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Location: Butler’s Hard, Beaulieu Estate, Hampshire, SO42 7XB
Web site: www.themasterbuilders.co.uk
Telephone number: 0844 815 3399
Date of visit: 23/10/2011
Approx. cost per head: £57
Comments on wine list/beer: Ringwood Brewery beer from the barrel in the hotel bar. Wine list in restaurant mainly European.
Media link:
Review:
We recently stayed at the Master Builder’s Hotel for a one night break in the New Forest. We were very pleased with our choice of hotel and equally so with our evening meal in the hotel restaurant.
Like the rest of the hotel, the restaurant is decorated in a nautical theme with much timber and maritime décor. To quote from the hotel flyer, “the award-winning chef, Neil Dowson, adds his innovative flair to simple British and local food”. The seasonal game menu was very appealing not only for its content, but also for the way it was presented and printed containing old local photographs. My game salad starter was delicious with generous slices of perfectly pink pigeon breast served with leaves, grapes and sherry vinaigrette. The gamekeeper’s broth was my wife L’s choice which was a consommé served with an interesting addition of pheasant tortellini. My main course was the venison pudding – a wonderful suet crust full to bursting with chunks of venison served with a herby parsnip mash. I felt that the dish was a little on the dry side and had there been more gravy in the pudding I would have elevated my rating from very good to excellent. L moved from the game menu for her main course and gave a five-star award to the fish of the day – a generous fillet of brill served on kale, bacon and chestnuts alongside a creamy mash. Serving fish with kale seemed an ambitious and unusual combination until we tasted it and agreed that it works very well. So much so that L served grilled plaice on a bed of kale at home a couple of days ago!
The crème brulee of the day was ‘coffee’. It was large and scrumptious but coffee? Either the coffee flavour was too subtle for my palette or there had been an omission in the kitchen. The cheese board was a superb variety of flavour and texture. I must single out the Godminster organic cheddar which was unusually creamy for a cheddar and absolutely delicious!
The cost of three courses was £28.50 and we enjoyed a bottle of 2008, Tempranillo Arbucala, Valviadero for £26.00.
Would we return? Definitely, yes!
Mike Hibbs
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/food/ENTREE+Insects+Brave+eating/5624783/story.html
E
Location: 2c Wake Green Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 9EZ
Web site: www.cartersofmoseley.co.uk
Telephone number: 0121 449 8885
Date of visit: July 2011
Approx. cost per head: £35-£40
Comments on wine list/beer: wine prices rangef rom £18.50 – £13
Review:
Hidden away on the Wake Green Road, Carters is a fairly recent addition to the buzzing restaurant scene in Moseley. From the outside it appears contempory and a fresh addition to the local restaurant trade.
The menu is interesting and changed regularly to ensure that seasonal ingredients are featured prominently on the menu.
The food itself was very good (three of us opten for a lamb dish and one for a fish dish). However, portions are extremely small and are generally served without any extra vegetables or carbahydrate, which adds and extra £5-£10 to a meal already costing £16 – £20.
Dessert portions were slightly more generous and cleverly presented – I had a sticky toffee pudding served in a Lyon’s Golden Syrup tin.
Overall, though the food was extremely tasty, I don’t think that the balance of taste, portion size and cost was enough for me to visit a second time. If you are going to spend that much money on dinner, I would advise paying out a little more and visting one of the Michelin Starred restaurants in Birmingham (Turners, Simpsons or Purnells), where, for not much more you will receieve food of an even higher quality and with larger portion sizes.
Jo
Location: 43-45 Oxford Rd, Reading, RG17QG
Web site: http://www.chinapalacereading.com/
Telephone number: 0118 959 6683
Date of last report 6 October 2009 (several)
Date of this visit: 27 October 2011
Approx. cost per head: £15 plus
Cuisine: Chinese – Cantonese
Likes and dislikes: Probably one of the the best authentic Cantonese restaurant in the UK if you stick to the dim sum and main a la carte menu. Avoid the all you can eat and set meals.
Beers and wines: £3.20 for Tiger and Tsing Tao. Mediocre wine list.
Summary:
I haven’t been to this restaurant for well over 6 months. It was doing very well and on a weekday lunch was about half full.
The menu is always the same and prices are the same as last year.
The dim sum starts at £2.70 a dish.
We had char sui chung fun, prawn dumplings (har gaw), char sui puffs, char sui buns – yes char sui in 3 different ways – dry fried beef hor fun , yam croquets and garlic pea shoots. They were all good. The total bill including drinks – coke, tiger beer – and service came to £60.
Since the redecoration 4 years ago, the place is beginning to look a bit worn but the food is still good. Compared to my recent Chinese encounters (Princess Garden and Wing Tai), this place is definitely superior in terms of the standard of cuisine and service. Prices are about the same. Parking is in West Street Mall – beware of narrow lanes leading up to the car park – just wide enough for a MPV.
