• Added: 8th of August 2008
• Area: Chipping Norton
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Chipping Norton OX7 6BA

Sarah_W said
Surrounded by history
This oddly named hotel has a pub to the rear where we had a very pleasant lunch. Parts of the hotel building date back to 1384 and it was run at one time by the monks of nearby Bruern Abbey. Bruen was a Cistercian abbey founded in the reign of King Stephen and dissolved in 1539 - nothing now remains of the abbey itself.

We entered through a large arch into a passage that would I think have been used in the past by horses and carriages. A glimpse into the room on our left (the hotel’s reception) showed us a wealth of fascinating historical features, while propped in the passageway was what looked like the original door, now replaced rather effectively by modern glass. Beyond was a pretty courtyard garden and beyond that, the pub. This was a fairly simple affair, but with a good menu offering both lighter meals and more substantial ones.

Chris and Ingrid both chose the lamb koftas which came with naan bread and a yoghurt and mint dip. I had a sandwich of roasted peppers and pesto on ciabatta bread. Ingrid and I sampled two of the local real ales but Chris, our driver for the day, stuck to water. The bill for the food was about £17 for all three of us – I don’t remember how much we paid for the drinks but it seemed to be standard pub prices, not inflated hotel ones. We ate our meal out in the garden, next to the pool with its fountain and colourful goldfish – a lovely break on our sightseeing tour.

• Added: 7th of August 2008
• Area: Bloomsbury
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London WC1N 3AR
020 7837 5627

Sarah_W said
Good Bloomsbury pub
This is one of my favourite little London pubs. It's in a great location on the western side of Queen Square, one of the less visited parts of Bloomsbury. With outside seating on the square and on pedestrianised Cosmo Place, it's a good choice if you want to sit outside without being smothered in traffic fumes. But sitting inside is an equal pleasure, as the bar area is cosy and quite attractive - although my friend with the clown phobia squirms whenever we come here, as a cheerful row of them sit above the bar! Other decorative touches include a number of theatre posters.

Its small size can mean finding a table on a week day evening a challenge, but a flight of rather steep stairs in the corner takes you to an upstairs room, with a quaintly rickety floor, which is often quiet and sometimes deserted. We've had several post-work gatherings here, with windows open overlooking the square, our choice of viewing on the TV (football for preference) and the beer and conversation flowing in equal measure. Talking of beer, there are always several real ales (among them on a recent visit I spotted Greene King IPA) and a good selection of draught lagers, but I usually favour the Leffe Blond or a glass of wine, which is of a reasonable quality here.

This isn't a fancy pub, by any means, but it's comfortable and welcoming and after all, what more do you need?

• Added: 7th of August 2008
• Area: Soho
• Category: Restaurants

London W1D 4RG
020 7437 0723

Sarah_W said
A bit disappointing - but cheap!
Looking for a pre-theatre dinner in Soho recently, we stumbled upon this little place and were attracted by the simplicity and competitive price of its set menu. A friendly welcome and a table by the open window on this warm evening seemed a promising start, and all three of us found something to tempt us on the somewhat limited menu. I have to say however that we found it a bit disappointing, certainly compared to other reviewers here - maybe we were just unlucky, or maybe they don't try so hard with their set menu, although I often find the opposite to be true.

The goats cheese salad that Chris and I had chosen wasn't a great start. The cheese was very thinly scattered, and there was no sign of the promised avocado, although this was partly compensated for by plenty of tasty olives. Ingrid enjoyed her chicken terrine but wasn't excited by it. I was the winner though when it came to main courses, as my salmon was nicely cooked and presented on a small mound of good pesto mash. Ingrid and Chris had both chosen the linguine in a tomato sauce, and this was somewhat overcooked - indeed, it was likened by Chris to tinned spaghetti!

On the plus side, the meal was very cheap for central London at £8.95 a head for two courses, and the friendly and efficient service ensured we made it to the theatre with plenty of time to spare.

• Added: 25th of July 2008
• Area: Bloomsbury
• Category: Restaurants

London WC1B3QJ
020 7637 4555

Sarah_W said
Middle Eastern delight
One of a small chain, Tas is very good at satisfying mixed tastes within a group, especially if vegetarians are among them. As soon as you sit down you’re given baskets of good crusty bread, olives and a slightly spicy yoghurt based dip. You can then choose from the a la carte menu, or do as we did on a recent visit and go for the group one. This consists of a selection of meze served for the whole table, followed by a main course each chosen from a list of about ten. The meze are all suitable for vegetarians, and include hummus (my favourite), an aubergine and tomato salad, broad beans with sour cream, tabouleh, falafel and borek (another of my favourites, a filo pastry filled with feta cheese). The main course selection also includes several vegetarian dishes such as stuffed aubergines or spinach with potatoes. My own choice on this visit was tavuk guvech, a dish of chicken cooked with ginger, mushrooms, onion and tomato. This was moist and full of flavour, though the ginger could have come through more strongly for my taste. It was accompanied by good basmati rice. Other dishes sampled by our group, and tasted by all, included a very generous portion of mousakka and the Tas special, lamb cooked with potatoes, onion and oregano. The latter was perhaps a little salty, but generally the dishes were well-received.

