The Mexican, 17 - 19 The Parade, Exmouth, Devon, EX8 1RS

This restaurant  is a Mexican restaurant in the centre of Exmouth.  Menus are available at the website http://www.eatmexican.co.uk

 

I visited this restaurant yesterday with 2 friends.  In brief, the menu is a little limited but the portions are large, the quality of food is good and the staff were generally attentive and professional.

 

For starters I had grilled spicy sausage  which came with bread and a bit of salad.  The sausage was cooked in red wine  which brought out the spicy meaty flavour nicely.  The bread was really a bit like bloomer bread, quite thick but nothing really memorable.

 

One of my friends had the corn tortilla chips which came with Guacamole, tomato salsa and sour cream.  The corn tortilla chips were fresh and the dips were quite plentiful.  Another friend had  Mixed Jalapenos and Jalapenos stuffed with  Jalapenos stuffed with Feta.  These were really tasty and the chillies were again fresh and not soggy.

 

For main Myself and one of my friends had the  Chicken Mexicana.  This is described on the menu as A chicken breast cooked in a sauce of hot chillies, garlic, white wine and tomatoes and accompanied with chilli potato wedges and salad garnish.  This is typical of the rest of the menu which is descriptive and helpful without being over flowery or making false claims for the food.  I found the chicken quite spicy without   being killer hot but Debbie, who does not eat hot food, found the chicken quite fierce I think.  Debbie went for the lamb Burrito.  This was filled with lamb stew cooked with almonds and the flavour reminded me a bit of Moroccan   food.  It was very tender and quite rich.

 

None of us had a main course as we were all quite full.  I ate some of Debbie’s main course in fact.

 

Instead of a dessert, we had Liqueur coffees.  Myself and Martin had Irish coffee and I think Debbie had Quantreau    coffee.

 

We also had a beer each.  Mexican beers are really nothing special and they insist on putting a piece of lime in the top.  I am told this is done in Mexico to keep flies out of the beer and this could make sense in hot climates.

 

The wine list looks quite extensive with house wine costing £12.95 a bottle.  This is a fair price and wines were not generally dearer  than about£16 a bottle.

 

The staff were helpful and knowledgeable about the food.  Our server warned us that the Chicken Mexicana was hot and she advised us that we would probably not need extra side dishes unless we were particularly hungry.  I appreciate this degree of honesty.

 

Our meal came to just over £67 for 3 of us. This may seem quite expensive but as I have said the portions were generous and the food was high quality.  Even though the menu is a little limited, I would go back to this place at least one more time.  I would like to try the Fajitas and possibly the Devilled mushrooms and the lunch time menu also looks quite appealing.

 

Over all then, the menu is rather limited particularly in the area of main meals but the quality of the food and helpfulness of the staff compensate for this.  I give the  Mexican 7.5 out of 10 and would certainly recommend it even for those like me who generally find Mexican food in the UK to be rather lacking in variety and expensive.

 

 

salsa restaurant 34-36 London Road, Southend

Last week I visited the Salsa Restaurant in Southend.  Generally the food was good, staff were helpful and while the prices were maybe a little high they weren’t totally unreasonable.

 

The menu offers Mexican, Portuguese and Italian food.  I went there with 2 other people.

 

for starters I had mushrooms stuffed with pate. the menu did not say what kind of pate was used and I would have liked a little more of it perhaps. the mushrooms were served in a thick crushed tomato and garlic mixture which also had a hint of chilli in it. Ideally the pate could have been slightly more strongly flavoured but I suppose it's hard to please all people and I'm not saying that this dish was bad in any way. I'm just expressing personal preference. One friend had prawns cooked in garlic and white wine and the other had calamari. Both liked their starters.

