Address: Winchester Road, Whitway, Burghclere (off A34) RG20 9LE

Telephone number: 01635 278222

Website: http://www.bespokehotels.com/hotel/pages/carnarvonarms/home.htm

Date of visit: 27 April 2011.

Approximate cost per head: Ranges from under £10 for a bar meal to over £20 for a main course. Starters £5-7. Set lunch at £11.95 for 2 courses. Sandwiches from £5.50.

Comments on wine list/beer: London Pride on tap (£3.10 a pint). Basic wine list bottles from just over £10. A few champagnes on offer.

Summary:

The hotel/Inn/Pub is situated near Highclere Castle. On this visit, there was a coach party of visitors to the castle stopping over for lunch. They have booked every table in the restaurant so the choice was sitting at the sofa (too low for me) or eat at the front or back.

The front is quite pleasant and over looks the road. However every table was taken. So, I was directed to the back lawn – a piece of walled grass that hasn’t been cut for weeks and there were a few fag ends littered
around the lawn. There were only 3 tables.

The menu here is quite interesting and goes from under £10 for a bar meal to £22 for the roast beef. On the whole, they serve traditional food here.

As the place was quite chaotic – mind you, the staff were very pleasant – as they were overwhelmed by the numbers, I decided on fish and chips (bar meal) at £12.50.

To my surprise, the meal came within 15 minutes. Mind you, when I went for a second pint of London Pride, I had to wait over 10 minutes as they were too busy serving and making latte for the coach party.

Now onto the food. I had a choice of fat or skinny chips with my fish. I chose the former which turned out to be french fries. The fish (cod) was a really thick piece and was about the size of a “double” wallet. I don’t recommend this as they have to over cook the batter before the fish is cooked – the batter was dark brown instead of being golden.

The other downside was that the chips came salted – why do they do this? The mushy peas and tartare sauce were good and the sauce was made on site as it was quite chunky.

It was an average meal. However, the service was very good despite the volume of traffic.

E

http://www.japancentre.com/recipes/154

For a more exact recipe, chinese version, see below:

Use a ratio of  2 to 1 of minced pork to chopped greens (pak choi, spring greens or cabbage) For every one pound of meat add half a cup of minced spring onions and a max of 2 teaspoons of salt – depending on taste. I use 1.5.

To buy frozen ones, I prefer the Korean goyza which has lots of finely chopped vegetables in the centre and for the Chinbese version – Gobo (70% meat) – from  the Chinese supermarket. Japan centre will ony sell the ready made Korean and Japanese versions which are pretty good.

You can also get dumpling skins from a Chinese supermarket. Do not confuse this with wonton skins which are different.

The best way to cook frozen ones is to lay it out in a non stick frying pan, add boiling water to cover the dumplings – at least half way, put a lid on and leave it for 10 minutes. Then drain, add a tablespoon of oil and fry at low heat for 10 minutes with the lid on – do not stirr. At the end of 10 minutes, add a table spoon of water to the pan – it will sizzle and spit ; put the lid back on and cook at medium heat for 5 minutes. The frying crisp up the base and the water at the end steams the dumplings.

E

April 2011

Location: 2, Nelson Mews, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1AL

Web site: http://www.clarencegroup.co.uk/the-mews

Telephone number: 01702 393626

Date of visit: 20th April 2011

Approx. cost per head: £23

Comments on wine list/beer: Wide range of European beers on draft but no English bitter.

Review:

Only five minutes from the cockle stalls of the sea-front and the bustle of the High Street you could be a hundred miles away in The Mews bar/restaurant in Southend-on-Sea. I came across this gem which is situated in a quiet corner of the town’s conservation area whilst my wife and daughter were having a look around the Southend campus of Essex University.

A seat outside the bar in a sunny spot was an ideal place to have a pint of Hoegaarden and read the paper.There is no draught bitter but there are numerous premium lagers and European beers on draught (Hoegaarden is the most expensive beer in the bar at £4.20 a pint). The sun continued to shine and I browsed the menu over my second pint. Impressed with the choice, I decided to return to The Mews later in the day for dinner with my wife (L) and daughter (J).

