Korean-Style Crispy Mushrooms

The last time I was in the Netherlands was in October 2022 when I visited Amsterdam for a conference. Having spent a few days in Delft at a conference, and meetings in Utrecht I took the train back to Schiphol Airport where I had booked a hotel, the CitizenM, which is literally next door to the airport.

I ordered some Korean-Style Crispy Mushrooms, where were described as crunchy lightly fried oyster mushrooms tossed in Korean-style BBQ sauce, chives, and a wasabi crumble.

Korean-Style Crispy Mushrooms

I really liked the look of the dish, which was nicely presented. The mushrooms had a nice crispy coating and there was just the right amount of sauce and crumb.

The New Forest Sarnie

sandwich

This was my second visit to Mettricks Guildhall in Southampton, on my previous visit I had a tasty crispy chicken sandwich, however I never got a photograph and never finished my review. Even so, it was with some anticipation that on a return visit to Mettricks for a lunch meeting.

This time I went with the New Forest Sarnie, which was described as crispy oyster mushroom, smashed avocado, sliced beef tomato, pickled red onion, cos lettuce & herb mayo, served in lightly toasted sourdough. This was a vegan sandwich, however that didn’t influence my choice of sandwich, I like mushrooms and I like avocado, the choice for me was almost a no-brainer, and I certainly wasn’t going to go down the tuna melt route that my colleagues had gone for.

This was a lovely sandwich. Hey, I hear you saying, but you don’t eat sandwiches. Well, generally I don’t do sandwiches. However the menu was quite limited to sandwiches, toasties and burgers, and aren’t these all really kind of sandwich?

The sandwich was generously filled, and there was a small dressed salad on the side. As I said it was a lovely sandwich, I liked the combination of flavours and textures within the bread. If I was to make one minor criticism, that would be that the crispy mushrooms were overcooked, I did wonder if they were pre-cooked and then just fried to order. It would have been better if they were cooked fresh, but I suspect that would lengthen the time and increase the effort to make the sandwich. I liked the toasted sourdough, but as with most sourdough bread it was a little chewy and had a tough crust (which I like). So I didn’t really eat this as a sandwich and deconstructed it, eating some of the filling with a fork, and chewing on the bread separately. I know, but I enjoyed my sandwich that way.

Overall it was a delicious sandwich and I certainly would visit Mettricks Guildhall again.