The Lansdowne Hotel

Modern Contemporary food, unfortunately for me it has now turned into a sports bar, F-in-L didn't complain though.... Although he did grumble about the crazy music being too loud... you can't win them all!

Blossoms

19th August

Me and Jo for lunch.

Eat as much as you like....loads of starters is the way we like to do it!

Aromatic duck, pancakes etc...

All freshly cooked to order is the best way to do 'all you can eat'

Great atmosphere, relaxed and food cooked to order...we love it!

Staff friendly, dining room big enough to allow privacy without loosing the atmosphere!

Pig in the City

23rd August

homemade faggot, chips and peas

galic chicken, jacket pot and side salad

Only complaint, the bottles on the table were of heinz mayo but the pack i got was a cheap version!!!

Dead old fashioned pub, great atmos, sticky floors, friendly staff... loved it!

Rogan in Cartmel


Party of 16 in for dinner, pre booked, pre ordered and pre pre pretty pricey for what we got AND they sat us near the kitchen door which would have been fine if the staff hadn't kept kicking the door as they went in with there arms full of dirty plates!!!
The company I was in totally made up for it tho, what a great bunch of people. Oh yeah the bottle of Merlot we shared was lovely too...! Just as well as one jug of water for a table of 16 didn't last long....for some reason they only had one jug in the whole place so the waiting staff spent all evening running back and forth with refills.


Starters:

A tiny piece of lightly cured smoked salmon, 1/2 tsp of caviar with a dozen rocket leaves does not make a satisfactory starter!!! The pressed guinea fowl was the favoured starter, a big thumbs up all round from those who chose it.

I had the brocolli and blue cheese soup which could have been a little warmer but very tasty.


The beef was so tender it didn't taste of beef (work that one out, but that's the review I received from the diner who had the beef) served with butternut squash puree and a bourgignon sauce was a hit.



Chicken with a cabbage and thyme sauce, beautifully cooked chicken but the portion of cabbage could hardly be seen underneath it and the thyme sauce was soooo salty it spoilt the whole dish.


Dessert was a cheese selection, didn't have enough celery to go around all the cheese which was a shame.

We spent the weekend here The Old Rectory in Torver Nr Coniston staying with Elizabeth & Mitchell the best hosts in the whole world....we had an amazing weekend. There was 16 in our party and the first night we had dinner in the Old Rectory. On Saturday night we ate at a restaurant in near by Cartmell...but more about that another time.

The menu on Friday night was absolute perfect...now I'm a fussy diner, things that other diners wouldn't even notice puts me off the whole experience!!! But everything was amazing!!

The starter was a wonderful spinach and watercress soup, served piping hot. A1

The main course was a very tender braised lamb served with celeriac souffle (the absolute best!) and a trio of green vegetables which consisted of the greenest spring cabbage with just the right amount of crunch, buttered leeks that melted in the mouth and baked baby courgettes with thyme. We scoffed the lot deee-lish-us!! Portions were perfect!

I didn't really want a dessert, as I was so full up. I opted for a small taste of the rhubarb & Mascarpone dessert, it was very tasty with poached fruit topped with a mascarpone cream and sprinkled with crystallized ginger. It was a refreshing dessert but unfortunately it didn't go with my red wine, which by the way, was just the house red but a brilliant bottle of wine! so I opted to finish the wine instead of the dessert (now there's a first!!!) The cheese LOOKED amazing...3 pieces of very good quality cheese with celery sticks. It was the talk of the meal as over half of the diners had chosen this...that's what I'm having next time!!!

A choice of coffees and squares of dark dark chocolate were served in the lounge...I couldn't fault anything...the staff were lovely, dinning room was comfortable, everything was just right!

Elizabeth & Paul Mitchell are very special hosts, if you are looking for somewhere to stay in the lakes, I'd defiantly recommend staying with them, nothing was too much trouble.

Sunday lunch time saw 6 of us here at the Edgemoor Inn. This has undergone a complete makeover lately.

The Edgemoor Inn is in the Village of Edge, overlooking the beautiful, picturesque Painswick Valley.The late 19th century Inn, constructed from Cotswold stone, has picture style windows and is well known for its pretty panoramic views. It also boasts an extensive terraced patio overlooking Painswick & surrounding countryside unfortunatly it wasn't the best day for views but we'll be back in the summer and hope to get a window seat or even better one of those outside tables overlooking the amazing view!

Great food, good service fab value for money...only niggle was the table was too high for the chairs...I know bieng 5ft nothing doesn't help but I felt like goldilocks at Daddy bears table. Maybe the tables in the restaruatn may be a better height for the chairs...who knows, I'll try it next time and let you know!

Borge in Stockton was one of the restaurant we visited while in the north east. They do the worlds best parmo, you can choose from pizza, pasta, burger or vegetarian from the full Italian sounding menu!

