Here you'll find reviews of restaurants and pubs.
Everyone is encouraged to contribute their reviews. To submit yours please click here.
Where possible reviews have been tagged by location. To view a map index of reviews by location please click here.
Address: Main Street, Long Compton, Warwickshire, CV36 5JS
Directions: Just North of Chipping Norton on A3400
Telephone: 01608 684221
Website: www.redlion-longcompton.co.uk
Date of visit: 14 October 2011
Costs: Two course lunch £12.50, main courses £10-£20.
Wines and beer: Hook Norton @ £3 a pint, reasonable wine list (no year!) with Cissac coming in at £47. Several wines around £20 a bottle.
Likes and dislikes: best 2 course lunch I have eaten in 2011 – quality of cooking and price. Not sure about wine list without a year as for example, a young Cissac is very tannic but a 15 year old bottle is fantastic.
Cuisine: British, gastropub
Note: The pub closes at 2.30 on Mon-Thur and re-opens at 6.30 . The place is open all day Fri-Sun.
Summary:
Another coaching inn built in the 18th Century in the Cotswold with a large car park
The inside is bright and spacious with several dining areas and leather sofa in front of the bar. Very tastfully decorated – light walls, dark furnishing – no table cloths.
I was offered a long menu with everything from sandwiches to fish and chips.There was also a blackboard with today’s specials and a set lunch – 2 courses for £12.50, 3 courses for £15.50.
I settled for the 2 course set lunch and a pint of Hooky (£3). The Hooky was wonderful, fresh and full of flavour. This was a superb pint.
I started off with gravalax – three thick slices of salmon with a little green salad. The texture was right and it was not over “dilled”.
Next came ham eggs and chips. To start with, you get two eggs with runny yolk. The ham were thickly slices and not too salty. The chips were perfect.
This was the best (under £20) lunch I have eaten for a while.
E
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/dining/californias-olive-oils-challenge-europes.html?ref=dining
US olive oil and Australian olive oils are both pretty good. Get the pure stuff and not the ones that are infused.
E
October 2011
Cheese like great wines need proper maturing. Luckily, the best cheeses are still “European” in origin and we have several decent cheese shops and mail order outlets.
E
Oct 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/12/an-a-to-z-of-offal?intcmp=239
I love offal – tripe, brawn, black pudding, liver, kidneys, sweetbread etc.
E
October 2011
Address: Stockcross, Near Newbury RG20 8UJ
Telephone: 01635 528770
Website: www.the-vineyard.co.uk
Date of visit: 18 October 2011
Costs: From £30 a head for 2 courses. Tasting Menu (lunch) £49, dinner (£99)
Wines and beer: Various beers at £5 per bottle. Exceptional wine list from £20 To £thousands at a reasonable markup. Very good US wines
Likes and dislikes: excellent service and food at a premium. I did not like the fact that the wine waiter took a medium size glass of wine to taste before he offered the wine to us. Please, let me be the judge, as they charge enough, I don’t want to lose 50mls.
Cuisine: Modern French
Summary:
The Vineyard is owned by Sir Peter Michael who owns several vineyards on the west coast of California. He makes an exception Pinot Noir which is sold at $100 plus.
The Vineyard was taken over by him around a decade ago and is now a hotel/spa complex.
The lobby is very spacious and has an array of deep armchairs. The bar has a wall lined with some serious American Wines. I noticed that there was no Screaming Eagle.
For lunch, there is a short tasting menu (£49) or a selection from the a la carte.
N – my accountant – went for the tasting menu. I had to follow suit as they would not serve the tasting menu unless the whole table went for it. Whilst we were waiting for the table to be ready, we had a Blue Moon (£5) each. This was like a cloudy Anchor Steam Beer (Ale) – very pleasant.
The dining room is on two floors with a balcony overlooking a conservatory sitting area. We were in the conservatory.
First up was shredded carrots covered with a carrot foam. It was dressed in a French dressing. I thought that it was quite nice. Next came a scallop on top of a scallop mousse. The scallop mousse tasted of nothing – bit like an egg white mousse. The sauce that came with it was mild. The next course was a couple of curled up fish (sole) fillets with the compulsory foam etc. This one was quite tasty.
Next we had confit of lamb which was a solid lump of loin served medium. I am not sure that it worked as it was obviously confited at low temperature. Other than salmon, I don’t think that any meat can be cofited medium – the texture is wrong. Next came an Apricot soufflé with Apricot ice cream served as a bar with a chocolate top. The soufflé has raspberries in it and came hot.
Throughout the meal, we were served lovely bread – rosemary, campagne etc. We didn’t have coffee but was still offered the petit fours – chocolate tart, apricot jelly like a Turkish delight and a chocolate praline.
We had a bottle of 2007 Ch Kasara Cabinet Sauvignon (£47.50) with the meal. Ch Kasra is a Lebanese wine. I met the owner at The International Wines and Spirits Exhibition 2 years ago when he was trying to get an importer. Lebanese wines were very good vale but unfortunately, Ch Musar is now becoming very popular in the US and Asia. As a result it is nowselling at well over £20 a bottle. The wine list here has several 70s Ch Musar at over £300 a bottle. Last year I opened a vertical of late 70s, early 80s Ch Musar at a tasting and some of the wines were certainly over the peak. I hate to think what the 70s are like. Tanners were selling them at around £75 a bottle.
