Tag: mixed grill

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Time for a Mixed Grill

I was staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow, cheap and next to the car parking I had booked.

I didn’t really have the time (or the transport) to go somewhere else, so I headed down the restaurant for dinner.

They do quite a good value meal deal with two courses and a drink for £19.99, you can throw in breakfast the following morning and it costs £29.99.

I went with a starter and they had bao buns.

For my main course I upgraded to the mixed grill.

This was a sirloin steak, gammon steak, half a chicken breast and pork sausages. Served with beer-battered onion rings, garden peas, a fried egg, half a grilled tomato and skin-on chips. I was given a choice of salad if I wanted to. I went with the chips.

The steak and gammon were really nice. The steak was cooked to my liking and was well seasoned. The chicken I am assuming was pre-cooked and was a little rubbery having been cooked on the chargrill. The sausages looked a little overcooked, but in fact were just right.

The chips were crisp on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside.

The only thing that let the plate down were the onion rings which were overcooked and just crunch. I was asked how my food was before I tried one, otherwise I would have probably complained, but even then maybe not, as it was just three onion rings.

I do like a mixed grill and I was quite impressed with this plate from Premier Inn, to be honest my expectations weren’t very high. Compared to the mixed grills I had last year from The Landing Light and the Railway Inn, this was much better. Though it was missing a lamb chop!

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Mixed Grill at the Gardens

Entrance to a hotel

We were on holiday at the Cerro Mar Gardens in Albufeira in Portugal we made a couple of visits to the hotel restaurant. On my first visit I had an excellent swordfish dish.

On our second visit, I was tempted by the cataplana, but it was for two, and everyone else was choosing different dishes. I even considered just having the cataplana to myself.

Cataplana is a traditional Algarvian dish cooked in a special copper pot of the same name. The ingredients typically include onion, red and green peppers, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, tarragon, parsley, white wine, and a variety of meat or seafood, such as cubed pork, chouriço sausage, chicken, fish, prawns, clams, or other shellfish.

In the end I went with the mixed grill. This was steak, lamb, chicken, sausage, and two kinds of pork. It was served with fries and a tiny salad.

I thought the swordfish was excellent, this dish, not so much. I was rather disappointed. Maybe it was too simple, but the cuts of meat were rather thin and were overcooked and slightly dry. I would like to have had more salad. The fries were okay. That really though sums up the whole dish, it was okay, nothing special.

I wish now I had ordered the cataplana.