The service was friendly and the crusty bread kept coming. We had no room for dessert but the fresh peppermint tea made a good end to the meal. The bill was a very reasonable £25 per person, which included a bottle of house white wine and some yoghurt drinks as well as all the food and teas, and service. The group menu itself costs £15.95 for the meze, main course and the various extras such as bread, olives and rice – excellent value for central London.

• Added: 25th of July 2008
• Area: Leicester Square
• Category: Restaurants

London WC2H 7AF
020 7930 7587

Sarah_W said
Fresh food, fast!
Another of London’s more popular chains, Wagamama scores with fast friendly service and good value. The restaurants are modelled on the ramen bars popular in Japan for many years. You eat communally, sat at long wooden tables and benches, although there are a few more cosy corners which, if you come as a couple, you MAY be lucky enough to grab (don’t count on this though).

The menu consists of side dishes and main meals (no starters), plus desserts. Your order for the first courses will be marked up on the paper table mat, and also taken on an electronic handheld device and zapped through to the kitchen by radio signal where it is cooked immediately. All dishes are delivered to the table as soon as they are ready, so you need to be happy to eat whatever comes whenever it comes!

On a recent visit with friends I chose a side of ebi gyoza: deep-fried dumplings filled with chopped black tiger prawns, water chestnut and spinach, and served with a spicy citrus ponzu sauce. These were absolutely delicious, but I managed to sacrifice one to trade with a friend and sample her almost as tasty duck gyoza, served with a spicy cherry hoi sin sauce. My main dish was chicken kare lomen: a spicy soup made from lemongrass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, red chillies, fresh ginger and galangal, and served with ramen noodles and garnished with a marinated and grilled chicken breast, beansprouts, cucumber, fresh coriander and a wedge of lime. This was also delicious, but came in too large a portion. Despite that, I managed to squeeze in a dessert of tamarind and chilli pavlova – sounds odd, but was REALLY good! The white chocolate and ginger cheesecake went down well with one of my friends too, by the way. My very filling meal, with a fresh juice to start with and a large glass of white wine, cost in the region of £20 – very reasonable indeed for central London.

• Added: 25th of July 2008
• Area: Islington
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London EC1R 4QL
020 7837 8077

Sarah_W said
Table football heaven
Café Kick bills itself as a continental-style table-football café, and that seems fair enough! It presents an eclectic, almost jumbled appearance, with old wooden furniture, several table football tables and walls adorned with football cuttings and memorabilia from all over Europe. You can get light, Spanish-influenced meals such as salads, sandwiches and tapas, and a wide range of beers. We’ve never eaten here, but have found to a great place to stop for a beer while strolling Exmouth Market, a characterful street in Clerkenwell. On a recent sunny afternoon we sat outside watching the world go by and I enjoyed the first Brahma beer I’ve had since our trip to Brazil eight years ago.

The table football is taken pretty seriously here, it seems, though no games were in progress when we visited (perhaps because it was the middle of a working Monday afternoon). The tables are original French Bonzini tables with beech wood, cast iron figurines and the proper World Cup cork balls. If you want to play you’ll need to buy a token from the bar at 80p per game.

• Added: 25th of July 2008
• Area: Covent Garden
• Category: Restaurants

London WC2H 9LJ
020 7813 2233

Sarah_W said
A touch of Belgium in London
This is a chain of Belgian restaurants with several locations in London, the original and best known being in Covent Garden, Belgo Centraal. This is in a basement; a noisy place, full of bustle, with wait staff dressed in monks’ habits (a nod to the monastic origins of many Belgian beers) and lots of large parties in the main hall which has a beer cellar vibe. The restaurant is a little more peaceful, and better-suited to smaller groups, but don’t believe the website which describes it as “intimate” – this is NOT the place to bring a date! The food though is excellent, with moules being the favourite, though by no means the only, choice. These come in a variety of flavours, including the very un-Belgian but delicious Thai. Wash your meal down with one (or more likely several!) of the many beers on offer (I counted 70 on the menu). For non-beer drinkers there is wine available by the glass or bottle, but this really is a beer-lover’s destination.

On a recent visit I shared a platter of charcuterie and tasty rye bread with a friend, and followed this with the pan-fried fillet of cod with spinach mash and raspberry beer, port and shallot sauce. The fish was beautifully cooked and the sauce delicious, but the potato let down by being not quite hot enough. I also had a side of red cabbage braised with raspberry beer, which was REALLY good! With a couple of different beers, coffee after and service, I paid about £30 – not bad for central London.

The other branch that I’ve visited is the Bierodrome Kingsway, an altogether more relaxed and quieter venue, with a welcoming bar in the front part of the building and a small restaurant area behind. There are slightly fewer beers on offer, but still more than enough to see you through an evening’s drinking, and the menu is the same as at Belgo Central.

