Restaurants Archives - Page 8 of 9

What influences you to choose something from a menu?

February 17, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 13 Comments

I was having dinner the other day and found it very hard to decide what to order. It seems that choosing what to eat from a menu is something that takes a lot of consideration. Things that tick along in the back of your mind maybe without you even realising. But what is the deciding factor, the one thing above all others that will make you choose one thing over another?

What if when you’re out you decide this is the time you will try something new; salsify, heart or salted chocolate for example. It’s a strategy rife with risk. It can go one of two ways; revelation or regret. The first time I went out for a really nice meal I had a selection of vegetables, each vegetable prepared in a different way. At the time I was a carrots, parsnips and peas only girl. That particular dish and that meal changed my life; a world of vegetables was opened up to me.
However, what if you try something new and it’s awful? Trying something for the first time and it being badly prepared or if you personally don’t like it can really ruin an ingredient for life. Galangal is the one thing I cannot bear because I had far too much at once. I can’t even look at it now.

If you’re looking at a classic menu, do you choose something familiar or foreign? Sausage and Mash, Lasagne or Fish and Chips are familiar to most but would you choose it because you recognise it or because you feel like it won’t let you down? If it does let you down, you might feel so deflated and disappointed but if it’s the best one you’ve ever had the benchmark has been set.

Seasonality and locality can be an important influence when deciding what to eat. Local sausages or asparagus when it’s in season can be magnificent and what a great chance to try it. Equally, choosing something you would never buy or prepare at home is a great excuse. If you’ve never fancied battling with a celeriac or preparing a beef wellington, here’s your chance.

Perhaps it just come down to price. Is it ridiculous to spend £12.50 on a risotto you know you could make just as well yourself? Is it a good thing to be able to try something expensive that you’d never normally buy for yourself; caviar or foie gras maybe. I think it is always worth giving some consideration to price; if the ingredients themselves aren’t expensive but the dish is pricey, maybe the execution of it is fantastic.

What is the most important thing to you when choosing what to spend your money on? read more

The Carnarvon Arms at Burghclere

January 24, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 10 Comments

The Carnarvon Arms seems to have a bit of a reputation for being one of the best places to eat in the Newbury area. Are these rumours unfounded or based on exquisite experiences had by everyone who has been there? Before my most recent visit, I had been before and it was good. I wanted to try it again with a now more sophisticated, some might say picky, palate. We arrived with no booking on a week night, the staff behind the bar were lovely and friendly and we got a good table. Bread, oil and vinegar is a favourite of mine and I think the bread served can tell you a lot about a restaurant. This bread was a bit disappointing. The oil it came with was in what I can only assume is meant to be a ‘fun’ traffic light formation. It certainly wasn’t there to serve any taste purpose. I think that restaurant bread can take two forms; the first a really fantastic example of simple bread or secondly a selection of more unusual or flavoured breads. We had boring brown and wearisome white. They weren’t crusty, weren’t warm and worst of all they were stale. When we informed our waiter of this he said, “OK”.

My starter was also one of my most loved flavour combinations; mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. You can’t really go wrong although it was mighty hard to eat until the cutlery arrived.
For my main I opted for wild mushroom ragout with a deep fried duck egg. For a main course at £16 it was tiny. Yes wild mushrooms are expensive but bulk it out with something other than two wafer thin sheets of pasta. I did enjoy this; the mushrooms were in a wonderful sauce, the egg was oozing perfectly and the pasta was extremely delicate. The sauce that you can see under the pasta at the bottom was indescribable. I mean really indescribable. I spent the whole time wondering what it was meant to be and I concluded that it was either celeriac or Jerusalem artichoke neither of which had retained any flavour. This course proved even trickier to get from plate to mouth without any cutlery. read more

Fallowfields at Kingston Bagpuize

December 4, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 8 Comments

This was a gifted meal. I was invited for a day at Fallowfields Country House Hotel and went without any real idea what to expect. I thought it would be nice inside, pretty little garden and good food. What greeted me was exceptional and exceeded my expectations. The hotel has ten rooms and staying there would, I’m sure, make you feel like a name and not a number. After arriving I rather comfortably sat by a lovely open log fire; one side of my face very hot but happy nonetheless.

The food at Fallowfields was a wondrous surprise. They try to source as much as possible from their kitchen garden and the animals that they have in the grounds. I apologise profusely for the lack of photos of the lunch that we had; technology was not my friend that day. The food was very well executed and with head Chef Shaun Dickens’ pedigree it’s no surprise. read more

Restaurants – how many visits does it take?

November 10, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 20 Comments

How many times should you have to visit a restaurant to work out what it’s actually like? Perhaps I should rephrase this. How much money should you have to spend in a restaurant to work out the quality of the food and service?

Let’s take the first question. If the chef is having a bad day, they’re short on staff and really busy it might not necessarily be the most incredible olfactory experience you’ve ever had. Take the opposite scenario where everything is perfect, how come you can still leave hideously disappointed? There are so many factors involved but despite any issues the establishment is having, we the customer, should be the priority. read more

The Royal Oak at Ecchinswell

October 29, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 9 Comments

Several things can occur when out for a meal. One of these is that the food you order is made from poor ingredients and cooked badly, another could be that the dish is too complex and cooked terribly. My favourite meals out are those where excellent ingredients are cooked to perfection in a simple way and The Royal Oak at Ecchinswell does exactly this.
The menu looked very promising, choosing what to have was the only issue. I decided to forgo a starter and save room for pudding for a very good reason; the head chef here had, at one time, been the second best pastry chef in France. I’m not sure anyone would ignore the pudding menu knowing that. read more

The White Hart at Hamstead Marshall

September 25, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 4 Comments

I trust very few people when they tell me if a restaurant is good or bad. All of these select people went to The White Hart (after its recent reopening) before I’d had a chance and to say they were less than impressed would be somewhat of an understatement. However, I have learnt recently that a poor first experience is not always a fair representation of a restaurant although, to be honest, why should you put up with a poor experience when you’re paying for it? That’s another matter. read more

Glo Restaurant at Reading

September 11, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 6 Comments

This was a gifted meal.

