Category Archives: restaurant review

When I visit a restaurant, I will make some comments about the place.

Edinburgh just before Christmas

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I am here again for another week.  Working for another client.  Started off badly.  Missed my flight from Luton, slight mishap on the flight time.  Paid 35 pounds and was on the next flight.  This was of course delayed because of the fog at Luton.  Arrived at client’s by 11:00.

Staying at the Radisson, so a nice walk to Lothian road where the office I work in is based.  Couple of routes there, around the base of the castle mound, or through Grassmarket and then past the strip clubs.

 Been eating at all my favourites this week.  Tapas at Barioja where I had sardines, masses of olives and various baked vegetables.

Then it was the Mussel and Steak bar for Calamari, followed by a 12oz rib-eye steak.  The steak was excellent.  I am so disappointed with steaks generally because of the way they are cooked.  I asked for rare and generally get medium.  Here I asked for rare, I got rare, it was trimmed, no waste and chewy bits on it.  It was beautifully rare.  I congratulated them on the steak.  So many rare steaks are cooked medium or even well done.

Then it was the hotel for their tapas menu.

Last night a treck down the hill to Mai Thai, where I had a mixed Thai starter, followed by their spicy duck,  Absolutely gorgeous.  The owner was very happy, they had been doing masses of business over this Christmas period.  He also asked me if I was keeping the blog going.

So if you are in Edinburgh, then I can really recommend those restaurants, the Mai Thai especially for informal Thai eating.

One restaurant that was not eaten at, was the Petit Paris.  For some reason or other, they have chosen this time of year for a complete renovation.

The fog and the cancelled heathrow flights is a worry.  All Thursday I kept a check on the flights.  At least Edinburgh has no problems.  Easyjet from Luton was flying all its flights, though the intended flight (1.30) was delayed by 3 hours on Thursday.  This though seemed to be a one-off.  Shall be watching the flights avidly today.  Let’s pray.

 

 

Edinburgh in the wind

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I have been in Edinburgh a couple of nights now. Flew here on Monday, quite a bumpy flight as we came in over the City. Despite the rain in the rest of the country, Edinburgh has been pretty sunny for the last couple of days.

First night I went to the Mai Thai hoping it was open.  It was undergoing renovations the previous time I went there.  Still closed, but people inside.  I went in and had a few beers with the owners and staff. The place was opening on Tuesday.  The had increased the seating in the bar, and moved the loos downstairs.  The extra space being used by the pool table.

Tuesday I managed to make the Petit Paris for their plat de jour.  It had been changed to offer both a starter, mains and coffee for under 10 pounds.  I started with pickled herring salad, and finished with navarin of lamb.

For those of you wondering where the spikey haired waitress has gone, well I can tell you. She is doing Yoga in India.

Five Arrows – Waddesdon

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Quick trip to Waddesdon Manor to see the Christmas decorations.  Usual good standard, but Steve was begining to find them a bit the same.  Rosemary liked them.

Tried to eat at the Manor, but the resturant was full, so went to the Five Arrows.  Very busy when we arrived, but we were found somewhere to eat.  We ate of the fixed price menu, £15.50 for two courses.  Not a great choice, and we both felt was not very good value for the price.

Steve started with a fillet beef salad with croutons.  Beef cooked very nicely.  The main course was venison bangers and mash.  The sausages where very strong venison flavour, while the mash was very creamy and flaovourless. 

Rosemary amazingly had a fish main course which had changed from the salmon on the menu and a starter of a vegetarian tart, which was more puff pastry than vegetable, but with a good pickle.  She was not overly impressed.

A meal in Edinburgh at Bar!oja

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After our lovely holiday in Guernsey it was back to work in Edinburgh for a couple of days. I decided to fly up on Sunday evening, and ate in the hotel bar. Some fish and a goats cheese salad.

This evening was a little bit more adventurous and went out and ate in a Tappas bar called Barioja (Bar!oja). I had four dishes, bread and olive oil, Sardines (Sardinas), mixed Spanish meats (Embutidos) and a mixed vegetables, tomato, courgettes etc cooked in olive oil (Escalivada).  All tasted very good, and was washed down with a large glass of Tinto.

Barioja, Edinburgh  The inside of Barioja, Edinburgh

Guernsey – Thursday

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Diverted by puss wanting a saucer of milk.  Walked from our hotel to St Pierre Park Hotel in the centre of the island for their three courses Tennerfest meal at £10.  Very good value, and very well presented, but spoilt by somewhat erratic service and waitresses whose first language obviously wasn’t English, Patois or French.  Coffee being served 10 minutes before the desert course was one example.

