Wednesday 31 August 2011

Pennyhill Park Luxurious Country House Hotel - Sunday 28th August

Venue:-            Penny Hill Park Hotel & Spa

Telephone:-            01276 486150 (restaurant number)

Website:-            www.pennyhillpark.co.uk

Situated along the A30 between Bagshot and Camberley you see the entrance to Pennyhill Park, once through the entrance advertising its five star status you enter 123 acres of rolling Surrey parkland within which lies a luxurious country house hotel. You may choose to park your car in the car park and walk to the hotel entrance or simply drive up to the front door and toss the keys to the valet to park it for you- having opted to drive the Skoda today and not the Ferrari I opted for self park. The hotel is very worthy of its five star status, I am having trouble finding even the tiniest fault.

We had come for Sunday buffet lunch (£37.00) per head plus drinks – a bottle of house wine comes in at around £16.00 a bottle of beer at £4.60 plus, most wines seem to me about £30.00 plus and champagne £50.00 plus. Now this probably seems expensive and yes it is, but you have luxury surroundings, immaculate service, a jazz trio (The Jubilee trio) and a buffet to die for.

The buffet consists of a traditional carvery (beef, lamb and pork loin today), sea bass and a pasta dish all served with all the trimmings and local produce. The starter range is enormous with lots of seasonal seafood – oysters, giant prawns, roll mops etc. cold meats and various salad accompaniments. The desserts consisted of classic hot fare – bread and butter pudding or apple and cinnamon crumble or a selection of exquisite concoctions such as exotic choux buns.
There is a more detailed menu on the website, plus details of its other restaurant ‘The Latymer’ which we haven’t tried.

We all had a mixture of starters, probably had something of everything between us – the plates were cleared. For the mains we had either lamb or pork, as much as you wanted (you can always go back for seconds or thirds), the very friendly carver will give you slices from where you request thereby catering for the lovers of well done and those that prefer pink – plates cleared again! We tried lots of the desserts  -more empty plates. All washed down with some water and wine and followed with rather delicious coffee – Oh! Something to complain about, the coffee came with homemade marshmallows – we don’t like marshmallows, bring back the petit fours I say.

I would rate this overall as an ultimate five star experience of both luxury and cuisine and you should try it, especially good for that little special occasion surprise lunch. There is a 10% service charge added to all bills which I am told is divided between all the staff involved.

Monday 29 August 2011

The Hideout Thai restaurant and Bar - Friday 26th August

Venue:-            The Hideout

Telephone:-            01344 778686

Website:-            thethaihouserestaurant.com


“If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise ….” Drive along the Old Wokingham Road, turn into the road for Bracknell crematorium and then turn left and pass the Downshire golf club and then left again into the ‘The Hideout’ Thai restaurant and Bar. The final part of the journey is along an unmade road through the woods where you will always see rabbits playing and you may occasionally if you are lucky see the odd fox or two and even a deer. The road turns towards a clearing in front of a low building with a large expanse of lawn with tables and umbrellas set for summer (when that is nobody knows!). Park up and head inside … the bar area reminds of local clubs that I have visited in the past and has a community centre feel about it, except that this bar is more tastefully decorated with a large collection of ‘nick knacks’ all around the walls and placed on high – just look up!
There is always a real ale served straight from the barrel – Youngs when we visited at £2.50 a pint, can you get it cheaper? Cobra lager was on draught at £2.80, again can you find cheaper?

On to the restaurant, this is a large open dining area decorated in Thai style with lots of large fans adorning the walls and some large wall screens depicting Thai scenes. The tables are arranged as required for seating that evening, with comfortable chairs and wooden screening separating the groups of tables with more intimate tables for two in the corner.

The food … we chose the mixed starters (£9.90) for two which consisted of  satay chicken, satay beef, money bag, prawn in filo, veggie spring roll, prawn toast and duck sticks – a good choice if you fancy a selection. Most of these items can be ordered separately as well as other starters such as Thai fish cakes. All starters have the requisite dips.

For mains we had Red chicken curry, fish with chilli and garlic, mushrooms with onions and beans, beef with ginger and vegetables and another noodle dish plus plain rice. They have Thai salads, Soups, sizzling dishes and vegetarian dishes – no main dish is more than £10.00.

The desserts are either ice cream or banana fritters – we declined these today.

The wine list is short but has a good variety and very reasonable prices with house wine coming in at £9.50 and even the most expensive bottle £25.00 (champagne is dearer).

