• Added: 22nd of March 2008
• Area: Newcastle Upon Tyne
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 2PQ

secondexpress said
Top Bar, Top Venue
It's been said already, but the Cluny is great. It's so tucked away that you could almost imagine it was your own little secret, were it not for the many loyal fans it has.

Great food & great drinks, and great prices too. Great music as well. Small enough to be intimate, not too small to feel like a dead end.

• Added: 22nd of March 2008
• Area: Barton
• Category: Restaurants

Preston PR3 5AA
01772 866135

secondexpress said
Relaxed surroundings and great food
A few miles north of Preston along the A6, you'll find the Walled Garden right next door to the Barton Grange Hotel. Originally there was a famous garden centre here, but that's now moved a few miles up the road to Brock.

The Walled Garden restaurant is named after a walled garden which was originally on this site about 100 years ago. The new Walled Garden is a welcome replacement. It's a full waitress service restaurant, open 10am to 10pm.

Food wise, it's mainly what you would expect to find on a typical pub menu, with some more adventurous twists. There's also a good range of teas and coffees on offer. Today I went for a mozzarella, tomato & pesto wrap with rustic fries. The wrap's fillings were a bit on the chilly side, but the fries were excellent. Presentation of the food was spot on, and service was excellent. I then followed with a lovely, if not spectacular, apple pie and custard. From a friend's visit, I hear also heartily recommend the Lancashire Hotpot.

In the Walled Garden, you have the choice of dining at table, or in a more relaxed lounge area. Staff were attentive, but not overly so. However, I've heard that at busy times the service can be a bit on the slow side, and some of the portions are a bit smaller than one might expect too. That said, overall value for money is excellent and the atmosphere and surroundings are lovely.

• Added: 13th of January 2008
• Area: Wigan
• Category: Restaurants

Wigan WN6 0EQ

secondexpress said
Perfection
How can I count the ways I love Ashfield House?

- The fact that it's so tucked away in a residential area that you can imagine nobody else knows about it?

- The truly AMAZING food?

- The fact that my sister loves it so much she decided to have her wedding reception here?

I could go on, but to put it bluntly, Ashfield House is probably my favourite place to eat bar none. My family has been coming here for years, and long may that tradition continue.

The place itself is set in a grand old house, tucked away out of sight. We usually go for Sunday lunch, where the set menu is a ridiculously cheap £16 per head (or thereabouts). On my last visit, this got me possibly the finest black pudding I've ever tasted to start, followed by a creamy and wonderful vegetable risotto rounded off by a carrot cake far better than any I've ever tasted. My companions opted for melon and soup respectively, followed by pork and roast beef. We shared a bottle of Bottle Tree, a fantastic red Australian Shiraz which they have in the cellar but isn't listed on the wine list.

Ashfield House is a smart place - people do dress smartly to come here - but it's not pretentious, and the prices don't limit its appeal to a particular strata of society. The place is always busy, and booking ahead is essential (sometimes many weeks in advance).

The only downside I would say is that the bar is on the small side, so when it's busy you may be stuck without a place to sit whilst waiting for your meal.

• Added: 18th of December 2007
• Area: Manchester
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Manchester M1 3HE
0161 236 9003

secondexpress said
Cool location and great value food
A bitterly cold winter's day in Manchester, I stumbled through the door of Velvet looking for somewhere warm that served food.

The interior is what you'd expect from the name - rather plush, although not overwhelmingly so. The staircase is great - you walk across a glass topped fish tank! We were immediately greeted by a very friendly and helpful waiter.

Food was good value, tasty and exceedingly generous portion sizes - I had possibly the largest club sandwich (and one of the best!) of my life, along with a mountain of fries and an excellent salad, and it only cost just over a fiver!

Despite being tucked away in a basement, on this winter day the place was doing a steady trade with an assortment of people from all age groups - no doubt the place's reputation precedes it.

• Added: 6th of December 2007
• Area: Covent Garden
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London WC1A 1EP
020 7691 4244

secondexpress said
Great intimate music venue
I took a trip down to London specially to see Jay Brannan perform his first UK gig at the Fly. The gig was amazing, but since this review is really about the venue...

The place itself is really centrally located, and consists of a smallish but nice bar on the ground floor, and the main venue downstairs in the basement. This is also fairly small, with a seating area towards the back and a small stage on the other side.

