Holborn whippet, Sicilian Avenue Holborn London

 

This is a real ale pub I have been intending to visit for some time.  Yesterday Angus Corie and myself went there after work and tried the beer and food.

 

The Holborn whippet is certainly a good place  for beer.  There’s generally at least 5 beers on and some ciders, interesting keg beers and lagers.  It’s a very busy pub, particularly at about 6 in the evening when it gets full of people leaving work.  despite this, we were served quickly and the bar staff were really very helpful when it came to finding us a table and telling us about the beer and the food.  Pints generally cost from between £3.40 and £3.70 which is very reasonable for central London.  All the pints were kept well and on the beer front I have no complaints at all.  I’d highly recommend trying out this pub,  though  keep in mind that it gets extremely busy after work during the week.

 

I was not so impressed  by the food.  I had a steak sandwich with fries.  The fries were cheap frozen things like cardboard which were hollow and generally not particularly satisfying.  The steak sandwich I had was a good size but the steak itself was rather tough and a bit tasteless.  My friend was not over impressed with the burger and the range of pizzas was very limited.  Corie had a pepperoni pizza which was of decent quality though a bit soggy in the middle.  It had plenty of jalapeno chillies on it which suited me but apart from burgers and steak sandwiches, there were only 3 pizzas on offer.

 

The burgers cost £7.50 with fries with a steak sandwich costing £8.  For that I would have expected a little better quality and a little more choice.  I wouldn’t really go to this pub for the food, I’d go for the ale.  I think a better option might be to sell basic sandwiches and maybe cold pies rather than the very limited range of hot food currently on offer.

 

We went to this pub hoping for good beer and decent food.  I think it would work if the pub really concentrated on the beer rather than giving the limited food such prominence.  On that basis I give this pub 6.5 out of 10.  I like the fact that they keep people up to date with new beers on twitter and that the staff were really friendly.  By just serving cold but good quality sandwiches and pies, I think the pub would be more honest and I would give it an 8 out of 10.

 

Visit the website at http://holbornwhippet.wordpress.com/

 

 

Graham Page

Mobile: 07753 607980

Fax:  0870 706 2773

Email: gpage@useit.plus.com

MSN: gabriel_mcbird@hotmail.com

Skype: gabriel_mcbird

 

Fresh, 275 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BY

Fresh is a small coffee shop on 2 floors right next to Whitechapel station.  They sell a range of paninis and sandwiches as well as pies supplied form a farm in Dorset and cakes from the Heavenly Cake company in Hertfordshire.  The coffee is good quality and, at under £2 a cup this is somewhat cheaper than the high street chains such as Starbucks and Costa.

 

I visited this shop twice in the last week and there is building work going on to extend the shop and provide a take away hatch at the front.  There was no seating down stairs temporarily while this work went on  but staff were happy to help me find a seat upstairs.

 

The pies sold by this coffee shop are of good quality and they come with mash and salad.  At the time of writing, they warm the pies up in the microwave but the owner tells me that a pie oven is definitely on the list of things to get.  That’s a good job as microwave ovens ruin pastry, making it soggy and greasy.  I have recently had a beetroot and goat’s cheese pie which was unusual.  Beetroot becomes sweeter when it is hot and this relatively simple pie filling tasted delicious.  There was also a sausage roll which did have rather a lot of pastry for my taste though there was plenty of filling.

 

I rather like the bars they sell which are supplied by Heavenly Cakes.  These are biscuit based and usually have chocolate on them.  I’ve tried the cappuccino bar and the lemon meringue   bar which were both absolutely deliciously overindulgent.  There’s also a good range of unusual bottled and canned juices and fizzy drinks such as San Pellegrino and Snapple (which is owned by doctor pepper in fact).

 

The food outlets in this particularly deprived area of town is increasingly uniform and supplied by Bangladeshi chicken shop merchants who tend to all run with particular fads and trends.  We are currently seeing the demise of shops selling ice creams and smoothies, probably because loads of people set up shops selling the same things at the same time so they cancelled each other out.  this shop is somewhat different however and it really is a gem among some distinctly unappetising food outlets.

 

I give an overall mark of 7 out of 10.  This would be at least 8.5 if they had a decent pie oven rather than just a microwave.

 

 

giraffe, 304-305 The Loft, The Gallery, Westfield Stratford City, London E20 1ET

Giraffe is now a medium sized restaurant chain  with 46 restaurants in the UK.  It has a reputation for selling fairly healthy food though it is a bit expensive.

 

Myself and miss s decided to take  advantage of an offer giving us 40 percent off our food bill and we also got half priced wine as well.  My over all verdict on the food here is that the portions are quite generous though the menu was a little unimaginative and I would not want to pay the full price for the food.

 

As usual with Westfield Stratford restaurants, the atmosphere is far from intimate.  It feels and sounds as though you are eating in a walled off area in a shopping centre which is true but places like Kings Cross station do a better job of allowing units to create their own atmosphere.

 

for starters then I had olives which were fairly plain but good quality. and I had them with a barbecue duck tostada which was duck in orange sauce with salad in a crispy tortilla a bit like a taco.  this was tasty though I thought there was not much duck.

 

Miss s had   something called Pot Stickers which were essentially Chinese style chicken dumplings.  I didn't try these but she said they were tasty.