E
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2011/oct/24/japanese-miso-soup-video
Excellent video. Alo explains about different type of miso.
E
Oct 2011
Address: High Street, Raglan Village, Monmouthshire, NP15 2DY
Direction: Where A40 meets A449.
Telephone number: 01291 690935
Website: www.beaufortraglan.co.uk
Date of visit|: 15 October 2011
Date of last visit: 4 February 2011
Approximate cost per head: Main courses £10 – £16, starters around £6
Comments on wine list/beer: decent beer (Buckleys, Wye Valley etc) on tap – £2.80 a pint. Basic wine list but nearly all wines available by the glass from £3.20
Cuisine: Pub Food – International
Likes and dislikes: Not a lot wrong with this place – good value and quality food, large car park, decent beer and wines. Service can be a bit slow.
Summary:
This is a great place to stop over when you travel via the M50 to go to South Wales.
The Inn/Hotel has a formal dining room and a lounge bar. I have never seen anyone eat in the restaurant during lunch time.
We had soup of the day (2X), sandwiches and homemade Thai fish cake.
Soup of the day was cream of carrot (£4.75). This was pronounced as very nice but the bread roll that came with it was too salty. The sandwiches – brown bread – home smoked ham (£5.75) and Welsh cheese with onion jam (£5.25) would thin rounds of sandwiches served with crisp and a small salad. The fillings were thick and a round would do very nicely for lunch.
The fish cakes were a bit strange. There were 4 identical pieces all shaped like a chocolate whirl. Two were full of fish (not 100%) and the other two had an abundance of potato in it – was this a mistake? The two that had enough fish in it were judged to be very good.
The Wye Valley (£3) bitter was as good a pint as you can get.
Including drinks (3 large glasses of wine) and a pint, the total cost came to just over £45.
E
I think we sell it here as an automatic soup maker – it is a blender that can heat up. A friend of a friend of mine has one. It does not do anymore than a blender and a saucepan.
E
Address: Unit 2, Wing Yip Business Centre, 395 Edgeware Road, London NW2 6LN
Telephone: 020 8452 2333
Website: N/A
Date of visit: 24 October 2011
Costs: Around £15 a head plus drinks
Wines and beer: Tsing Tao – £3.40 a bottle. Wines and sake available at reasonable markup.
Likes and dislikes: The bill comes as a total with being itemised. There is also no mention on the bill that service charge has been add
Opening hours: 11.00am – 11.00pm & days a week.
Last visit: 20 February 2010
Summary:
This is a huge on room restaurant on the corner of the Wing Yip business centre which also houses the north London branch of the Wing Yip supermarket. There are car parks – outdoor and underground – servicing the site.
Let’s start with the supermarket. This is one of the largest Chinese Supermarket chain in the UYK. They also have branches in Croydon, Birmingham and Manchester. Besides the usual sauces, dried spices and food, they also have a huge freezer section and fresh meat (bulk) and vegetable sections as well as a fresh fish counter including “live” lobster and crab tanks. Between the supermarket and the Restaurant, there is a Chinese Bakery and Cafe which also sells various types of cooked meats e.g., roast duck and Char sui.
The restaurant is a huge hall which would easily accommodate 200 diners plus. The tables are well spaced apart.
The menu is typically Cantonese with dim sum served during lunch time – served till 5pm. Service is efficient – the food arriving within 10 minutes after we ordered.
The dim sum menu offers a choice of 80 different items with over 60 types of savoury steamed and fried dumplings etc. There are also 10 different types of sweet dumplings or tarts. Prices start at £2.70 a portion
They also have set meals for 2, 3 or even larger groups as well as the a la carte. Specials on another printed menu include various types of tofu, fish belly and various combinations of roast meats – served warm. The a la carte dishes start at around £8, rising to over £30 for the abalone and Peking duck. Noodles and rice is around £8 a dish. Please note that this is essentially a Cantonese Restaurant but they do offer Peking and Crispy Duck as well as string beans with minced pork – all northern dishes.
We had the Yam croquet (very good), the char sui tart and char sui buns, char sui chung fun (cannelloni), the mixed meat platter, pea shoots with garlic, black bean chicken (bit too sweet), salt and pepper squid (top marks) and the sliced pork chow mein. The chow mein or noodles were poor, the base not crispy at all, the rest were all right. Including a few beers and coca cola, the bill came to just over £100 for 5. Not bad at all. The bill here is not itemised and service charge is not mentioned but it was added. So, make sure you have a feel for the costs of the meal.
The place was packed out on a Monday lunch time – half term ? Each table had at least 2 sittings or more.
The food here is average but it benefitted from the free parking outside and the supermarket next door.
