L'Artista, 61 The Parade, Watford

The usual high street pizza chains leave me craving flavour - I'm almost always dousing my pizza in their lacklustre chilli oil. But despite the restaurant quickly filling up after our arrival, making for a busy and slightly manic atmosphere, L'Artista in Watford has food with the most intense flavour. Initial frustrations of being slightly ignored by frantic looking staff soon dissapated once the starters arrived.

Tomato garlic pizza bread was perfectly crispy with a decadently garlicky tomatoey topping. The Aubergine Parmigiana was equally flavoursome - the roasted aubergines were amazingly smokey and the mozarella perfect.

The main courses were huge. The Americana pizza was robustly delicious with plenty of chillies. The Diversa pizza was partly pizza and partly calzone (which reminded me of the 'La Raqueta' pizza I had at Starita in Naples - best pizza in the world, AND it was shaped like a tennis racket)! My pizza had yet more roasted aubergines, red chillis and hearty herby italian sausage. I didn't have to reach for the chilli oil once.

The rigatoni was perfectly al a dente and the roast vegetable garlic and tomato sauce had really deep and satisfying flavours.

Overall - This place is very busy for a reason, good food, low prices and huge portions (we had to take some of it home). Full of big groups so service can be a bit slow, and it would be a terrible place for a romantic meal, but for cheap and cheerful and very very intensely flavoursome Italian food, it completely beats the High Street chain pizza places.

Sitaaray, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London

Vegetarian or non-vegetarian - that was the only question that needed to be answered at Sitaaray. I like my ordering to be that uncomplicated.

Bollywood was the order of the evening. I'd rushed across London from a Bollywood themed Christmas party to this Bollywood themed restaurant housed in the New National Theatre on Drury Lane. I quite liked the atmosphere - two floors, busy but warmly cosy.

The concept is a high-end variation on that of the traditional 'thali' concept (ie unlimited helpings of a set range of curries in little metal bowls in a circular tray (the thali) - which makes for very cheap eating and plentiful refills. Given the touristy location, this was not quite the case at Sitaaray, but the concept was there - there were large set menus for a fixed price. All one had to do was decide whether they were going to be vegetarian or non-vegetarian that evening, and many many courses of food would be bought to you, and you could request more of anything you like. It sounded like a wonderful idea, particularly as it made large group ordering far less stressful than usual - (I didn't even really have to decide between veg or non veg as myself and Cel ordered one of each so that we could sample it all!)

Staff were efficient but quite curiously neither Indian nor Bollywood themed. Food started arriving quickly. Lots of snacks and starters, in well presented but tiny portions. This was not necessarily a bad thing - it meant that everything could be tasted and sampled without getting too full and everything was tasty. Tiny portions of lamb kebabs, spinach kebabs, grilled chicken, spicy potatoes, paneer, spicy mushrooms and stuffed peppers appeared in a long succession of courses - which turned out to be good for big group eating, drinking and conversation. However, we all seemed to feel the variety of small portions made us feel too mentally full to bother utilising the unlimited concept.

We were slightly distracted by the club that adjoins the restaurant - diners get free entry, but the incongruent music made us believe we should definitely steer clear.

Overall:
I was genuinely pleased and surprised to find good quality Indian food in such a touristy spot. The food, whilst not very traditional, was all beautifully presented and tasty. I enjoyed playing name-the-bollywood-star (photo), and gawping at the bollywood videos playing and liked the decor and atmosphere. The service was fine but probably not good enough to justify the hefty service charge. I think value for money was perhaps the area where this restaurant loses points. The unlimited concept sounds like it could be cheap but expensive drinks negate the savings. However the concept is great in that you can try a massive variety of foods even if you are not in a large group. I would certainly recommend to try at least once - I was very pleasantly surprised.

Cake of the Day - Anjana's Blueberry Cheesecake

Divinely delicious blueberry cheesecake by Anjana. Utterly delectable - it was very creamy and nicely tangy with a very satisfying base...and beautiful!

