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Address: 85 Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, London SW3 3DX
Telephone number: 0207 584 8880
Date of visit: 27 February 2011
Website: www.awana.co.uk
Approximate cost per head: £30 plus for a selection of a la carte dishes including starters. There is also a set meal for £50 a head with 10 courses/dishes.
Comments on wine list/beer: Upmarket list but not at silly mark ups
Cuisine: Malaysian
Summary:
Awana is the only Malaysian restaurant listed in the Michelin Guide.
I came here with a couple of friends after they treated me to the Carling Cup Final.
The restaurant is very smart and modern with an airy feeling. As you enter there are TV screens showing what is going on at the roti (bread) and sate bar.
The wine list was quite upmarket and they had an interesting champagne called Moutard 6 Cepages 2004 (£50) – champagne aged in old chardonnay barrels. On the wine list, they claimed that this gives the champagne more depth.
I usually found that sparkling wine or champagne goes well with spicy food. Reds don’t.
The Moutard 6 Cepages turned out to be an exceptional wine – full of fruit and flavour. It doesn’t have the complexity of Krug etc. The best way to describe it was that it was a fruitier but dry version of Louis Roderer.
To start with, we had a selection of satays: chicken (£8), lamb ((£8) and seafood (£8.50).There were 4 skewers per portion with the meat satays and 3 skewers per portion for the seafood. They were all nicely grilled over charcoal. The interesting thing was that the lamb was not chewy – this in my view is a real test of how good the quality of the meats are. The peanut sauce that came with it was very mild. In fact, everything we had on the night was mild but had a good spicy taste to it.
We then had 4 starters: lamb ribs (£8.50), chicken wings (£5.50) and vegetarian spring rolls (£7.50) and garlic roti (£6.50). The chicken wings were little drum sticks – the meat of the wings were rolled back onto the big wing bone to form a drum stick – deep fried in batter. The lamb was a little bit on the chewy side but then we ordered it cooked medium. The spring rolls were disappointing and it was the worst dish on the night. The garlic roti was a very fine paratha bread served with alight curry dip.
We the had the ayam padang (chicken curry – £16.50), nasi goreng with fried shrimps (£15.5), seabass (£22) and mixed vegetables (£12.5). Everything was nicely presented but then that seemed to be a key selection criteria of Michelin Inspectors. The chicken curry was good but too mild for me, the seabass in a ginger sauce spiked with tamarind. The rice and vegetables highly enjoyable. In fact there were so much food, I had to ask for a doggy bag.
The whole bill including coffee, tea and two bottles of water (I think that it was filtered tap water) came to just over £200 with 12.5% service charge included.
The servers were very fast and pleasant and the prices – well it is probably reasonable for that part of the world.
We all had a good time. Next time, I think that we will just stick to the starters and have a mezza type meal.
E
I might get one for Xmas!
E
February 2011
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/talking-turkish/story-e6frg8rf-1226006811582
Useful links here!
E
February 2011
This is quite funny!
E
February 2011
Address: Danesbury House, Sidbury, Worcester, WR1 2HU
Telephone number: 01905 611 120
Website: www.theglasshouse.co.uk
Date of visit: February 201124
Approximate cost per head: £20 plus for 2 courses
Cuisine: modern British/French
Comments on wine list/beer: Fairly basic wine list at low prices. Quite a few under £20 a bottle.
Summary:
There are 3 restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide for Worcester and the surrounding areas. They were all rated as 2 knives and forks. I have been to the Venture In several times (last reviewed on 24 July 2010). It is fairly “old fashion French” which means lots of heavily reduced sauces and heavy use of cream and butter. It was Margaret Thatcher’s favourite restaurant when she visited the area. The other one is Browns (24 Sept 2009).
Glasshouse Brasserie is the third place recommended in the Michelin Guide. Similar to Browns, they serve modern British cuisine and French food.
I took my friend M along on a Thursday night and the place was over half full. There is a sort of bar/dining area downstairs and there is a dining room upstairs that can take 40 covers plus a private dining room for about 12. The whole place is very modern.
We had a table upstairs. We started off with a rustic bread (£3.95) which were large chunks of grilled buttered bread with a pot of tomato chunky sauce and a whole head of baked garlic which was original and nice.
M then had the roast rump of lamb (£15.95) and I had the ribeye steak with triple cooked chips (£17.95) . I was told that the rump was good. It was served with a pesto sauce but this version of pesto sauce had mint in it. I thought that pesto was basil and pine nuts chopped together.
Now, let me tell you about my steak and chips. The chips came as huge cubes and the best way to describe it is that it is mashed potato with a crispy skin.
As far as I am aware, triple cooked chips were invented by Heston Blumenthal. It is now copied all over the place. The Hind Head (owned by Heston), Riverside Brassiere, The Royal Oak (Paley Street) and The Hand and Flower all do triple cooked chips well.
