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.