Langan's Brasserie, Stratton Street, Picadilly, London

Perhaps as a direct consequence of it only being a few years since I was a student at Durham, where fine dining consisted of 'half-price-student-mondays-at-Bella Pasta' and 'all-you-can-eat-Chinese-which-is-even-cheaper-if-you-eat-fast-and-finish-before-6pm,' the majority of the entries on this blog, fall into the cheap and cheerful category.

However, I was recently lucky enough to find myself in Mayfair with someone willing to buy me lunch, so for perhaps one time only, here is a post about a restaurant whose website describes itself "as one of London’s top eateries to be seen in for Celebrities" (not that we saw any, but you get the idea).

Having initially spotted Langan's opposite Green Park station, it didn't appear overly interesting. It had a small neon sign on the outside, and I couldn't see inside. A couple of hours later, ready for lunch, I appreciated the plush interiors as we walked in, and was slightly bemused by the elaborate cloakroom ticketing system. We walked up an ornate staircase to the 'Venetian Room’ where I started to appreciate just how lovely a place this was. The walls were covered with beautiful paintings and but the atmosphere remained relaxed (I later found the ground floor gets manically busy, whilst the first floor is described as "more sedate," but that suited me just fine).

The menu was surprisingly extensive (even for lunchtime) and I appreciated it's handwritten nature (it changes on a weekly basis). Choosing was difficult. I decided against a starter, so that I'd be able to order Langan's Fish and Chips (which came very highly recommended by the person buying me lunch, who was a regular frequenter of the place). I was intrigued to see how it would be presented at such a classy establishment!

I wasn't disappointed. The usual rule of 'the posher the restaurant, the smaller the portions' didn't appear to apply, as my dish was generous. And oh the taste! T he batter was sublime - simultaneously light, crispy and melt-in-your-mouth. The fish was juicy and delicious and the handmade chips were of the perfect chunkyness. Every mouthful was an utter delight!

The restaurant was packed by the time we were midway through lunch. Only then did I realise just why such a comprehensive cloakroom system was needed, and just how famous this place was. The ground floor was heaving, but the atmosphere remained calm upstairs. Waiters were (almost surprisingly) friendly, and urged us to have one of the delicious sounding desserts, but I was so full, it had to be a pot of tea for me instead.

The moral of the story - You can take Writing on Bananas somewhere classy, but Writing on Bananas will probably order chips and a cuppa!

Overall

Langan's Brasserie confounded my prejudices against posh restaurants. It was neither pretenious nor stuffy, and the portions were generous. Food quality was excellent as was the atmosphere and service. Expensive but a truly wonderful place to be taken to lunch!

9/10

Guest Food Photos - Leandri's Duck and Egg Salad

Leandri's garlic bread

Beautiful egg and duck salad

Head Chef Cafe, 173 Farnham Road, Slough

To refer to 'Head Chef' on Farnham Road as a greasy spoon seems a little ungenerous. Technically, that is exactly what it is - cheap, cheerful, unpretentious and specialising in food of the fried variety. However, it is clear that effort has been made to make the interiors look relatively plush (and as it only opened two months ago - they are still looking pretty good). I'd only visited once before - for an emergency cup of tea whilst waiting for an emergency locksmith. On that occasion I had found it overly bright and slightly loud for 7pm on a Monday, but upon returning for a recovery fry up late on Saturday morning, the atmopshere was far better. There's a large amount of seating and the place was pleasantly full. We'd already checked the menu from the outside as we had to ensure that Rachael's one pre-requisite for a full english breakfast - hash browns - would be met.

We spotted 'Set 3' and we were satisfied, and upon seeing the sheer size of breakfasts that the other diners were tucking into, I was glad I was hungry!

Service was brisk and efficient. Breakfast came with toast and tea or coffee. Beverages arrived very promptly - toast soon afterwards (it turns out white and buttered was the default. I found this slighly amusing, but I liked how no-nonsense it was. I realised that there was little point in ordering a massive fry up if you were going to start being precious about that type of bread you wanted or whether you wanted your toast buttered!)

