Tag: london

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Breton Fish Stew

I was staying in Ealing and having been disappointed that Reineta was closed I went to Côte. Reality was I did walk around Ealing to see what else was there and looking at various menus. So, in the end I ended up at Côte.

I had the Crab Maison for my starter. I stayed with seafood and I had the Breton Fish Stew for my main course.

This is a traditional coastal stew from Brittany with mussels, prawns, squid, seabream, in a tomato, white wine and chilli sauce. It was served with some French baguette.

There was a lot of seafood in this dish, yes it was mainly mussels, and there was only a single piece of seabream. There were plenty of prawns and squid rings.

I enjoyed the sauce, it was though similar to a soup rather than a sauce. The seafood was cooked well and wasn’t overcooked, which I did think it might be.

The bread was two slices of sourdough baguette. I think I would have preferred a more traditional French flute type baguette over the sourdough slices. 

I had wanted to try this dish for a while, and I enjoyed it. However it wasn’t amazing, so it probably wouldn’t be a dish I would order again.

To accompany my meal, rather than wine, I had a bottle of Meteor lager, which was crisp and refreshing.

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Crab Maison

I was staying in Ealing and having been disappointed that Reineta was closed I went to Côte. Reality was I did walk around Ealing to see what else was there and looking at various menus. So, in the end I ended up at Côte.

I had seen the Crab Maison dish on the menu before, so was likely to be my first choice. I did consider the Steak Tartare, which was hand-cut raw beef, cornichons, mustard dressing, toasted sourdough baguette.

However I decided to go with the Crab Maison.

crab maison

This was crab, avocado, cucumber, capers, shallots, mayonnaise, toasted sourdough baguette.

I thought the dish was beautifully presented, even if the crab was a little hidden away under the salad and sliced radish.

It was nice, but I was hoping for an intense crab flavour, which I felt was missing, and what crab there was, was overpowered by the mayonnaise. It was nice with the toasted sourdough baguette, which provided a nice crunchy texture to the dish.

I did enjoy the dish, but it probably isn’t something I would order again.

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What do you mean it’s not open?

Dickens Yard

I was staying in London and thinking about going out to eat, I was reminded of a conversation with a colleague a few weeks back who had recommended Reineta in Dickens Yard in Ealing. 

Reineta is a Spanish cafe and restaurant.I looked at the dinner menu on their website and the different tapas that were on offer.

I had already made my choice of tapas.

I liked the sound of the mushrooms casserole, made from wild mushrooms with shallots, parsley and mushroom cream and manchego cheese.

I also decided I would have the burned butternut squash with fresh cheese and black truffle.

I thought I would also have the mixed peppers, sliced potatoes and marinated octopus with “choricero” pepper. 

You can imagine my disappointment when I went there to find it was in fact closed. It was only open for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I wasn’t in London on any of those days…

So no tapas for me.

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Now that was different

I was at a conference in London at the Shaw Theatre. In the afternoon break we had something I have never had before at an afternoon tea break.

Usually at this time, in virtually all conferences I have been to, you can get tea, coffee, and usually a cake, or biscuits. Sometimes it is merely a packet of biscuits, other times it can be a proper slice of cake. 

At this event, yes there was cake, but they also had deep fried battered slices of courgette with a sweet chilli dipping sauce.

deep fried battered slices of courgette with a sweet chilli dipping sauce.

Now that was different!

What was it like, to be honest no idea, as I just had some coffee.

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Game Faggots

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have also stayed at.  The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel bit is now a new build at the back.

When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities.

After my starter of a mozzarella salad, for my main course I was intrigued by and went with the Fuller’s Award Winning Game Faggots with mash potato, buttered kale, red wine gravy.

This was a beautifully presented plate of food. 

Game Faggots

The faggots were tasty and full of flavour. I thought they might be too gamey in their flavour, but actually they were really nice. The mashed potato was smooth and velvety, with lots of butter. I liked the buttered kale which added colour and texture to the dish. I liked the addition of the small saucepan of red wine gravy, as the dish certainly was enhance by the extra gravy. 

Overall I really enjoyed the dish and I would have it again.

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Mozzarella with tomatoes and pesto

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have also stayed at.  The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel bit is now a new build at the back.

When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities. 

For my starter I went with the Laverstoke Park Farm Mozzarella with Isle of Wight tomatoes and pine nut pesto.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, the amount of lettuce was surprising.

