I visited this pub for a birthday do in early February after finding reviews of it on the internet.  It's a large pub that serves a range of real ale and mid priced food.  Most of the real ales come from the Milton brewery  in Cambridge though there is a regularly changing range of guest beers as well.the food menu also changes from day to day though there are some dishes that are always present.  For more details visit the website at

http://www.individualpubs.co.uk/pembury

 

My main impression of this pub is that the staff are friendly and service at the bar is excellent.  Food can take a while to arrive but it is generally fresh and of decent quality.  I had pork pie with pickles and salad followed by Thai spiced fish cakes and spicy rice.    Pork pie was decent supermarket quality.  the fish cake was like a large English fish cake but with Thai spices.  I wanted to have some pudding but I was truly stuffed and couldn't eat anymore..  Others tried the sausage and mash and Pork in cider was also on the menu and people seemed to like the food.  Ales were generally well kept and while I have seen larger collections in one pub, this one has enough choice to keep most people going.

 

The atmosphere in this pub is a bit like being in a hall or school gym.  there's a lot of echo and it can be quite hard to hear people over the other side of the table even though there is no music.  It reminds me a little bit of the old Firkin pubs of a few years ago in that way.  All wood, no soft furnishings at all.

 

I was generally impressed with the quality of the beer and the food.  Some of the people there had guide dogs and there was no issue with this at all.  the dogs were welcomed.

 

Over all I give this pub 7 out of 10 and say it is well worth a visit.

Anatolia Ocakbasi 253 mare Street Hackney

This is a Turkish restaurant that appeared in Timeout's cheap eats guide a and a friend of mine wanted to review it before having her birthday do there so I said I'd go along.

 

It's a mid sized restaurant that probably seats 40 or so people.  things  such as kebabs are cooked on an open fire so you can see it being cooked and the cooking area and everything seems clean.

 

I had a starter of green beans with onion and garlic followed by a Lamb doner kebab.  I thought a basic doner would be a good way of testing quality.  The starter was pleasant though the beans were a bit overcooked.  I don't know enough about Turkish food to say whether or not this is the norm for this dish.  The lamb doner was in fact slices of real lamb.  It was a bit greasy but very tasty.  It came with rice, a big varied salad with coleslaw, parsley, radish, onion, raw carrot  and peppers.  I had to take some of it home.  portions were massive and they give you plenty of bread with your meal to.  I will be going there for my friend's birthday next month and hope to try Pide which is a kind of Turkish pizza I am told.

 

I was quite impressed with this restaurant.  Staff were friendly and a 3 course meal with a glass of wine came to less than £20.  I am looking forward to going back there for my friend's birthday.

 

I give this restaurant 7.5 out of ten while the meat was tasty enough I would have liked it to be more spicy.  there was chilli sauce but it wasn't really hot enough.  Again I need to try more Turkish food to get an idea of how authentic this.

Revisit Red dragon Halal Chinese Restaurant 86 mile end road

following Jacky's comments I thought it was only fair to go back to this restaurant last week and try it. The food quality is still the same to me. starters lack imagination and quality with an offering of chips, onion rings, spring rolls, crispy seaweed and prawn on toast. These things do not work well on a buffet and the quality in my opinion was not great anyway. the spicy Thai veg soup and chicken and sweetcorn soups were average enough. I found that the range of main dishes was a little limited. this is partly because this is halal so sadly no pork. I think pork works particularly well in Chinese cooking and it is often my first choice. That is what they choose though so of course I don't adjust marking as I know they won't have pork before I go in there. Beef in black bean sauce was probably my favourite dish. I also quite liked the special fried rice though it had got a little hard.

Last time I visited this restaurant my main criticism was the smell. I am pleased to say that the damp smell seems to have gone so, if I want some Chinese food at a budget and don't want to go too far I would certainly consider this place. It's not excellent quality however and I have to say I don't think I'd travel a significant distance to eat the food. I give it a 5 out of ten. If you insist on halal meat then the red dragon may be slightly more attractive to you but there appear to be at least 2 other options in the area, Michaels on Commercial Road and the Maeda Indian and Chinese eatery on Roman Road. I haven't tried either of them so can't give an opinion.

revisit - caribbean scene restaurant jerry raffles square stratford london

This is a restaurant in Jerry Raffles Square in Stratford, East London very near to where the main events of the Olympics will take place.  Unsurprisingly therefore this part of Stratford is the nearest we get to the cultural district.