There was 6 of us in our party and they had put us on two round tables...not the best when trying to hold a conversation but the atmosphere in the place was great! Lighting suited a romantic meal for two more than a friendly get together but that was our fault rather than the restaurant. The staff were very friendly, helpful and added to the overall atmosphere. It has a great reputation and reviews I found before I went were very flattering. Voted 4 stars by Evening Gazette, Voted number 1 for the best parmo served!

The menu looked very Italian and the dishes that turned up had an Italian theme, but I was a bit disappointed. You get what you pay for and this place is cheap. The world famous parmo looked and tasted like a heart attack on a plate. Too fatty and too cheesy for my taste but is a favourite of one of my guests, so it all depends on your taste buds I suppose.

The company I was in was brilliant so that helped to take away the bad taste the food left in my mouth. Next time I visit I will be commandeering Sonia's kitchen and cooking up my own Italian themed menu.

Another good night out!

The Polash in Abbeymead!

Great food, good service..lurverleeeeey Indian beer what more can I say....brilliant!!!

The Whittle

Been here a couple of times, always ok...great place for a cheap tea on the hoof. Its the type of place where you have to order at the bar, but that's ok, you get what you pay for...except for this time.

The king prawns weren't even jumbo prawns....naughty naughty...they took them off the bill but my guest would have much prefer to have his Thai curry with them and pay the full price but oh well! The other 3 meals hit the spot! My fish pie was full of fish and had a good amount of creamy mash potato, the sausage and mash was spot on ....great sausages!!!! Chicken Kiev wasn't as good as my homemade ones but I'd have killed her if she's had said they were... lol

All the meals were served hot with a smile from the young waitress. A great little place for a cheap tea type meal! Definitely recommend it!

The King Teddy

I ate chicken with a Stilton sauce...it could have been a mask of a multitude of sins...it tasted ok... but I spent the next 3 days being violently sick....! Not sure if it was connected but its put me off...I won't be back. The manager assured me that their storage, cooking and holding policies are top notch, when questioned about her staffs personal hygiene she said she'd have a word with them!!!!! urgh!!!!

Now repeat after me...."The best place to eat is... at home!!!)

Thankfully my run of bad places to eat comes to an end!

The Cross in Aylburton, Nr Lydney

I rang to see if they were open and if it was necessary to book, a very freindly lady told me that I didn't need to book, just come on down. We arrive and were told that a round table in a secluded corner and been reserved for us. We caused a little bit of confusion with our drinks order...when oldest daughter tried to recreated a cocktail that she'd had at the weekend...no harm done though it just meant I ended up with an extra drink...port and lemon....one of my favourites!

Napkins were paper but thick luxurious ones

Cutlery - heavy quality comfortable....lets face it, if you go out to eat you want to have things better than you would have at home....this did it for me, it was the attention to detail that really stuck out.

Waiter was helpful, friendly and nothing was too much trouble.

Food...

Gammon - huge, well cooked even the eggs were still soft and edible after DD #2 had left them and I decided to try them...

Steak and ale pie - big pieces of lean meat, great flavoured gravy, buttery tender pastry

Scampi - succulent...light batter, great accompanyments

Faggots - looked homemade, very meaty, rich gravy,

Sausage mash onion gravy - very nice gravy, good quality sausages

Gooey ginger torte - to die for

Sorbet - I always think this dessert is a bit of a cop out but not here, 3 flavours all spectacular arranged and tasted wonderful...very fruity

Plum crumble - good enough to rival mine at home!!!!

Ice cream - 3 scoops, good quality, nicely presented

Love the dishes, loved the food on them!

Toilets were very clean and despite one wall being very bad with damp (its a really old building) the clean fresh smell was the over poweriing smell.

Thanked us when we left, will definatly go back again....so thank you for a great night!

The Miners Country Inn in Sling can Sling their hook!

No Photos of this pub as the site won't allow you to copy or save....it tells me if I want a copy I have to come to the pub and buy a round first....well after last nights bill of £112 you'd have thought they have had enough out of me!!!!

I will never go to this place again, the food was atrocious and the service was amateurish to say the least! We were greeted pleasantly enough and the super efficient waitress took our drinks order, not sure if it was her first night, but it was defiantly her first job, over zealous but at first I liked the fact that she was trying to doing her job well. You don’t always get that with young waiting staff these days! But soon the clippy cloppy noise from her shoes was so annoying it interfered with our conversation…she stomped everywhere and created an air of efficiency that we never actually got to witness. She slopped my goo…oh sorry, my beef stroganoff in front of me with such speed that the ‘sauce’ slid off my plate narrowly missing my cream trousers…”oh did I get you” was her comment!!!!!!

We were showed to our table and the restaurant is a pleasant area with wooden floors, heavy wooden furniture and lots of space. A past visit by our eldest daughter assured us that it was a great place to eat. I don’t know what happened this time!