All in all this is excellent place to dine, Maggie and her small team make you very welcome and will always adapt a meal to suit, the setting is wonderful for a summer lunch and the restaurant does excellent dishes just for lunch, we have often been and the place is often crowded on a sunny day – last time we had to sit on the lawn all the tables had gone.

As you may have guessed this is a regular of ours and the quality of food and service has been consistent over the years – long may it continue. I am sure I saw some bears picnicking as we drove out!

Sunday 21 August 2011

Hyns Chinese Restaurant, South Ascot. Saturday 20th August

Venue:-            Hyns Chinese Restaurant 
Telephone:-            01344 872583 
Website:-            hyns.co.uk

Hyns is a large spacious Chinese restaurant situated in South Ascot at the station end of a small parade of shops. The restaurant has been in existence since 1988, so they must be getting something right. The exterior is inviting and very smart, suggesting a more upmarket Chinese, the interior has a modern feel about it, with plenty of table space including several round tables for larger groups – something that appeals to me, a group of say eight people on a long table is not as nice as the same group on a round table. There is a small bar near the entrance and a piano just inside the restaurant proper. The staff are both friendly and polite, attentive yet not overbearing, service efficient yet not hurried – just the right amount of time between courses.

The menu is fairly large and has about 23 starters £6.50 - £8.50 average. Gourmet mixed starters were £16 for two. Soups come in at £3.80 except crab and shark fin which is £8.50. Crispy duck is £19.00 for half. There are about 40 main dishes – poultry, meat, sizzlers and seafood mostly around £7.20. Fish dishes are £8.95 with items such as Sea bass and Lobster coming in at market price. Veggie dishes around £4.50 - £6.50 and rice and noodles £3 - £6. There is also a Thai menu and several set menu meals for groups of 2 or more people. House wine is £14.50 a bottle and comes under the names of “Wan Fu” and “Lai Ying” , both from that famous Chinese area known as Chile in South America!

What did we eat – seven of us, chose from the a la carte.

House gourmet mixed starters, consisting of Spring Rolls, sesame prawn toast (lots of it!), crispy filo pastry with sweet and sour sauce (whats that all about?) spare ribs, a filo tartlet with a nice mixture of chicken and other things in it and crispy seaweed. The starters were received well and all were devoured  - my personal opinion would be to not have the mixed starters choose your own from the menu, too much prawn toast (nice as it was), sweet and sour filo, to me that is a nothing food! The crispy seaweed was strangely sweet. The tartlets and spring rolls were superb though.
Crispy duck next – we had half between us and it was plentiful, moist and very tasty, served as always shredded on a large plate with all the usual accompaniments and unusually the bones were not left with the meat – did not plan on eating the bones anyway.
The mains – twice fried pork and peppers and veg, Mongolian lamb, chicken and cashew nuts, sweet and sour pork, Thai curry, pork with chilli and onions and finally beef in a black bean sauce and served with egg rice and some Singapore noodles. We ate the lot! Any complaints, well one person was not too keen on the Mongolian lamb and that’s about it – we all enjoyed the meal. It was all washed down with aperitifs of the usual Tsing Tao Chinese beer, orange juice, still and sparkling water and not to mention a bottle of Fleurie (complemented the food well) and a bottle of Pouilly Fume, followed by Jasmine teas and flower teas – not tried them? Give ‘em a go if you like green tea or oolong you will like this.

Overall I would say the meal was a great success and we will definitely call again – in fact we have been to the Sunday buffet a few times and it is an absolute bargain (£15.50 – I think) , with loads to choose from and excellent quality. I reckon it worked out at about £40.00 a head but we did have the full works. So, if you fancy a very good Chinese meal and you are in the Ascot area look up Hyns.

Patisserie Valerie, Windsor Royal Station. Saturday 20th August

Having visited the patisserie last saturday (see review) and generally saying things were average ant try somewhere else - what did we do, went back for brekkie again this saturday.

Two people had the cheese and tomato croissant served hot and came with a small side salad (£5.30) - both commented how large it was and how very tasty it was. I had the same as before poached eggs on toast with bacon (£6.60). Eggs nicely done (better than last time), toast perfectly done (better than last time), butter was rock hard but the toast was piping hot so was able to spread the toast - just, 3 slices of bacon, large and perfectly cooked. Caffe latte, Americano and fresh orange made up the drinks.

Total bill for three was £25.75.