The Fly is dark (pretty much everything is black) but pretty cool - for someone approaching 30 I also felt a little bit above the average age of the clientele. For a northerner the drinks were expensive (£3.25 a pint) but hey - it is London after all.

If the Fly were just a bar, it would probably just get 3 stars. But that's not what the Fly is about - it's about the music, about going downstairs and seeing artists perform so close that you can shake their hands. The venue is terrificly intimate - so much so that you can overlook the poor air conditioning or the badly place pillar that blocks the view for a portion of the room.

It's small, intimate and hip. For a drink, give it a miss. For a gig, don't miss it.

• Added: 5th of December 2007
• Area: Durham
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

Durham DH1 3RD

secondexpress said
Easily missed coffee shop
Treats is tucked away upstairs above Body Shop in Silver Street. I think I lived in Durham for 4 years before I found it. Today's visit was the first in probably another 4 years.
Don't get your expectations too high. This is not a trendy coffee shop. They do basic food (toasties, jacket potatoes) and some pretty impressive cakes. But it's not gourmet stuff... side salad consists of a slice of tomato and a slice of lettuce.
Sadly on the day I visited, although it wasn't very busy there were very few tables that had been cleared since they had been vacated.
Treats is a bit of a mixed bag. It's good for the basics, and if you don't expect much more then that's fine. But in this world of Costa and Nero on every street corner, it feels a bit lacking. That may explain why the average age of the customers is significantly higher than you'd expect elsewhere - which is a surprise given the number of steps you need to climb!

• Added: 2nd of December 2007
• Area: Liverpool
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

Liverpool L1 4HF

secondexpress said
Authentic Italian
On a rainy day in Liverpool, stumbling into the Italian Club was a really good stroke of luck. The interior is warm, clean and inviting and the staff are genuinely friendly and welcoming.
The place has a truly authentic Italian vibe, with some excellent authentic foods. I went for a panini with salami, goat's cheese, pesto and aubergine. It was hot and tasty, and served on a really lovely block of wood! Tea came in glass mugs - a trivial but nice touch.
The thing that really makes the place stand out though is the authenticity. This isn't some mock Italian cafe, it's the real deal.

• Added: 25th of November 2007
• Area: Prague
• Category: Bars and Pubs

Prague Praha 1

secondexpress said
Friendly gar bar
Friends can easily be missed - it's only got a tiny sign over the door, and is down a long set of dark steps. Don't be put off by the exterior though - inside is a very cosy, friendly and cool gay bar.

The underground location makes it feel quite exclusive, but the friendly atmosphere makes you feel right at home. There's also clearly a sense of humour at work - they were projecting episodes of "Willow The Wisp" onto the wall when I was there.

All ages seem to be present, and both men and women too. Overall it's a really nice mix of people you get in Friends.

• Added: 25th of November 2007
• Area: Prague
• Category: Restaurants

Prague

secondexpress said
Friendly atmosphere and great Czech food
We found Kolkovna on a rainy night by accident, and it was a huge stroke of luck.

The place was warm and inviting with friendly staff who went out of their way to help us. The food was superb (Moravian Sparrow comes highly recommended) and an excellent introduction to Czech cuisine.

Despite the enormous, tasty and hugely satisfying meals the place was stupendously cheap. Definitely earmarked for a repeat visit.

• Added: 25th of November 2007
• Area: Newcastle Upon Tyne
• Category: Restaurants

Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 3JF
0191 261 1037

secondexpress said
Great vegetarian food in an amazing building
My first visit to Bob Trollop was with some trepidation because the building looks ready to fall down at any moment. But upon entering you find yourself not in a pub, but in a cobbled street - the pub comprises the various rooms coming off this street!

The interior is warm and cosy, if a little haphazard in its layout. Bob Trollop's has you would expect from a traditional pub, but the food is something special. The entire menu is vegetarian, and great tasting to boot. Considering that the whole menu contains no meat whatsoever, the variety on offer means it would be hard to not find something you want. We're talking pub grub, rather than gourmet food but it's all tasty and wholesome and cheap to boot. The pub has won awards for its vegetarian menu, and rightly so.

You could walk past Bob Trollop and turn your nose up at the old interior, but get past that front door and it's a really pleasant surprise.