 

for main I had a Portuguese casserole containing Tomato, mixed meat, sausage, red kidney beans and spices. I had this with sauté potatoes. This was really quite nice though I would have liked a bit more spice in the sauce. I eat anything so mixed meats to me were not a problem. some of the meat had a kidney kind of taste with a more meat like texture. I wonder if this was heart? Nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned but if you are fussy it is worth asking. Black pudding was also included in this dish and though I am not worried about this, the black pudding was not mentioned on the menu. in general This was a basic really hearty dish and the quality of the meats was quite high. a bit of black pepper might have improved things a bit, I could have asked for some. The sauté potatoes were also fresh and made from real potato rather than frozen and they were well cooked. One of my friends had Beef in a wine and garlic sauce which and the other had Chicken, bacon and broccoli in creamy Parmesan sauce with penne. both people liked their dishes and commented on freshness and quality of ingredients.

 

For pudding I had Crème Brulee which was home made and full of rich thick custard. it was meant to be flavoured with baileys and though you could tell the flavour was there it was very much in the background. the waitress advised me that this is because children can eat this pudding so understandably the amount of baileys had to be kept to a minimum. one of my 2 friends also had this pudding and we agree that it was still quite rich and satisfying.  It was served with vanilla ice cream which was quite acceptable but not remarkable in any way.

 

The other person with me had a vanilla cheese cake and again liked it.

 

to end the meal (there is a posh French term for this I am sure) I had an Irish coffee which was made with good strong fresh coffee and plenty of whiskey with cream. I think there should really be some sugar in it as well but in many places poor quality instant coffee is used so the good fresh coffee was a nice touch.  2 of us had Irish coffee with the third having rum and hot chocolate. Normally rum and hot chocolate is not on the menu but hot chocolate is so making one with rum was not a problem for the staff. this flexibility is certainly a plus point. the measure of rum in the chocolate seemed very generous indeed and I wonder if the required amount of rum accidentally got added twice? no complaints there though!

 

The waitress who helped us was very friendly and patient. she went through the whole menu with us and we did not feel rushed. She also seemed reasonably knowledgeable about the food and in general she was attentive without being too in your face. we did not have to wait ages for the bill and she calculated our bills separately as well as giving us the price of the lot. this was thorough and it gave us full flexibility in deciding how we should split the bill.

 

for 3 courses, a bottle of wine and a liqueur coffee each we paid just over £30 a head excluding service charge. Tips go directly to the person who serves you by the way. this is not dirt cheap but you can pay a lot more for a meal of this quality. portions were generous and, importantly, the staff were helpful and knowledgeable. Good staff can make all the difference between a good night and a disaster so examples of good practice are very much worth a mention. I gave this restaurant 8 out of 10 and at least one of my friends thinks I am being a bit harsh. it is true that my criticisms are minor but for me an 8 means very much worth a visit. If anyone else who has visited this restaurant puts together a well justified argument for an extra half mark then maybe I can be persuaded.

 

Graham Page

Mobile: 07753 607980

Fax:  0870 706 2773

Email: gpage@useit.plus.com

MSN: gabriel_mcbird@hotmail.com

Skype: gabriel_mcbird

 

Albion Cafe, 2-4 Boundary Street, Shoreditch, London E2 7DD

I visited this eatery about a month ago after an assessment in the area.  Albion Café describes itself as selling:

Typical British caff food, nothing challenging or complicated, just straightforward hearty ingredients and recipes.   First of all, some of the foods such as Rabbit stew are hard to find in most if not all British cafes.    The menu includes breakfast served throughout the day, fish and chips, pies, sandwiches, puddings and fruit crumbles. Open all day for coffees, teas, English ales, juices, biscuits and cakes. The late-night menu includes Welsh rabbit, kedgeree and hot chocolate with shortbread.

 

Secondly, the food might be basic British but the prices are quite fierce.  I had a full breakfast, a dessert of mixed berries and pastry with cream, a coffee, a grapefruit  juice and  a ginger beer.  That little lot ended up costing me over £28.

 

It’s worth looking at prices in detail where I have them.  In particular the breakfast came to a rather heavy £10.00.  a typical greasy spoon will sell something similar for half that price so is the extra £5 really worth it?