On todays offerings I will update my 'try somewhere else' for breakfast to have breakfast here it is great.

Friday 19 August 2011

The Cricketers pub and restaurant, Littlewick Green 18th August 2011

Venue:-                   The Cricketers, Littlewick Green

Telephone:-            01628 822888

Web :-                    http://www.cricketersberkshire.com/

            Unable to access website at time of writing.

As you travel west along the A4 from maidenhead you pass the Riders Hotel (formerly owned by Freddie Starr) then turn left into Coronation Road and you enter a different world. You are greeted with houses surrounding a cricket ground with the Cricketers pub nicely situated to be part of village life. You can imagine a warm balmy Saturday afternoon watching the thwack of willow against leather while sipping your Pimms – pint of real ale in my case! - while being interviewed gently by John Nettles as he tries to unravel yet another Midsummer Murder! To my knowledge at least three episodes were filmed on and around the village green.

But the pub – recently given a makeover by the new hosts – Jackie and Bob – is bright and airy and everything you would expect from a village pub. A warm welcome awaits all who enter, be they local villagers or passing travellers. The pub has the ideal summer setting and I imagine would be warm and cosy in the winter. There is a small car park but there is also plenty of roadside parking.

The food:-

Six of us blokes went to the pub for an evening of cards, to reminisce, and drink copious amounts of beer (Badgers – a good real ale, kept well), cider (somebody has to drink it!) and a few bottles of red wine (Nieto Malbec, an Argentinian wine which has won accolades in the past but I haven’t seen much of it around), Oh! And we thought we had better have some food to soak up the liquid. I thought the wine at £15.95 a bit pricey, but hey ho, we managed three bottles and you could have had cheaper wine – we wanted malbec, we got malbec so who is complaining.

The menu was what I call typical pub grub, steaks, gammon, steak and ale pie, a Thai curry and Barnsley chop plus other things I am unable to remember (damn that drink!).
Two had steaks, and both complemented that they were cooked as requested, one had the Barnsley Chop, very good – didn’t want the peas so they substituted other veggies – no problem. The rest of us had Gammon steak, beautifully cooked, not done to death as so often happens, a couple of eggs on top, grilled tomato, mushrooms, chips and a small side salad – delicious – it is what pub grub is all about. The plates were returned empty apart from the caveman brigade who didn’t eat the green stuff! Why ask for it if you are not going to eat it – what a waste.

This is a lovely pub in a lovely setting and I would recommend it to anybody just for a nice drink watching the cricket or sitting out during a hot summer and snacking on the lunchtime menu or having an evening meal with starters, mains and puds. It is called a ‘pub and restaurant’ but to me it is a pub that serves excellent pub food – a restaurant it ain’t. I wish Jackie and Bob well in their new venture and hope to sample more of the delicious ‘pub grub’ in the future.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Mezzaluna Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

Venue:-            Mezzaluna Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria 
Telephone:-            01344 876200 
Web:-              http://www.ristorantemezzaluna.com/

Mezzaluna is situated at one end of the High Street in the village of Sunninghill, although it has no parking of its own there is ample street parking just outside or very nearby. The restaurant is family run, seats around 40/50 people and has a nice mix of tables for large or small parties with a few round tables which I believe all restaurants should have. The inside is very Italian with a terrazzo tiled floor, beamed ceiling and walls adorned with modern art and several large bottles of Italian wine set into small mirrored alcoves that make the restaurant appear larger than it is – it looks very nice, you are not really aware  that the mirrors are there. The seats are very comfortable Edwardian style with a few leather bound seats and a a few carver chairs. Two waitresses were on this evening and both were of a jolly disposition, unhurried yet attentive, one of the two was a newcomer learning the ropes but was obviously liking  her job. We had a lot of good friendly banter with both. Nice ambience, good background music not so intrusive that you couldn’t hold a conversation.
So on to the food.

Three guests, three courses, apperifs, wine and coffee - £127.50

There is a good menu with a range of 21 starters with an average price of £7.95, 16 pastas £7.95 to  £9.95 average, mains £13.95 - £21.50,  and a dessert trolley at £4.50 a throw. My, my a dessert trolley! That’s takes me back to a bygone age of flambes at the table and Mateus Rose – you just don’t seem to get them anymore, Don’t particulary want the Mateus! There is also a pizza menu and a few daily specials. The wine list has all the usual Italian suspects with house wine coming in at £12.95 a bottle.
NOTE:- Crusty bread & butter, a bowl of mixed olives are not charged for and ALL mains come with either a side salad or veggies and potatoes.

