Address: 27 Wick Road, Teddington, TW11 9DN

Telephone number: 0208 977 4779

Website: N/A

Date of visit: 29 May 2011

Approximate cost per head: £20 for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: basic wine list with most wines around £20 a bottle. London Pride on tap.

Special note: No food served on Mondays and Sunday evenings

Likes and dislikes: proper “French” food – not an imitation – at very reasonable prices.  Wine list could be improved.

Previous review :  7 June 2010 (different ownership!)

Summary:

The Lion has been taken over by “French” owners. It is in the middle of a refurbishment. I was invited to a Sunday Lunch by friends who live near the Pub.

The “French” owners has previously taken over The Carpenter’s Arms in Sunninghill and turned it in to a successful dining pub.

The inside of The Lion is still the same – wall paper stained yellow by nearly 100 years of smoking – it doesn’t smell of smoke anymore after several years of no smoking imposed by the Goverment. However, the pool table has gone and sofas now occupy the space. The garden already has had a make over with new furniture and I understand that the interior will change once planning permission has been granted.

My friends were warmly greeted by “Julian” the new owner as we entered.

My pint of London Pride is as good as ever (£3.20 – I think as I didn’t pay).

The menu is completely “ French”. Where as The Lion used to offer ham egg and chips, pies etc, it is now Croque Monsieur/Madam, charcuterie, confit de canard, steak et  frits, steak hache,  tartiflette etc.

We started off with a plate of charcuterie et formages (£12.95). It came with pickled onions and olives. The charcuterie consisted of Serrano Jamon , French Salami and Chorizo. The chesses were brie, Reblechon and goats cheese. There were also some duck rillette. The platter came with garlic bread but we were also offered baguette on the side.

For main course, the others had roast of the day – lamb or beef – at £12.95 a portion. The beef was cooked medium and was well received. It came with roast potatoes, vegetables and a large Yorkshire pudding.

I had the confit de canard (£14.95) which was a crispy leg of duck served in a small frying pan with sauté potatoes at the bottom and a rocket salad on top. The leg of duck was slightly salty, crisp outside, moist inside and had all the fat baked way – perfect!

For desserts my friends had the tarte tatin de peche (£5.95) and crumble aux pommes, ananas et rhubarb (is there a french word for rhubarb?) (£5.95). The table next to us had the Gourmand which was a selection of various desserts at £6.95 included coffee – amazing value.

If you like French food served in the small restaurants/café near hypermarkets in Calais, this is the place for you. I will certainly be going back.

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http://www.vancouversun.com/life/food/calorie+loaded+meals+restaurants/4846152/story.html

Interesting. Some of this will apply in the UK.

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May 2011

Address: High Street, Goring on Thames, Berkshire RG8 9AW

Telephone number: 01491 872 829

Website: www.millerofmansfield.com

Date of visit: 23 May 2011

Approximate cost per head:  Around £10 for a main course – bar meal . Set lunch £12.95 for 2 courses. A la carte – under £20 for a main course

Comments on wine list/beer: Rebellion (£3.30 a pint). Wine from £16 a bottle. Some interesting wines at around £40 a bottle

Cuisine: modern British

Likes and dislikes: the set up with settees is nice but the tables need proper scrubbing.

Summary:

I can remember whether I ate in this place when I used to drink regularly in the area around the mid 70s. The Catherine Wheel is still there and I can recall that I had the toughest duck a la orange there.

Goring is a wonderful village by the Thames. However, parking is difficult. There is a car park at the back of the mini shopping arcade but the signing to it is poor.

For some years now, The Millar of Mansfield has been touted around as a gastro pub. I decided to meet my friend B there as she lives locally.

I was in at 12.00 and chose a table by the window. The place is divided into several rooms with a restaurant at the back.

I was warmly greeted by the staff and then I touched the table. It was sticky!

I hate sticky tables as it suggest that it has never been properly cleaned from the session(s) before.

B ordered a baked Aubergine – Turkish style (£12.95) and I went for my usual fish and chips. I had a pint of IPA (£3.30) whilst she had a tonic water (£1.55).

The baked Aubergine was a whole aubergine hollowed out, re-stuffed and cooked. B claimed that it was nice but then she ate less than half of it.

