Latest reviews by imagespace

The Chilli Pickle

imagespace — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:06:35 +0000

Rating: 4.5

Location: 42 Meeting House Lane, BN1 1HB, Brighton, United Kingdom

Phone: 01273 323824

Website: http://www.thechillipicklebistro.co.uk/

Tags: indian, family & home feel, good value

Indian with a differenceThis place recently opened in Brighton's famous Lanes. I popped in on Sunday and sampled their lunch menu, which is headed 'Street Food'. I have always loved street food from India so I was expecting a treat. We shared delicious Dal fritters, crispy onion and cabbage pakoras, an utthapam, some lovely, puffy pooris with a delicious potato dish in a creamy sauce. My other half also tried a salmon dish which she declared wonderful (I am vegetarian).

All the wonderful dishes mentioned above came with a wonderful selection of dips and sauces which were fantastic - a delightful sambar, a delicious rasam, an amazing mango dip and some coconut/coriander yoghurt. All faultless. This place is a very welcome addition to Brighton's eateries and definitely deserves a visit. I will be going back soon to try their dinner menu in the evening.

Highly recommended.

Tropical Curryland

imagespace — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:52:53 +0000

Rating: 4.0

Location: 37 Ditchling Road, BN1 4SB, Brighton, United Kingdom

Phone: 01273 682135

Tags: Indian Takeaway Value Tasty

Tasty Indian grubThis place claims to be the oldest Indian takeaway in Brighton. It's menu is as predictable as you would expect - all the same dishes as all the other Indian Takeaways, but their food is very tasty with excellent spicing and not too much grease. I have found that many of the other local Indian takeaways are either too bland, too greasy or just plain dull, but Tropical Curryland does it for me every time.

On top of that, they do home deliveries and are prompt and friendly. You can have a slap-up meal for two for about Â£15 and still have enough left over for a good lunch the next day :-)

Oki-Nami

imagespace — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:33:20 +0000

Rating: 3.3

Location: 6 New Road, BN1 1UF, Brighton, United Kingdom

Phone: 01273 773777

Website: http://www.okinami.com/

Tags: japanese, good value, vegetarian

Friendly and TastyRecently opened and I have already been there at least 6 times. I think that says it all. Really good quality, fresh, Japanese food served by friendly and charming staff. Upstairs is a lovely bar serving interesting cocktails with a Japanese twist. Good for vegetarians (especially when they haven't run out of tofu!) The bento boxes are good value, or just select a range of 'tapas' style dishes and mix and match. I particularly liked the tempura, the gyoza and the teriyaki tofu, but really it is all good.

Golden Hill

imagespace — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:43:37 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: 70 Main Street, CA12 5DX, Keswick, United Kingdom

Tags: chinese, good value

Reasonable eateryThe place was fairly quiet, but had a reasonable turnover of diners. The food was tasty, arrived quickly, but was fairly standard. All in all, nothing to complain about. We enjoyed our meal and would eat there again, but nothing to get excited about.

Lakeland Spice Cuisine

imagespace — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:37:16 +0000

Rating: 3.5

Location: 81 Main Street, CA12 5DT, Keswick, United Kingdom

Tags: Lively, Good value, Indian

A tasty jewel in KeswickWe didn't eat in, but ordered a takeaway. When I arrived to pick it up, the place was absolutely full. There were quite a few people waiting for tables to become free and several others collecting takeaways. The place is certainly popular. The food was excellent, tasty, well spiced and fresh. Compared with the Red Fort at the other end of town, this place was very good indeed. I'll be visiting again next time I'm in Keswick.

The Red Fort

imagespace — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:29:45 +0000

Rating: 2.0

Location: 5 St. John's Street, CA12 5AP, Keswick, United Kingdom

Tags: Indian

Like your curry bland?This was the second curry house I tried in Keswick and was sorely disappointed. The general quality was poor (badly cooked rice etc.), bland in flavour etc. I also made the mistake of ordering the house dry white wine, which came in a carafe (from a wine box) and was very poor also. The other Indian I tried was Lakeland Spice at the other end of town - a much better prospect all round.

The Dog & Gun

imagespace — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:19:55 +0000

Rating: 4.0

Location: 2 Lake Road, CA12 5BT, Keswick, United Kingdom

Tags: pub, keswick, excellent pub food, traditional pub, real ale

Best pub in Keswick?This is a lovely pub and has always been my personal favourite when in Keswick. It's quite small compared to most of the other pubs but it's worth a little bit of a squeeze every now and then. The range of ales is great with a good selection from the local Keswick brewery, only a few hundred yards away. It is dog friendly and has reasonably good pub grub. Great atmosphere, great beer and good food.

The Loose Box

imagespace — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:14:47 +0000

Rating: 1.0

Location: Main Street, CA12 5BN, Keswick, United Kingdom

Tags: italian, awfuul, pizza

Possibly the worst pizza in the worldI've had some weird and wonderful things served up as pizza in my time, including a very strange, but tasty Balinese pizza served on a shortcrust pastry base. But I have never experienced anything quite so bad as this. The pizza had loads of junk on it that was not listed on the menu, sweetcorn and courgette for a start. The cheese had the weirdest consistency I have ever known and tasted of nothing, the base was dull and burnt around the edges, even though the topping was still quite cold and uncooked. Basically, the worst pizza I have ever tasted - left most of it as I couldn't bear another bite. Avoid like the plague.