 

My breakfast consisted of:  one egg, 2 rashers of bacon, one sausage, a tomato cut in half, a large flat mushroom, black pudding, bubble   and squeak and beans.  I also got 2 slices of fresh bread and all the butter I needed.

 

The egg was fried and the yoke was hard.  This is how I like it but that might not please everyone.

 

The bacon was of good quality and had quite a porky taste which I liked.  It could have been thicker.

The sausage was certainly of good quality and better than  most cafes have to offer but it wasn’t absolutely premium by any means.  I have had similar quality sausages from the co-op where you get 8 Cumberland sausages for about  2 pounds.  One sausage seemed a bit stingy to me as well.

 

The tomato was unremarkable.  Just an average tomato cut in 2.

The flat mushroom was equally unremarkable.

 

The black pudding was spicy and it had a nice crumbly texture.  This was pretty good quality and this was some of the best black pudding I have had in London.

 

The bubble tasted as though it had been made with coleslaw.  It seemed to contain mainly mashed potatoes with cabbage that had a slight hint of vinegar to it.  Not that nice at all I’m afraid.

The baked beans were also rubbish.  They were quite hard like some of the cheapest brands of baked beans and they had a rather watery tasteless sauce.

 

The bread was fresh crusty bread which tasted really nice.  It was sliced thick and generally quite satisfying.

 

So in general, this breakfast was a mixed bag with better than average parts to it.  £10 seems far too much to pay for what you actually get.  I think a price of £7 might have been more realistic though this is the top end of what I think the breakfast is worth.

 

The dessert was a bit of a disappointment.   It was described as mixed berries with Chantilly cream and puff pastry.  Chantilly Cream is whipped cream with added sugar and vanilla.

 

The  berries and cream was separate to the puff pastry which came in a block like a small croissant.  The pastry was rather tough and though it tasted ok the texture felt less than fresh.  I would have thought the berries and possibly the cream would have been inside the pastry.

 

The coffee was fresh ground and of a decent quality.  The ginger beer was just a standard bottle though the grapefruit juice came in a half pint glass making it quite generous compared to the small glasses  of juice you often get with breakfasts in the UK.

 

 

I would have considered £20 or £21 acceptable for the amount I had if perhaps on the expensive side.  I do not know what the other parts of the meal cost individually though I did get the waitress to go through it at the time to make sure that no mistake  had been made.

 

Staff were generally quite helpful and prepared to go through the menu.  At this price I would certainly expect nothing less.

 

More information including some sample menus can be found by visiting the website at http://www.albioncaff.co.uk/

 

Even the website has a pretentious name.  the couple on the table next to me were in the process of selecting a honeymoon apartment  in the Seychelles with a rep for example.  Don’t pretend it’s a basic caff when it isn’t, it only makes it look more pretentious.

 

In brief, the food was quite good and staff were very helpful but the place is simply far too expensive.  I can only give it 4 out of 10.

 

 

Update, Soma Kitchen, 230 Mile End Road, Stepney, London, E1 4LJ

The Soma Kitchen has started to lower some of its prices and they have started selling kebab wraps for £5.50 which includes a can of coke.  Also you can get a Lamb Shawama for £6.45 where as the price used to be £8.45.  This is more sensible pricing I think.  People still do complain of long waiting times however.

Soma Kitchen, 230 Mile End Road, Stepney, London, E1 4LJ

This is a new restaurant in Stepney green describing itself as an exclusive Mediterranean restaurant.  It is in the same building as the old Soma Bar and it follows a trend of pubs turning into halal eateries.

 

Really it’s a rather expensive kebab shop that also sells a few soft drinks as well as freshly made juices which are also on the pricey side   .

 

The kebabs are really very good and they are some of the best in the area.  The Lamb Shawamas and lamb shish kebabs are certainly the best you will find in Stepney but the bar is hardly set particularly high by the competition!!