Our food:-

Starters:-

Avocado Mezzaluna  (£7.95) – avocado, tomato and Mozzarella – typical Italian ‘tricolore’ which down well as a light starter, but was a good sized portion.
Spag. All Marinara (£9.95 – probably cheaper as it was a starter) – excellent spag with tomato, garlic and chilli with mixed seafood of mussels, clams, prawns and squid. Large portion which was greeted with ‘excellent’
I had the Calamari Fritti (£7.95) – delicious squid rings done to perfection in a light crispy tempura batter with a small rocket salad and a single cherry tomato – perfect starter.

Mains :-

Penne Primavera (£8.50) – pasta tubes with mushrooms, onions, peppers, garlic, olives and tomato sauce – excellent pasta, completely devoured by my partner. Plus a very nice mixed salad (£3.50).
Fegato all Veneziana (£14.95) – calves liver with onion and red wine sauce. Once again a faultless choice, plenty of calves liver braised in a rich red wine with plenty of onions, again the choice of accompaniment was a mixed salad.
My choice – Lemon sole wrapped around smoked salmon in a rich butter sauce on a bed of wilted spinach. One of the days specials. I had this with a side of spinach. Excellent fish cooked to perfection and very tasty spinach with an added touch of garlic. Must drop them a point here as the fish came with spinach and I ordered extra spinach, had I known the fish already came with  spinach I would have ordered a different side.

Dessert :-

All at £4.50 from the trolley, oranges soaked in Grand Marnier and syrup with some strawberries and raspberries for good measure topped off with fresh cream. The there was apple pie with cinnamon , more strawberries and raspberries and more cream. I was puffing so settled for a very nice crème brulee. Other desserts we did not try included profiterooles, lemon meringue, Tiramisu (of course!) and a choclately thingy.

This was all washed down with a couple of Peronis to start and an orange juice, a bottle of Chianti Classico Reserva 2008 at a whopping (I thought) £23.95 – but it was very nice. The coffee was Busonero, which I have never heard off but apparently is a gourmet coffee served in Italy. The double expressos ( 4 of them!) were strong and smooth without the  hint of bitterness that some expressos have. The other coffee was a regular white coffee which was perfectly ok, if not a little strong.

Overall this was an excellent meal and we would definitely revisit, my gripes were minor and the two other guests had no gripes at all. I would recommend this restaurant to anybody that likes Italian cuisine.


Saturday 13 August 2011

Patisserie Valerie Windsor (breakfast) Saturday 13th August 2011

Venue:- Patisserie Valerie, Windsor Royal Station, Windsor. SL4 1PJ
Tel:-       01753 858955
Web:-    http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/

My partner had a full English (£7.95) which consisted of two fried eggs, 1 cumberland sausage, 3 rashers of bacon, a tomato (halved), a portion of mushrooms and two rounds of granary toast.
I had the poached eggs (2) and Bacon (3 rashers) with two slices of granary toast (£6.60) plus an extra serving of mushrooms(£1.55).
To drink an Americano coffeee (Illy) - £2.70 and a fresh orange juice at £3.05.

Total cost of meal - £21.85

Service was efficient and breakfast was served piping hot, the fried eggs were complemented on, the poached were ok. Bacon was good and the toast was plentiful and hot - came with TEN portions of unsalted butter! The coffee was good served in a large cup (bucket!) and came with a seperate serving of hot milk. The orange juice was very large and very good value for money. The sausage was thought to be too coarse by my partner.

Overall the meal was about average and we have eaten cheaper and better in other local venues.

Patisserie Valerie is an excellent patisserie as long as you want to use it as a patisserie, the cakes are to die for and are all home made. They do an excellent order service for special occasions and have yet to find somewhere better. Snack meals and afternoon tea are available all day and I would recommend these - but breakfast, sorry, very average try somewhere else.

Restaurant, cafe, bar etc. personal reviews

This is a purely personal blog of various eating establishments that I have visited - each post will be entered within a few days of my actual visit and will contain only 'MY PERSONAL' opinion. What one person likes another dislikes, so if you disagree with me, thats ok. Please do not slag me off for having an opinion but feel free to enter into useful dialogue.
I have been thinking of doing something like this for ages and wasn't sure of the right platform for it and have decided that the blog seems fit for purpose. Thanks to Almanzora Lunching for finally getting me moving on this.