Rachael, using her hotel manager mentality, started timing how long it would take for breakfast to arrive, now that we had her toast. We both expressed our pleasure at how short a time that was - the toast was still lovely and warm as we dunked it into our beautifully runny fried eggs! Portions were very generous, and the hash browns were excellent!

Atmosphere - Not too loud or bright for our hangovers. A good number of other diners. Pleasant interiors and lovely toilets!

Service - Very efficient but could have been more friendly.

Value for money - £5.95 for a large breakfast with tea and toast was fair, but not as cheap as you might expect. As the prices had been handwritten on the menu, I couldn't tell whether they had put their prices up or down after opening, but they were advertising deals on breakfast during the week.

Overall: 8/10 - provided exactly the no-nonsense breakfast needed after the night before.

Cake(s) of the day - Alex's Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Alex made 100 cupcakes for Halloween (ably assisted by his sister Laura). They were all beautifully light, moist and the sponge was red! However the highlight was the Salted Caramel Cupcakes (pictured above with green frosting). The concept sounds unconventional but the end result was mouth-wateringly good. The salt bought out the flavour of the caramel, and the slight savoriness complemented the sweetness perfectly.

Cornucopia Bistro, 6 High Street, Windsor

As previously mentioned on these pages, Windsor is full of restaurants of the chain variety, and of the touristy-and-therefore-dubious-quality variety. Yes, there is an excellent seafood restaurant and there's the reliable but far too often-visited Bel and the Dragon, but I was keen to find somewhere new. A chance recommendation from a stranger on a train led to the discovery of Cornucopia Bistro - a fairly new addition to (the far end of - and therefore slightly less touristy part of) Windsor High Street.

Initial impressions were good. However things weren't looking so good when our group of seven was led to a cramped table next to a blazing hot radiator. I suggested we ask if we could sit elsewhere, and we were swiftly relocated to a far roomier table at the back of the restaurant, (as Leandri succinctly put it: 'have you got a bigger table? We've all had to sit really close to each other all day...)'

Space issues sorted, it was time to order wine and peruse the menu. The menu was pleasingly only confined to one page, but it took an age to decide between the 6 equally sumptuous sounding starters. Between us, we ordered them all.

The goats cheese with pear, red onion and rosemary looked quite beautiful.

When the smoked salmon with courgette and lemon blinis arrived, I definitely began to doubt whether my choice of mushrooms had been the right one.

But it transpired that there was nothing to fear! My starter of wild mushrooms in garlic and brandy cream (served on toast), was a heavenly concoction. Juicy mushrooms, intense garlic and a silky cream sauce. It could not have been any better.

Each starter was a good size, full of flavour and cooked perfectly (the other starters were a parma ham, fig and rocket salad, and a crab, avocado and spring onion salad). The mains therefore had a tough act to follow. Mostly steak / meat based (the vegetarian special of the day which no one had opted for, was stuffed aubergine with rattatioue, there was also the 'Cornucopia Chilli,' which won the accolade of being as good as Sharon's home made variety (and innovatively included chorizo).

My lamb shank (pictured) was slow roasted in a red currant and red wine sauce. The meat came off the bone beautifully and the flavours were rich and deep.

Soon it was time for dessert, and once again it was almost impossible to decide between the equally amazing sounding options (the fruit salad was no longer available, but that was no great loss!)

The concept of 'Eton Mess' intrigued our Dutch colleagues, but they were impressed when it arrived in a tall glass. The bread and butter pudding looked mouth watering - once again I wondered whether I'd made the right decision, but yet again, I was not disappointed by my white chocolate and lemon pannacotta. It was creamy but quite light - it tasted a little like a zesty lemon cheesecake, softened by the hint of white chocolate. Quite delightful!

Overall

Atmosphere: A fair number of other diners for a tuesday evening, but luckily giving us a larger table at the back allowed us to be a noisy group without (hopefully) too much disturbance to everyone else.

Service: Endlessly friendly despite our noisy group.

Food quality: Very good with truly excellent starters and desserts.

Overall: Delicious food - would certainly recommend to anyone visiting Windsor. 8/10

Cake of the day and other delights

Highlights from the delightful bubbly and battenburg themed party hosted by Amie and her flatmates

Mmm scones...

