Halal Bite, 169 Mile End Road, Stepney London London E1 4AQ

OK so here comes the first of the kebab roll reviews and I have to say It
does not start off promising.

There are at least 10 chicken shops within easy walking distance of my
house. Halal Bite is one of the largest of these and to be fair it is one
of the cleanest too. It is next to the mosque and I believe this building
is actually leased from the mosque so its a shame that after what is
presumably uplifting prayer those who attend the mosque come back down to
earth with a very hard bump indeed after visiting this place, certainly if
the kebab roll is anything to go bye.

A full lam doner kebab costs £3.00 which is not much at all and the doner
roll costs £2 and is in truth not that much smaller. the meat was spongy
and it was difficult to determine exactly what meat it was. The meat had
been cooked in a spicy sauce with onions and chilli but the meat had no
taste itself and the soft texture was a real disappointment. There was also
no shortage of grease either. So this was a step up from the Snacksters
Doner Kebab mentioned in a previous post, but believe me that is not hard.
I cannot give this kebab more than a 5. In its favour there was plenty of
it and the price was cheap.

Against it was the fact that the taste was indeterminate and the texture was
rather spongy though not as spongy as the Snacksters offering. The meat was
also incredibly greasy.

The Dove Street Inn 76 St. Helens St, Ipswich, IP4 2LA

The Dove Street Inn is an excellent pub offering a vast range of real ales
at affordable prices. Unusually there is a live web-based stock list which
is updated at least once a day. More can be found at:
http://www.dovestreetinn.co.uk/

Beers are generally well kept and this is a must for people visiting Ipswich
who like real ale.

The food is generally quite basic and it includes home made chilli, curry
and some decent quality pies and pasties.

I visited this pub last Friday with a friend. we wanted a nibble and opted
for a cheese platter each. at £5.00 we did not think the platter would be
massive. We were wrong about size for sure. each platter consisted of a
whole packet of cream crackers, at least half a pound of mature cheddar and
most of a medium sized onion cut up into pieces. Neither me or my friend
ate even half our platter as it was so big and boring!! We gave them away
for the rest of the pub to nibble on.

So, while the ales are excellent and the food is generally very acceptable,
the cheese platter needs to be changed. there needs to be a variety of
biscuits and not so many of them. 2 or 3 different kinds of cheese would
also be good as well as a bit of celery to complement the onion. The cheese
platter did give us a laugh though if nothing else!

Over all I give this pub 9 out of 10.

It is not at all pretentious and the range of ales on offer is amazing for a
pub of its size. The live stock information is particularly welcome and
unique as far as I know.

Tiroler Hut Restaurant 27 Westbourne Grove London W2 4UA

This Austrian restaurant is a 10 minute walk from Bayswater station.
Upstairs there is a bar selling various Austrian beers and snacks and down
stairs is the restaurant itself. I attended this restaurant with a group of
17 people for my 40th birthday. You need to book a couple of weeks in
advance, even for a week day as this restaurant is popular with groups of
people celebrating various events. When I attended there was another
largish group of people celebrating a 40th birthday. Menus available
include a set menu for parties costing £23.50 for 3 courses at the time of
writing. Entertainment is also provided throughout the meal and people who
have been to Austria tell me that the entertainment as well as the food is
quite authentic. More information can be found by visiting the website at
www.tirolerhut.co.uk
I started off with a portion of pickled herrings which came with a sour
cream dressing, apple, onions and salad. They wer fairly sweet pickled
herrings and I enjoyed them. This was followed by Bauernschmaus which
consisted of a wooden platter with smoked pork, german sausage, a dish like
black pudding, dumplings and Sauerkraut. The meal was completed by chopped
pancake with raisins and Plum Compote. The variety of meat in the main
dish was pleasing and well bulked out by the dumpling. The Sauerkraut added
a welcome tasty vegetable accompanyment . the pudding was also a generous
portion and over all I was well filled up. While we ate, we got austrian
entertainment. Not surprisingly, songs from The Sound Of Music appeared
regularly.

Due to the entertainment this is not a place where a couple would go for a
romantic meal but if you are looking to celebrate an event with a group of
people this venue is ideal. the atmosphere was relaxed and informal. the
entertainment was fun and, most importantly, the food was excelent. There
was also a small range of german beers and other drinks. More information
is available on the website.

I did not inform staff that I am visually impaired and there were 4 people
with guide dogs and there were no problems at all. Staff were generally
helpful and attentive.

This was a hastle free enjoyable night out. Things can often go wrong when
there are large groups of people attending a restaurant but the Tiroler Hut
caters very well for large parties and I give it 8.5 out of 10. I have no
real complaints but it would have been nice to have tried some of the stuff
from the main menu.

supermarket Doner Kebabs

I recently bought an online order from Asda and one of the things I ordered
was Snacksters Doner Kebabs.

The area in which I live, Stepney East London, is full of low grade dodgy
chicken shops that the Bangladeshi community seems to have gone mad for.
The food is truly rubbish but though they all do Doner Kebabs and I would
probably not recommend any of them, none are as bad as the snacksters
offerings!

It's Lent and everyone is giving up things for a 40 day period that started
in mid February. I'm not interested in this abstinence rubbish so over the
next few days I will try kebab meat in a bun in some of these places and
compare/contrast. I have tried 3 of them already in fact and will report!

The Sea Cow 37 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW

The Sea Cow in Lordship Lane near East Dulwich station in South East London
is best described as a very posh chip shop.

All fish is freshly cooked but the range on offer goes far beyond your usual
Cod and Haddock. choice is seasonal but when I visited last week there were
other choices such as Red Snapper, fresh Tuna steak and John Dory which
apparently is not the remains of the next door neighbour fried up in a pan!

Cod and Haddock are cooked in batter but the rest of the fish is generally
grilled. You will probably pay between £7 and £10 for fish and chips which
is not cheap but I found the quality astoundingly good. The Red Snapper was
cooked to perfection with no bones and the chips were crispy, fresh and not
greasy. OK so these chips were cooked in vegetable oil. everyone knows
that chips from a chip shop should really be cooked in dripping but for
upper class radio 4 chips these were not half bad!

Staff were attentive and friendly. the person who served me was happy to go
through the menu. There was even fresh ground coffee available! There was
no curry sauce or gravy available which is a bit of a shame!

There is a website available at
http://www.theseacow.co.uk
this is flash based but it will at least give you an idea of the choices
available on the menu.

Over all then the food was great and really very fresh. staff were helpful
and I would say this place is well worth a visit. You can eat in or take
food away though eating in is recommended because of the freshness. I give
the sea cow 8.5 out of 10.