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Address: Stoke Row, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 5QA
Telephone number: 01491 680430
Website: www.thecherrytreeinn.com
Date of visit: 16 June 2010
Approximate cost per head: @£20 for 2 courses.
Comments on wine list/beer: Brakspear. Wine list OK
Summary:
Stoke Row is famous (was) for 2 things when I was an undergraduate, a pub that never closed – Crooked Billet – and the Maharaja’s well. Alas, the pub is now a restaurant.
I used to drive pass the Cherry Tree but never paid them a visit. Recently, I have heard good things about the food so here I am. Its in the Michelin Guide as well as Sawdays.
The pub is just sited off the village green with a large car park and about 10 out door tables. Inside, there is a bar, lounge and a dining room.
I was immediately impressed by 2 things upon arrival. One, they come and take your orders at the table – drinks and food. Two, I was immediately served with a basket of warm French bread which I didn’t ask for.
To test the place out, I had two starters: squid with chorizo sausage (£6.45) and grilled asparagus with parma ham (£6.05) and a side order of chips (£2.35). Beer was £3.20 a pint for the ordinary. So this place is neither cheap nor expensive.
The main courses were also very interesting and the top dish was rib eye steak @£17.95.
Back to my food. The squid was deep fried in tempura batter and came with sweet pickled pepper and deep fried chorizo sausage slices. The asparagus were shaved and was dressed in a garlicky oil with very finely chopped parsley. The chip were thin chips well drained and crispy. Without doubt, this rates a very high score. In fact, best meal I have eaten for sometime.
With the sun shining, I could sit there for hours but I had to go.
I am sure that the place gets very busy at weekends as even on a Wednesday lunch time, most of the outside tables were taken.
E
This is a WRONG interpretation.
For years , we have been told to add fibre to our diet – 5 a day etc. The problem with certain white rice is that it has a high GI index similar to white bread. If you are on a high carb diet with a high GI index, you increase your risk. By lowering the GI – add fruit and vegetables or move to a carb with a lower GI index, it reduces the “sugar peaks” when you have a meal and hence the risk or your inability to absorb the sugar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GI_index
E
June 2010
Address: 32 Kings Road, Reading RG1 3AA
Telephone number: 0118 950 4039
Website: www.mangalreading.com
Date of visit: 9 June 2010
Approximate cost per head: Easily get away with less than £15 a head for 3 meze per person or main courses from £8.5 to £12.90
Comments on wine list/beer: Efes beer available otherwise, it’s the usual. Seemed to have retained the Spanish and cocktail list from the previous Tapas bar.
Summary:
Until a few months ago, this was the La Parada. I quite like the Parad but it suffers from 2 problems – wrong end of town (location, location and location!) and the front has too much glass – bit like a gold fish bowl. Well, 2 restaurants (HaHa and La Parada) have failed on this site, I am not sure that Mangal will survive as on the day I went for lunch , there were only 5 customers in a restaurant that can sit over 120.
During lunch time, you get a free meze dish for everyone you paid for and there is a set lunch (starter and main course) for £6.95
The décor here has changed little. There are now Turkish paintings hanging on the wall but the barrel ends with Torres and a Muga crest are still there.
The menu is huge and contains all the usual dishes with a range of hot and cold meze. Then the main courses which are essentially kebabs. They also offer Pide Lahmacun (bread/pizza) with various toppings and whole grilled/baked fish. They also offer vegetarian dishes.
I had the iman bayildi to start with followed by Lahmacun from the set lunch menu – quite a choice available.
The aubergine (iman bayildi) was served whole with slits in the side of the aubergine to allow the olive oil to penetrate. This was pretty good but the little salad that came was a bit anaemic – shredded carrots with lettuce and tomato (seemed to be de rigor in Indian, Middle Eastern, Turkish and Greek restaurants).
The Lahmacun with a very thin piece of bread – crisp like a thin pizza – smeared with minced lamb in a tomato sauce. I like it. The whole bill including 2 EFES beer came to £12.85
E
PS they are doing a special deal for dinner over the World Cup. There will be large screens there to show the matches.
Location: 4-6 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG
Web site: http://www.titoseateries.com/
Telephone number: 020 7407 7787
Date of visit: 5th June 2010
Approx. cost per head: £20
Comments on wine list/beer: The wine list is limited from a predominantly South American choice. Decent Chilean House Red
Media link:
Review:
First impression was the welcome sight of an open-fronted entrance way giving this tucked away restaurant an airy feel on a balmy June night in London Bridge. As is often the case when dining with a group we initially stalled for time while late-comers arrived. The staff were very patience and friendly while we took our time choosing from an interesting menu with a variety of South American dishes. Our aperitif was a Pisco Sour, the traditional and popular local tipple of Peru which was met with unanimous approval (it’s similar to a margarita but more sour than sweet). However at £6 a glass the price was a bit of a shock – in downtown Lima you wouldn’t pay much more than £1 for the same.