According to Heston’s book – In Search of Perfection, Triple Cooked Chips (page 229) should be simmered until the chips are nearly broken up (it is the fissures that form as the potato breaks up that trap the fat creating a crunchy crust)………
The so called triple cooked chips had no fissures. I can’t understand why if they went to all the trouble of declaring that they do triple cooked chips, they then can’t get it right. You may recall that The Three Horseshoes in Radnage, another pub recommended by the Michelin Guide also try to palm of their rubic cube chips as triple cooked (24 November 2010).
Back to the steak. It was cooked medium and was perfectly all right. It was declared as 10 ounces on the menu and I would have preferred a thicker cut than the 1cm cut that I had and the steak trimmed. They did that at the Blacxk Cow in Launceston.
By the way, we also shared a bottle of 2008 Ch Bellefontaine which was quite drinkable at £24 – the second most expansive red wine on the list.
To be honest, it was a pretty good meal and you do get veg with your main course, but, I get annoyed when people try to copy Heston and can’t get it right.
E
Address: Remenham Lane (A4130), Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 2LS
Telephone number: 01491 411 008
Website: www.thelittleangel.co.uk
Date of visit: 23 February 2011
Approximate cost per head: set lunch 2 courses £12.95. A la Carte approx £20 + for 2 courses.
Comments on wine list/beer: Brakspear on tap (£3.30 a pint). Medium size wine list with normal mark up. Expect to pay £20 a bottle
Cuisine: Modern British
Summary:
I have driven pass this pub many times but I have never been in. It is now mentioned in several guides as a gastro pub. I decided to pay it a visit just before Xmas but didn’t get in as the place was taken over for a party.
The pub is sited near the ”bridge”, on the Berkshire side of Henley town centre. There is a large car park. Upon entry, there are two bar areas and several large dining rooms all with fairly modern decor. They provide magazines, games (monopoly type not traditional pub games) etc. The customers were mainly the aging “Henley” set – posh and talked a lot as they like the sound of their own voice!
Onto the food and drinks. The Brakspear I had was fine. Being greedy, I went for the black pudding starter (£6.95) followed by Welsh Rarebit with chips (£6.25).
The black pudding came as several chunks cut at an angle, lightly fried with a sweet corn sauce and a small dressed salad (lambs lattice) on an oblong plate. I thought that it was original and very good.
The Welsh Rarebit was melted cheese on a slice of ciabatta with a lovely leafy onion salad and a bowl of proper French fries. It is so good to see French fries again – I am getting fed with the thick chips.
On the whole, I greatly enjoyed my meal. The serving staff was young and very attentive. Slight downside was to listen to someone’s heroic exploits over the last 50 years – on the next table.
E
Location: Oxford Road, Worlds End, Beedon, Near Newbury, RG20 8SD (near A34)
Web site:http://www.thecoachbeedon.com/
Telephone number: o0163 524 7271
Date of visit: December 2010
Approx. cost per head: £16
Comments on wine list/beer: good variety
Media link:
Review:
Restaurant like pub – marvellous dog wall paper. Good selection of food and friendly staff who seem keen to welcome you and make you feel at ease. The second rung of staff are slightly gauche Sixth Form pupils who seemed anxious so the bosses would do well to strengthen them, and give them some proper training. There is a dining room at the back which has everything going for it in looks but there doesn’t seem to be any proper ventilation system, and half way through supper, we all realised we were sitting in a pall of cooking smoke. Such a shame, particularly as they didn’t seem to think that it was a problem.
Jane Bennett
Location: 16 High Street, Thatcham, Berkshire RG19 3JD
Public transport/parking: street parking and parking behind the Co-op
Web site: www.cookandbutcher.co.uk
Telephone number: 07776 182 576
Date of visit: 17 February 2011
Review:
Two very friendly, hard working young chaps run this little shop and you couldn’t ask for better service, better advice and a more honest place. Straight forward and excellent produce. They make a good selectiono of sausages, offer pies and cold meats, fresh eggs and excellent meat. They will provide organic and local if you want it, but they are very sensitive to restricted budgets, and will offer sensible suggestions about cheaper cuts. They came up to my school and gave a demontration on boning a chicken and I am sure they would do the same for any other organisation that asked. Give them a good, they deserve congratulations!