In the evening we had drinks whilst sat on leather sofas in the light airy bar which, like the restaurant upstairs, is attractively furnished in a shabby chic sort of way. We took our table in the restaurant and the friendly barmaid from the afternoon appeared in her evening role as friendly waitress. For starters, I had crayfish & smoked salmon cocktail, J chose seared scallops with roast pork belly and L, the avocado & crayfish thermidor. All were excellent and very well presented and, as is often the case in our family, we tried a sample of each others dish. In my opinion, the scallops with the basil-flavoured pork were the best.

The restaurant suddenly became quite busy (lots of 8.00 pm bookings, I guess) and we had to wait a few minutes longer than we would have wished for our mains to arrive. However, they were well worth waiting for. I had chosen the lamb shank which melted in the mouth and was served on a bed of bubble & squeak. L went for the Parma ham-wrapped roast chicken stuffed with brie, served with spinach veloute. J (who usually goes for the duck if available) was very complimentary about the plum-glazed duck breast with noodles – I was looking forward to a taste but didn’t get a chance! With hindsight we needn’t have ordered the side dish of potatoes because the main dishes were very generous. We shared a couple of desserts – the chocolate brownie was deliciously moist whilst the refreshing trio of sorbets made a nice contrast. I found it strange that the trio was piled into a sundae glass rather than served in a way that would have allowed a better separation of the three different flavours.

A bottle of Chilean Merlot was smooth and not over-priced at £14.75. The bill for three including coffee and wine came to £99. I see that The Mews is part of a consortium of three bar/restaurants in Southend, the others being The Clarence Yard and The Market Place. I rather hope that J gets the university place so that we can sample the other two venues on future visits…..and of course, the cockles and candy floss as well!

Mike Hibbs

Address:  Theresienhohe 15, 80339 Munchen

Telephone number: 089 452 116

Website: www.Kongressbar.de

Cost per head: From around 10 Euros

Wine list: Small mostly German

Date of visit: 19 April 2011

Summary

This was our last day in Munich on this long weekend and having spent the morning in the transport Museum we decided to sit at this Bar for a drink before getting back to the centre to visit the Rezidenz.  However, the menu looked good so we decided to have lunch.

We ordered two beers (Agustiner Hell) and for food their pasta lunch (farfale in a cream sauce and ricotta cheese) served with a side of green salad and a filet of beef steak salad. Both were of very good quality and
in good portion sizes. It all came with a basket of soft bread. The weather was very good and warm so it was a pleasure to sit and have lunch outside. The place was busy with “ladies who do lunch” and with business people from the local shops and offices.

Unfortunately, in the steak salad we noticed a small stone which we left on the side of the dish and when we pointed this out to the waiter he offered us free coffees so we had an expresso each. The cost was just
under 25 Euros.

Demetris Savva

Address: Neuhauser Strasse 39, 80831 Munchen

Telephone number: 089 264 010

Website: www.schnitzelwirt.de

Cost per head: From around 12 Euros

Wine list: Small selection of German and a few imported wines.

Date of visit: 16 April 2011

Summary

After a day’s sightseeing we decided to eat in the centre of Munich and since our first choice of “beer garden” was extremely busy we decided to try what was initially our second choice which turned out not to be a bad choice after all! Based on our experience of the size of the portions from the previous night, we decided just to try one dish each so we chose the Schnitzel “Weiner Art” (pork escalope “Weiner style”) served with French fries and the Zander (grilled pike perch with almond butter) served on a bed of spinach and boiled potatoes.  Both dishes were good and filling which meant that again we could not try the desserts!

Rather than drink beer (which is the thing to do in a beer garden and all our “neighbours” were drinking various types of beers judging by the different shapes of glasses) we decided to try their white wine.  This turned out to be 1 litre of a refreshing and dry Gruner Veltliner from the Paasdorf area of Austria, which was served in a carafe and at 12.50 euros was very good value.

The place was packed and the service was a bit slow to start with but once we ordered the wine arrived quickly and the food followed soon.  In such a busy place, the food was obviously being turned around quickly which is good to know!  The cost of the meal came to just under 38 Euros.

Demetris Savva

Adress: Hotel Ibis, Munchen City Nord, Ungererstrasse 139, Muchen 80805, , Germany

Telephone number: 089 360 830

Website: www.latable-rouge.de

Cost per head: From around 15 Euros

Wine list: Reasonable selection of German and imported wines.