My fish and chips was nicely presented on a wooden board with the chips in a cone and 2 sauces – mariana and tartare – as well as mushy peas.

The fish was fine and the chips…….. they were far too chunky and was more like roast potatoes. The problem with big potatoes is that you need a lot of sauce to go with it. A little bit of tartare sauce does not work.

I noticed that they are big on plate decorations here. All the dishes dished up near me were wonderfully presented.

By the way, they add a service charge (optional) even when you order and sit in the bar area.

Would I go back again? No. I don’t eat in restaurants or pubs with sticky tables – certainly not more than once.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-good-grain-guide–why-stick-to-rice-and-pasta-when-there-are-so-many-other-versatile-varieties-2288998.html

And a polenta recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/28/polenta-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

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May 2011

Address: 74 High Street, Cricklade, Wiltshire SN6 6DD

Telephone number: 01793 750776

Website: www.theredlioncricklade.co.uk

Date of visit: 20/5/2011

Approximate cost per head: Big range. Main meals around £10 in bar, between £20-£30 in the restaurant. Sandwiches (open) from £5

Comments on wine list/beer: Excellent selection of beer on tap (from £2.80 a pint). Reasonable wine list

Cuisine: traditional cooking

Likes and dislikes: little bit run down but great service and food.

Summary:

The sign to Cricklade (off A419) proclaimed the town as an old Saxon Town.

Crickdale is really a single High Street town. The road that ran through the town is pretty wide and you can park up to 2 hours free along the Road.

You will need to  pass The White Lion before you get to The Red Lion. On the outside, there is nothing special about the pub. However, it is listed in several guides including Sawday’s.

There is a restaurant menu pinned on the outside of the pub and it was short and sweet – grilled seabass, rib eye steak etc. There were only 5 main courses priced between £20-£30.

Inside the pub  is a large room with “modernised toilets” and at the back, a large garden.  The large room was roughly divided into two halves with a bar in one half and the dining part in another half. The restaurant has its own entrance.

Several locals were lined up along the bar drinking their usual lunch time pint. I started off with a pint of bitter brewed locally before I discovered that they had a 5% mild from Bristol. The mild was fantastic. Best beer I had for some months.

On the bar menu was fish and triple cooked chips. In fact, you can have a portion of triple cooked chips on its won for £2.50.

The haddock and chips (£9.95) came with garden peas and home made tartare sauce. The fish was on the medium side of large – goods size to me. The chips were proper triple cooked chips with the fissures and the crunch. It was a good meal – definitely a top 10 but not top 5 fish and chips.

Everyone else was having sandwiches which came as 2 slices of thick bread on a wooden board with the “fillings” and a small salad on the side. Fillings include cauliflower cheese …….

Well, the town was nothing special but The Red Lion is. There are some good walks near by.

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Address: Llandenny, Usk, Wales, NP15 1DL (A449)

Website: www.raglanarms.com

Beer and wine: Wye Valley (£3 a pint), House red and white (£5.75 for 250mls). Pretty good value wine list for a pub

Cost oer head: Approx £20 for 2 courses

Cuisine: Gastropub

Like and dislike: All good

Date of visit: 21 May 2011

Summary

The area around Abergavenny is fast becoming a major “dining”  hub - outside London and Ludlow, this place has several decent pub restaurants – Walnut Tree, Beauford Arms, Hardwick and now Raglan Arms.

The pub is sited off A449, the main road linking the M4 with the M50.

The Raglan Arms is both modern and old. It is housed in a building several hundreds of years old, it has exposed beams yet the decor and plastering is ultra modern.

On the day I was there – en route for the Heiniken Cup Final in Cardiff, the place was about a third full. There are a couple of sofas in the place, otherwise, it is set up for dining.

To start with, I had the whitebait (£6.50). Absolutely fantastic. I rate it as one of the top 3 whitebaits I have ever eaten. The others being The Hand and Flowers and the Five Mile House. The rose marie sauce even had chunks of tomatoes in it, a sure sign that it was not bottled.

