Tag: london

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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.

Braised pork ribs with Pedro Ximenez bbq glaze

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.

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Grilled spatchcock chicken

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. 

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.

Grilled spatchcock chicken

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.

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Poached Eggs on Smashed Avocado

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.

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Chestnut mushrooms on toast

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.

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It wasn’t perfection…

Drayton Court Hotel

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.

roast beef dinner

This is what I was expecting.

Roasted Sirloin of Beef

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.

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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.

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What, no…

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

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, 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.

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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.

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Had my usual…

When I get to Wagamama, part of me says, try something new, another part of me says, I like the yasai yaki soba, which is mushrooms,  soba noodles cooked with egg, peppers, beansprouts, onion, pickled ginger, crispy fried onions and sesame seeds.  I decided I would have this and some mushroom bao, another dish I regularly order. 

I don’t always order this, when I was visiting a branch of Wagamama at Cabot Circus recently, I had Honey Fried Chicken and Chicken Pho. Whilst in Nottingham though I went with the yasai yaki soba I had different bao.

This time we were back in London and visiting the Wagamama branch at Covent Garden. We have been there before and had an issue with the delay in getting the gluten free dish we had ordered to the table before everyone else finished their food. Part of that was that the server took our main order, but a manager has to take the gluten free order for the table. 

We were quite early in the evening, there was no queue, and we were shown to our table, one aspect of Wagamama which is useful in central London, and to be honest elsewhere as well, is that not only do you not need to book, but you can’t book anyhow. So, just turn up and see if a table is available. When we came to order, we asked for the manager straight away, so we could order everything together.

I really don’t mind that Wagamama bring out the dishes when they’re ready, but we did have to wait nearly an hour for our food. Luckily this time all our food arrived within a reasonable timeframe.

I enjoyed my yasai yaki soba, though I always think it could do with more mushrooms. If I order the chicken yak soba, I get a fair amount of chicken, with the mushroom version, they appear to be quite stingy with the mushrooms.

This was rather tasty, I like the contrasting textures and flavours in this dish.

I also enjoyed the mushroom bao buns. The crispy aubergine is a nice touch which gives the dish a contrast of soft fluffy bao bun, the crunch of the crispy aubergine, and the delicate texture of the mushrooms.

We all enjoyed our food and we settled the bill using the app. As we left there was now a queue which was out of the building and down the street. 

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Tacos from the Halls

trains

When arriving at Paddington and needing something for lunch, I have on the last few occasions headed to the Market Halls.

Having been impressed with the meal I had there, I had thought about repeating the steak and chips I had before. However, there is quite a choice of places to eat and I do like to try new things. I decided to try out one of the other stalls, so this time I headed upstairs and went to try out the tacos from Breddos Tacos.

I had their lunch deal, which was three tacos and some rice for £15. I went with three different tacos.

I did enjoy all three tacos, but in order of preference, my least favourite was the chicken taco. This was Yucatan grilled chicken, pico de gallo, habanero salsa, and avocado. I had anticipated a warm chicken taco, but this wasn’t to be the case. Don’t get me wrong it was really nice, but I was expecting hot grilled chicken.

The mushroom taco was full of flavour. This mushroom guisado taco was filled with braised mushroom, onion, jalapeño, and habanero salsa. I do like mushrooms, a and this was really tasty.

The fish taco was the best of the three. The Baja Fish taco had tempura cod, pico de Gallo, and habanero mayo. The taco looked great, the cod was hot and crunchy and the accompaniments were tasty.

Overall I really liked the three tacos and it was a nice meal, the rice in my opinion didn’t add much. I think next time I would forgo the rice and just go with the three tacos.

It’s interesting to compare this with the Wahaca lunch deal for one, which is available next door. I think the Wahaca meal is a better choice if you want tacos.