r.vacapinta's Profile
London chip shop serving plaice?
It is a wildly inconsistent place! I lived nearby from 2008-2011 and it was my go-to place for when I wanted some fish & chips or we were too lazy/tired to cook.
I took my parents there when they visited London in 2010 and it was top-form. Crispy batter with butery, flaky fish. But, other times its just a big mushy pile of tasteless fish. I wish I could have deduced what it depends on but it seemed kind of random.
I do have to say, contrary to a post in one of the threads linked above, that never was the fish ready and waiting. This is over 15-20 visits over the years. I always had to wait while they prepared the fish.
I do agree it is not cheap. But with their prime location and inviting outdoor benches I doubt thats a problem for them.
Where to eat haggis in Edinburgh?
There's a gastro-pub called The Dogs on Hanover street that serves Haggis (along with Neeps and Tatties) and is quite good. I ate there a couple weeks ago when I was in Edinburgh. It is a lively place with mis-matched tables. It is listed in the Good Food Guide.
Make sure you walk upstairs to get to it. They have a ground floor restaurant (Amore Dogs?) which is to be avoided.
London Food Recommendations Near the British Museum
If you haven't been to London before, you might be surprised with how walkable the center is and how small the central neighborhoods are.
I agree that Bloomsbury (where you are staying I believe) is a bit of a culinary wasteland. I lived in Bloomsbury for three years. But it really doesn't matter. Soho is right next door as is Fitzrovia and Covent Garden - all areas with many more options.
For example, Great Queen St. in Covent Garden is 0.4 miles from the British museum. Soho square is 0.5 miles from the British Museum.
Edinburgh on Sundat
Ondine is open 7 days a week.
Valvona & Crolla serves lunch on sunday.
The Dogs is also open 7 days a week.
Nailsworth
I'm afraid I dont know the pubs around Nailsworth really well. For beer, I stick to my local - the Prince Albert in Rodborough. I've heard good things about the Ram Inn in Woodchester, closer to you though. For food, there's both the Amberley Inn and the Black Horse in nearby Amberley.
I'll point you to the Real Ale, Gloucestershire site. It has lists and maps of all the pubs as well as what ales they serve:
http://www.gloucestershirecamra.org.uk/pubs/raig/index.htm
Nailsworth
I live in Stroud.
Nailsworth is actually a bit up-market in terms of food. That is, It has good food but it is not cheap.
Wild Garlic is definitely really good but also not cheap although i would say it is good value. I had a delicious Sunday lunch there last month. Fresh, very well-prepared food. The best food in Nailsworth, without a doubt.
William's Fish Market sells fresh fish that they fly in from Cornwall. They also have tables where you can order oysters, fish & chips and the like. Again, really delicious.
There's a great bakery in town called Hobbs House which is a cafe as well. Perfect for good coffee and outstanding pastries.
I wouldn't recommend Egypt Mill for its food, really, Its in a beautiful setting though and the pub belongs to the Egypt Mill hotel. Mostly good as a tea spot rather than a lunch spot.
Restaurant Help - a few days in London
I'd also recommend Tapped & Packed on Rathbone Place for breakfast. They have great coffee and also lots of pastries in the morning.
Breakfast at Les Halles, Lyon?
Boulanger de l'ile Barbe in Les Halles is a great place to have a light breakfast and they are open early. We regularly had breakfast there when we were in Lyon.
They have a small but pleasant seating area where you can eat their pastries along with some Mariage Frères tea while reading the morning paper.
[Tisbury, Wiltshire] The Beckford Arms
Went here based on a recommendation. We arrived at this cosy and lively place (with fireplace and dog) after walking in the surrounding area.
What we found was solidly executed food, delicious, and a menu that reflected both the great game and produce of Britain, cooked in a bold French style.
My starter was a pigeon salad with greens and black pudding. Tender and full of flavour.
My wife had a roasted jerusalem artichoke and mozzarella fritter salad. Flavorful with a mixture of vegetables. This is going by memory as we forgot to photograph the menu as usual.
My main was a venison on a bed of puy lentils and mash, sprinkled with roast almonds. I loved the home-cooked lusciousness of the lentils supporting a delicate and perfectly cooked venison steak. My wife had Creedy Carver duck on a bed of barley and egg with greens. Worked better as a salad, she said, but nonetheless really fresh and light.