The mozzarella was nice and fresh, and I also liked the pesto. 

There was some heritage tomatoes, but it was also a little too chilled for my liking. As a result it wasn’t as flavoursome as I think it could have been. I certainly felt the tomatoes lacked flavour.

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Jimmy and the Bee

I was in London and had a meeting in the afternoon, so I walked up to City, University of London. 

I arrived earlier than planned, so I went to Jimmy and the Bee, which is close by, and ordered a flat white. They took my order and I took a seat.

Jimmy and the Bee looks to be an independent cafe, which predominantly sells tea and coffee. There were some cakes and pastries on the counter, and I saw board with some breakfast items (avocado on toast).  The furniture is distressed wood, but there are also some comfortable looking sofas as well.

My flat white arrived.

flat white

In some other places this may have been described as a Cortado. It was a really nice coffee and I enjoyed it.

I also got a 10% discount; I think they thought I was City staff as I was wearing my work lanyard.

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Crispy Ham Hock

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have also stayed at.  The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel bit is now a new build at the back.

When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities. 

For my starter I went with the Crispy Ham Hock with pickled cucumber & apple salad and tarragon & mustard mayonnaise.

I have to say I wasn’t sure what to expect from the dish, but was still not that impressed with what arrived at the table.

Crispy Ham Hock

The dish comprised three ham hock, probably best described as, patties, which had been breadcrumbed and deep fried. This was served with a slice of cucumber, some apple sticks, and tarragon & mustard mayonnaise.

Well it has to be said if I wasn’t impressed with the way the dish looked, the taste of the dish wasn’t much better. I struggled to taste the ham hock, and the cucumber & apple salad didn’t add much to the experience.

Overall it was a disappointing dish, and not one I would order again.

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Nice steak

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have also stayed at.  The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel bit is now a new build at the back.

When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had some excellent meals. The Fox and Goose had a slightly different menu than the Drayton Court, but there were similarities. 

I had stayed here before, and on that visit I had the starter of Owton’s dry-aged skirt steak back then.

The steak was lovely and tender and the chargrilling added flavour and texture to the surface of the cut of meat. The pecorino  and salsa verde added some nice saltiness to the dish. The accompanying pea shoots gave the dish a little bit of freshness.

I have to say I enjoyed the starter so much that on the following night I had it again! 

They have changed the menu since then and sadly the skirt steak is no longer on the menu.

On the mains though was a Owton’s Dry-Aged 6oz Fillet Steak with dauphinoise potatoes, wilted spinach and peppercorn sauce. I had steak at the Drayton Court and though once I wasn’t too impressed, on other occasions the steak was really nice.

My steak arrived, I did feel though that this was somewhat a small dish. Not that I wanted a huge plate of food, but if you were expecting a decent sized plate of food for dinner, I think you would feel a little disappointed.

Steak

The steak itself though was quite large (for fillet steak), but the dauphinoise potatoes seemed lost under the steak and watercress garnish. The steak was sitting on some wilted spinach and there was a micro saucepan of peppercorn sauce. The sauce came with the dish and wasn’t a paid for extra.

I felt it was a little heavy on the chargrilling, almost burnt and bitter in places. However, the steak itself was delicious, it was very tender.

The dauphinoise potatoes were nice and creamy, and I enjoyed the sauce and wilted spinach.

Overall it was a really nice plate of food, and would be something I would have again.

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Crab and Mussel Pasta

Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner. Despite not being available the last time I had dinner at the hotel, this time the special, crab and mussel tagliolini was available. I thought it was a starter, but the staff behind the bar didn’t think it was. It was described on the menu as crab and mussel tagliolini with razor clams, brown shrimp, glazed old Winchester cheese, purple sprouting broccoli, and chive.

When it arrived, it was obviously a starter portion and it wasn’t tagliolini, it was tagliatelle again. Tagliolini is a type of ribbon pasta, long like spaghetti, roughly 2–3 mm wide, similar to tagliatelle, but thin like capellini.

It was an interesting dish, the pasta was well cooked, I could taste and see some of the seafood, but it didn’t feel that individual seafood stood out very much. I think the purple sprouting broccoli was either missing or heavily ground down! 

Overall, it was a nice starter, but I do think it was rather overpriced for what it was.