 

I visited Soma Kitchen with a friend and despite the good quality of the kebabs I have some concerns about this restaurant.  There are problems that need to be addressed if the Soma Kitchen is to be a success.

 

We had  Falafel, lambs liver and Dolma as a starter.  The Dolma was described as stuffed pepper and indeed Dolma is stuffed vegetables which can include peppers.  We got stuffed vine leaves however and my friend wanted the peppers in particular as stated on the menu so she asked for them and what came back was like something from out of a tin.  We think it probably was tinned and this is not good.  Initially we were also given pastry stuffed with cheese rather than the liver so we had to send that back too.  Some of the staff seemed to have problems with the menu and I ended up wondering if they could actually read or maybe they had just not bothered to familiarise themselves with the menu.

 

.  With the exception of the stuffed peppers, the starters were of a reasonable quality when we finally got them.

 

I have had the Lamb Shawama kebab here in the past and it was very good.  This time I had a lamb dish fried with tomato and peppers.  It tasted too much of tomato for my liking , as though it had lots of tomato puree  in it.  I don’t know how the dish should taste however so this is not a criticism.  My friend had chicken Shish which was plentiful though she commented that the rice was a bit cold.

 

We also had a fresh carrot juice with Ginger which was made in the restaurant.  It tasted a bit watered down to me.

 

 

We ended up paying about £14 for a starter, a main, a carrot and ginger juice and a tea.  Some money was deducted for the difficulty we had with service.

 

If the service had been good we would have been happy to pay the full price which would have been about £17. I would have given it about 6.5 out of 10.  Chaotic ordering procedures and staff with little knowledge of the menu and poor English who sound like would-be local Asian gangsters does little in the way of making the restaurant feel exclusive or even high quality and I really think these serious teething problems will need to be addressed if the restaurant is to attract students, lecturers, hospital staff and other locals that will need to use it if the place is to thrive or even survive long term.  It is unlikely that the chicken shop masses of Stepney will even give the Soma Kitchen a look in as it is probably beyond their price range.  This is  fair enough when it comes to the kebabs.  I have had a Lamb Shawama in the Soma Kitchen and it was nice and very large.   There was loads of everything. the meet was spicy and of good quality.  There was also plenty of salad and pita bread.  At £8.95 it is not something most people would eat regularly and a smaller kebab for £5 might be a good seller.

 

My friend and me both agreed that we could give the Soma Kitchen no more than 4 out of 10.  If they sort things out in a month or 2 I will report back.

 

brilliant restaurant Southall

This review was posted by Adam Holdsworth on his blog

http://daggersdukc.blogspot.com/

 

This contains comments from Adam about whatever he is doing at the time.

 

The article below is a review of the Brilliant Restaurant which I will certainly visit if I am in the area.

 

 

 

Food: Indian

Contact details:

72-76 Western Road, Southall, Middlesex UB2 5DZ

www.brilliantrestaurant.com

 

We visited The Brilliant in Southall, Middlesex, today. As I grew up in nearby Hayes, I was miffied that during my time there, my parents had never taken

me here, as it had a good rep even back in the early 80s - it is actually a Southall institution, having been in the same area since the early 70s. As

Southall is one of the demographically "Indian" suburbs in Britain, let alone London, calling your restaurant The Brilliant in this environment is almost

a taunt: "come, criticise me, tell me I'm not brilliant, tell me I'm rubbish". In its favour, it has won plenty of awards. But the only award that matters

to us (insofar we came from distant suburban East London to be here) is what we think of it. Will we return? Will we recommend it to our friends? Was it

in fact, brilliant?

 

Let's find out.