Puddings were more classic British. Rice pudding with raspberry jam. A guilty pleasure. And Apple crumble. The roast apple and hard crumble served separately from the pot of custard, the latter which you pour liberally over your crumble and then scoop up the mixture.
We had the local white wine as well. From the nearby Fonthill Glebe estate, a Seyval Blanc, fruity and reminiscent of Riesling.
Overall, a more than satisfying meal. The place was obviously busy with locals but seems undiscovered beyond that.
Copenhagen: Looking for some good values
I'll highly recommend the restaurant Krebse Gaarden in the center of Copenhagen. It is where we went for a late dinner after having lunch at Noma.
The food is delicious and complex and a good value.
The real standout here though is the wine and cheese. One of the guys who runs the place is passionate about the local wines and the Danish dairys. He spends a lot of his time visiting these small producers all over Denmark.
For the cheese course he put together for us an 11-cheese tasting plate that was sublime. Starting with lighter cheeses it moved all the way to Gorgonzola-style and Rocquefort-style cheeses. The plate also included a taste of the hard-to-get Skallingen cheese. Very little of this cheese is produced so it is only sold to a few restaurants.
Highly recommended. It is more of a locals place and we discovered it through a series of happy accidents.
On another note: Aamann's only serves smorrebrod for lunch and you can get it take-away too. Its a good option for a sit-down dinner though. There are also a couple casual sit-down places in the new Torvehallerne food market.
[Arlingham, Glos.] The Old Passage
Several people had recommended this place to us. It's an inn which sits out at the very end of the Arlingham peninsula and overlooks the Severn. It is quite a scenic place. You can see the picturesque town of Newnham just across the Severn, which is so close you could walk to it - if the Severn were not in between you.
We drove out there for breakfast on Saturday. The Old Passage bills itself as primarily a seafood restaurant, using local stock if possible but otherwise getting their fish and shellfish from Cornwall.
I had a smoked Haddock and chive Souffle omelette. This is a delicate souffle served in a small, hot pan. The souffle was delicious and perfectly seasoned. My wife had charcoal-grilled salmon with a poached egg, Hollandaise sauce and caviar. The salmon was fresh and tender. The Hollandaise sauce was thick and creamy and sharp. A bit too sharp for my tastes but my wife loved it. Fresh juices, toasts, marmalade, butter and coffee rounded out the meal.
We are definitely keen on going back either for breakfast or for their lunch menu.
Trip report: nice meals in Cornwall and Gloucerstershire
I live in Gloucestershire and have been thinking about going to the Trouble House.
Can you elaborate on what you had there and what you liked about it? Anything stand out?
Coming back to London in the winter. Advice appreciated.
Another option is a place like the Wheatsheaf in Combe Hay, just outside of Bath:
http://www.wheatsheafcombehay.co.uk/home.asp
best place for desserts in london
Is there something specific you're looking for? The place that serves the best sticky toffee pudding will not be the place that serves the best gelato, and so on. Sweets is a broad category.
Why no mention of 100 Maneiras? in Lisbon...any opinions?
I mentioned it here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/789051
A bit hit or miss. Creative and a good value for what you get, however. The execution was lacking on a few dishes but overall a entertaining experience, gastronomically.
[Cheltenham Spa, Gloucestershire] The Daffodil, John Gordon's
Oh, they appear to have informed the restaurants and others. And people blab.
http://twitter.com/#!/TheDaffodil/status/104257510789222400
http://twitter.com/#!/PeterBorgNeal/status/103421303867969536
[Cheltenham Spa, Gloucestershire] The Daffodil, John Gordon's
----The Daffodil
We had made the reservation to eat here and between then and our actual visit, they were announced as one of the few new additions to the 2012 Good Food Guide. (The British Larder in Suffolk, which we've been meaning to go to for a while was also added)
My wife and I shared the Discovery Menu which offers a choice of their Cote de Boeuf or the daily Fish selection. For appetizers, they deliver you a sampling of many of their current offerings.
First a mint and pea soup as a large amuse bouche. My wife and I in fact debated the meaning of amuse bouche since this was a small soup course in itself. Creamy, delicious, nonetheless.
