Address: 392 Kings Road, London SW3 5UZ

 

Telephone number: 0207 349 9934

 

Website: http://www.rickerrestaurants.com/eightovereight/

 

Date of visit: 27 August 2011

 

Approximate cost per head: £30 plus for a decent selection

 

Comments on wine list/beer: Short wine list with some interesting bottles at very high  mark up. For example, the Langoa Barton 2002 which I purchased en primeur at less than £250 a case – ok, that was in 2003. The wine  is on sale here at £91 a bottle. Most of the wines are “middle of the road wines with a famous producer” and the vintage is not the hottest.

 

Cuisine: Oriental with a twist .

 

Likes and dislikes: Excellent but prices at the top end with wines heavily marked up.

 

Summary:

 

I was invited by my friends J and A to a Chelsea football match and lunch.

 

Eight over Eight is another Will Ricker restaurant – E&O etc. It is mainly Oriental food – Thai, Japanese, Chinese etc – with an Aussie twist and beautifully presented.

 

I got there at 12.45 and the place was empty – Stanford Bridge is only 15 minutes walk away. My friends soon turned up and they were amazed to see the place empty – apparently it is impossible to get a table on short notice on a Friday and Saturday night.

 

The place is very modern – all chrome, black and white. The tables were well spaced apart with pristine linen table cloth and napkin. There was room for about 100 diners.

 

My friends left the ordering to the waiter and I ordered a bottle of Hess cabinet sauvignon at £57. However, that seemed to be the only wine that was not available. We then went for a bottle of Italian Il Bruciato at £59. By the way, the mark up on wine here is around 500%. I think that it is totally ridiculous to have this sort of make up and then charge you service on top!

 

We started off with double rations of the shrimp and black cod gyoza (£6.50 for 4 pieces) and the tuna sushi with miso alioli (£11 for 4 pieces)

 

This was followed by the tempura soft shell crab (£15), beef tahoon (£23) and rack of ribs (£10.15) and a salad of sugar snap peas dressed in sesame and soy (£11.75).

 

The gyoza was slightly on the greasy side, the tuna sushi was fine as the rice just right. The soft shell crab was excellent and not oily. The beef served medium and the salad OK.

 

It was an excellent meal at Chelsea prices and the service was very good. The place was about 30% occupied when we left at 2pm.

E

 

 

 

Address: Cotton Stones, Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire. HX6 4NS

 

Telephone number: 01422 823334

 

Website: http://www.almainn.com/

 

Date of visit: 24 August 2011

 

Approximate cost per head: Nearly all pasta and pizza dishes were under £10. Chicken and steak around £15

 

Comments on wine list/beer: Tetley and Timothy Taylor Landlord on tap. Decent wine list at low mark-up. Belgium beer by the bottle.

 

Likes and dislikes: Table cloth and wood burning oven but they have to spoil it with cheap paper serviettes.

 

Cuisine: Italian

 

Summary:

 

I was looking forward to a decent meal. However, The Old Bore (my first choice) was closed for the week. My second choice – The Mill Bank – I couldn’t find. The sat nev was sending me round in circles.

 

This part of the world (Oldham, Halifax and Huddersfield) is extremely hilly and nearly all the roads off the main roads are on a steep incline, narrow and not very well sign posted.

 

I finally settled for The Alma Inn (in the Sawday’s Guide and the food is Italian). A gentleman answered the phone and gave me directions: at the Triangle pub in Triangle (A56), go up the hill and keep going for a mile. However there were plenty of “Y” junctions with no sign posts. So, every time I came to one, I took the uphill option.

 

Eventually I got there. It’s a stone building of around 150 years old (near the top) with a large car park.

 

The building is divided into 2 halves with the pub on one side and a pizzeria/restaurante on the other.

 

I thought that I hit gold when I saw that the tables had table cloths but then, the napkins were flimsy serviettes.