 

As any watchers of this blog may know I first visited this restaurant in July 2008.  then I rated it as being quite decent with a good range of food and helpful friendly staff.

 

I therefore decided to revisit this restaurant on my birthday earlier this month with a friend.  I have to say that we were disappointed and both felt that this restaurant has gone down hill.

 

I had a salt fish fritter and a beef pati for starter and was dismayed to find that they had both been microwaved.  at £2.75 I would expect something a bit fresher.  \the salt fish fritter came swimming in a spicy sauce which was ok but this meant you had no choice whether or not to have the sauce.  My friend had festival which is a kind of fried bread flavoured with vanilla and she said it was reasonably acceptably fresh.  My friend had Oxtail as her main with white rice and I chose \ackee and salt fish with rice and peas.  My friend is Caribbean herself and suggested we tried Hard Food which is a combination of yam, green banana and dumpling.  I wasn't that keen on the green banana but my friend said it was fine.  The problem was that the Hard Food was brought to the table cold.  I wouldn't have known but my friend pointed out that this should be hot.  The Hard Food was therefore taken away and microwaved but no apology was given. I'm glad we went for the Hard Food by the way as though it was not quite my cup of tea the size of the other portions was pitiful and I would have needed to buy something more on the way home.

 

We also had 2 Guinness punches which were nice though they put a load of ice in the first one which means of course they get away with putting less in the glass.

 

My over all impression of the staff was that they seemed a bit overstretched and demoralised.  They were in general polite but not that friendly.  I feel that this restaurant is quite expensive, we paid £26 each and I have had better food from take aways.  I would ignore this place because of poor quality and small portion size.  I give it 3.5 out of ten but my friend who found the service with the cold Hard Food particularly poor could only find it in her heart to give the Caribbean Scene a 1 out of ten.

 

If you want Caribbean food in Stratford and it is before half 9 in the evening give Caribbean Flavours inside the theatre royal a go.  portions are cheaper, bigger and more importantly better quality.

 

Happy Chops Chinese and Thai cafe 2A Grove Road London E3 5AX

Happy Chops is really a takeaway.  It sells pretty much the usual things you would expect a chinese take away to sell and the quality of food and range of dishes is really quite similar to the Golden Dragon which is a takeaway in Stepney with an entry in this blog.

 

A few tables have been put in so you can eat in as well as take away but this is really a cafe in the old slightly sloppy down at heel way of most cafes before places called cafes became trendy and expensive.

 

This cafe does sell an decent thai selection including beef, duck, pork prawn and various vegetables thai style as well as thai style noodles and rice.  there are also thai soups and thai fish cakes available.  This is a nice extra touch but I haven't tried the thai food yet so don't know about its quality.

 

I had chicken wings in salt and pepper and a hot and sour soup followed by Szechuan Pork with plain Chow Mein and a pot of chinese tea.  One nice thing about this restaurant is that you can choose to have most dishes with rice or noodles on one plate.  you still get a good plate full but not quite as much as you would if you bought separate dishes with rice in a different container or on a different plate.  Buying meals in this way drastically reduces price.  My Szechuan pork and plain chao main cost just under £5.  My total bill came to £11.50 which is pretty cheap really.

 

The food is acceptable but it is a little greasy and meat can be a bit tough.  I wouldn't go a long way to visit this takeaway and cafe but I would happily use it if I were in Mile End and I wanted a chinese meal.  Service was reasonably quick and I found the staff generally helpful and most staff seemed to speak quite good english.  I would give this place 6.5 out of 10

Good points are that it's cheap.  Service is quite friendly and speedy and portions are large.

 

Against, it's only average quality and food is a bit greasy.