Thursday, 23 October 2014

Benito’s Hat Farringdon

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We went to the launch of the newest addition to the chain – Benito’s Hat Farringdon. Got a friendly welcome from Ben Fordham (Owner), Charlie (Farringdon Branch Manager), Felipe (Executive Head Chef) and Addy (Roche Communications – specialists in restaurant, bar and hotel PR). They even have a ten flavours salsa bar!
Enjoyed some great food, especially the tortilla chips, pork and steak burritos with the selection of salsas, by Felipe and his kitchen team; wonderful friendly service from Ben, Charlie and the rest of their team; and fabulous cocktails created by Jeremy on tap.
Go check them out as they have an amazing salsa bar, great atmosphere and 2 for 1 happy hour!
Thanks Ben, Felipe, Charlie, Addy and Jeremy for a great night. We will be visiting again very soon!!!
Twitter: @BenitosChat, #Farrington, @RocheCom
Farringdon
12-14 St John Street
London EC1M 4NT
020 7490 4727
farringdon@benitos-hat.com

Monday, 26 August 2013

RED HOT WORLD BUFFET



Red Hot Buffet, started by husband and wife team Parmjit and Helen Dhaliwal has branches in some major cities, though not yet in London. Went to the Milton Keynes branch well positioned with plentiful parking just in front of the restaurant, which is free after 6.30 pm. This is located on the first floor and has got extensive seating for over 320 customers.

There were separate sections for Indian, Chinese, Thai and Mexican with live stations in each section with chefs that cooked dishes anyway you wanted.







We had starters consisted of Indian bajias, chicken tikka and shish kebab which were all delicious and had various sauces and freshly made naan.



Loved the lamb rogan gosht and chicken tikka masala. Both were tender and well cooked and the curry with these very nice and spicy, especially the Bombay potatoes. Second round was the pilaf rice with the chicken Thai curry and the hot Szechuan chicken tempered with a bit of beef in black bean sauce.

Dessert consisted of a large selection of cakes gateaux and fresh fruit salad. Loved the crème brulee. Found the Tiramisu a bit too creamy. The children loved the chocolate fountain.
Overall, a very enjoyable experience and good variety of tasty food. The only down side was the red upholstered chairs and the red lighting which gave the whole restaurant a very oppressive feel---but I suppose that is to do with the “red “ of the Red Hot Buffet image.

 
 Website: http://www.redhot-worldbuffet.com

Twitter: @RedHotWldBuffet
  

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

Tucking into Reef, Beef and Bubbles at The Parlour

Enjoying another great meal at The Parlour, Canary Wharf - check out their Reef, Beef and Bubbles deal till end of August, 2013!






http://www.theparlourbar.co.uk

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

A wonderful produce package from Foodelity!

We received a wonderful produce box on Friday from Simon Granshaw, Managing Director at Foodelity, and had been looking forward to sampling their produce as they supply Michelin starred restaurants and chefs.
Wonderful array of raw and ready to eat items in the Blog 9 Produce box from Foodelity, including Ox Cheek and Quince Jelly
Wonderful array of raw and ready to eat items in the Blog 9 Produce box from Foodelity, including Ox Cheek and Quince Jelly

All the items required for the chef designed recipes came with step-by-step instructions on recipe cards, and were all pre-measured to make meal preparation quick and easy.

They have great suppliers who provide them with the finest meat, fish, fruit & vegetables, cheese and wine to pass onto their customers. Our produce box included:
Ox Cheek, as with all their meats, is from Aubrey Allen, Lemington Spa, Warwickshire;
Cheeses (Green and Pleasant Land cheese selection: Ragstone, Burwash Rose, Westcombe Cheddar and Colston Bassett), Quince Jelly and the Charcoal biscuits (made by Miller’s Damsels, Ashbourne, Derbyshire) were from The Fine Cheese Company, Bath; and Whiting, as with all their fish, was from Fowey Fish.

We kicked off with making the fishcakes, which we served with a Caipirinha; as we felt the lime notes and the sweetness of the cachaca complemented the flavours in the fishcakes.
Starter: Pan Fried Fishcakes with Homemade Tartar Sauce and Watercress
Starter: Pan Fried Fishcakes with Homemade Tartar Sauce and Watercress

We felt that the fishcakes were lovely, but could have done with a more intense fishy flavour though; such as using smoked cod or haddock.

Next we made our main of Ox Cheek Ragu:
Main: Slow-Cooked Ox Cheek Ragu (served with Pappardelle)
Main: Slow-Cooked Ox Cheek Ragu (served with Pappardelle)

The Ox cheek had a large layer of fat, which I cut off as I thought it would make the final dish too fatty. The final ragu was still tasty without the addition of fat. The Ox cheek was a tented piece of beef with a lovely, intense beef flavour.

Then we finished with making a pear and ginger tarte tatin:

The tarte tatin was enjoyable, but there was too much liquid in the recipe which made the underside of the pastry a bit soggy; the ginger flavour was not strong enough; and it could have done with a drizzle of dark chocolate/ red wine chocolate sauce as it was missing a bitter chocolate element to the dish to balance the sweetness of the pears and tartness of the creme fraiche.

We then settled down to the selection of cheeses served with the charcoal biscuits and quince jelly. A low-down on the cheeses included in the Green and Pleasant Land cheese selection:
Ragstone is an interesting smooth, creamy goat’s cheese with citrusy notes.
Burwash Rose is a fab cow’s milk cheese with a hint of rosewater flavour.
Westcombe Cheddar is a nice mature cheddar from Somerset.
Colston Bassett is a wonderful, creamy blue veined cheese from Nottinghamshire – our favourite and very moreish!