 

The menu is nearly all Italian, starters, pasta, steak, chicken and pizza. The only seafood on offer was with pasta. Fish is on offer according to the website menu but I didn’t see any. I nearly went for the Spaghetti Vongole, but then, I noticed that it had salmon in it – salmon in a clam sauce?

 

I settled for the pizza with tomatoes and garlic butter  (£5) as a starter and the chicken saltimbocca (£14.50). I then ordered a bottle of Valpolecella  at £13.95. The wine was drinkable – I left 2/3 to take back to my hotel as I dare not drive with excess alcohol on these roads.

 

 

The pizza bread was sensational– definitely one of the best. Thin, crusty, very good on flavour and big – about a third bigger than your supermarket pizza.

 

The chicken saltimbocca was a disappointment. I had a whole chicken breast wrapped with Parma ham with two sage leaves under the Parma ham. Worst of all, it was roasted in the wood burning oven. Saltimbocca (veal or chicken) is supposed to be thin slices of meat rolled up with a sage leave and pancetta, it is then fried, so you can make a sauce with a splash of wine. It does not work with a big lump of meat. In fact, the chicken was bland and on the dry side as there was no sauce. This was served with a large bowl of vegetables – carrots, new potatoes etc – dripping in butter.

This had happened to me before in places (especially the US) that have a wood burning oven – they tend to cook everything in the oven.

 

The table next to me had the steak and chips and the French fries looked very decent.

 

Next time, I’ll stick to the pizza. By the way, this place definitely worth seeking out for the pizza. Everyone on the pub side was munching pizza.

 

E

 

 

Address:  75 Warf Street, Sowerby Bridge, Nr Halifax, HX6 2AF

Telephone number: 01422 834 314

Website: www.javavillagerestaurant.co.uk

Date of visit: 23 August 2011

Price guide: Cheap. Nearly everything is under £10 with the huge nan at £1.95

Comments on wine and beer: wines available at under £20 a bottle – nearly all screw tops. Good selection of bottled larger: Tiger, Singha, Cobra and Bintong.

Cuisine: Indian and Indonesian

Likes and dislikes: proper table cloth and napkin, food not bad, prices very reasonable but Indonesian food not on offer everyday.

Summary:

I was on my way into Halifax when I spotted this place on the main road advertising Indonesian and Asian cuisine (well, they don’t do Chinese and Indonesian is also in Asia). The Asian turned out to be the usual Indian with a few Punjabi dishes.

Well Halifax town centre was the gastronomic dessert that I remembered. 90% plus of the old buildings from the 60s are still there. The one “new” one belongs to Halifax (now Lloyds).

So, I went back to the Village. The menu said Village but the URL is Javavillage.

It is a pretty big building with a bar and seats on one side with a small dining area. The other side is a  dining room with tables well spaced apart. This room could easily accommodate up to 100 diners.

I was invited to sit in the bar area and choose my order. The menu is huge with easily over 100 dishes in both the Indonesian and Indian section. All the waiters were Indians – not a single Indonesian in sight. But then, there are restaurants in London with  a whole crew of Chinese chefs cooking European cuisine.

As I started to order, I was informed by the waiter that they only do Indonesian at the weekends! Why don’t they say so on the outside!

Anyway, I ordered a mix kebab (£2.95), meat samosa (£2.40), a chicken Madras (£5.50) and a nan (£1.95) with a large bottle of Cobra (£3.50 for 500ml).

I was then led into a dining room with white white table cloth and napkin – so civilised.

The meat samosa was good – finely minced lamb inside two “normal” size triangle pastry. The mixed kebab was pretty big. You get a piece of chicken tikka, a seekh kebab about the size of a jumbo sausage and a burger size and shape onion bajee. The seekh kebab was moist and heavily spiced, the tikka a bit dry and the onion bajee could be crisper. Both dishes were served with a “limp” side salad.

Then came the Chicken Madras – this was hotter than the ones you get down south. Best way to describe it is that it is Chicken Rogan Ghost (Murgh). The sauce was sweeter and saltier than I am normally used to. The nan was a revelation – soft and crisp at the edges and double the size you get down south.

