On this visit to Côte in Ealing, it was back to the set menu, unlike Marlow, they did have all the starters. This meant I could have the potted crab. The simple basic presentation to me worked well. There was some fresh seeded bread. The potted crab was topped with lobster butter.

The crab was delicious. You really taste the crab in the pot. Sometimes when I have crab based dishes in restaurants, you struggle to taste the crab. When I had the Crab Maison at Côte back in 2023 I said of that dish:

I was hoping for an intense crab flavour, which I felt was missing, and what crab there was, was overpowered by the mayonnaise.

This time you really knew it was crab. I forgot that the butter was a lobster based butter and avoided it. So, not really able to remember what is did taste like. At Marlow they did bring some bread to the table, this time, no bread. Actually I could have done with some more bread, as there was quite a bit of crab in the potted crab.

Having had the steak and frites at Marlow, this time I went with something different and had the sea bream. This was grilled Sea Bream with a sun-dried tomato butter, olive salsa vierge, and sautéed tarragon new potatoes.

This was well presented and was absolutely delicious. There was a real combination of French Mediterranean flavours in the plate of food, from the tomatoes olives and the sun-dried tomato butter. The fish was perfectly cooked, full of flavour and the skin was nice and crispy. I really enjoyed that dish.

Now for the third course. I did think about going down a different road for this course, as I had done for the starter and the main, but I am a sucker for cheese and biscuits, so yes I ordered the cheese and biscuits.

I wasn’t given a choice and my plate arrived with just three cheeses, three different cheeses though. The quince jelly was there, but not crackers. However a portion of bread was provided.

I did feel that the plate looked a little sad and certainly needed something else there, the crackers perhaps would have enhanced the presentation. As it was I prefer bread with my cheese to crackers, though the bread I did get was a little stale.

Overall this experience at Côte Ealing with the set menu was so much better than that at Marlow. They had all the dishes, and the starter and main course were excellent. The cheese like Marlow was disappointing and I must remember in the future to avoid it. Service was warm and friendly.

December 21, 2025

Bavette Steak

The Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing is one of my regular London stays. It offers a significantly cheaper alternative to central London hotels, with easy access to the middle of London via West Ealing station.

I don’t usually have steak at the hotel now as their prices have gone up quite a bit since I first started visiting. On my most recent visit though, they did have a bavette steak on the menu (as well as a more expensive sirloin). The steak said it came with truffle & lemon dressed watercress, fries & choice of peppercorn or béarnaise sauce. So, I ordered that for my dinner, choosing the peppercorn sauce.

The steak arrived and the plate of food did look good. However, though I did have a bavette steak, I didn’t get the truffle & lemon dressed watercress or the fries. I had a simple mixed salad and triple cooked chips. I would have preferred fries and with hindsight I think I would have preferred the watercress. I didn’t complain, as it wasn’t a big deal, and to be honest quite a few times when ordering from the Drayton Court, they don’t always plate their dishes according to the description on the menu.

The steak was nice and tasty, tender, but alas it was a little cold, think it had been left too long from cooking to being served. Other times I have had a bavette (or similar cut of) steak it has been sliced. The chips were nice, and I liked the peppercorn sauce. The sauce was warm so, it did warm up the steak.

Overall it was a nice plate of food, but the temperature of the steak let it down.

December 15, 2025December 14, 2025

Braised pork ribs with Pedro Ximenez bbq glaze

When I’m in London, I often choose the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. I find it offers great value, as it’s always significantly cheaper than hotels in the city, yet still provides an easy and quick commute from West Ealing station.

Their restaurant menu changes on a regular basis and when I do stay I do like to try new things. The braised pork ribs with Pedro Ximenez bbq glaze were something I hadn’t seen before and I did like the sound of them.

The plate consisted of three large ribs.

Though the ribs were tasty, they weren’t very meaty. The glaze was delicious, however the ribs were mainly bone and what felt like minimal meat. The pork was also a little chewy as well. So, though they were tasty, I did feel that they were a little bit unimpressive. Not something I would order again.

December 11, 2025

Grilled spatchcock chicken

Looking over the menu and deciding to go with something different I chose the grilled spatchcock chicken with endive & herb salad, hazelnuts & chilli oil. I liked the sound of the salad and I did think grilled chicken would be nice, especially as I assumed it would be cooked on the chargrill.

I was intrigued by the plate of food which arrived on my table. I wasn’t quite sure at first what I had been served, but eventually worked out that this was a spatchcocked poussin sized chicken. I cooked grilled chicken quite a lot and I felt that this grilled chicken could have been cooked with more care. I will say though the endive & herb salad, hazelnuts & chilli oil was very nice. I do like hazelnuts in salad and they added flavour and text sure to this salad. Though described as endive & herb salad, I couldn’t see any herbs in my salad. It was a great salad, the chicken though was something of a disappointment.

December 9, 2025

Poached Eggs on Smashed Avocado

One of the nice features of staying at the Drayton Court Hotel is that the breakfast choice is really good. Yes, you can go down the traditional full English breakfast (and I would be misleading you if I didn’t say that was my usual order). However this time I decided to try something slightly different and went with the smashed avocado on toast, with poached eggs and a harissa dressing. I wasn’t entirely confident about the harissa dressing, as this was breakfast, however in an attempt to try something different I decided to go ahead and have the poached eggs.

I have to say the plate that arrived looked impressive. There was the crunchy toasted slide of sourdough topped with the mashed avocado. On top of that were two soft poached eggs, and slicing them open allowed the runny yolks to spill onto the avocado and the toast. The harissa dressing did in my opinion enhance the dish, adding something that I think would otherwise be missing and it would be a rather plain dish. Both the avocado and the poached eggs needed something to bring them alive on the plate.