Glo restaurant in Reading might be one that you walk right past without even noticing it. It is slightly understated and doesn’t make a meal of itself. I have to say that I thought Glo was a chain and it was all mass produced microwaved food. I was invited to review this restaurant by a PR company. It turned out that in fact the food is locally sourced and freshly prepared on site.
There are grills, pizzas, curries and all sorts; something for everyone. They also have an extensive range of cocktails and some rather inviting combinations and flavours. It was nice to see that the non-alcoholic cocktails on the menu had been considered and were not just an afterthought. The picture is of a delicious mango lassi and it took us a while to realise the swirls actually spelled something out! read more

Cocktails at La Brasserie in London

August 2, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 8 Comments

This was a gifted experience. A good cocktail is a marvellous thing, a bad cocktail is an evening ruiner. I have had some atrocious cocktails and some incredible ones. I used to spend a lot of time in Leicester where there were loads of places to get good cocktails but unfortunately I don’t frequent Leicester as much as I used to and decent cocktails are now hard to come by.

I visited a friend in London over the weekend and we took ourselves out for some cocktails. I had been invited (by a PR company) to go to Pierres Bar in La Brasserie in Kensington. It’s in a lovely location and it’s just the right size to have atmosphere without being cramped. The staff were all lovely and seemed genuinely interested in making sure we were catered for in every way.
I didn’t take many pictures as I was too busy tucking in to the cocktails! I’m not a cocktail expert but when they’re using a fresh watermelon to make your martini instead of an ominous looking watermelon flavouring it’s going to be good. read more

The Red House at Marsh Benham

July 12, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 7 Comments

The Red House at Marsh Benham jumps out at you as you drive down the road and I had been meaning to go for some time. There was no point in going for a half arsed meal; I wanted to go for a proper one. I’m not sure I’ve been to a place that is both modern and outdated at the same time. The garden is modern, the bar and bar area are modern but as soon as you step over the threshold into the restaurant it is like stepping over the threshold to the 1990s. The bottle green patterned carpets and red velvet chairs should have been replaced when the rest of the restaurant was updated. Fortunately the food distracted me from the décor. read more

Forbury’s Restaurant and Wine Bar at Reading

May 23, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 8 Comments

I have spent much time wandering around Reading trying to find somewhere half decent to eat that wasn’t the London Street Brasserie. I feel like I exhausted the Brasserie a long time ago and if you’re wondering, they do fantastically good puddings. I wanted good food at a reasonable price and I found exactly that.

Forbury’s looks a bit pretentious from a distance but when you read the blackboard outside you’ll find you can have 3 courses for £14. For that price, you can’t complain! It’s a really airy, modern, light space with all these newfangled flower arrangements and the like but what they are truly about is wine. What I am truly not about is the waiter being so obviously uninterested in us when we declare that despite being in a wine bar we’d rather not have a glass of wine. He looked like he was about to vomit each time we raised our offensive soft drinks to our mouths.

There were so many tempting things on the menu I couldn’t decide what to have. I decided to start with Gazpacho. I’ve never had it before and thought that this would be the perfect place and time to do so. I was fully aware that it was a cold soup but despite this knowledge it was still a complete and utter surprise. It looks like tomato soup, it smells like tomato soup, they’ve given you a soup spoon but none of this prepares you for the first mouthful. It’s a strange and wonderful sensation and was lovely. Vibrant, fresh, clean and delicate Gazpacho is definitely something I will have again.

The main course was Spring vegetable risotto. I was craving asparagus, courgettes and peas and the risotto did not disappoint. It was exactly what I wanted although a bit more generosity with the Parmesan would have made it a little better. There was what looked like turf planted on top of the risotto but it turned out to be tarragon. Fortunately there wasn’t an abundance of it as too much aniseed can ruin a meal.

By this point I had consumed tomatoes, various green vegetables and a little rice. I was feeling a little bit well behaved, threw caution to the wind and ordered dessert. It was a bright mango parfait. Two very generous slabs were consumed with gusto. It seemed to have little pieces of toffee or honeycomb along with pistachio embedded in the parfait. This was surrounded by mango and raspberry coulis and raspberries themselves.

Things got a little weird at the end of the meal. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and tea and coffee was being enjoyed amidst much merriment. Suddenly this bubble was burst as, without warning, the bill was put on the side of the table. The bill had not been asked for. There are restaurants where I wish the bill would turn up as I’m so bored of waiting and trying my hardest to get the attention of the waiter. On this occasion, we were the only people in the restaurant and they couldn’t have made it more obvious they wanted us out.

I am very confused about this meal. Considering the meal was £14 for 3 courses I was pretty impressed and I’d love to go back and sample some of their A La Carte menu it all sounded incredible. However, the service did not match up to the food. If you’re in Reading and bored of the restaurants on the riverside, venture out a little. You’ll be surprised what you might find.

All That I’m Eating read more