Casa Bella

imagespace — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:07:42 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: 24 Station Street, CA12 5HF, Keswick, United Kingdom

Tags: italian, Dated, dull

A piece of historyThis is one of those Italian restaurants that seem to exist in a time warp, with a feel that harks back to the 60's/70's. The quality of the food is possibly the worse thing about it though - lacklustre meals with little or no flavour and a lack of seemingly fresh ingredients. It's hard to get Italian wrong and it always amazes me that so many do. I've had worse but recommend you avoid this place.

Fanny's of Hanover

imagespace — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:35:51 +0000

Rating: 5.0

Location: 135 Islingword Road, BN2 9SH, Brighton, United Kingdom

Tags: local, Quality food, delicatessen

A great new Shop/DeliUntil recently, this was a fishing tackle/Bait shop. It has recently reopened as a shop/deli and is stocked with wonderful gourmet foods from local suppliers. If you live anywhere near the Hanover area this place could be very useful - they stock bread from the Real Patisserie, foods from infinity foods and loads of great cheeses, sausages, olives fruit an veg etc. - nearly all from local Sussex sources. They have organic milk and eggs, pastas, sauces, do filled baguettes, and are awash with great little jars containing relishes, pickles, dressings - you name it.

Support your local shop - it's important!

Riad Dar el Tayib

imagespace — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:18:22 +0000

Rating: 4.0

Location: Kaat Bennahid, 19 Derb Lalla Azzouna, Medina, Marrakech, Morocco

Tags: Great location, Riad, Peaceful, Good value

An oasis of calm amongst the mayhemIf you want to stay in a Riad (a traditional Moroccan house which faces inwards towards a central courtyard) in Marrakech, there is, these days, simply too much choice. There are hundreds of them, all with their own websites etc. and it is very hard to choose. I found it quite hard to find recommendations, so I am putting one here. Dar el Tayib is owned by Frenchman Vincent and his partner Latifa, who is Moroccan. They made us very welcome for our weeks stay and their house is lovely. This falls into the medium price range and all the rooms are different prices. Having said that, there are only about 5 rooms. We stayed in the roon called Yasmina and it was delightful. The bath was absolutely huge. They will cook for you in the evening if you wish and you can get wine, beer etc. (which is hard to get outside in the Medina).

The house is beautiful, calm, tranquil and peaceful - something you appreciate when you arrive back through the donkey/moped/bicycle/people filled streets of the Medina and its Souks. It's like stepping through a portal into another time/space. It has a lovely roof terrace which is a nice place to sit and read, or watch the sunset.

One thing is the proximity to mosques, but this applies to houses anywhere in the Medina. At sunrise all the loudspeakers are fired up and the call to prayer begins. It woke me the first couple of nights but after that, I slept through it. A wonderful Riad and I would recommend it. The owners and staff are lovely and I would definitely go back.

La Terasses de l'Alhambra

imagespace — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:29:29 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: Place Jemaa el Fna, Medina, Marrakech, Morocco

Tags: Italian, vegetarian friendly, pasta, cheap eat, Views, pizza, lively, cheap

Pizza and cats in MoroccoAnother good option for vegetarians in Morooco is to look for places serving Italian food, and this is one. It also happens to be on the Place Jemaa el Fna and is on three floors. The ground level is for drinks and ice-creams, a speciality of the place and very nice they are too. The first floor is for eating and they serve unspectacular, but reasonable pasta and pizza dishes at very reasonable prices. The third floor is also for drinks, but this means non-alcoholic only. They do serve non-alcoholic beer if you are really desperate. One other thing - when you are eating, there is likely to be a commotion under the tables and between your legs as the place seems very popular with cats :-) The picture is of Jemaa el Fna at night, taken from the first floor.

Chez Chegrouni

imagespace — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:13:08 +0000

Rating: 3.0

Location: Place Jemaa el Fna, Medina, Marrakech, Morocco

Tags: moroccan, vegetarian friendly, couscous, tagines, african & caribbean, cheap eat, Views, lively, cheap

Chaos, thrills and cheap foodAs a vegetarian I was worried about getting anything to eat in Marrakech. This is the sort of place I wouldn't dream of going to eat at home but here it's great! This place, allegedly, doesn't use meat stock for it's vegetable dishes (mainly tagines and couscous, but also omelettes) but most other places definitely do. The food is simple but tasty, gets delivered with breads that you don't get charged for; it's very cheap, and looks out onto the liveliest, craziest square in the world - snake charmers, storytellers, musicians, tumblers etc. etc.

Wagamama

imagespace — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:36:26 +0000

Rating: 4.3

Location: The Argus Building, 30 Kensington Street, BN1 4AJ, Brighton, United Kingdom

If you like noodles, you'll like Wagamama and they are opening more branches all the time. The dishes are mainly noodles, but they also do some rice dishes and all sorts of side plates - the steamed Edamame (soy beans) are delicious. Good, tasty food and not too expensive. Not everyone likes the long refectory style tables but that doesn't bother me. Also, the actual address of the one I use in brighton is: the argus building, 30 kensington street, off north road, brighton, BN1 4AJ

Three Jolly Butchers

imagespace — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:27:01 +0000

Rating: 2.7

Location: 59 North Road, BN1 1YD, Brighton, United Kingdom

Phone: 01273 608571

A small but nice pub that never seems to get too crowded. Food is good and reasonably priced. Close to the centre of town but enough out of the way to be not commonly known.