Cristina's Steak 8-10 north street, barking, IG11 8AW

This restaurant is tucked quietly down a side street not far from Barking Market.  Arguably it’s a little off the beaten track, but the food is generally of high quality and it’s only a 10 minute slow stroll from the station.

 

At the time of writing, I have only been to this restaurant for the Christmas menu in recent times.  I have written a trip advisor review about this and I will post a link to it once the review has been published.  For now, I will briefly discuss the Christmas dinner.

 

Firstly, this is in general a fairly traditional Christmas dinner though carrots are glazed, the peas are cooked with parcel and a little mint and the sprouts are cooked with walnuts.

 

roast potatoes are soft on the inside and really crispy outside.  The beef I had was tender and I am told by friends who were with me that the turkey is also excellent.  For my starter I had sticky  apple and raisin winter salad  which was a little sweet but plentiful in size.

 

The main course was huge.  There was plenty of tender slow cooked beef and mountains of roast potatoes and vegetables.  The pigs in blankets were clearly homemade and the sausages used were of very high quality.  All of us were full to bursting and I can think of very little that I would change though I do have a few suggestions.

 

Firstly, before the starters, we were given pretzels    and nuts in their shells.  Unfortunately, the nut crackers were not up to the job so we largely ignored the nuts though my friend Andy was able to crack them with his hands.

 

Secondly, there is no fish option for the main course.   This does not affect me but many people I know eat fish and vegetables but do not eat meat.  There is a Vegetable Wellington available as a main course but I don’t know anyone who has tried this yet.

Graham Page

 

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tinned fish restaurant

This is taken from the Propel newsletter dated 16/09/2014 and anyone at all who eats here must truly have more money than sense.  I know nothing more other than the information printed here, but if the restaurant is successful I’m thinking of setting up a Japanese pop-up selling only pot noodles made up and poured on a plate with a bit of salad round them.  There’s a rather ugly side to the food industry in Britain that is involved in making people think they are eating something better than they really are and charging the earth for it.   The prices here look outrageous but at least they are not trying to hide the fact that they are selling tinned fish.  If people are stupid enough to throw their money away at this place then arguably they deserve a wage cut as they don’t have the brain power necessary to deal  with the amount of money they have.

 

Tinned fish restaurant opens in London: A pop-up restaurant selling only tinned fish has opened in Upper James Street, Soho, London. The restaurant, Tincan, is the brainchild of the architecture company AL_A (sic), whose team apparently came across a similar restaurant in Lisbon. The menu at Tincan features 28 different types of tinned fish, all of which are served with bread and salad. Prices start from £7 for more common tinned fish, and rise to £28 for a tin of wild red tuna, or blue-fin tuna. Other tins include anchovies, baby sardines, calamari in ink, clams, cockles, cod liver, mackerel, mussels, octopus and scallops. Everything from the tables and chairs to the light fittings has been specially designed for the restaurant by AL_A, which describes Tincan as “bringing the culture and sensibility of an architect’s studio to a restaurant”. The restaurant is open for the next six months from midday to 11pm Monday to Thursday, and 11am to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

 

Remoli Pasta 14 fresh food, Great Eastern Market,Westfield Stratford City shopping centre

Most shopping centres are unpleasant and full of chain stores.  Westfield Stratford City is, at the time of writing, the largest in Europe I believe and in general, I really am not keen on shopping centres.

 

If you can look past these undoubtedly negative aspects of all shopping centres, Westfield Stratford does have something going for it.  For blind people there is the roaming concierge.  If you go to the   helpdesk at the front and ask for assistance to the store you want to go to, someone can generally help.  As always, Westfield Stratford is largely made up of expensive shops with the odd cheap clothes shop thrown in. the only supermarkets are Waitrose and M&S and shops stocking odd and expensive fashion brands are very much in evidence.

 

The main purpose for this blog though is food.  There are some quite unusual places in the shopping centre which are not chains.  There’s Caribbean Scene and rhythm Kitchen for Caribbean  food for example and there is tap east the shopping centre pub that brews its own beer. 

 

Today I am reviewing Pasta Remoli which is a stall in the Great Eastern Market which is at the other side of the market to the underground.  There are tables to eat, but they are in the shopping centre just next to the shop.  The shop does in fact offer take away pasta dishes as well as pasta, sauce and ingredients that you can take home.

 

I was looking for a place to eat with a friend who is a Gourmet Society card holder and this seemed to be the only restaurant offering the gourmet society deal in in the area that wasn’t a curry house.  When reviewing where to eat I was struck by the number of ;positive reviews on Trip advisor.  Out of 75 reviews, 51 were excellent, 20 were very good and 4 were average.  I needed to try this place out and in fact I wish I had done so much earlier.