 

For mains I had baby back ribs with skin on fries and crunchy coleslaw.  the baby back ribs were nice and tender and smothered in barbecue  sauce.  they were messy but the meat fell easily off the bones.  The fries were crispy but there was no skin in evidence and I can't say whether they were frozen or not.  generally I like fries thicker than these were though the fact that they were properly cooked meant that I didn't mind them.  the coleslaw was a real disappointment though.  It was just salad with a bit of extra cabbage in vinegar.  no mayo or anything to make it creamy!

 

Miss s had chicken with  garlic in parmesan  breadcrumbs (posh chicken Kiev basically) served with mash.  she said she quite liked this though she was not keen on the mash as it tasted instant.  I didn't try it so can't say.

 

Miss s still felt hungry so she had a BBQ Chicken & Smoked Cheddar Quesadilla which came with salad and some of that horrible crunchy coleslaw which as I have already said was particularly grim.

 

 

Miss s did not have a dessert but she had a cointreau hot chocolate instead.  I had the frozen vanilla yogurt which tasted more of yogurt than vanilla though it was acceptable.  I wish I’d gone for the fruit sorbet instead.

 

I finished off with a cointreau hot chocolate myself and miss s had 2 of them.

Over all the food was reasonable, with a few exceptions.  the menu is not extensive but it seems that most dishes are cooked quite well.  without the food discount it would have cost over £45 each and while the quality of the food was pretty good, it was not mind blowing and at full price it would have been rather expensive.  given the helpful nature of the staff, I give this restaurant a 6 out of 10.

 

I can see no reason not to eat here unless coleslaw is important to you, though given the price tag it's not a place to go on a tight budget.

 

Royal Beacon Hotel Exmouth EX8 2AF

I visited this hotel with 3 other friends on the 21^st December for a Christmas dinner.  Unlike other places I have visited, it was not necessary to choose the menu in advance.

 

For starters, I had Ham Hock Roulade  with soused carrot purée, piccalilli and poppy seed toast

 

This was a reasonably generous portion and the quality was good.  It came served on a wooden board but the food was quite easy to eat so this was not a problem.  I found the soused carrot purée a bit on the strong side for me but then I don’t always like overpowering vinegar.  The piccalilli was absolutely beautiful however.  it was homemade, it had enough vinegar to give it bite and it was full of crunchy vegetables.  The extra toast went well with the ham hock roulade which bulked out the starter nicely.  I would also say that the ham hock was a bit on the salty side even though ham generally is quite salty anyway

 

Debbie had the Pan Seared Scallops  with fennel puree and crisp Parma ham.  This was a nice dish but there were only about 4 scallops    which I thought was a little bit on the mean side especially as they were served on a large dinner plate.

 

Roy had the winter vegetable soup and this had a lot of different chunky winter vegetables in it and it was of good quality.

 

Martin had the Baked Camembert  with Garlic, Rosemary & Thyme with crusty bread 

 

He particularly enjoyed this and thought it was a decent sized starter.

 

For my main I had the Country Beef  with Yorkshire pudding, a rich red wine jus and honey shallots

This turned out to be a cut of top side of beef which was tender and really flavoursome.  I felt however that the roast potatoes were a little soggy and generally a bit underwhelming.

 

Roy had the Traditional Roasted Devonshire Turkey  with an orange, cranberry and

chestnut stuffing, bacon roll and a turkey jus 

 

this was also a reasonable portion and he said it was quite well cooked.

 

Martin went for Roasted Cod Fillet  with a pea and parmesan risotto and bacon lardons.  He was recovering from a stomach bug though he got no vegetables with his meal (see below).  He said it was well cooked and quite easy on the stomach which is what he wanted.

 

Debbie had the Grilled Fillets of Sea Bass  with crab risotto and shellfish bisque.  She felt there could have been more of it and gain she had no veg but she said the food was of generally good quality.

 

When we got the main courses delivered, a dish of vegetables arrived separately consisting of broccoli, carrots and parsnips.  These were fine with roast dinners but I’m not sure they were the best choices for Martin and Debbie.  Roy and me therefore ate the vegetables.  There was probably enough vegetables for 3 decent portions so we did eat plenty but there was no way enough for 4 people.

 

I think that each person should be given a bowl of vegetables or the fact that one bowl is for 4 should be explained.  It may be that if we had asked, more veg would have been given.

 

For pudding, Debbie and myself had the cheese and biscuits which came with celery, apple and quince jelly.  This was quite nice but there was only a brie and a cheddar   cheese.  I’d have liked a blue cheese as well and in general it came on a big plate but it was quite a small portion even though the quality was quite acceptable.

 

Roy had the Christmas pud which he said was quite good and Martin had  the chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream and baileys anglaise   I believe.  He said this was pretty good but baileys anglaise   is really  Baileys custard and it would probably be clearer if they stuck to that rather than trying to be pretentious.  If I’m wrong here I’m happy for there to be comments posted!

 

In general we all thought the food was of reasonable quality.  Staff took our orders while we were in the bar and called us through to the restaurant when the starters were ready.  I thought this was a nice touch that got the evening off to a good start.  We thought that the portions were perhaps on the small side as the meal cost  £22 for 3 courses, but Christmas meals often do not represent best value.  I would have to give mine a 7 out of 10.  Poor slightly soggy roast potatoes  and a rather limited selection of cheese were my only real complaints  though the quantity would probably not  have been enough if the veg had been divided up between 4 people rather than 2.