Date of visit: 15 April 2011

Cuisine: Intwernational

Summary

As our hotel, the Suite Novotel, did not have a restaurant we looked at the menu at the sister hotel (Ibis) across the patio but since we did not fancy it we went for a walk to find a local restaurant rather than go
into town on our first night in Munich.  We came across another Ibis and the menu looked good so we decided to try it.  We ordered two beers (the lager-style Paulaner Hefe Wetbier and the wheat beer
Franziskaner Weissbier) both of which were very good. The wine list was good and contained a reasonably priced select ion of German and imported wines and, surprisingly, more than a dozen of them were available by the glass!

As we had nothing during the day we ordered two starters and two main dishes but this turned out to be a big mistake because Munich portions are enormous! Needless to say, we did not finish the main dishes and we did not try their desserts; however, we learned from this and we did not repeat the mistake on subsequent nights! Having ordered, the beers arrived with a bowl of two types of very good bread and the chef’s offering of a decent portion of pork schnitzel with tomato and cheese which was very tasty and a good sign for the
rest of the meal. Our starters were a very good linguine al pesto (pesto sauce with very good roasted pine nuts and cherry tomatoes) and spaghetti carbonara which was very creamy and contained chunks of bacon; I usually do not have this because of an egg allergy but I tried this and thought it was very good with
much more cream than is usual in this country. At this stage we asked for the main dish to be served a bit later since we were feeling full up already! The two  main dishes were two large and thick slices of an excellent roast pork in a reduced beer sauce (schweinebraten; a typical Bavarian pork roast) served with a large potato dumpling and a large portion of cabbage in vinegar and an equally excellent pork filet in a creamy mustard sauce served a mixture of roast vegetables and rosti potatoes.

We had to apologise for not finishing the main dishes to both the very friendly student waitress and the very friendly chef who nevertheless had another offering of an excellent apple sponge cake served with the bill; both of them came to check on us regularly and have a chat throughout the evening. The meal was excellent and very enjoyable although the restaurant was very quiet for a Friday night. The bill for our meal came to just under 50 Euros which we thought was excellent value.

Second visit

Date of visit: 18 April
2011

Summary

Having enjoyed our first visit on our first night in Munich, we decided to revisit on our last night there!  This
time we did not fall into the trap of over-ordering though! The crew was different but again very helpful and cheerful. Again we had the beers which came with the bread and the chef’s offering of a very good piece of salmon steak! We only ordered main dishes on this visit; these were a very good and large portion of Caesar Salad with grilled chicken breast and the schweinebratenwhich we tried on the first visit.  Both were
excellent and again we did not feel like having a dessert although the chef sent out “something small” which was an excellent chocolate cake! The restaurant was much busier this time with a number of business people and holiday makers enjoying their meals. On this occasion the bill came to just over 30 Euros; we will go again to this restaurant if we happen to be in Munich in the future.

Demetris Savva

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/24/bubble-tea-comes-to-britain

I first came across this in New York around East 30th street and Third Ave near one of NY’s not so famous university. It was full of  Chinese students.

E

April 2011

Address: Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire.  RG4 6TN (The French is sited on both sides of the  B478 by the Thames).

Telephone number: 0118 9692204

Website: http://www.thefrenchhorn.co.uk/about.htm

Date of visit: 24 April 2011

Approximate cost per head: £50 onwards. £55.65 for the set lunch on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Comments on wine list/beer: Blue ribbon list with all the classics. Hefty mark-up. Allow £100 for a decent bottle.

Cuisine: old fashion French and British food

Summary:

This restaurant is in the Michelin Guide but it is not starred. When I was a poor undergraduate at Reading University, I dreamed about eating at The French Horn. My first meal there – business lunch – meet everyone of my expectations.

I have been back many times (last reviewed on 15 October 2009). I rate this as one of the best restaurant in the UK. Its location is unbeatable – the views are stunning even when it is dark. The service has always been friendly and not patronising. The food is good – the asparagus, grilled Dover sole, the roast duck are as good as it comes. The wine list is long and goes from just under £30 a bottle to several thousands. The main problems from a restaurant inspector’s view points are: they are not too innovative. It has been more or less the same menu for the past forty years plus. They serve meat/fish straight onto the plate and vegetables are served on the side so plate decoration/arrangement is minimal.