 

The menu on the website is a bit tricky to view so I’ve included a sample of the pasta dishes available here  so you can get an idea of price.  I had the

 

Ox tail Agnolotti in its juice(Agnolotti is a kind of ravioli ). £7.00

Ham & parmesan tortellini in chicken, mushroom & pea sauce £7.00

Pappardelle in Italian sausage ragu £7.50

Tagliatelle with Bolognese £7.50

 

Fish dishes

 

Seafood Spaghetti£12.90

Spider crab ravioli in spicy cherry tomato sauce £8.95

 

Vegetarian dishes

 

Fusilli with Arrabbiata sauce (spicy tomato sauce with chilli) £6.00

Potato Gnocchi with Basil pesto sauce £6.80)0

 

Pasta with seasonal vegetables sauce

Chili, garlic, parsley, courgette, cherry tomato & buffalo ricotta £6.50

 

Black truffle mushroom ravioli in cheese sauce £7.50

Spaghetti tomato & mozzarella £6.00

Spinach & ricotta ravioli with butter, sage & parmesan £6.90

 

I had the Ham & parmesan tortellini in chicken, mushroom & pea sauce with mozzarella   and parma ham  on bread as a starter.  My friend Miss S had the Black truffle mushroom ravioli in cheese sauce and the Spinach & ricotta ravioli.

 

Both of us agreed that the pasta was fresh and not dried out and that the quality  of the ingredients was generally high.  There are various chain stores claiming to be authentic Italian.  Carluccios is probably the most well known but I have found that some of the food from this chain certainly  has a bit of a left lying around feel to it.  This was really not the case for Remoli.  My mozzarella and bread was fresh   and the pasta was cooked in a tasty sauce full of flavors with a rich consistency.    The portion of pasta was also quite generous and for the money the food was excellent.

 

This may not be the place for a romantic dinner but if you are out and about and you want some really high quality pasta at a competitive price then I would say you need go no further than Remoli pasta.  They will also sell bottles of wine. These hold about half a pint and there are no proper glasses so you have to do with a large plastic cup.  Still with food such as this I have no complaints and the staff were friendly and helpful.  I think most if not all were actually Italian as well.

 

I’d like to eat in more comfortable surroundings I suppose but the food is great and prices are very reasonable.  There’s little not to like and I give this restaurant a score of 8/10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TianTian Chinese restaurant, 166 mile end road, London E1 4LJ

this is a new Chinese restaurant which opened on Mile end road about 3 weeks ago.  It replaces an eatery called the spice rack which generally sold rather poor quality fried chicken and curries in my opinion and it used to be called the spice cottage.

 

The new owners sell both pork products and alcohol so it's not halal.  I have nothing against halal  food but it's nice to have a food outlet where the range of products sold is not limited  by the wish to only sell hall food.

 

This restaurant is quite new, so it's not on places such as 4Square or Trip Advisor at the time of writing.  It is one of a reasonably new Chinese restaurant which has become popular in London, selling more spicy dishes which I am told are associated with northern china.  they also sell more unusual parts of animals such as pig intestine or sliced tripe  as well as dishes more  familiar to those visiting Chinese takeaways and restaurants in the UK.

 

The menu is not online yet so as I have no sight, I needed to ask staff to help by reading  the menu to me.  In general, the staff were helpful though some limitations to English made deciding what  I wanted to eat a little tricky.

 

On my first visit I had cold beef which came with preserved Chinese vegetables and a hot chilli pork dish with rice.  I had been told that the cold beef dish was a starter but it was as big as a main meal.  I also therefore ordered lamb barbecued on a skewer.  The 2 dishes with rice cost me about £15 but they were enough for 2 meals. and I also had a cold Chinese green tea which came in a can as well as a tiger beer.  The total came to just under £21. 

 

In general, I thought the meat was a little processed but the vegetables that came with the pork dish were good and fresh.  both dishes were also spicy and I quite enjoyed the preserved vegetables that came with the cold dish which were pickled and spicy.  In general, both dishes had plenty of spice and flavour.  The barbecued lamb was tasty but rather fatty though at the price I can't really complain.

 

On my second visit I had a portion of vegetable spring rolls.  they were a little bland, but they came with a sweet chilli sauce.  for main I had beef in chilli sauce with mixed vegetables which included broccoli, carrots, cabbage and peppers.  the vegetables were lovely and crunchy and the beef, while being a little spongy, was still very enjoyable.  the food was not too greasy and it was well spiced.  I also had a tiger beer and this meal came to £16.  I ate it in one meal, but I was very full.