I ordered another bottle of Cobra (small at £2.50) to finish off the meal.

The bill came to £18.80 without service and the service was good.

It was an OK meal but I came in for an Indonesian.

E

 

 

 

Address: Ripponden Bank, Barkisland, Nr Halifax, Yorkshire HX4 0DJ  (Between Ripponden and Elland)

Telephone number: 01422 820687

Website: www.fleece-inn.com

Date of visit: 23 August 2011

Price guide:  Nearly all main courses under £10. Set lunch: 2 courses set lunch £.95

Comments on wine and beer: Greene King, Black Sheep at £3.00 a pint.

Cuisine: Standard pub food. They do a range of homemade pies and suet puddings

Likes and dislikes: You get what you pay for.  No complaints at the prices they charge and the place is clean.

Summary:

I am visiting my old school.

My daughter is up here for a conference so I offered to drive her so that I can see what the place is like.

Nearly all the pubs round here have changed names. Several restaurants have opened up. The “old” fish and chips shop – one of only 4 outlets for food in the 60s (The Royal Hotel, Ye old Far Flat Head Farm and The Pub under the Bridge were the others) – is now a tapas bar. The Pub under the Bridge is still there.

The Fleece is still here. It has been enlarged significantly and offers a pretty decent menu. The enlargement is well done as it still looks like an inn that is several centuries old (1743). I couldn’t spot the difference between the old and new stone work. If I haven’t been here before, I would not have believed that it has been enlarged.

I started off with the stack of black pudding (£4.95) – best black pudding I have eaten for a long time. Two thick slices and a slice of bacon was served with a mustard and cream sauce. The down side was the salad leafes, one of the lettuce had a brown edge to it. As the pub was half full, I can’t understand why the salad leaves are pass its sell by date unless they shop in bulk on an irregular basis.

For main course I had the small fish (haddock) and chips with mushy peas (£5.95). The fish was about half the size of the ones I normally get down south. But, it was adequate and well cooked. The mushy peas were ok but the chips…… They were big northern chips – size of roast potatoes and the inside was solid not soft. Well, they have always been like this is this part of the world. In future, I must remember not to order fat chips up north.

I also stayed at The Fleece for £45 a night. The bed rooms are en-suite and bigger than your typical Paris Mercure(s). However, like the Mercure,  the bathroom is very tight – if you have a size 40 inches plus waist , this place is not for you. There is so little space that you have to sit on the toilet slightly sideways – good for practicing contortionists. Another drawback is that they only do continental. No cooked breakfast.

In conclusion: adequate at the price – food and room.

 

 

 

E

 

 

 

Address: St John’s Street, New Quay SA45 9NP

 

Telephone number: 01545 561 844

 

Website: www.treath.co.uk

 

Date of visit: www.traeth.co.uk

 

Approximate cost per head: Two courses around £20 plus.

 

Comments on wine list/beer: Excellent wine list – short and good value.

 

Likes and dislikes: Everything good, however, I prefer my raw meat in smaller bits

 

Cuisine: Modern British, Steak and seafood restaurant

 

Previous review: 19 August 2010

 

Summary:

 

 

Another visit to what I considered to be one of the best steakhouse in GB. Well, I have eaten in steakhouses around the world especially in the US – Prime, Mortens, Sparks, Hy’s etc, so I believe that I am allowed to make this judgement.

 

The menu and wine list have slightly changed, Chef Nige Jones still there.

 

Lat year they had a 1999 Ch Musar (Lebanon) at under £20 a bottle. http://www.chateaumusar.com.lb/english/home.aspx

 

This year they have a 2006 Graves at £24.50 – the most expensive red on the list. We had a bottle – excellent wine.

 

Now onto the food.

 

Steak tartare and most of the cuts (hanger, sirloin etc) are still on the menu – the most expensive is the veal T bone at just over £21. The rest are all priced at under £20 including chips.