For starters, we had the Chargrilled Scallops with butter and Salsa, the Double Gloucester Souffle, the Cured Smoked Beef and the Warm Aromatic Duck Salad. Of these, the Scallops were the most successful. The Scallops were tender and the salsa added a nice zing to them. The Souffle was well done but I dont find Gloucester to be an interesting cheese. It is a bit too heavy and I prefer more delicate cheeses. We were both a bit disappointed in the Duck Salad. Wonderfully tender duck but then the Hoi Sin dressing overwhelmed everything.
The Cote de Boeuf was 24 oz for us to share. Along with garlic mushrooms and truffles fries and bearnaise sauce and red wine jus - just an enormous amount of food. I cant fault the cut of the beef but we did ask for it medium-rare and what was served to us I would call medium. A few pieces were even slightly charred. Pieces in the center - which did escape the grill - were the best part of the serving. The mushrooms were limp and uninspiring but the truffle fries were tasty - crispy on the outside and tender inside.
We also sampled a few desserts. The Warm Chocolate Fondant was perfect. The Glazed Lemon Tart with raspberry compote was not well balanced - a sharp lemon taste cut by little sweetness or raspberry.
Overall, we left this place satisfied but not as impressed as we would have liked to be. We agreed that this is the type of place you'd love to have as your corner bistro. The food is warm, satisfying and prepared with superior ingredients. It still has some rough edges, though.
---John Gordon's
We decided to walk to the nearby John Gordon's for a couple shots of whisky. This is a great little bar with an array of 400 whiskies for you to sample as well as the usual armagnacs and calvados and an interesting selection of wine.
The staff are extremely helpful. With my wife gazing at the huge choice of whiskys, they asked her what she wanted. She said "Something sweet. And something exotic" So they suggested a Glenlivet with a sherry cask finish for the first requirement. And a single malt Yamazaki for the second criterion. A great end to the evening.
[Nailsworth, Gloucestershire] William's Kitchen, Hobbs House Bistro
Both of these places are worth a stop if you are in the area.
-----William's Kitchen
William's is a delicatessen selling seafood and gourmet deli items. They also operate an oyster bar and small restaurant. The delicatessen stocks a lot of gourmet items, seasonings and sauces from Spain and France mainly.
We've been here twice for lunch. In both cases, we ordered a plate of oysters to share. These are fresh, meaty oysters. Much of the menu is seafood based. I've had the scallops in butter which is a generous serving of a dozen scallops drenched in butter and garlic. It feels like a gourmet, guilty pleasure. I've also had the Fish & Chips. Crispy, tasty batter surrounding tender fresh fish - as it should be.
-----Hobbs House Bistro
Hobbs House Bistro is a side project from the much more well-known bakery. The Bistro operates only for dinner and only Thursday through Saturday.
On the night we ate here, we started with a Duck Charcuterie. This was Rillettes, Duck Liver Pate and Duck hearts, all served with Hobbs House bread. The standout was the duck hearts - perfectly grilled and lightly salted.
We also both had the Roe Deer Haunch served medium rare on a bed of peas. This was a delicious dish. The Deer was tender and juicy.
Finally, I had a Plum Custard and Almond Fool with shortbread. My only complaint is that, given the thick creaminess of the custard, that the serving was too much. A strange objection, I know.
I had an espresso which was well-prepared but it did leave me wondering why a place that operates as a bakery during the day would not serve petits fours as well. Or perhaps I needed to ask.
Anyways, all in all, a great meal and a place we want to return to before it gets too popular and well-known.
I should note that the menu for Hobbs House Bistro changes weekly. They post next weeks menu online here:
http://www.hobbshousebakery.co.uk/about_us/bistro/
I'll go ahead and include the website for William's as well:
http://www.williamsfoodhall.co.uk/
-----
William's Kitchen
Fountain St, England GL6 0, GB
Hobbs House Bistro
4 George St, England GL6 0, GB
What should a New Yorker make sure to bring when moving to London?
I didn't think I needed anything until a US friend brought me Mexican drinking chocolate. Ibarra in this case.
London "Third Wave" Coffee
Since someone has revived this thread, I have to add that my favorite coffee place in London is a place called Notes Music & Coffee near Charing Cross. Amazingly good, and in a touristy part of town and open late. It felt too good to be true.