For main course I had the ragatoni with bolognaise sauce and shaven parmeason (£9). The ragu was made with chunky mince and the plate was arranged reversed with the sauce on the bottom, pasta on top and the shaven cheese on top of the pasta. For the first time ever, I  had more sauce than pasta. It was a stunning dish.

Now to the freebies, with the meal, I was offered a shot glass full of dry roasted peanuts, a small bowl of olives and wonderful bread and butter. The tap water was also excellent. The Wye Valley bitter was OK but it is not my favourite bitter as it is a bit light. The house red -  French Cabernet Melot was full bodied with a hint of cherry and quite fruity.

An excellent  meal.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/19/perfect-steak-sirloin-rump-fillet

A quick and informative tour!
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May 2011

Address: 6 The Broadway, Penn Road, Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2PD

Telephone number: 01494 673070

Website: www.hpjung.com

Date of visit: 12 May 2011

Approximate cost per head: Less than £10 for salads, sandwiches and wraps

Comments on wine list/beer: bottled beer and wine by the glass from £2.95

Like and dislike: Breads and cakes are good. Sausage roll and pasties so and so.

Summary:

Jung is a sort of café bakery with branches in Beaconsfield and Gerrads Cross.

Jung’s  is on the north side of the main Beaconsfield Road. There is a paid for car park just round the corner.

The place is very modern with bright orange décor. There are pavement tables and chairs outside as well as inside.

As you enter, the bakery counter is on the left whilst the café counter is round the corner. I did not know that and asked for a black coffee (£1.20) at the wrong counter. I was told to sit down and someone will bring me a coffee – I was impressed. The café offered sandwiches, cakes, wraps and salads. They all looked pretty good but normal upmarket café food.

Later, I bought sausage roll (£1.50), pasty (£1.65), sour dough bread (£2.25), cottage loaf (£1.50) and light rye with caraway seeds (£1.50).

There is also a huge patisserie with cakes oozing with fruit, jam and cream etc. I did not buy any.

Later at home, I sampled the delights that I bought. The breads were all pretty good but I was not entirely happy with the pasty and sausage roll – both of which came at premium price.

The sausage roll was deep filled but quite greasy. You get a mouthful of “oil” with every bite. The taste and texture is nearly identical to the ones on sale at The Ginger Pig (Marylebone Village and Borough Market). The ones made at The Ginger Pig uses veal. The pasty was a “Cornish” type pasty with mince, potato, carrots and swede. At £1.65, I would have thought that they could use pieces of meat rather than mince. My recommendation is to stick to the bread and cakes.

By the way, there is an interesting cookery shop on the corner of Broadway between the car park and Jung’s Cafe.

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Address: 30 High Street, Watlington, Oxon, OX 49 5PY (Free parking on Hill Road Car Park)

Mail Order: Yes

Telephone number: 01491 613 585

Website: www.granarydeli.co.uk

Date of visit: 13 May 2011

Summary:

This is a strange and wonderful place in a small town off the B4009 – stop over when your are visiting Raymond Blanc’s restaurant up the road in Great Milton. They claim to have 140 different cheeses on sale – I didn’t count them but it certainly has nearly everything and is definitely the best cheese shop I have visited outside London.

The other weird thing about this deli is that they don’t carry a large range of cooked meat such as ham, salami etc. They do carry a lot of up market bits and pieces that you would find in “top end” food shops in London such as Irish steel cut pin head oats, crisp bread from Peters Yard , Anna’s ginger snaps from Scandinavia, Dijon mustard by Fallot etc. In fact all the non fresh consumables are all the hard to come by top end stuff at top end prices. For example, Peter’s Yard (www.petersyard.com) crisp bread is £8.99 for 300g, about 5X your normal crisp bread at Waitrose. Sirloin steak is cheaper per kilo. Howevere, in my view, it is the best around.

They also do an interesting range of fresh bread. Do ring before you visit and see if they had a recent delivery and what was delivered.

By the way, other than the hard to come by goodies which are expensive anywhere in the country, the prices for normal commodities are quite normal.

The place is 25 miles from where I live but I shop there once a month.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/australia-becoming-major-truffle-producer/story-e6frg8jo-1226056652140

First we have Chinese Truffles. Now the Australian version but the price per kilo still goes up!

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May 2011