To start I had the Causa Rellena, you can have this dish with chicken or tuna, this is a traditional Peruvian dish of stuffed or mashed yellow potato with a chicken/tuna mayonnaise filling. I also sampled The Ceviche (raw fish in a citrus sauce) and the empanada (similar to a pasty), both were very good. For the main course I had the picante de marsicos, this is seafood in a spicy sauce. I was a bit disappointed with this dish as I was hoping for something spicy but it really wasn’t spicy at all. However, I seemed to be the only person who was disappointed as everyone else seemed to enjoy their main course. I skipped desert and went straight for an Incan Coffee! This was the first I had seen this on a menu and was intrigued by the concept. It is basically an Irish coffee but instead of whiskey they use pisco, and very nice it was too. So despite my main course choice the meal on the whole was good.
For those who like to throw some shapes to a salsa rhythm there is latin-themed dance club in the two floors below the restaurant. £6 entry and a good way to work off those extra few pounds you’ve just consumed!
Richard Yule
I am in Cornwall for the week. You have previously recommended Pennypots. Where is it?
Ken
—————————-
Kevin Viner has sold Pennypots (Falmouth) and has started Viners in Newquay.
http://www.vinersrestaurant.co.uk/
Kevin is the first chef to hold a Michelin Star in Cornwall.
I think that he is better and cheaper than Rick Stein in Padstow.
Viners Bar and Restaurant Carvynick, Summercourt, Newquay, Cornwall. Tel 01872 510544
E
June 2010
Address: Oxford Road, East Hanney, Wantage, OX12 0HP
Direction: On A338 between Wantage and Oxford. If you are coming from Wantage, the farm shop is on the left after the turning to West Hanney. Plenty of parking outside the shop.
Opening Hours: 8.30- 17.00 Monday-Saturday. 18.00 on Friday. They have a stand at various farmers markets in the Thames Valley. They also deliver – see website.
Website: www.dewsmeadowfarm.co.uk
Telephone: 01235 868634
Date of visit: 9 June 2010
Summary:
Dews Meadow is a pig farm. The pigs are reared out door and no growth hormones or routine antibiotics are used. They do not claim to be organic.
I have been buying their products – especially the faggots – from their stall in the Reading Farmers’ Market for sometime. Their faggots is more meatier than Baines and so has a more meat ball like texture. Try using minced faggots and beef mince in a shepherd pie. It works really well.
The farm shop also offered lamb and beef (sourced locally). Apparently they are not allowed to sell anything other than their own products in the various farmers’ markets (http://www.dewsmeadowfarm.co.uk/markets.php) unless it is pre-ordered.
There were several types of sausages on offer as well as offal (kidneys, liver and sweet bread) and various cuts of pork and gammon. Vegetables were available on a stand and pates and cheese (only Gould from Somerset) from the chillier.
The chap that served me was very helpful and offered various types of advices including the offer of roast bag to cook the gammon in. I was also told that their cure is not too salty and there is no need to soak the gammon prior to cooking.
Other products available through the farm shop – sorry, no mail orders – are gluten free salami, hogg pudding, black pudding, pork pies, Cornish pasties, sausage rolls etc……
E
I like schnitzel.
I always thought that there is only one version until I came across veal Milanese which is served with tomato sauce and spaghetti. Next there was veal Holstein which offers a fried egg on top. Some versions will give you a couple of strips of anchovies to go with the breaded veal.
Then I discovered that in the US and Australia, they offered chicken schnitzel. To me this doesn’t work as the meat in a piece of Schnitzel has to be beaten thin and chicken meat loses its texture if it is beaten thin. You might as well put garlic butter (kiev) or ham and cheese (cordon bleu) in the middle and then roll it up, bread crumb the outside and fry the resulting croquette or stick to KFC.
On the recent trip, I had Vienna schnitzel vom Schwann in 5 different restaurants – 2 German, 3 Austrian. The interesting fact was that none of the restaurants offered veal schnitzel. They all offered pork as the “version”. Veal was on the menu in various other formats. They were all served mit frites and the chips were all proper french fries (thin) and not thick chips.
The restaurants were:
Weinhaus Hoffnung (Winningen)
Hexenstube (Winningen)
Rossmooss (Alpbach)
Boglerhof(Alpbach)
Wiedersberg Horn(Inneralpbach)
All the restaurants served similar size portions and the schnitzel were all coated with the fine breadcrumbs and shallow fried except one – Hexenstube. The Hexenstube version was deep fried and the coating was a cross between batter and breadcrumbs. I think that this is because the Hexenstube was run by a single person and deep frying is easier to control. Again, they all tasted the same. Only difference is the thinness of the escalope. The thickest piece was at the Hexenstube and the thinnest one at the Rossmoss. The thick one (and we are talking relative here – 5mm v 3mm) gives more texture and taste.