After lunch walked back to Vazon Bay via Cobo.  En route we passed by the Guernsey telephone museum.  As usual it was closed at this time or year.  As we were leaning over the gate, admiring a submarine cable with repeater, one of the volunteers who works there was entering and invited us in to view the exhibits.  We had visited before in 1993, and were very pleased and impressed by the amount of work which had been done to enhance the displays in the interim period.  We must of spent a good hour there, and had a very good explanation of the workings of the museum by the volunteer.  Ex-BT, he had worked in the Guernsey Telecoms industry since the 1960s.

Walked about 8 miles.

Guernsey – Wednesday

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Today was another late start; we were off to catch the 12.15 ferry to Herm. Unluckily for Rosemary, who had vetoed my recommended bus as far too late to catch the ferry; we arrived in St Peter Port with ample shopping time. A quick walk up the steps to Pollet Street, a few minutes in Jessops, and Steve was away with a 10-20mm Sigma lens. Back to quay and a cappuccino coffee for Rosemary. The day was sunny with some nice photogenic cumulus clouds, though a little chilly with the Northerly wind. Ferry to Herm, walk to shell beach for a fairly mediocre shell collection (but with a partial ormer), tide was high. We ate a picnic on the beach, provided by Messers Marks and Spencers, and a gentle walk back around the South end of the island. We were entertained by the antics of one of Her Majesty’s destroyers who seemed to be practicing turns and manoeuvres in the sea between Herm and Sark. Good view of the Barclay brothers castle. They apparently ship their staff in from Guernsey by helicopter, and send it out for bottles of olives when their supply falls short. Back at the harbour we caught the 4.35 ferry back to the Guernsey as the sun was setting. Some opportunities to use the new lens for some cloudscapes. Back in the flat a couple of G&Ts, and then supper of Cajun-ed left over chicken with salad.

Guernsey – Tuesday

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Late start, caught the bus into town with the intention of catching the ferry to Herm.  Alas, the winter timetable had kicked in a day early and the ferry we wanted did not exist.  The recommended day to visit is Wednesday, so we will attempt again tomorrow.

The Victoria Tower was open to visitors again, so picked up the key from the Guernsey museum.  Climbed the spiral stone steps and wooden stairs to the balcony and looked out over the island.  Good views to the north and east. 

After returning the key to the museum, we ate our sandwich and smoothie lunch in Candie Gardens, pretending it was warm & sunny.

Took a bus over to the Coach House Galleries where we viewed the paintings and ceramics and bought one piece for a Christmas present.  Walked down to the coast road for a bus back to the flat.

Tonight supper in the hotel, and a quiet and most boring set of people I have seen. I saw one and a half bottles of wine served between 4 tables; we had the one bottle. Didn’t start of well when I ordered a dry sherry for Rosemary, and was presented with a Harvey’s Bristol Cream.

The food we were served was all from the Tennerfest menu, but was by no means anywhere as good as the food from the Auberge.  All in all was rather a disappointment.

 

Guernsey – Monday

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Not very promising weather today, low cloud and very poor visibility, though some aircraft were landing and taking off.  We caught the bus to the top of the road which leads down to Petit Bot Bay.  When we reached the bay, we found a group of women were congregating for their Monday walk, dressed in shorts and tee shirts and talking of stripping off when the heat burnt through.  They invited Steve to join tem, but he chickened out.

We set off in the opposite direction  to the walking party and we went towards St Peter’s Port.  We walked along the cliff path in the cloud, the warm mists constantly swirling up the cliffs from the sea made the walk into a stroll through a Turkish bath.

Eventually made it to The Auberge restaurant on the Jerbourg road for luncheon.  Normally, there’s a fabulous view, but not today – even Castle Cornet eventually succumbs to the fog. But we were undaunted and started with a quick refreshing pint of lager while we ordered our meals.  I am afraid we went the whole hog and went for three courses with wine and coffee, though to keep costs down we chose from the tennerfest menu.  As we waited at our table, we sampled a snackrell of bread dipped into olive oil with tomato pesto, served cutely in a quirky plate.

Rosemary started with Crispy Aromatic Duck with a salad of salted cucumber plus honey roasted figs, baby spinach and spice plum and vanilla dressing, followed by fresh linguini with sautéed mushrooms, braised fennel, parsley and toasted pinenuts.  Steve chose the slow roasted cherry tomatoes in balsamic with basil, feta and olives, crispy parmesan, followed by grilled black bream, chorizo and coriander couscous salad, marinated carrot and courgette in lemon oil and tomato pesto.   Yummy.

The red wine we had to accompany the meal was, amazingly, from Telavi in Georgia. It is not often we see wines from Georgia.  Actually it was a good wine, and a lot better than what we had drunk when we visited that country.