 

The fish selection was also very good. Turbot was on the menu but they ran out and skate wing with black butter was offered as a substitute. All the meat and fish are now sourced from sustainable stock, traceable source etc.

 

My friend had the crab spaghetti ( £13.95) which was highly rated.

 

I went for my usual steak tartare (£12.75) with french fries and a side salad (£3.50). However to my horror Chef Jones has changed the recipe. Instead of minced or chopped meat, you now have julienne. Still taste very nice but it doesn’t work from a digestion point of view as you have to really chew the meat or its stays in you stomach for hours like a very rare steak.

 

The chips were first class.

 

Later when Chef Jones was doing his round, I told him that I preferred my steak tartare minced or better still – coarsely chopped.

 

I also picked up a rumour that this could be Chef Jones’s last season at the Treath. Well, if you are in the area, go and have a steak with a decent bottle of wine.

 

E

 

 

 

 

 

Ffostralsol  Arms

 

Address: Ffostrasol Arms, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA 44 4SY, Wales (Pub is on A486)

 

Telephone number: 01239 851348

 

Website: N/A

 

Date of visit: 19 August 2011

 

Approximate cost per head: Less than £10 for most main courses.

 

Comments on wine list/beer: HB at £2.90 a pint. Wines available – nothing special.

 

Cuisine: basic pub food

 

Likes and dislikes: decent car park, spacious restaurant and very good value food.

 

Summary:

 

You may ask: what is in Llandysul ? Not a lot, but this is a famous cheese making area –Teifi Valley Cheese  http://www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com/english/contact/index.htm

 

I was in the area to procure some cheese and ended up in this pub for lunch – not many decent looking places around here – my criteria was that the car park must be big and was at least half full.

 

Inside a pleasant looking building on the corner of the main road aws to my surprise a very large pub. There is a drinking area complete with  pool table and large screen TV. The dining room and sun lounge on the other side of the bar is huge and would easily offer seating for 100 plus. There were easily over 30 diners on this Friday lunch time. The restaurant is waitress serviced but you pay at the bar and nothing was leaving a tip.

 

The beer selection here is pretty poor – one bitter on hand pump and the rest were gassy lagers. The bitter was HB and it was pretty good at £2.90 a pint.

 

For lunch, they was a choice of sandwiches – priced by the number of fillings – from £5.

 

The you have the usual suspect: burgers, scampi, fish and chips etc. They also offer breakfast (served between 12-2) for £5.75 (bacon, egg, beans, sausage, hash brown and tomato) or the large breakfast (double everything except the beans) at £7.

 

I had the beakfast which was as far as breakfast goes, pretty decent. The susage and bacon was of good quality. Pity they don’t do toasts. Looking around the fish and chips, scampi etc were all pretty decent looking.

 

In conclusion, nothing special but pretty decent and good value for money.

 

 

Teifi cheese

 

Address: Glynhynod Farm, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA44 5JY. Sign posted off  A486 at Ffostrasol. Once you are down the unnamed lane, turn right just (10 meters) before you get to the end. Take next left, farm is at the end of the lane. Please note that your sat nev will not take you to the farm gate!

 

Website: http://www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com/english/teififarmhousecheese/index.htm

 

Tel: 01239851528

 

Sales: Farmers markets (Carmarthern, Cardiff), mail order and at farm gate.

 

Teifi Cheese is made by a Dutch lady called Patricia. She was mentioned in Henrietta Green’s Food Lover’s Guide to Britain. This was a BBC series made (1997) before BBC discovered Rick Stein. In fact anyone that was in Henrietta’s book and is also appearing in Rick Stein’s Food Hero book must be good – they will have traded for at least 10 years.

 

I tried to call before I visited but was unsuccessful as mobile signal in the area is not great.

 

The farm has a shop and I was served by a Dutch lady in her 60s – probably Patricia.

 

All the cheeses are very Edam like with sweet pepper, onion and garlic, cumin, seaweed as additive flavouring. The cheeses were not very strong more like medium with a Edam taste but more crumbly and not as elastic as the Dutch cheese. They also do a Caerphilly and a blue cheese.