Have I gone off schnitzel? No, it’s still my favourite dish but then I do prefer it with spaghetti and a tomato sauce.
If you want to make schnitzel, try using panko breadcrumbs (Japanese). It is crunchier.
E
Address: Inneralpbach 206, A-206, Alpbach, Tirol, Austria
Telephone number: +43 5366 5612
Website: http://www.wiedersbergerhorn.com/englisch/index.htm
Date of visit: 30 May 2010
Approximate cost per head: €24 per head for 3 course set lunch
Comments on wine list/beer: Pretty good list. House wine OK
Summary:
This is a medium size hotel in Inneralpbach – 4 km from Alpbach. The bus stops outside.
I had 2 meals there – both lunches. One was the pork schnitzel, the other a hosted lunch the day after the wedding.
You can eat outside or in the restaurant and there is a “hall” at the back of the hotel for receptions.
I started off (both meals) with a dopple malt beer. It’s the nearest thing they have to a brown ale.
I’ll talk about the schnitzel in another article later this week. What I want to describe is the hosted lunch.
There were about 50 of us and it was a set lunch, charged at €24 per head.
To start with we had thinly sliced air dried smoked beef – nearly transparent – with an asparagus salad. The beef was good – like parma ham without the ham taste and fattyness. The asparagus were white, fresh and marinated in a sweet and sour dressing. It came with some finely chopped tomatoes. Now white asparagus is normally “all water” with very little texture. The dressing marinade gave it a really nice flavour.
For main course, we had roasted spring lamb. I have never came across lamb in this part of the world and did not even know that they farm sheep locally. However I was informed that the lambs were farmed a few kilometres away.
The lamb was served pink and was without doubt the gastronomic highlight of the week. It was moist, tender and slightly on the salty side. I was told by another guest that this Inn’s Easter Lamb is even better. The lamb was served with rosti potatoes and it was more like sliced sauté potato with speck and onions than the shredded stuff served up in England. The house wines (white and red) were just over €10 a bottle – perfectly drinkable but then the local brew (Kaiser) is a good pilsner.
For afters, apple strudel was offered and the pastry was heavenly light. In all, a very good meal. By the way, you can stay in this hotel in the summer from €40 per person B&B.
E
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7798474/The-best-food-blogs.html
Do they know that we exist?
E
Address: 1 Guildford Crescent, Cardiff, CF10 2HJ (Near Churchill Way)
Telephone number: 02920 667705
Website: www.madeirarestaurante.co.uk
Date of visit: 5 June 2010
Approximate cost per head: Special meal during match days £25 for 2 courses and coffee
Comments on wine list/beer: Pretty good Portuguese list. Decent wines at under £20 a bottle
Summary:
We went there before the Wales V South Africa (mid summer)game.
My friend informed me that this place is packed out on a Friday and Saturday night.
On a match day, they only offer the special menu. The décor can only be described as rustic, bare beams (lots) and bare bricks with a see through kitchen at the back.
For starters, we had a choice of soup, gambas, sardines, scampi etc. For main course, there is a choice of fish (steaks), vegetarian or kebabs.
The kebab is the one that most people go for as special kebab hooks are suspended from the ceiling onto each table.
Some of us had the gambas whilst others had the sardines. The gambas were 3 biggish cooked prawns. You also get 3 sardines.
I had the sardines. As a sardine connoisseur, I am sure that the sardines were previously frozen as the flesh were a bit dry – freezing meat and fish breaks the cells up so you lose a lot of juice during the grilling.
We all had the mixed kebabs (beef, chicken and pork).They were served on 3 foot long skewers. The waiter then wrapped a tissue with garlic butter round the top of the skewers so the butter runs down the skewers.
The meats were served with battered cauliflower, sauté potatoes and peas. You also get a very small salad – qtr tomato and two lattice leaves. The meats were well cooked but again a bit dry – were they previously frozen? Portions were pretty good and we couldn’t eat all that were there.
The meal was washed down with several bottles of super broks (bad omen) and 3 bottle of red douro wines.
The total bill came to £40 per head including all the booze and garlic breads. It was ok but I thought on the expensive side for what it was.
By the way, I am not sure that the people who operates there were all Portuguese. Our waiter told us that his name is Hussein and that he watched rugby as a child in Morocco. I recalled that when I was young, I would go regularly to a Spanish Restaurant called Martinez (Swallow Street) until one day by mistake, I wandered into the kitchen – all the chefs were Chinese!
E