As you enter, there is a main bar with a log fire – it is even lit during the summer to roast the ducks which are then crisped up in a hot oven before it is served. The bar has a huge selection of liquors and malt whiskies. The restaurant is house next to the bar in an extension which has huge and continuous windows to over look The Thames, willow trees and lawns. They have a French Horn hung up in the bar.

Over seeing the services are Michael and Elaine Emmanuel– brother and sister who owned the place together with their parents and Manuel the Maitre’ D (for the past 30 years). I understood that Michael and Elaine’s grandparents used to own the Wheelers in London – before it became a chain.

For Sunday lunch they offered a 3 course set meal at £55.65 per head –all the favourites from the a la carte are there. Gratuity included in the price. During weekdays, the set lunch is significantly cheaper but without the blockbusters.

This time we were a crowd so I ordered a bottle of Pouilly Fuisse  2009 (£39) and a bottle of Brouilly 2008 (£34.85). Both at the bottom end of their range.  It was not that I am extra mean but out of a party of 7, two doesn’t drink and I was the only serious drinker and I am the driver. The wines were totally adequate for the day.

For starters, we ordered asparagus, smoke salmon, smoke salmon with egg Benedict, scampi and melon with port. Everything was good. A special mention about the asparagus (thick and flavoursome) and the scampi – real Dublin Bay prawns coated in breadcrumbs, deep fried.

For main courses, we ordered the duck, Dover soles – grilled and cooked with a mango and banana sauce, and roast chicken. By the way, the Dover sole here is about twice the size of what you normally get in a restaurant. You also get half a duck or half a chicken. For vegetables, we were offered, caluliflower cheese, spinach with a hint of nutmeg and potato dauphinois. We also had a portion of french fries – special request. The french fries here is ok – nothing special. Apparently, the sole with a banana and mango sauce was very pleasant and interesting.

It was easily a 3 hour plus lunch with canapés in the vendetta before lunch, a quick walk in the grounds in between mains and desserts and back to the veranda for petit fours and coffee.

By the way if you don’t fancy driving after the wine and food, stay the night as The French Horn is also a hotel at very reasonable rates – no gym or swimming pool.

If you want to impress someone (business or personal), this is THE place to come.

E

Location: 6-10 Hockley Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, B18 6BL

Web site: www.thedropforge.co.uk

Telephone number: 0121 448 4578

Date of visit: 14/04/2011

Approx. cost per head: £20

Comments on wine list/beer:

Media link:

Review:

The Drop Forge is a very new restaurant in the heart of the Jewelry Quarter in Birmingham.
Owned by the same people as the successful Worcester pub, The Marwood, The Drop Forge is quickly gathering a good reputation amongst the locals of the Jewelry Quarter.
Upon entering the restaurant the building’s history as an old factory is still apparent. However, the new art-deco style furnishings set within the open warehouse-style space make for a very attractive setting. The ceiling is dominated by a large skylight that provides ample natural light for the dining area and for nicer weather, there is an outside terrace attached to the top floor.
The food itself is fairly simple but pleasant. For lunch there is a wide selection of tapas-style meats, fish and vegetables all served with bread on a wooden board, which can also be chosen as starters with an evening meal.
On the evening I went I had a starter of asparagus served with a ceasar dressing and smoked bacon. The asparagus was well cooked and the dressing was light. My friend chose to have the lamb kofta to start and appeared to enjoy it.
For mains, I had a salmon and prawn fishcake on a bed of creamed leeks and topped with a poached egg, while my friend had a rump steak served with chips and a side salad. My main dish was lovely; the fishcake was beautifully made and the creamed leeks were an ideal accompaniment. Unfortunately my friend’s meal did not live up to the same standards – the steak, though requested medium-rare was more of a medium-well and the chips were bordering on burnt. However, despite being overcooked he said that both the chips and the steak itself were pleasant to eat.
After the main course, I had a vanilla crème brulee with praline and raspberry sorbet which was very good.

Overall our meal was very nice; the food was generally very good, the service pleasant and the general atmosphere of the restaurant extremely enjoyable. I would definitely consider going again.

Jo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/23/easter-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/24/jeremy-lee-easter-recipes

E

April 2011