 

Not having access to the full menu, it's hard to rate TianTian with any accuracy but the 2 meals I had were promising and they suggest that this is easily the best Chinese restaurant within easy walking distance of me.  Ingredients  were of acceptable to good quality, with vegetables standing out and it was pleasing that the food was not greasy.

 

 

Great Times Chinese restaurant, Lancastria House, 77-79 Lancaster Road, Preston PR1 2QJ

This is a Chinese restaurant that has existed in Preston for 30 years.  It has recently set up a website  at http://www.greattimes-restaurantpreston.co.uk/

and it has also recently started accepting credit and debit cards.

 

I visited this restaurant as part of a group out for a meal to celebrate a friend's birthday.  There is an  A La Carte menu  and a fixed price 2 courses for £11.95 menu.  Both can be viewed on the website and they are both accessible.  On this particular day we  chose the 2 courses for £11.95 option.

 

I had the duck spring rolls for a starter which tasted of the aromatic duck generally offered with pancakes.  they were well filled with duck and some of the best I have ever had.  Other people in the group had the Lucky Lettuce, the salt and pepper pork chop and the pork spring rolls and everyone seemed happy with their starter.

 

For main I had beef  sirloin in hot and spicy sauce.  Beef Sirloin with various other sauces was offered on the 2 course menu but they only offered chicken in hot and spicy sauce.   Still, they were happy to cook the beef in this  way when I asked.  The beef was of high quality, they were prepared to spice it up a bit and there was plenty of it.  It's always nice when staff are prepared to adapt food slightly to the wants of the customer.  Others tried beef in garlic sauce and  Szechuan pork.  Everyone seemed happy with their food.  there was a big bowl of fried rice in the middle of the table to share and there was plenty to go round.

 

There is the usual range of bottled beers and wines, with some lager available on draft.  Nothing amazing that stands out here, but it's good to have a range of drinks to go with your meal.

 

Great Times may not be the most amazing exciting and varied Chinese restaurant I have visited but the food generally  consists of high quality ingredients and staff are very helpful.  I found that staff generally spoke a reasonable amount of English and they were happy to help explain any parts of the menu required.  they are also happy to accept guide dogs.

 

In general then, this is a good restaurant for an enjoyable hassle free meal out with friends  I give it an over all score of 8 out of 10.

 

Graham Page

 

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Anima D'italia, 114 mile End Road, Stepney E1 4UN

This is a restaurant that claims to be Halal  in Stepney Green.  I'm not sure who runs this but it's not the most authentic Italian restaurant and, unless you choose to limit yourself to Halal food, this restaurant is not worth travelling to.

 

I have visited this restaurant twice and I must admit I was happier with the food second time than I was with the first time.

 

I first visited this restaurant in late December and I had Risotto rice balls with bolognaise sauce and cheese as a starter and a main dish of Italian sausage and prawns with roast potatoes.  The Risotto rice balls were made with basmati rice rather than risotto rice.  other than that they were tasty enough but using the wrong kind of rice made a mess of the texture.

 

On the main course, the prawns were fine but the Italian sausage turned out to be a cheap beef breakfast sausage and I refused to eat it.  to be fair to the staff they did agree a £5 discount because of this.  I was left feeling very disappointed but, as I usually do where convenient, I did go back to the restaurant last Sunday to give it a second try 2 months later.  A group of students I passed on the way told me the restaurant was very nice and friendly.  I was disappointed to find that I was not even allowed to bring in my own wine.  It's meant to be Italian after all!

 

This time round I had Brochette as a starter.  It had tomatoes and onions with it on bread that was rather lacking in garlic but it was not bad.  The main was A dish of Penne pasta with minced beef, beef slices, mushrooms and cream.  this turned out to be a very pleasant rich dish that did have an Italian vibe to it at least.  there was also plenty of it.  for pudding I had a Panna Cotta which was actually pretty good, though I don't know whether it was bought in or made on the premises. the person serving did not know.

 

I asked for black pepper and parmesan cheese.  it turned out that the pepper grinder was broken and I was told no one had asked for it.  Very odd!  I've never visited an italian restaurant and not been offered black pepper.

 

Given that there is a strong possibility  that this is local bangladeshis playing at being Italian, this restaurant is not bad.  I paid £17 for 3 courses and 2 glasses of lemonade which is not a bad price.  Saying this, it's very very far from authentic and I wouldn't go there for a special occasion.  if you insist on Halal food though, it may be worth a try if you want something different.

 

Staff were friendly enough, so I'd give this restaurant 5 out of 10.

 

 

 

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

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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.