 

Firstly, the guide dog situation. It is really, really difficult to eat Indian or Chinse while being accompanied by a guiding beast. There is a point,

after you've had maybe the third or forth row about whether the dog is allowed in, when you just assume that you will go into an eating establishment,

all guns blazing. Though I refuse to take nonsense from anyone about this (to refuse a guide dog is breaking the law and ignorance is no defence in my

opinion). Not a problem in The Brilliant, perhaps aided by the fact that one of the staff was obviously a dog lover and wanted to pet Nicki the Labrador

while she was being good beneath the table. They get a huge brownie point for the no-fuss welcome. What a relief.

 

The decor here is cool but in a friendly, inviting way, with dark wooden floorboards, spotlights and a clean, no-fuss style that doesn't intimidate but

still has enough sophistication, suggesting this interior design has been thought through. No job lot tables here - everything is in dark brown and dark

orange. All just-so. (9 out of 10).

 

Our service was friendly and the food arrived in a timely manner without any hanging around (a pet hate of mine is being left for ages after the main course

before your dessert order is taken). Service then was brisk and polite. (9 out of 10).

 

We ordered poppadoms as a pre-starter. I tend to find that a good, crisp, not-too-greasy poppadom indicates how the rest of the meal will turn out I was

right on this occasion, as we'll see. By the way, we ordered spicy poppadoms and blow me down, they were peppery. Fortunately, we both love pepper and

there are plenty of chutneys to dump them in to assist sweetening them up and bringing down the heat level a bit.

 

Our starters were tilapia fish pakora (9 out of 10). The high mark is given for the light batter made of gram flour, which didn't in any way kill off the

delicate flavour of the fish. I had meat samosas, filled with finely minced lamb. I give these 7 out of 10 - better than average and good quality meat.

 

For the main course, we had a lamb curry which Lynn described as basic but tasty and awarded it 6 out of 10. I had the lamb masala which on the menu, was

described as coming with a thick sauce flavoured with ginger, tomato and garlic. It left nothing to be desired: this was a dish delivered exactly what

was promised. I can barely think of anything to fault it on and will give it a full 10 out of 10 because it really was that good. Bravo. If my stomach

had been any larger I would have gone for second helpings.

 

Desert was a better than average pistachio kulfi which I'll give 7 marks for. It was served on an unusual long plate which didn't do anything for the flavour,

but did add a little interest presentation-wise.

 

So overall, was the Brilliant, brilliant. I think so. It is one of those establishments where you think every award was justified and gained from hard

work and attention to detail, as well as old fashioned customer service, rather than from "I'll scratch your back if you give me a plaudit" mentality.

There are few Indian restaurants this good in my view and I would go there far more often if only had the fortune to live closer.

wok and grill, Chronos Building, mile end road London

This restaurant used to be part of a small chain called Pandoos which was clearly designed to be a bit like Nandos.  It sells a range of grilled dishes and stir fries.  When it was Pandoos it sold curries but now it concentrates more on the stir fries.  Unusually for halal food outlets, the Wok and Grill also sells beef and steaks.

 

I had crispy chicken as a starter followed by stir fried spicy beef and rice.  The chicken was crispy though its texture was rather watery.  The beef was good and spicy but there wasn’t much of it.

 

It seems that most of the staff are the same as those who ran Pandoos so many of the same problems apply.  One member of staff speaks half decent English but the others don’t and they don’t seem to care much about what they do either.  I tried to ask what pudding they had and a member of staff babbled through about 4 of them.  I asked for descriptions and he either didn’t understand my question or didn’t want to understand so I decided not to bother with a  pudding.

 

I had to ask for the bill twice and finally got given a bill for £18.99 which seemed rather a lot for 2 main courses and a drink so I questioned it.  It turns out my bill was really £14.68.

 

That £18.99 looks like a figure the guy serving me just made up.   I don’t appreciate being deliberately overcharged by someone who either does not have the brains to calculate the bill or the prices to hand.

 

The food was fairly poor anyway but as I was nearly overcharged I don’t think I will be going back to this restaurant unless I get evidence that the quality of the staff have improved significantly.