Overall, I thought that it was a good meal (just under £150 for two) but the new chef (Daniel Galmiche) is not as good as the previous chef who had two Michelin Stars. The presentation is as good as ever but the seasoning is not quite there. Although The 2012 Good Food Guide gave this place a higher mark (6) than The Vanilla Pod (5), I think that The Vanilla Pod (see October 6th 2011) is better for around the same amount of money.
E
PS I have just noticed that Michael Winner published an article on The Vineyard on Sunday 16 October in The Sunday Times with fairly similar views.
Address: 69 High Street, Cowbridge (A48), Vale of Glamorgan , CF71 7AF
Telephone: 01446 774645
Website: N/A
Date of visit: 15 October 2011
Costs: Just over £20 per head for 2 courses. Most starters £6.95, Most main courses £16.95
Wines and beer: Medium size wine list at the lower end of mark up. Some decent wines. Good value for a restaurant
Likes and dislikes: Excellent food and service. No criticism.
Cuisine: Modern Welsh
Summary:
Huddarts is operated by a husband and wife team in a terrace house near The Bear hotel in Cowbridge.
Cowbridge is a one main street town about 10 miles west of Cardiff.
The restaurant is very tastefully decorated, white table cloth and white washed wall. The tables are well spaced apart and it takes 40 covers.
The main menu is mainly modern British using prime Welsh ingredients sourced locally. On the night we went, they had laverbread (seaweed).
Two of us had laver bread £6.95). It was served a three duxulles chopped up with cockles and oat meal and a green salad. When I last had it, laver bread was fried with cockles and bacon. This version was firmer – almost like stuffing – and very tasty. My friend J, who has never had laver bread before,proclaimed that he liked it very much. The other two of my friends shared a boned quail (£6.950 which was proclaimed as very good.
For main course, two had the duck (£16.95), the other had the venison (£17.95) and I had the goat’s cheese (£12.95).
The goats cheese was chopped up with spinach, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried. It was served in a pool of raspberry and cream sauce. The duck was served pink and the skin of the breat was crispy. The venison was presented as a rich stew. Our main courses was served with a side dish (came as part of the meal) of two types of potatoes (perfectly round roast and fondant). There were cabbage, carrots and swede. Everything was cooked to perfection.
To wash the meal down we had a bottle of cava rose (£28.95) anda bottle of 2004 Italian (Aglicnico) – £28.95.
For dessert, the others shared a creation which was two slices of Welsh cake (biscuits) with raspberry and clotted cream.
It was a very satisfying meal – quality of the cooking, service and price. Excluding service it was £146 for 4 people. You will probably pay doubt that in London or the SE. No wonder this place is listed in the Michelin Guide and was listed in The Good Food Guide.
You must visit this place if you are in the area. The Bear Hotel is 10 yards away – rooms are a bit small but adequate.
E
October 2011
Address: 75 Maple Road, Surbiton KT6 4AG
Telephone: 020 8390 7222
Website: http://www.gordonbennetts.co.uk/
Date of visit: October 11 2011
Wines and beer: Usual larger on tap but they offer T.E.A. from Hogs Back. A brewery that I have never come across. Interesting wine list. Exceptional champagne list with Dom Perignon available at under £110 a bottle. Decent whisky list.
Costs: Around £10 for a good size main course. Panini with interesting fillings on offer during lunch at £4.95
Likes and dislikes: Don’t know what to make of it. Furniture is a bit on the rickety side, loo’s fine, food pretty much plain or grazing type at very good prices. Better than average list for wines and champagnes. I was disappointed with the bitter.
Cuisine: Standard “fashionable and modern” International Pub grub for this part of the world.
Summary:
My friend A has just moved in round the corner. He took me to this place for lunch when I visited him. This end of Maple Road is interesting. It has The French Table – a well established restaurant for this part of the world and scores 4 in The Good Food Guide. The French Table also operates a boulangerie et cafe next door. There is an Italian which only opens in the evening, A posh wine bar that offers comedy shows and 3 pubs. Locally parked cars are nearly all VWs or BMWs.
The only bitter on offer was T.E.A. (Traditional English Ale (£3.30) a pint. Apparently Hogs Back was awarded The 2006/7 Champion Winter Beer Award of Britain in 2006/7. I hate to say that, I didn’t think very much of TEA.
For lunch I had the gammon steak with chips and a fried egg, served with homemade tomato salsa. The gammon was the saltiest piece of gammon I have ever had. The chips were great – with skins on and the portion was on the generous side. A had the steak with chips and he enjoyed it. Nearby was a single dad with 2 young kids. The kids kept throwing their food onto the floor. He didn’t say anything. I think this is why certain restaurants ban young children.
I am not sure about this place but the local workers all ate Panini and that looked good.
E