Finally, we rounded of our meal with the Liquid Salted Caramels; which went well with a cup of dark, after dinner coffee.
Thank you gift from Foodelity for ordering produce box: No1 Liquid Salted Caramels from Artisan du Chocolat
Thank you gift from Foodelity for ordering produce box: No1 Liquid Salted Caramels from Artisan du Chocolat.

Wines are carefully matched to the courses by an in-house sommelier, and these matched bottles of wine can be purchased alongside ordering your produce box.

Foodelity caters for non-vegetarians, pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans needs.

Good quality produce and the box cost £25 – with the satisfaction of making a Michelin standard meal and dining in the comfort of your own home.

Thanks Simon for the produce box. Loved the little surprise additions of the charcoal biscuits and quince jelly – and the No1 Liquid Salted Caramels from L’Artisan du Chocolat, Ashford, Kent were a nice thank you touch. We had great fun cooking over the weekend!

Twitter: @Foodelity

http://www.foodelity.co.uk
http://www.aubreyallen.co.uk
http://www.foweyfish.com
http://www.finecheese.co.uk
http://artisanduchocolat.com

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Le Drunch at Maille Boutique, Old Spitalfields Market

Le Drunch at Maille Boutique


We went to the Le Drunch pop-up at the Maille Boutique. The menu was designed by two-Michelin star chef Helene Darroze from The Connaught.

Cheese, Salami and Mustard Tasting at Maille Boutique.

Cheese, Salami and Mustard Tasting at Maille Boutique:

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Le Drunch pop-up at Maille Boutique in Old Spitalfields Market, with the tables decorated with beautiful tulips:

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Le Drunch pop-up at Maille Boutique in Old Spitalfields Market

Maille’s Le Drunch menu:

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On the tables were bottles of Maille French Vinagrette with black olives and fluffy, crusty French baguette slices to dunk into this whilst we waited for our drinks.

During lunch, we were served wines which complemented the flavours of the different dishes: a light, citrusy white (Muscadet de Serve & Maine sur Lie 2011, Domaine Grand Maison, Langlois Chateau) and a beautiful, mellow red (La Bourgigne Pinot Noir 2011, Domaine Chanson, Burgundy).

The Maille and Connaught teams hard at work in the kitchen preparing our meals:

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To start, we were served two hors d’ouevres.

The tomato and pimiento del piquillo gazpacho with Maille wholegrain mustard chantilly had an amazing and full-on flavour profile to kick-off the meal served with a velvety chantilly.

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Crab cakes with a sweet mustard sauce followed. The crab cakes were beautifully golden and crisp on the outside with a light crab filling containing lovely sweet banana shallots, accompanied by a refreshing, citrusy but sweet mustard sauce.

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A main of slow-cooked lamb parmentier with a herb salad followed. The lamb was melt-in-the-mouth with a traditional french vinagrette on the salad.

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To finish, we were served a dessert of Golden Delicious apples caramelized with salted butter, Maille cider vinegar and pepper, served with Madagascan bourbon vanilla ice cream; which was a perfect end to the meal.

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Finally, a thank you to Natalie and her colleagues from Kaper UK for looking after us so well during the afternoon, and particularly for their forward planning about patio heaters and blankets which helped us cope with the cold, wintery weather.

Overall, we had an enjoyable afternoon at the Maille boutique and look forward to visiting them again soon.

Location:

Maille Boutique
Old Spitalfields Market
16 Horner Square
Spitalfields
London
E1 6EW
View Location

Saturday, 23 March 2013

Low Country, Fulham

Low Country, Fulham – Grand Opening party

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Great event organised by Low Country SW6 in conjunction with Danielle and her team at DS Event Management.

Enjoyed wonderful cocktails including ones made with blue curaco and blueberries, and strawberry and passionfruit. Drinks were accompanied by oysters on ice, pulled pork burgers, lobster burgers, chicken & mushroom vol-au-vents, and rounded off proceedings with great sliders.

A great place to chill out – especially in their courtyard outback.

Saturday, 4 August 2012

St George's Trauma + Orthopaedics Team Bonding at Jurassic Golf, New Maldon, Surrey & dinner at Al Forno, Wimbledon - 25th July, 2012

After starting the day with an Olympics themed breakfast in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics starting on Friday, we relaxed in the evening with a round of mini-golf at Jurassic Golf, World of Golf, New Malden. It was a fun evening encouraging competition between the dinosaur named sub-teams to see who could complete the course with the lowest par scores. Some of us had had more practice with mini-golf than others - I am one of those who needs to get more practice sessions in though!

Rounded off the evening with an Italian meal at Al Forno in Wimbledon, looked after by Gislena and manager Bruno. The restaurant is designed to have an open, welcoming and relaxed feel. We enjoyed such delights as a cold meats platter, lasagne, puttanesca pasta and fab pizzas including Capricciosa, Prosciutto Rucola, Diavola and Tonno e Cipolla.
Unfortunately, after such huge pizzas (which are great value) and good food, we did not have room to try dessert.
Easily accessable location by public transport links, good service from Gislena (with an interesting method of trying to build banter with customers), and Bruno even kindly removed the service charge from our bill.
Will be back with friends to try some other pizzas (liked the look of the Pescatora) and hopefully will still have room for desserts!
I would recommend visiting Al Forno for good Italian food if you are in the area.

Jurassic Encounter
World of Golf  Beverley Way, New Malden, Surrey KT3 4PH

020 8949 9200
 http://www.jurassicencounter.com

Al Forno
2A King's Road
London, Greater London SW19 8QN
020 8540 5710

http://www.alfornowimbledon.com