 

I can only give this restaurant 3 out of 10

Delish Deli, 2, The Chronos Building, 9-25 Mile End Road, Stepney, London, E1 4TP

Delish is clearly an eatery which is trying to make itself a bit different from the rest.  It sells breakfasts, salads, a range of hot dishes, sandwiches and jacket potatoes.  So far I have tried the salad bowl, a shepherds  and a breakfast.  The salad bowl consist of choices of vegetables and cheese.  You have the usual lettuce tomato and onions but you also have carrots, sweetcorn, mushrooms peppers, sun dried tomatoes and also things like bean sprouts and bits of fruit.  It was really quite an extensive salad bowl which can be mixed with various meats such as chicken or turkey or you could have Tuna or prawn.  These ingredients  are available on their own or spicy so there is, for example, a Mexican spicy chicken.

 

The only hot lunch I have tried so far is the shepherds pie was quite good.  The potatoes were creamy and well mashed.  There was plenty of mince gravy and peas but I would have liked a richer tastier gravy.  Still I have had a lot worse.

 

The breakfasts  are acceptable though The sausages are really just average café quality.  There is no bacon though you can get turkey ham instead. coffee is filter coffee.  It is acceptable but it won’t blow your mind away! I find they tend to make it a little weak.  This may not be my first choice for breakfast.

 

Delish is really a cut above most of the rubbish found in Stepney.  It attracts a wide range of people including students and hospital workers and it seems to be quite successful. 

 

I was impressed by the range of food and the helpfulness of the staff.  Men and women work there and the level of English spoken by the staff is certainly reasonable.

 

In general then this is a decent place to eat and I would give it 7 out of 10.

A Passage To India, 76 Bold Street , Liverpool L1 4HR

The Passage to India has the reputation of being one of the best curry houses in Liverpool though it is said to be on the expensive side.  I had a prawn puri for starter and a Lamb  Jalfrezi with garlic rice as a main.  The quality of the ingredients were really quite good but there was absolutely no spice so I ended up feeling rather disappointed.  I have since seen an online menu available from Just-eat which suggests that the Jalfrezi dishes  are available  mild, medium or spicy.  On most menus Jalfrezi is cooked with chilli so I expected this dish to be quite hot.  We really should have been asked whether we wanted our curry mild medium or hot.  Neither myself or the friend I was with could see enough to read the menu in detail though he could read the dish names.  We therefore knew nothing about the different spice options available.

 

My starter and main dishes both came in a thick slightly creamy sauce which is typical of many of the posher Bangladeshi restaurants.  The portions were very generously sized  and I could probably have done with a bit less rice.

 

Over all then the quality of ingredients and portion size were excellent but the food was not spicy enough and we really should have been asked..

 

I give this restaurant 5 out of 10.  If the food had been a bit more spicy or we had been asked for our preferences then a score of 7 may well have been possible.

Mexigo Mexican Grill 72 Bold Street Liverpool L1 4HR

This is a take away which sells various kinds of soft pancakes full of beef or chicken with guacamole  salsa rice and beans.  The pancakes which include tacos  and Burritos.    It’s the usual British Mexican restaurant type of thing.  Not bad if you want a quick bite though all the food is a bit similar.

 

I call this a takeaway but it does have a lot of tables and chairs inside, it’s just that all the food comes in boxes with plastic knives and forks as though you were going to take it away.  I’ve never been a fan of this kind of food as a take away, particularly if you want to eat it on the go as it’s so messy to eat.  If I’m going to eat this kind of food I want it on a plate with some decent cutlery.

 

A friend and me both had beef with all the usual accompaniments with extra mushrooms and a soft drink.  The person serving us was quiet and didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about being there.  eating the food from the box was less than ideal.  I can’t say the food was horrible, and at £8.00 the price was acceptable though it is on the high side given the poor presentation.

 

So Mexigo served Average food with poor presentation and barely adequate service.   This made this takeaway a fairly forgettable place  so I give it 5 out of 10.