• Added: 16th of July 2008
• Area: Corfe Castle
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Corfe Castle BH20 5ED
01929 480206

Sarah_W said
Pretty ordinary
On our first evening in Corfe we wandered into one or two pubs, before settling on the Bankes Inn as the place for dinner, based on its reasonably varied menu and a pleasant space in which to sit. What we got here was, perhaps not surprisingly, fairly typical pub fare, with a few nice items and the rest fairly ordinary but acceptable. So, my starter of crab and avocado tian was light and fresh-tasting, but I was a little disappointed with the rather tasteless baked cod that followed it, though the blue cheese dauphinoise potatoes that accompanied it were more successful, as were the courgettes (cooked just right, rather than to a pulp!). Chris’s “chicken liver parfait” appeared to be shop-bought paté, albeit quite an tasty one, and his trio of assorted sausages all tasted pretty similar, but pleasantly so, while the accompanying mash was good, as was the gravy. We washed these down with the local brewery’s special, and paid £39 for the food bill – not expensive, but not great value, and my main course in particular, at £14.95, seemed dear for what I got. Personally I felt we had better value the next evening, at Mortons House, when we paid twice as much but got probably four times the pleasure!

The pub itself is a beautiful old building on the east side of the village square, dating from 1549. I liked the huge old fireplace and can imagine that it would be particularly cosy in wet or cold weather. But the décor is dull and more old and old-fashioned than it needs to be, even respecting the age of the building itself.

• Added: 16th of July 2008
• Area: Corfe Castle
• Category: Restaurants

Corfe Castle BH20 5EE
01929 480988

Sarah_W said
A special evening out
From what we saw, the pubs in Corfe offer pretty standard pub fare, so for a treat on our second evening we booked a table at this well-reviewed hotel, and what a treat it proved to be! From our arrival and pre-dinner drinks in the lounge, to our after-dinner drinks in the same place, the whole evening was a real pleasure. Staff were attentive, bordering on over-the-top, but their friendly manner just won out over their formal French training. The setting, in this beautiful 16th century Elizabethan manor house, was picture-perfect. And the food was absolutely excellent. Of course all this came at a price, and the final bill was high compared with what we’d have paid anywhere else in the village, but to us, used to London prices, seemed reasonable value for what we got.

When we were shown to our table we were offered the chef’s amuse bouche, a small cup of white onion soup drizzled with chorizo oil – delicious! With this and our starters we had home-baked bread flavoured with tarragon (we could also have had black olive and rosemary, or small brown rolls).

As a starter I chose the fennel and watercress risotto with a small red mullet fillet, which was really delectable. Chris had a goats cheese and shallot tartlet, which was equally successful. My main course was roast guinea fowl, served with savoy cabbage, lentil puree and confit potato. Again this was excellent, though if I may be allowed a very small criticism, I would have liked more of the wonderful lentil puree and would happily have traded some of the very generous portion of meat. Chris enjoyed a rather odd but successful dish which included curried potatoes and a deep-fried egg (sounds weird but apparently it worked!) He followed this with a selection from the very comprehensive cheese trolley, which he’d been eyeing ever since we first arrived in the restaurant. I tasted a couple of these too, and as strong, smelly cheese lovers we were both enthralled! My own dessert was wonderful – a “carpaccio of pineapple and basil, with a lime and kaffir leaf sorbet”. This was stylishly presented, and managed to look and taste decadent while actually being pretty light. In fact, the whole meal was generous without being too filling, and we squeezed in a coffee and a couple of petit fours each, before retiring to the beautiful wood-panelled bar for a digestif to round off an excellent evening.

This much pleasure didn’t come cheap, needless to say. We paid £79 for two for the food, and managed to spend an additional £50 on wine, water and bar drinks before and after the meal. In my view we got reasonable value for that however, as the food really was excellent and the whole evening a real pleasure from start to finish.

• Added: 16th of July 2008
• Area: Birmingham
• Category: Restaurants

Birmingham B1 2HS
0121 248 3226

Sarah_W said
Delicious food at great prices
I recently met two friends for dinner in Birmingham, and on the recommendation of one of them we booked a table at this Spanish restaurant in the Ikon Gallery. It calls itself a cafe, which reflects the ambiance to some extent, and the prices for sure, but not the food, which is of a good restaurant standard.

We started with a basket of wonderful rosemary scented bread and good quality olive oil for dipping. We then chose a selection of "raciones" to share - similar to tapas but in larger portions and some of them at least a bit more substantial. Our selection included two fish dishes - salt and pepper squid (my personal favourite) and monkfish in a delicious white wine sauce. We also had two meat dishes - meatballs and some beautifully cooked lamb cutlets (and, a nice touch: we asked what a portion of the latter consisted of, and were told two, which would have been hard to split between us, but the waiter persuaded the chef to add a third to the plate for us!) Finally, we added two vegetable dishes - green beans (the one dish that let them down, being a little over-cooked for my liking) and wild mushrooms.

We resisted the lure of the dessert menu but got through two bottles of good red wine (I don't remember which, so I must have drunk my fair share). The bill came to just £62 for the three of us, with service - excellent value, especially given the quality of the food.

I wouldn't come here for a romantic tete a tete, but for any other occasion its excellent location, tasty food and great value for money make it unbeatable!

By the way, do book a table - we were here on a Wednesday evening and the place was full by 7.00 PM.