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!

Saturday Night at the Hatton Court Hotel

Here again! Hatton court hotel

This time to celebrate with our friends. Their 40th birthday, 15th Wedding Anniversary and our special Christmas gift.

The Good – as usual the atmosphere, the quality of the food, the elegant dining room

The Bad – The waiter who tried to hurry us off to the lounge to have our coffees, when asked if he wanted the table his reply was “Yes I want to reset it for breakfast…it was only 10:30pm!!!

The ugly – we had to come back and sit at our dirty table as there was no room in the lounge!!!!
The table for two at the side of us was VERY close, but as the couple didn’t speak to each other AT ALL and were only there for a maximum of 30 minutes it didn’t really matter in the end!

We ate
ø Confit of Belly Pork with a Black Pudding Salad
ø Traditional Smoked Salmon, Capers, Shallot and Lemon
ø Warm Goats Cheese Salad with Baby Beets and Crostini
ø Tomato and Mozzarella Tart with a Basil Dressing

ø Duck breast on a rosti with Savoy cabbage and bacon
ø Sirloin Steak with a green peppercorn sauce, fondant potatoes and seasonal vegetables
ø Lamb shanks with roast vegetables and a white wine jus

ø Pear and Almond tart with Crème Anglaise
ø Mulled berry crème brulee
ø Chocolate Brownie served with raspberry couli

We drank
ø VERAMONTE SAUVIGNON BLANC 2004. CHILE
ø VERAMONTE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2001, MAIPO VALLEY. CHILE

Supper at the Royal William, Cranham

The Royal William is under new management and the word is it is serving home cooked locally supplied Food. All Fresh produce with real ales! That was enough to wet our appetites. The last time we were there, it was all under scaffolding and the interior was in desperate need of a facelift. It had that grubby unloved look with sticky tables and smelly toilets. This time I'm hoping for more, it does look promising though. I rang to book a table and the restaurant is fully booked, we were offered a table in their very comfortable bar area. The chap I spoke to was very pleasant, telling me that they re-opened in early December and have been pretty much full ever since! He also confimed the fresh produce, locally supplied homecooked food!!

I'm looking forward to it...table is booked for 8pm tonight, so I'll be back to comment later!
Ok...
The Good
ø Extremely friendly welcome,
ø polite and helpful staff,
ø décor was great, no more scaffolding,
ø No more smelly carpets
ø The pictures on the wall were of old Cheltenham and were great!
ø I absolutely loved the one of the champagne bottles in the dinning room.
ø The helpful member of staff who took our food order at the table when she realised we hadn’t been told how to order.
ø The large plates. [Not so good on the little table!]
ø The quality of the food
ø The batter on the Pollock – delicious, along with the hand cut chips

The Bad

ø The tiny table for 4 people,
ø Not being told we had to order our food at the bar (what’s all that about?)
ø The stringy chewy piece of gammon (bleugh!)
ø The Beef stroganoff with more mushrooms that beef

The Ugly

ø The uneven floor – Which I know cant’ be helped in such an old building but my elderly guest had difficulty with it
ø The last diners used napkin on the floor underneath my husband’s chair!

I would go back to this restaurant for the homemade chips alone. Loved, loved, loved the attitude of the staff, it’s so refreshing, now-a-days they are usually grumpy students earning their minimum wage with minimum effort!!!