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Address: 7-9 High Street, Aylesford, Near Maidstone, Kent, ME20 7AX
Telephone number: 01622 719273
Website: www.hengistrestaurant.co.uk
Date of visit: 30 July 2010
Approximate cost per head: Set lunch £13.95 for 2 courses, £14.95 for 3 courses, A la carte main courses around £18
Comments on wine list/beer: Very reasonable wine list. House wine starts at just under £15. Most expensive is 1988 Clos des Lambray at £395 a bottle
Summary:
This is part of Richard Phillips’ empire. He also part owns Thackeray’s and Richard Phillips at Chapel Down Vineyard.
The building is a 16 century town house in the middle of the High Street – there are 2 car parks just outside the High Street with ample spaces.
I was impressed as soon as I entered the building. It was very modern in the foyer – glass and chrome. However, in the dining room, the furnishings are more in keeping with the age of the building. They also have linen table cloths and napkins – none of this bare wooden table and paper serviette nonsense which you now get in quite a few restaurants that charged over £30 a head.
There are 3 menus – degustation (sampling), a la carte and set lunch. One of us (it was a get together with relatives) was going for the degustation but the restaurant was only prepared to serve the degustation if the whole table (5 of us) ordered it as there are over 7 courses (£48 or £65 paired with wine) and this would put the serving out of sync – a lot of restaurants practice this which in my view is a nonsense as they are quite happy to serve a diner with a starter or desert even if the other diners on the same table only have a main course.
So, we all ordered the set lunch. We were all given a complimentary dish – spoonful of a small cube of smoked chicken (smaller than a cube of sugar) which I can’t taste as it was too samll. The bread on offer were quite fancy (e.g. garlic and tomato was one variety) and it was warm. However they have that awful habit which some British Restaurants practice – serving bread once and removing the plate before the main course.
Our starter was organic salmon cured in beetroot. Salmon cured this way is now very popular in a lot of restaurants. You can buy it at Foreman and Field http://www.formanandfield.com/. It’s colourful and the sugar from the beetroot compliments the brine in the cure.
The salmon was very tasty but I found the dressing on it slightly too sharp.
Next, we had roast belly of pork, grilled hake and grilled plaice with a crayfish sauce. All the dishes were beautifully presented. With the set lunch, you will have to order sides (£2.50 per item). The pork was a rolled noisette and the crackling served as a strip positioned over the pork like a bridge. The sauces for the fish and pork were served separately.
For desserts, we had the cheese platter (Kent and Sussex cheese – £2 supplement) and chocolate crème brulee and raspberry tart.
Every one agreed that this was an excellent meal (including me). The service was overall very attentive and not obtrusive.
We had two bottles of still water and two bottles of house white (£14.95 per bottle – perfectly drinkable, saugvinon) with the meal. The whole bill including service came to £137.
I have to conclude that it was one of the best value meals I have eaten for a long time – it is modern European (French biased) and is right up there with Forbury (Reading), Venture In (Ombersley). However, it is by far the cheapest for food and wine.
I shall visit again for the degustation menu with wine next time when I am en route to
France.
E
http://www.japancentre.com/recipes/33
This looks nice and esy. You can get sake and mirin (sweet wine) from Waitrose and oriental supermakets. See also our links.
If you can’t get mirin and sake, try to substitute with dry sherry and add a teaspoon of sugar.
E
July 2010
I have never eaten squirrel so I can’t comment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/29/squirrel-meat-supermarket
Its apparently selling well.
E
July 2010
US beer at the festival
The British Beer Festival @ Earls Court
E
July 2010
Try also octopus and cuttle fish.
E
Address: Maidensgrove, Nr Henleyon-Thames, Oxon, RG9 6EX
Telephone number: 01491 641 282
Website: www.thefivehorseshoes.co.uk
Date of visit: 27 July 2010
Approximate cost per head: Around £20 for 2 courses
Comments on wine list/beer: Brakspear (£3 a pint of ordinary). Wines list is simple but good on French and reasonably priced
Summary:
This pub is in the middle of nowhere. It is impossible to come across it by accident. In fact, you have to go out of your way to look for it.
It is sited down a single track road off B480 at Stoner. Although the address is Maidensgrove, you actually go pass Maidensgrove and aim for Upper Maidensgrove.
The restaurant/pub is listed in several guides including Sawday’s and Harden’s – so I thought that I would check it out.
Outside the pub are an array of wooden tables – well spaced apart. Inside there are 2 bars and a restaurant.
The menu is pretty British and Countryside. There is venison and steak on the menu – a single pager. I went for the doorstop sandwich (£7.50) – I asked for smoked ham but am sure that I got roast pork instead.
The sandwich came as two halves of multigrain bread stuffed with salad and meat. The sandwich was served on a wooden board with a side salad of undressed continental leaves. You also get a bowl of chips.
The chips must be one of the best thick cut chips I have ever eaten. They were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They were not broken down on the edge through over boiling like triple cooked chips.
I noticed that they were also advertising pizza from the wood burning oven – only available at weekends.
I have to admit that I was impressed and will soon be back to test out the pizza and the main menu.
I will also take this opportunity to warn you about the road – it is very narrow and dangerous when it’s dark.
E
See competition page. Side Menu!
Eddie
Jukly 2010