Jane Bennett
Name of market or shop: Fielders Farm Shop & Pangbourne
Location: Wickcroft Farm, Pangbourne Road, Theale, Reading RG7 5AE
Public transport/parking: on A 340, plenty of parking
Web site: www.fieldersfarmshop.co.uk
Telephone number: 0118 9304064
Date of visit: 23 February 2011
Review:
Newly opened, so I thought I would drop by and see what it has to offer. I am a teacher, so I am always looking out for little local foodie experiences during my holiday and half term breaks. All signage and publicity makes it sound that they are doing what any self respecting farm shop should do – offer good local produce. 95% of the food seemed to be shrink wrapped and labelled so much that it was impossible even to gauge the quality. The fresh meat section was full of Royal Farms, Windsor produce – is this local? The West Berkshire countryside is dotted with local producers, yet little is on display or it seems available. The two staff members were nice enough, smiled and said hello, but little engagement with the few customers I was in there with. They were were doing neither soft or hard sell, are they missing an opportunity? The boards had suggestions for lunch purchases, yet few were on display at 11am. Lovely looking pies from PieMinister – is that local? Not really, Bristol and good product but could they not look closer to home? Vegetables all nice and neat but looking a little too neat and a little old, nothing noteably local either. Meringue nests on ‘clearance’ looked a bit dusty and the ubiquitious savoury crackers in abundance, also a bit dusty. My children have a phrase:same old same old. Of course it is hard, the deli and food shop game is hard and you have to have a USP and also, they really have to try a little harder. I went on to Pangbourne, which for a little town has a couple of decent food shops, a fruit and veg shop, a butcher shop which is efficient and friendly and not a bit precious, it offers good local and non local produce and it will prepare whatever you wish. There is a good deli there, good range of cheese and meats, and engaging and interested staff who seem to really care and certainly know their stuff and how to serve the stuff – meats are carefully sliced. They offer tastings, and I am sure Fielders may have too, but they didn’t offer. The ubiquitious savoury biscuits sourced from Devon and Europe there too, but less dusty. One of my fellow customers in the cheese shop, it is called Gray’s, was an elderly man who was buying tiny portions of many different cheeses and they were being just charming to him – they cared that he was getting what he wanted. So what is the trick, treat your customers well, and be interested in serving them with a friendly and efficient air. And if you say you offer local stuff, then do offer it.
Jane Bennett
Address: 21 Prospect Street, Caversham , Reading RG4 8JG
Telephone number: 0118 9462115
Website: http://www.binatandoori.com/
Date of visit: 19 February 2011
Approximate cost per head: Approx £20
Comments on wine list/beer: Various Indian larger and wines charged at reasonable rates. The problem is that all the famous Indian lagers are now brewed in the UK. For example, Kingfisher used to have a slight cardamom taste, you can’t detect it anymore.
Cuisine: Indian
Summary:
There was a whole crowd of us. Bina used to be a top 50 Curry House in the UK. It then (many years ago) had to be refurbished after problems with the Health Inspectors. I used to go regularly; they did the best Indian breads in Reading. In fact, I am not even sure that it is now managed by the same people a decade ago when it was in its prime.
The other Tandoori House of note is the Standard Tandoori, also in Caversgam. The Dala Lama is a regular customer when he is visiting this part of the world.
Back to Bina. The room is very modern with blue lighting and a lot of modern paintings on the wall. There is a sort of waterfall at the end of the dining room before you reach the “facilities”.
We had a round table and popadums were served within 5 minutes with all the usual condiments. Then we shared the mixed starter – £4.75 per person. There were several pieces of tandoori meats, prawn wrapped in pastry and a couple of other wraps that I cannot work out as to what was in it. In the menu they were described as patties – it was some form of minced lamb with vegetables and pulses in a wrap similar to won ton skins and the whole thing was deep fried.
We the had Murgh (Chicken) Korma (£6.95), Chicken Madras (£6.75), Chicken Mulini (£7.95) Ghost (lamb) Kata Masala (£8.50) Nawabi king prawns (£12.95), Pilau rice (£2.75 per person), Nans (£2.50 each), Palak (Spinach) bajee, Aloo (potato) gobi, Mushroom bajee – all at £3.95. The first thing I will say all the dishes tasted different. This is not one of those restaurants that have a master sauce and then add chilli and tomato to differentiate the dishes. However, all the curries are slightly on the “sweet” side especially the Korma and the Madras – it this to suit the British Palate? The Madras was also more medium than hot. I recalled a Madras in an Indian Restaurant (demolished – it is now a dual carriageway) that I simply couldn’t eat. I had to take it home and add several cans of baked beans into it before I can eat it.
We went on a Saturday night and the place was full. However, the service was very good as we asked for drinks on a regular basis. After dinner, all the women in the party were presented with a red rose and to cap it all, they offered us a free birthday cake as they overheard that it was the birthday of one of us. They saw the cards and presents and worked it out. Well they did ask me if it was a birthday or some other celebration.
By the way, they do an all you can eat buffet on a Sunday for under £8.
I think the place is still pretty good!
E
PS you can park in the Waitrose car park down the road.