The sweet course dishes were absolute works of art.  I took a picture of our sweets, and will publish them with this blog entry.  I ate, at the recommendation of the Latvian waitress, small, deep-fried doughnuts with a cappuccino flavoured mousse (served in an espresso cup), and a raspberry coulis dip (in shot glass).  Rosemary ate a spiced apple and pear crumble with special custard.  They sound over-ingrediented, but were again excellent.

After coffees and sweeties we caught the bus back to the flat, and vegged out for the rest of the day.

Guernsey – Saturday

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Off to Guernsey on holiday.  Left home at 6.00 am to catch the 8.20 from Southampton.  Uneventful flight, arrived, picked up our luggage and saw the number 7 bus we wanted leave promptly at its allotted 9.02 time.  So instead, we caught the 7A into town, and caught another 7A to Vazon Bay.

After dumping the luggage at La Grande Mare (our time-share since 1985!!), back into St Peter Port for a Tennerfest menu meal at one of our favourite’s, Da Nello’s.    R started with the bruschetta of grilled vegetables while I had raw tuna marinated in tomatoes, herbs and chilli flakes.  Good choices.  However, there were serious problems with ordering the main course.  I wanted the pork steak, and I believe R wanted the risotto.  R knew I was going to order the pork, so ordered the pork for herself; my rule is never to have the same as others on the table, so ordered the risotto.  We ended up eating what the other wanted.  R’s pork steak was lovely and juicy, the pork retaining a very slight pink colour.  The risotto was so very superior to any risotto I had in Italy on my last holiday.  We finished off with coffee and sweets.

Did a bit of shopping while we were in town, the market place is still being modernised and will be a long time before it is completely open.  The road on the north side had been pedestrianized, some old shops have re-opened.  Shockingly, a New Look and HMV have taken residence in the market hall.  Looked through HMV, but decided to support local trade and bought some DVDs, and CDs from No 19 –  a The Who compilation, Artic Monkies and a White Stripes album.  The DVDs were Oceans 12, Trainspotting and Outland.  The sales assistant said she couldn’t sell me the DVDs unless I could prove I was over 18. Ho, ho, ho.

To Safeways where R disgusted over lack of local produce and standard of vegetables and then back to the hotel to check in.  R sought out the local feline resident who has greeted us the past two years; he dutifully appeared but regarded our lack of milk as indecent and left.  Chilled out for the rest of the evening watching Oceans 12 on the laptop a good plot.

First two weeks at Brighton

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My second week in Brighton is over.  I have been down at a utility company installing a new version of e5, and migrating a test system to the new release.  The first week I was working with Ian Thomas, and stayed in the Preston Park hotel.  Preston Park is a small hotel on the A23, half way between Brighton centre and the A27.  The location is slightly inconvenient for the highlights of Brighton, car or taxi mandatory, but at least you could park at the hotel.

The second week I was on my own doing the upgrade.  Stayed in the Ramada Jarvis on the sea front.  Near the centre, but not a very nice hotel room, very small and no large king size bed to spread on, but the shower was new and good. Parking, what a rip off, 10 pounds a night!  If I parked on the sea front, it was a long walk back to the hotel.

First night I had a tandori mixed grill at an Indian restaurant (Nooris Limited) adjoining the Ship Inn.  Rosemary had recommended the restaurant; she had eaten there last summer when she accompanied me to a Cedar PSD event.  Alas, the quality must have gone down.  I was rather disappointed; probably I should have stuck with my old favourite of vindaloo.

Indian restaurant (Nooris Limited)

Tuesday, was feeling a little unwell, man flu, so went for a small meal at a Greek taverna (Steki’s) on the sea front.  Started off with baked feta with tomato slices, which alas had not been cooked long enough in the oven.  This was followed by pork souvlaki on pitta bread.

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Wednesday I visited the Regency fish restaurant on the front, started off with six oysters.  I bit worried about these, three seemed fresh and tasted of the essence of the sea, the other three were not so nice, and one tasted of salt water, so rather worried that those might be dead, and I would be puking in the morning.  This was followed by a Dover sole and chips, again not sure of the freshness of the fish.

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Thursday, my final night, I went to Preston Street, which runs north from the sea-front, and is full of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan and English restaurants.  Chose the Morocann, Cous Cous restaurant.  Nice atmosphere, you could eat at standard tables, or eat in another section where you sat on couches in a pseudo tent around round tables.  Here I ate lamb Cous Cous washed down with a few glasses of  red.  Very relaxing, and I enjoyed listening to the young women chatting.  When the slimmest one left, the comments that the others made!!  One said how her own body had a nicer figure, a better bottom.

The Cous Cous