 

What I tasted, I liked. They sell at £14.40 a kilo. I bought the cumin, seaweed and the normal unflavoured cheese.

The map is for Teifi Cheese

 

E

 

 

 

Address: Capel Dewi, Nr Nantgaredig,  Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, SA32 7LE. Warning: the speed cameras are deployed in unmarked vans around the area.

 

Telephone number: 01267 290000

 

Website: www.ypolyn.co.uk

 

Date of visit: 17 August 2011

 

Approximate cost per head: £12 for set lunch. Expect to pay between £20-£30 for 2 courses from the a la carte menu.

 

Comments on wine list/beer: Highly rated local beer Ffos Y Ffin – brewed in the same village. Not sure about the wine list as I never saw it. The few bottles behind the bar were pretty basic.

 

Cuisisne: traditional Britih food.

 

Likes and dislikes: excellent food. Not sure about the décor. Loos are good.

 

Summary:

 

According to The Michelin Guide and Sawday’s, Wales is not a hot bed for restaurants and pubs. Most of  the top establishments – especially the Pubs – seem to congregate neat the A40.

 

Y Polyn is mentioned in both the Michelin Guide and Sawday’s and is just off the A40.

 

The restaurant is near the National Botanical Gardens (Nantgaredig), about 5 miles from Carmarthen.

 

The place is divided into 2 rooms with the bar in between the rooms. The drinking area is quite small with most of the area devoted to dining.

 

The dining room is panelled on the bottom half of the wall. The wood is painted in a creamy greyish colour. The rest of the room is painted a violet or white colour. The tables were bare but they clean it well – no stickiness.

 

The menu here is pretty plain and traditional, but they are very particular about sourcing the ingredioents.

 

There is a set lunch (no choice) at £12 for 2 courses. It was salad followed by pork chop on the day I went

 

I went for the a la carte as it has a lot of traditional dishes that I haven’t eaten for a while. Bread and water is included in the price of the a la carte menu.

 

I started off with the potted crab (£6). It was full of white meat and roe – so it was not made from frozen crab meat. The dish was a little on the dry side for me.

 

Next came the hotpot made with Welsh lamb. This was in its own pan with lots of succulent pieces of shoulder in a light gravy under slices of crisp potatoes. What was a surprise was the big portion of vegetables that came with the main course – this could easily feed three. There were sauté potatoes with breadcrumbs, carrots and cabbage with cumin. The vegetables were brilliant – all al dente.

 

I washed the lot down with a couple of pints of the “champion” beer from Ffos Y Ffin at £3.50 a pint. It’s actually a light golden ale. Very pleasant.

 

The prices here is at the top end for a pub in this part of the world. But, the ingredients and cooking were superb.

 

E

 

 

 

 

 

Location: St Mary’s Butts, Reading, RG1 2LN

Web site: http://www.askitalian.co.uk/#!/

Telephone number: 0118 9574850

Date of visit: 11/08/11

Approx. cost per head: £15 full price but vouchers available

Comments on wine list/beer: Standard selection for a chain restaruant. Fairly nice.

Cuisine: Italian

Review:

Ask almost always have vouchers online (vouchercodes.co.uk) so is brilliant for a good but very reasonable priced meal. We had a voucher which was “buy one main meal get another for £1″. There was also a “buy two main meals for £12″ voucher. (Sundays to Thursdays)

Service was extremely friendly and reliable.

I had butternut squash ravioli in a white wine and butter sauce which was absolutely delicious. It was one of the tastiest meals I have had in a long time and was the perfect size- very filling but not overly huge. My friend ordered a meat calzone which he loved as well. I could not fault the food on any level. We also ordered a £14 bottle of wine.

I’ve eaten in many Ask restaurants in the chain and have always been extremely happy with my meal.

Alex

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/dining/creamy-stovetop-corn-with-poblano-chiles-recipe.html?ref=dining

Interesting recipe.
E