Address: Cooden Sea Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sessex, TN39 4TT

Telephone number: 01424 842281

Website: www.thecoodenbeachhotel.co.uk

Date of visit: 8July 2010

Approximate cost per head: main course under £10. Set lunch @ £13.95 for 2 courses, £16.95 for 3 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Not a beer or wine connoisseur’s paradise

Summary:

Bexhill-on- Sea is located on the coast between Eastbourne and Hastings. This area has a very high population of retired people.

On a bright sunny day, I drove through Brighton, expecting to drive along the coast to have lunch with a friend at Cooden Beach Hotel. Unfortunately, the main road is the A27 which is inland with no sea view.

The hotel is sited at the end of the road right on the sea. It’s a modern looking hotel with 2 bars and a restaurant. New wooden tables were strategically placed round the outside of the hotel and on a big patch of lawn outside the club bar.

I started off in the lounge bar with a pint of Harvey’s Sussex bitter (£3.10). In this bar they were serving sandwiches and there was a hot food counter with baked potatoes, lasagne and some sort of top crust pie.

When my friends arrived, we proceeded onto the restaurant – it was packed out. We were then advised to take up one of the wooden tables that over look the sea by the club bar. You ordered food at the bar and they will bring it out.

I had another Harvey’s and my friends had a glass of house wine and a pint Knonenbourg (£3.40). The house wine turned out to be a piesporter @ £4.60 for 250ml. I think this sums it up what sort of place it is. I bet you that the local best selling wines are Blue Nun and Mateus Rose.

For food, we had the scampi and my usual fish and chips – all priced at £9.50. The “fish and chips” was heavily advertised as posh and fantastic. When it came, it was Ok but nothing special. There was a lack of seasoning on the chips and fish batter – a plus point for me as restaurants tend to forget that there are people on a low salt diet. The mushy peas were a disappointment – it was very bland.

I have to admit that it was a sunny day and I would be happy to sit there and look at the sea all day.

On the way back, my friend advised me to go back along the A21 as it is closer to the M25. That was a mistake as the A21 is mainly a single lane until it’s near the M25. There were also plenty of roundabouts which added to the congestion whereas the A23 is a dual carriage way and you also have the M23 when you are near Gatwick.

E

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Address: Basement 115-117 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia

 

Telephone number: +61 3 9639 1553

 

Website: www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

 

Date of visit: 15 July 2010

 

Approximate cost per head: A$ 50 plus for 2 courses

 

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

 

Summary:

 

Judging by the media coverage and hype that this place opened up to, it appears that Jamie Oliver’s celebrity status is no less down under than it is in the UK. His books are best-sellers down here, and his toothy grin adorns billboards and TV screens across the country on what feels like an alarming frequency.

 

The restaurant concept here is no different to the other ‘Fifteens’ in existence (this one being the fourth opening after Hoxton in London, Amsterdam and Watergate Bay in Cornwall. The principle being that the restaurant offers apprenticeship opportunities in catering and hospitality to disadvantaged young people. The restaurants then seek to raise awareness of the importance of nutritious food and cooking. 

 

It’s an admirable cause, and it’s one than I am happy to support, yet I’m still not convinced that it works. This was my third Fifteen experience, having previously dined at the original estabishment in London, and then Cornwall. My issue is not about the concept, or even the food, but it’s the service – or lack of it judging by my experiences – that let’s it down.

 

Taking a group of essentially young kids, most of whom have never cared one jot about service and delivery and then teach them the benefits of nutrition and eating well, that’s fine. But serving people, showing empathy and customer understanding are interpersonal skills that generally come about as a consequence of education, discipline or breeding. And on my evidence I’ve just not seen it. Front of house is usually fine and welcoming, and you are shown to your table (or seat at the communal dining bar in my recent Melbourne visit), and then it starts to go downhill. I ask for a beer which comes quickly, then wait for what seems an eternity before eventually attracting someones attention just to ask for a menu!

 

The menu follows the Fifteen formula of half-a-dozen dishes in each of three sections, antipasti, primi and secondi. Antipasti and primi dishes are priced around $20 each (approx 14 GBP), while secondi mains are priced around $35 (approx 23 GBP). I order a Yellowfin Tuna starter ‘prepared three ways’, followed by a Jerusalem artichoke risotto with Hervey Bay scallops crisp pancetta and sorel cress. To accompany I order a glass of Grosset Watervale Riesling – to be served with my main course.

 

The tuna starter arrives fairly promptly, and comprises tartare, bresaola and carpaccio. The bresaola is very dry and too salty, thankfully I still had some beer to wash it down with. The carpaccio was delicious, and the tartare beautifully prepared, so two-out-of-three not bad.

 

I then wait, and wait, and wait for my main. Even the belated arrival of the white wine wasn’t accompanied or immediately followed any food. I ask politely what has happened to my main. Not my original server, always a mistake. Clearly the message didn’t register. I ask what looks like a more important apprentice. As my seat is close to the openview kitchen I can see an agitated discussion taking place, clearly my order has not been made. No apology, just an offer of more bread. Close to an hour after my starter the risotto arrives straight from the hob, still steaming. Sadly the wait wasn’t rewarded with a worthwhile flavour experience. The risotto was ok, but that’s all I could say about it, it wasn’t well seasoned, quite bland in fact, although the crispy pancetta was nice and the scallop nicely caramelised.

 

A strong coffee followed, along with the bill. Again no apology for the slow service, so despite admiration for the cause and my normally charitable nature I decide not to add a tip. I left disappointed, just as I had the first time in London, and for the very same reason. Cornwall had built my belief back up after a lovely dinner there with my wife and a couple of good friends. Fifteen Melbourne has got me all confused again! Sorry Jamie, but this wasn’t pukka!