E
Address: 8 Station Parade, Unbridge Road, Ealing Common, London W5 3LD
Directions: Opposite Ealing Common underground. Parking round the corner (Ramada Hotel)
Telephone: o2o 8992 2848
Website: www.kiraku.co.uk
Date of visit: 20 October 2011
Costs: Between £12-£20 for a set meal during lunch time
Wines and beer: Japanese beer from £3.30 a bottle. Wines and sake available.
Likes and dislikes: Functional but decent food.
Cuisine: Japanese
Note: Closed Mondays.
Summary:
I am afraid that Sushi Hiro on Station Parade has closed. For a sushi fix around this part of the world, you are now advised to go to Kiraku – a few doors down. Kiraku has been around for a few years and is now in The Good Food Guide.
The inside can only be described as functional – Formica table tops, unpadded chairs. Including seats at the sushi bar, the place can sit around 40.
When I went, there were quite a few Japanese taking lunch there – a good sign.
Lunch is all about set meals with various combinations served with extras such as salad, miso soup, fruit and a seaweed appetiser. All this for under £20!
I went with A – my daughter. She had the sushi set (£14.50). This was 6 pieces of thick fish on vinegar rice with 3 maki salmon rolls as well as the bits and pieces described above.
I had the sashimi and tempura set (£17.50). There were 2 large prawn tempura and several vegetable fritters. For sashimi, there were white fish, tuna and salmon (3 pieces of each type). The fish were of a very high quality and you also get a bowl of rice as well the seaweed, salad and fruit.
We had 2 bottles of Kirin – well, I had – and a pineapple juice. The total bill including service came to £47. Not cheap but not expensive for what you get – quantity and quality.
This place is not all about sushi and tempura. They do noodles, bento boxes etc. In some of the set meals, you can get both noodles and rice. Wow, not since Cardiff have I found half and half – in Cardiff , it is rice and chips in an Indian Restaurant.
E
PS Beware, the spoken English in this place is not too great. Check to make sure that they understood your order.
Address: 83 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HJ
Telephone: 020 7608 0851
Website: www.comptoirgascon.com
Date of visit: 19 October 2011
Costs: Around £20 for 2 courses. Set lunch: £14.50 for 2 courses
Wines and beer: Fairly decent short list but at 400%+ mark up.
Likes and dislikes: The food and service is great (note no veg unless you order as extraes) but can they please “tart” the place up, the unpolished wooden floor, bare walls , dark wood furniture make the place look like a rundown pub.
Cuisine: traditional French
Summary:
This is the sister outlet of Club Gascon – across the road. They both specialise in SE French Food. Unlike Club Gascon (one Michelin star) – white table cloths, smart black and white decor (see review on 6 March 2010) – this place looks really grotty. It is like something out of Dickensian era. The price of the food (not wines) is very reasonable.
The menu is short and has classic French dishes such as Cassoulet, steak frites and a set lunch.
My guest O went for Piggy Treats (£7) which turned out to be charcuterie on a wooden board, my other friend K went for the French Onion Soup (£4) which was not on the normal menu but was one of the starter offered in the set lunch. I went for the set lunch with a trotter rissole followed by Ongleat steak.
Whilst we were waiting, I asked for bread which turned out to campagne bread (half white and half wholemeal). They charge £1.50 for 4 slices.
The charcuterie was thinly sliced sausages and air dried ham. The onion soup was fully of melted cheese. My trotter rissole was chopped up trotter – like a semi-soft burger – inside a bread crumb casing. It was very good.
For mains, both O and K had the grilled lamb (£12.50). It came with a matchbox size piece of boulangerie potato. We were advised of this so we also ordered a portion of French fries (£3.50). The lamb looked all right, the chips were proper French fries and gets top marks.
My main course of ongleat steak turned out to be skirt steak – is there something lost in translation here? My mate Tong Hayworth – the master butcher at Vicars – told me that ongleat is actually the muscle wrapped round the bladder. It was pretty tasty and also came with a piece of boulangerie potato.
The bill including the 3×2 courses, 2 bottles of Badoit (£2.50)and a bottle of Minervoirs (Cabezac 2007, £31) came to just over £100 – very reasonable - but the Minervoirs would retail for £6.50 a bottle. With a massive mark up, VAT at 20% and an additional service charge of 12.5%, the price of wine in a restaurant is getting ridicules.
By the way unlike The Vineyard which is style over substance, this place is completely the reverse, no style but very good food and for its location – very cheap.
By the way Comptoir Gascon is also a deli, they sell jars of pate, beans, cassoulet , bread and cheeses and fresh foie gras!
E
PS Why is it trendy to serve on wooden boards or slates. Nearly everyone is doing it. Wooden boards can’t be washed in the dish washer so beware!