All in all, I did enjoy my breakfast. It was a nice change from the full English I would normally have at the Drayton Court Hotel.

December 1, 2025December 1, 2025

Chestnut mushrooms on toast

I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in London. One of the hotels I regularly stay at in London is the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. It’s a easy trip from West Ealing station to the heart of London and is always significantly cheaper than central London hotels. They also have a great restaurant, most of the time the food is excellent, though now and again there are sometimes the odd dud dish. I try and avoid those I think could be a mistake. Alas this time I did end up with a slightly disappointing plate.

Looking over the menu I decided I would try the starter of chestnut mushrooms on toast with spinach & truffle.

I don’t know, but I wasn’t impressed. Then again it was what was described. There was a slice of toast, there were chestnut mushrooms, and there was spinach. I couldn’t taste any truffle though.

Maybe I shouldn’t be disappointed, I got what I ordered. It certainly was something I wouldn’t order again in a hurry. I think what was missing was two key things (and I am not including the truffle in that comment). The first the mushrooms really needed to be cooked differently, they needed to be pan fried, whilst avoiding overcooking and steaming them. Secondly, the dish really needed some cream of some kind as well. Oh a third thing, the toast needed to be toasted.

Yup, not one of my best dishes from the hotel, and I wasn’t that happy with it.

November 23, 2025

It wasn’t perfection…

One of the best roast dinners I have had was from the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I remember the first time I had their Sunday roast back in 2022. I said back then: This was probably one the best carvery meals I have ever had from a pub.

Though in April this year I had an even better version from the Drayton Court Hotel. It looked great and was delicious.

The roast dinners at the Drayton Court Hotel are excellent and are a real treat. I have had a few over the years and enjoyed them all. So, it wouldn’t be a surprise that I ordered the Roast Sirloin of Beef. It was a fantastic looking plate of food.

So, a recent stay at the hotel on a Sunday I was looking forward to my roast dinner. As you can imagine I had quite high expectations about the food. Probably too high expectations.

This is what I got.

This is what I was expecting.

This was not perfection. I had eaten perfection back in April, this was nice, but nowhere near as good as the dish I had before. The beef was tasty, but wasn’t pink as advertised. The vegetables were delicious, the squash mash and cabbage were particularly good. The roast potatoes however had been standing around too long and had gone soft. I enjoyed the cauliflower cheese (served separately) and there was some really good gravy. The Yorkshire pudding, usually the crowning glory was, well a little flat.

For a roast dinner it was nice, but the problem I had I was comparing good to perfection, and in that case perfection will always win.

November 5, 2025

Pink peppercorn squid

I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in London. I had discovered that they has run out of their magnificent roast dinners, so I needed to make a different choice. As well as a main, I decided to have a starter and went with the pink peppercorn squid with seaweed mayonnaise.

Pink peppercorn squid

This was a rather pretty plate of food. I was a little concerned that I might have had breaded calamari rings, but no there were chunks of squid in a pink peppercorn batter.

Not sure I could taste the seaweed, but overall it was a lovely starter.

November 4, 2025November 3, 2025

What, no…

One of the best meals I have had in recent years has been the Sunday Roast from Drayton Court Hotel in London.

So, staying at the hotel on a Sunday I was really looking forward to a roast beef dinner. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I went to the bar to order my food that they had sold out… I would have to choose something else from the menu. As it was a Sunday they had a limited choice, as they usually serve roasts.

In the end I went with the braised beef & ale short crust pie with creamed potato & gravy. It was supposed to come with peas, but I got cabbage.

braised beef & ale short crust pie with creamed potato & gravy

It was a nice looking pie, the mash was smooth, and I enjoyed the cabbage. However, the gravy was awful, it had a weird taste, which I realised later was ash like. I couldn’t be bothered to complain, so had my pie and mash without gravy.

I think I was disappointed with the pie, as earlier in the week I had been to Cadbury Garden Centre and had a fantastic steak pie from Walter Smith Fine Foods who have a deli counter in the centre. The pie from Walter Smith was in a completely different league to the pie from the Drayton.

Overall I wasn’t that happy, no roast, and not a very good pie, and horrible gravy. I think that if this happens again, and there isn’t a decent choice on the menu, I will venture elsewhere for my dinner.

September 12, 2025

Honi Ahi Poke

I was up in London for some afternoon meetings and had arrived just before lunchtime. I did initially think about getting something from Market Halls at Paddington, but wasn’t sure what to have, and I wasn’t exactly hungry. I did notice that Bao had closed and was being replaced with a Thai stall. I did have some nice bao buns from Bao back in the summer. So, I headed off on the Elizabeth Line to Farringdon.

As I walked to the office, I saw that Honi Poke had an offer on their Ahi poke bowl.

The Ahi poke bowl, a quintessential Hawaiian delicacy, epitomises the rich culinary traditions of the islands, blending fresh, raw Ahi tuna with a medley of dynamic flavours. This vibrant bowl is seasoned with sesame soy sauce, pickled cucumber, and green onions, served over a bed of rice, making it both nourishing and satisfying. Each bite of Ahi poke bowl offers a harmonious mix of textures and tastes, transporting you straight to the shores of Hawaii.

I had been meaning to try a poke bowl the next time I was in London, and this looked really nice. I added a side of crab salad to my bowl as well.

My bowl did not look like the picture, but then what fast food ever does?

I really enjoyed the bowl, the bed of warm sushi rice was a great base for the fresh raw Ahi tuna. The accompaniments added more flavours and textures to the eating experience.

I was pleased to see that there is a branch of Honi Poke in Cabot Circus, so I can repeat the experience closer to home.