It made me switch away from Tapped & Packed and Espresso Room though, both of which I had visited regularly since their openings.
Best Pasty in London
You could try the Bull & Last in Highgate. As they are opening for lunch, they usually put out batches of freshly made Scotch eggs and Pasties on the bar counter.
Not sure if they are the best in London, but they are pretty darn good.
Petrelle report
The wine list is one of the highlights of this place. My wife knows wine and chose a delicious 1999 Chateau Chavin for us at what was I recall, a shockingly low markup.
The food is a bit overpriced but they also have an approximately 30 euro prix fixe menu. When we were there, hardly anyone was ordering off the prix fixe.
As for the food quality, my wife and I both still talk about the vegetables, the fresh radishes, the carrots that tasted like carrots. We had a great meal.
Avoid at all costs...
Per the subject of the post, I dont think many people here are surprised that you got a mediocre burger at a random pub - the Enterprise not having any sort of renown that I know of.
The shame is that pretty much across the road was the Bountiful Cow, which does serve an interesting burger.
Best New (Opened in the last 3 years) restaurant in Lisbon?
I ended up taking her to 100 Maneiras in Bairro Alto.
This place was a great value - 35 euros for a 9 course tasting menu. The food was also creative, starting with the shaved cod pieces hanging on clotheslines (a nod to all the street laundry in old Lisbon) through the various courses of shellfish, fish (sardines of course), and pork belly. Many of the flavors of Portugal are there although this isn't Portuguese food. As with many tasting menus, the courses were hit or miss.
The restaurant was almost entirely tourists, by the way. And all the staff speaks impeccable English so I would not recommend this to anyone looking for an "authentic" experience but I would recommend it to those looking for great food regardless of setting.
Best New (Opened in the last 3 years) restaurant in Lisbon?
I am taking out a native Lisboeta for a special meal. She left Lisbon 3 years ago and so has a strong opinion on most restaurants there at that time. She ate out a lot. I'd like to take her somewhere new.
The emphasis should be on the quality of the food and cooking. Nothing else matters, really.
I did do this once before, last year and took her to Sobral's Tasca da Esquina. We both liked it but not loved it. The concept is great, the execution was good, not great.
So, now I want to try again. Any suggestions?
My Birthday Dinner
Roka is great. Its owned by the same people who own Zuma.
If you want buzzy, I'd suggest Shochu Lounge which is right beneath Roka, serves the same menu but is more of a club atmosphere. It has a beautiful bar.
Fish, fish, fish!!! restaurants in Lisbon, Sintra and Madeira
vinhotinto75:I am not sure I agree or disagree with you regarding the Docas. Personally, I think its not much different in character than the Parque das Nações. Also my wife, a native Lisboeta, would go to that area as a teenager.
But if Chowhound is about finding good food, what did you think of the food at Docas? I've eaten at a couple of the Doca Peixe places and the fish was outstanding. It also was much better value than Sr. Peixe which I think is very overpriced.
The Parque das Nações places are a strange lot. I've been there many times for parties as well. The food is not particularly good but I suppose that, unlike the smaller places in the city, they are better able to handle large groups so everybody is having their birthday parties there.
sashaz: If you just want a view perhaps with drinks, that may be an option as well. There's a bar called Le Chat beside the Museu de Arte Antiga with a terrace. For that matter, the Arte Antiga also serves lunch in its courtyard overlooking the harbor.
There's also Cafe Noobai which serves simple salads on a small terrace with sweeping views.
Fish, fish, fish!!! restaurants in Lisbon, Sintra and Madeira
The Santo Amaro docks have quite a few seafood restaurants serving fresh fish. If its a nice day, you can sit outside with a nice view of the seaside.
Getting into London late (after 10pm) on a Thursday - any recommendations
The new St. John Hotel, which opens today, is supposed to be serving until 2am.
It is in the Soho/Chinatown area which probably has the greatest number of late-night dining options, including Princi, the Italian bakery/pizzeria open until midnight.
Solo dining (at bar?) near Andaz Hotel by Liverpool Station
I also work in the area and mainly agree with deansa.
I haven't been but The Princess of Shoreditch pub is within walking distance as well. Good food with a pub atmosphere.