Starters
Cajun potato skins – A huge portion was served at a previous visit so 3 portions ordered between 4 this time and there was more dips than chips! Very disapointing, at £4.95 it poor value for money

Garlic Mushrooms tossed in a garlic & basil cream sauce – Barely 4 mushrooms with way too much sauce that hadn’t see a leaf of basil or piece of garlic to my knowledge, the cream sauce had a sicky vinegary taste which we put down to too much lemon juice. I would be ashamed to call myself a chef and serve this. The salad garnish was pitiful.

Main course
The menu said "Strips of prime fillet steak in a red wine and mushroom sauce £12.95". What turned up was a plate overfilled to spilling point with a watery brown ‘sauce’ that tasted like it came from a packet with a powdery texture and was way too salty and had a little too much lemon juice added to it…the mushrooms were there this time and too be fair the strips of prime fillet steak were tender and plentiful….but I couldn’t get past the horrible sauce, the bad presentation and the starchy rice with way too much bite to it. I opted to eat the cauliflower in the vegetable bowl instead, it was swimming in water (how difficult is it to drain the veg properly???) That tasted ok, as did the carrot batons and the frozen peas! My plate was a battle ground of goo! OH’s was pleasantly presented which led him into a false sense of security. But he was hungry and struggled though it, I decided I’d rather wait and eat at home.

The kids had gammon and when I tasted it I understood why they had asked for second drinks during their meal. It was unbelievably salty too. Cheap meat?

The lamb steak – the only decent meal on the table, it was served with a redcurrant sauce which was sweet and went well with the meat. She had a few problems cutting it but the meat was nicely cooked and slightly pink…just how she likes it. She had to ask for a steak knife and as one waitress shouted over to the other “Have we got any of those steak knives” we had to laugh…professional they were not! The chips tasted like those reconstituted frozen ones but hey the kids liked them!

“Would you like to see the dessert menu?” We did, but after reading the extensive menu, we had lost our appetite. The sticky toffee pudding may have been as bad as the beef stroganoff…we’ll never know, we asked for the bill only to be brought the wrong one…table 12’s was half the total of ours, we should have paid theirs instead!

The manager knocked one of the stroganoffs off the bill but that doesn’t make it right, it spoilt our evening, in this case a birthday celebration. Would the chef or staff eat this meal and think it was excellent / good / /make them want to come back? I don’t think so….so why do they serve it to their paying guests. I feel totally ripped off and will make a point of mentioning it to my family and friends…oh and all my loyal readers.

http://minerscountryinn.com/

Fish supper

Sadly, mine didn't look like these!

I was having a very busy night...didn't have time to cook and by the time I got in from work the family had visited their favourite fish and chip shop and the smell was too much of a temptation. Too tired to drive any further, I called in at a more local shop Ruddy's I wish I hadn't bothered! I had to ask for a small fish 3 times...each time the girl went for the large one, I repeated "a small fish please" with a blank look on her face, she wrestled with the small fish again....the look of amazement on my face was the thing that finally made her come too and register what I was saying...why don't shop assistants listen? Do they hate their jobs sooo much??
When I got home, I was so disappointed, the fish batter was hard, greasy and too well done, the fish inside was dry and tasteless, the chips cold and greasy...oh how I wished I'd stuck to one of my favourites.

Ye Olde Fish Shoppe, 8 Hare Lane, Gloucester. Fantastic chips in a cone, eaten after a long days shopping

The London Road Supper Bar Worth the drive to get there...consistently good!

The Seymour Fryer An old favorite when we lived on that side of town.

18th July 07

We had our evening meal in Prezzo recently, we wanted to take our middle daughter out while youngest was away and we didn’t have another night free.

I had glass of pinot grigio with olives as an appetiser POLLO GORGONZOLA for main which was a chargrilled butterflied chicken breast in a gorgonzola and cream sauce with field mushrooms and leeks served with house fries. Then NO PUDDING!! Not that I didn’t want one, but the staff were so rushed of their feet they didn’t come back and take our order so we paid the bill and left instead.

Stopped on the way home and bought a Thornton’s fudge bar to have with our coffee at home

Celebrating a teenagers birthday!

Ruby's Cantonese Restaurant

There was 5 of us dining out to celebrate my daughters 13th birthday. This is her favourite restaurant. We love this place, the food is even better than the service and that is say something, unobtrusive, attentive and always always polite. Great table, and an early booking meant it wasn't busy.

Drinks - J20's, vodka and soda, coke and H20

Starters - Yuk Sung and sesame prawn toast, -

(scoffed before camera could be taken out of its case!)