 

Paul Plant

 

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Address: 40-44 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000,Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9671 3151

Website: www.longrain.com.au

Date of visit: 14 July 2010

Approximate cost per head: N/A

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Executive chef: Martin Boetz

Summary:

From business lunch to business dinner, only this time a little less formal, more like an after-work ‘beer and a bite’ catch-up instead of any deep and detailed discussions around strategy and tactics etc.

Thankfully the offices I am working in are centrally located, and downtown Melbourne offers the diner a smorgasboard of cuisine choices from pretty much anywhere on the planet. If anything there is a bias towards Asian/Pacific flavours with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese among the more prolific. Tonight we opt for the popular and highly-rated Longrain, which describes itself as a contemporary Thai/Asian restaurant.

The ‘hip and welcoming’ restaurant fills a 100-year-old converted warehouse smack in the middle of Melbourne’s Chinatown. The space is expansive, with a large island bar surrounded by both long and circular communal tables intended to offer ‘banquet-style’ dining (their words not mine). Like many Asian restaurants, and also many other non-Asian restaurants in Melbourne, the emphasis here is on sharing, the intention being that you each order something different, then share the taste experience, ensuring a correct balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet flavours.

So what of the food? Starter choices were limited to just three: oysters, or two variations of betel leaf, one topped with smoked trout chilli roasted gallangal garlic and trout roe, or prawn peanuts mint and chilli paste. There were three of us dining and while one went for the trout, two went for the prawn. Wow! What an explosion of flavour on the palate. I chose the betel leaf with prawn, which was ‘gone in 60 seconds’ – a true taste sensation, and so good we immediately ordered another. At approx 4 GBP a mouthfull however we reluctantly declined the chance to order more.

Abiding by the sharing mantra, we each chose a different main dish, ending up with a fish, pork and duck combination, accompanied by rice, sticky long grain of course. Our dishes came out from the open-view kitchen in reverse order, beginning with a salad of braised duck with sweet fish sauce pomelo ginger and flat leaf coriander, shortly followed by twice-cooked suckling pig with squid ginger and chilli salad. All conversation stopped – this food was far too good to interrupt! Then came the fish, a red curry of ruby snapper with baby corn thai basil and fried shallots, the sticky rice proving an excellent sponge for the red curry sauce.

Judging by the lack of chat and the speed with which the plates were emptied, I concluded that my two dining partners had found the food as tasty and satisfying as myself. We took little persuading to carry on with a sampler plate of the restaurants sweet dishes, and boy were they sweet!

It’s the one thing about Asian cuisine, the desserts rarely match the breadth of flavours and textures that one typically enjoys in say a decent French or Italian eaterie. That doesn’t mean that what we were served in Longrain was disappointing, however you did need to like coconut (included in four of the six), and have a very very sweet tooth. In truth the puddings were fascinating creations, but to have included some sharpness or palate cleansing morsels would have been a better conclusion for me.

The meal was washed down with ice cold Kirin and Sapporo beer, and surprisingly for an Asian restaurant the coffee was beautifully roasted and rich.

Overall, a superb meal, innovative menu, beautifully presented food, with wonderful flavours, and very attentive but not over-the-top service. I would definitely recommend.

Paul Plant

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Address: 80 Bourke Street,Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9662 1811

Website: www.grossi.com.au

Date of visit: 13 July 2010

Approximate cost per head:  N/A

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Summary:

Whilst on business in Melbourne I was fortunate enough to be taken to lunch at what is widely considered by the local food afficionados as the city’s quintessential Italian restaurant.

Located in the Central Business District (CBD), in the vibrant Bourke Hill Precinct, close to Chinatown, the restaurant endures an iconic local and country-wide reputation. Followers of the Australian food scene together with celebrities, captains of business and visiting dignitaries jostle for a table in order to enjoy the fabulous food and enduring Italian Hospitality served up by celebrity chef Guy Grossi and his expertly organised team.

The service is slick yet unhurried, conscious that some business diners do have to return to their desks in the afternoon, although there were plenty of diners around us who clearly had no such intention. The menu offers a broad range of options across as many courses as you have time, appetite or budget for. For us it was just entrees and mains, which was plenty for a business lunch.

The homebaked grissini and breads, served with beautifully aromatic olive oil soon got the tastebuds worked up in anticipation for my starter of oxtail risotto. The portion was a decent size – it could have easily satisfied many people as a main course, however it set me up perfectly for my main of grilled crispy-skin hapuka with braised shallots and salsa, served with a side of steamed spinach. Hapuka is a member of the grouper family and is common to the waters of New Zealand. It has beautiful white flesh and a flavour not too dissimilar to sea bass, although the cut is slightly thicker. The skin was delightfully crispy, almost a fishy equivalent of pork crackling, and the salsa accompaniment really worked well.

We accompanied the meal with a deliciously refreshing South Australian Riesling (sorry, but the name escapes me), deliciously dry yet with plenty of depth and nice, clean fruit.

I wasn’t paying the bill, yet from a glance at the menu the prices, whilst not extortionate, suggest that this is somewhere you come to celebrate, to reward yourself, to impress, or just to pay homage to a chef with an obvious passion for excellence. The restaurant prides itself on its sustainability philosophy, together with a commitment to source best ingredients produced by like-minded local suppliers. There was plenty of Italian flair and technique on show, accompanied with some nice innovative touches.

Definitely a place to return to, only next time I fear I might be the one who’s paying!

Paul Plant

PS The restaurant is open from 7.30 till late

 

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