Tag: onion rings

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Ultimate Grill

When staying away I sometimes go out to eat and sometimes eat in the hotel. If it is a place like Drayton Court where the bar and restaurant are quite busy, then the place has atmosphere, making it a nice place to eat. Sometimes though the hotel restaurant can be empty, cold, and uninviting. This was certainly the case when staying at the Link Hotel in Loughborough. The restaurant was empty. I was charging my car, so looked locally for a place to eat, next door was a Harvester. Now I have never been to a Harvester before, so this was going to be an interesting experience.

Compared to the hotel this restaurant was bustling and busy. They however found me a table and I sat down and looked over the menu.

I wasn’t sure what to have, but looked over the different dishes. I was feeling quite hungry, so I decided to be greedy and went with the Ultimate Mixed Grill.

This was a quarter portion of rotisserie chicken, 8oz rump steak, a half rack of BBQ-glazed ribs, 7oz gammon, two pork sausages, two fried free-range eggs and two black pudding slices, chips, garden peas, tomato and onion rings.

I will be honest this was one big plate of food, and I thought I had made a mistake in ordering it.

I did make a visit to the salad bar, for my free salad bowl. I didn’t get a huge salad, as I knew I was getting a lot of food with the grill. There was a lot in there and I quite liked what I ate. Most of it was nice. The chicken was a little dry, but I have found that  rotisserie chicken can be quite dry anyhow. The gammon was nice, as was the steak. The BBQ-glazed ribs were very tender and the meat fell off the bones. Wasn’t that enamoured with the sausages, and though I like black pudding, I felt that it wasn’t needed on the plate. I liked the addition of the chips and onion rings, the chips were cooked, and I enjoyed the three crispy battered onion rings.

In the end I did eat a lot, but I didn’t finish the plate. It was an interesting experience, and I did like the food, but I am not sure I would order that dish again, it was way too much food.

Would I visit a Harvester again, not sure. If I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and the only other choice was an empty hotel restaurant, then I think I would go back to the Harvester.

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Time for some wings

I was looking through some photographs of food, and realised that in April when I was up in Leeds I had a few meals which I hadn’t blogged about.

Sometimes I write up the dining experiences I have on the same day, in the same week, or quite soon after that. Now and then I have food and then never get around to writing a blog post about it.

In April I was at a conference and was staying in the heart of Leeds. The previous night I had visited Rosa’s Thai and was looking for something different.

I had back in 2020 an excellent experience at Reds in Leeds, though that was further out than I wanted to walk, I wondered if there was a similar place in the heart of Leeds. I was pleased to see that there was a branch of Reds. I looked at the menu online and saw they had some deals. You had to book though. After booking I headed out to the branch.

I arrived and took my place at the table and looked over the menu. I went with the Wednesday Wings deal. I believe it may have changed since I was there in April, but this was ten wings for £3.  I was told I needed to have pre-booked. I had, so I said I had, so I was  allowed to have it. I had a drink and waited for my food.

I was expecting whole wings, mine weren’t whole wings.

The wings were nothing special, and for the main part of my meal I was a little disappointed. As they were small, there was very little meat on them. Flavour wise they were okay.

Alongside I had some sides of burnt ends, mac and cheese and onion rings.

The onion rings were supplemented with some fries.

The mac and cheese was nice, whilst the burnt ends were very tasty.

I had quite high expectations about this meal, but the reality of what I had meant that I was a little disappointed, even though the food itself was just okay.

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The Coach House Pub Chicken

The Coach House is a pub in Locking Village close to Weston-super-Mare. I have been a few times for drinks, but this was the first time I had food there.

It’s lovely traditional pub, with a good range of beers, and as this is Somerset, a good range of ciders as well. 

There is quite an extensive menu, with grills, burgers, salads, and traditional pub meals. They also have a wide variety of pie specials. I was quite tempted by the pies. In the end though I had the Chicken Forestiere. This was a flame grilled chicken breast, topped with smoked streaky bacon, and a garlic, mushroom, brandy, and Dijon mustard sauce. It was served with chips, homemade onion rings, and a dressed salad.

plate of food

The dish was what I expected, this was a nice looking plate of what I would call pub food. The chicken was nice, slightly overdone, so a little dry, but the sauce was nice.  I liked the chips and salad. The home-made onion rings were a delight, lovely crisp batter and tasty onion.

I do think that this dish might have been better if it had been served with potatoes and vegetables, rather than chips and salad. Another option was maybe I should have gone with another protein option.

Service was order and pay at the bar, and then sit down and wait for the food to arrive. The staff were all friendly and welcoming.

I did enjoy the plate of food, it was tasty and good value for money.

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South Coast Pork Chop

Fox and Goose

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back.

The menu changes every so often, and they always seem to have a range of choices, that means it can be difficult to choose what to have. Having looked over the menu I went with the South Coast pork chop, served with smoked mushroom, grilled tomato, onion rings and triple cooked chips.

The pork chop was cooked well, it was seasoned, and grilled to my liking. It was tender and moist. I couldn’t taste any smoke on the mushroom, but that and the tomato were nice. The chips were crispy on the outside and fluffy in the inside. The batter on the onion rings was nice crispy, but I felt they were a little on the greasy side. The pork was served with a small saucepan of gravy (or was it a sauce). Not sure it added much to the dish.

I enjoyed the food.

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Gluten Free Red Onion Rings

Gluten Free Red Onion Rings

Having made some crunchy breaded chicken wings I had some of the seasoned flour and egg left. Not wanting to waste it and having enjoyed the onion rings I had cooked before, decided to mix it together with some milk and coat some onion rings and fry them.

As this was using leftovers, I didn’t measure anything out and so after mixing the egg and flour together I added some milk until the batter coated the back of the spoon.

I took a red onion and sliced it thickly across and then separated out the individual rings of onion. I kept the rest of the onion, diced for another dish. 

I used a smaller frying pan and shallow fried the onion rings in hot oil a minute or so on each side until the batter was cooked and a golden brown.

The end result was beautifully crisp onion rings, the batter had an excellent crunch, they had a succulent taste of onion on the inside. Unlike some I have had these weren’t greasy either, which I often think is a result of cooking rings twice.

These were delicious, the red onion providing a different flavour to the brown onion I used last time and a lovely light crisp batter.

As I had a little bit of batter left I did some green pepper strips as well.

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Gluten Free Onion Rings

Gluten Free Onion Rings

I wasn’t expecting these to be as good as they were, but I was well pleased with how these turned out in the end.

I quite like onion rings and if I am out and about eating out (well when I could) I would often add some onion rings to my meal. Though I have tried various shop frozen onion rings, I haven’t found any that I would say are fantastic. Also not seen any gluten free ones either.

This is a relatively simply recipe for making gluten free onion rings.

I took a large brown onion and sliced it thickly across and then separated out the individual rings of onion.

I kept the rest of the onion, diced for another dish.

In a mixing bowl, I whisked up half a cup of gluten free self raising flour with an egg and some milk. Adding more milk until you have a batter which will coat and stick to the onion. 

Now if you have a deep fat fryer you could use that, I don’t have one so I didn’t.

I took my large frying pan and shallow fried the onion rings in hot oil a minute or so on each side until the batter was cooked and a golden brown.

Gluten Free Onion Rings

The end result was beautifully crisp onion rings, the batter had an excellent crunch, they had a succulent taste of onion on the inside. Unlike some I have had these weren’t greasy either, which I often think is a result of cooking rings twice.

We will certainly make these again, as they were probably the best onion rings I have ever cooked and to be honest the best I have ever tasted.