Mains -

Sizziling Steak in green pepper & black bean sauce

Fried Noodles

King Prawns with bambo shoots & water chestnuts

Lemon Chicken

Chicken balls with sweet n sour sauce

Dessert - Mint parfait, orange sorbet served in an orange, caramel parfait,vanilla & coffee parfait and a vanilla and chocolate parfait covered in cocoa.

To finish we had floater coffees. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meal. 10 out of 10!!!

Out with new friends

We went to the The Polash on Friday night.

When I first moved to the area, this place was the pits. Uninteresting bland food that was a poor example of what India cuisine could be. However since their re-vamp a couple of years ago, everyone who goes has been happy with it.

I've prefer to cook my curries at home but I have been a few times and loved the food and the atmosphere every time.

We booked our table for 8:30pm (Always best to book, its gets very busy) A handsome expensively dressed waiter in a D & G belt showed us to our table and took our drinks order. Before he was back to take our order, they had been delivered. In many other restaurants I'd have taken this as a sign that they expect to be using the table again on the same night. Not in this one, nothing was rushed but everything came to the table promptly. Food was hot, freshly cooked and delicious. We had poppadoms and the chutney tray, onion bajhees, chicken tikka marsala, prawn korma and a prawn madras, sides were Peshawari naan. Everything was perfect, no cause to complain, no ifs or butts. We all had a great time.

The bill was a reasonable £66 for 4 of us. Now that's what I call good value for money.

The Royal William, Cranham

Oh what a shame!
Before you read this post you should read my last one on this venue. It was great.
We decided to re-visit this place because our local pub was so crowded and yet again minimal bar staff so we couldn't get served.

The Good

Friendly staff
Good choice of menu
Homemade Faggots
Fantastic local cheeses
Ample car parking

The Bad

The lack of imagination of the chef...stir fried vegetables turned out to be circles of carrots and broccoli...carrots circles in a stir fry...how strange is that??
The small child who was being encouraged by her family to get louder and louder (it was after 8pm)
Member of staff back to employing students who was either over the top efficient or down right rude when blatantly talking about us, facing us and making eye contact while doing so ( I am very very good at lip reading!)

The Food

Chicken & Chorizo with stir fried vegetables
Homemade Faggots with new potatoes carrot cirlces and broccoli
Local produced cheese 'n' biscuits served with grapes
Sticky toffee and pecan pudding served with ice cream

Note to self....find new places to eat out!

A friends Birthday Lunch

The Golden Heart

Early lunch - Deep fried brie to start, Steak, Salad, mushroom & red wine sauce for main. No pud or wine.

Food - Brie was a good size and was cooked beautifully, the hunk of bread it was served with was unnecesarily big. Steak was a bit tough and tasteless,the sauce had very little flavour, salad was pittiful.

Service - excellent



Location - pretty, olde worlde, traffic getting into and out of the car park a nightmare...thought I might die!

The Fox and Hounds - Bredon

Another visit to a 16th Century thatched country Inn

This time we took my in-laws. Steak was on the menu (again), along with seasonal vegetables and the deep fried brie for starters. No pudding this time but we did have floater coffees all round. The service was great, yet again, especially by the owners, the waiting staff lost a bit of enthusiasum by the end of the night, but I'm getting to expect that from the young weekend staff where ever we go!! Shame really!

The New Inn for Lunch

The New Inn

The New Inn is situated in the heart of the city of Gloucester and has been welcoming travellers since 1455. It is Britain’s oldest galleried inn. The Inn was originally built as a Pilgrims Inn to house visitors to the shrine of King Edward II in St Peters Abbey. After falling into disrepair The Inn was re-built by Abbot John Twining in 1455 (hence the title “The New Inn”)In 1539 the inn was known to be the largest hostelry in the county and an impressive collection of Knights, Lords & Yeomen lodged at the inn. Chapman Hotels bought the New Inn in 2000 and set about a sympathetic restoration & refurbishment of the New Inn. Today they provided me with my lunch!
We were very early diners; it was a toss up between cake and coffee for a very late eleven-zies or a midday lunch…we opted for the latter. It was FIL’s choice; he and MIL used to go there regularly in the late 80’s early 90’s. We were first in the dining room and they were so pleased that it was just the same as it has always been. It was clean and well decorated in the style it had always been in an old coach house sort of way. I bet the tourists love it!!!

The Food: I had a Prawn and king prawn salad with new potatoes a round of bread and Thousad Island dressing and a glass of sparkling mineral water. My in-laws had scampi and chips with a vodka and tonic; we finished with latte coffees
The Good: Attentive friendly staff & the atmosphere, even though it only had a couple of tables occupied.

The Bad: There wasn’t one…the bill was a reasonable £36

The Ugly: The glass light shades which weren’t in keeping with the décor…but hey they were at the side of the dinning room and it didn’t spoil our meal!

I bet this place is great at night when full of diners. With the décor and the history I bet it feels like it did all those years ago…filled with noise and food. I’m going back soon!