Home made battenburg

Cake of the Day: Amie's intensely chocolatey and gooey cake of joy

Cake of the Day - Anjana's Divali Cake

Anjana's latest cake creation

The Jolly Woodman, Littleworth Common, 18 October 2009

This is my new favourite pub. Perhaps I have a thing for old fashioned pubs, hidden in tiny villages, with names that begin 'The Jolly...' (see this blog entry), and my expectations were high, but The Jolly Woodman in Littleworth Common, reached and surpassed them, from the moment we spotted it through the trees.


Initial glances at the website made it look like it could be a bit polished for my liking, but it ticked all my pub boxes - lots of comfy looking nooks and crannies, old-man-pub carpet, exciting selections of locally brewed drink and lovely people behind the bar. Sadly we weren't here for lunch - although we immediately decided that next time we'd come here hungry, as both the menu and smell of the Sunday Roasts were very appealing.

Instead we opted for some 'Welsh Rarebit' flavour Tyrrells. Leandri was unimpressed with the way they smelt, but they had a strong distinctive cheesy flavour, which was actually quite appealing.
The bar staff were grappling with an exciting mulled wine dispenser when we arrived. I love mulled stuff (not just wine - last year Alex inspired me to do my own mulling and make various mulled beverages (wine, cider, apple juice, at every opportunity). It felt like winter was well on its way, so I had my first mulled wine of the year which felt like an appropriate drink to be consuming in this pub. (They were advertising their Christmas menu which looked truly wonderful). There were no raised eyebrows at Leandri's usual order of Guinness and tomato juice (in the same glass), just lovely friendly service.


We settled down for a cosy afternoon, but as the original plan had been to go for a walk in the autumn sun (but we'd been distracted by the idea of the pub as so often happens), I was determined to have a short walk. Particularly as there were a number of exciting looking footpaths into Burnham Beeches from the pub car park.

Our short walk was quite lovely - we encountered unexpected ponds and ducks, and on our way back, another pub! Finally back at The Jolly Woodman, we found a large beer garden that would be amazing in the summer.

Overall

Cosy, cute and old fashioned. A lovely place to be in a really pretty location.

9/10

(I will write about it again after I've eaten there!)

Guest Blog Post from Stefan - Lunch at Mangiare in Rotterdam

Sometimes you run into a little place that looks a bit scruffy on the outside, but their menu looks very tempting. That’s how we found ourselves in a tiny Italian deli in Rotterdam - Mangiare - and we couldn't wait to try their food.

Once we sat down (and luckily we were early) we saw the reason for the mess outside - they are in a temporary location whilst renovating.

The restaurant was full 15 minutes after we arrived and there was even a Dutch celebrity having lunch (Antonie Kamerling), but we were there for the food!

The restaurant does not have a set menu as they use only fresh produce and create something new every morning when the vegetables arrive.

We decided to go for the antipasti with some meat and a nice glass of wine. As the products are fresh it takes a while before they serve you but once they put it in front of you it tastes absolutely delicious. All the flavors are amazing and as everything is cooked to perfection, the dish is gone before you know it.

This is a restaurant I will definitely visit again when they are in their new building.

Overall

Atmosphere - Scruffy but authentically Italian.
Service - Very laid back and friendly staff, although it took a while to get our lunch.
Food Quality - Great although the portions could be slightly bigger and some more bread would be good.
Value for money - Good price for good food.

Overall – 8/10

Stefan

Desserts at The Bee, Burnham - 14th October 2009

There's a lot to be said about going up to the bar and asking 'what do you have?' Not something I ever do, but this is why going for a drink with people you haven't ever been for a drink with before, can turn out to be such a lovely thing. I was mostly expecting a curt response to A's question, but was pleasantly surprised when we were then given a comprehensive run down of all the various boozy and non boozy options by the lady behind the bar - which goes to show - it's a good question to ask! Adrienn ended up with some very exciting 'Prince William' cider, putting my glass of house red to shame!

The Bee is one of those pubs that due to it's proximity to the office, I'd only ever visited at lunchtime, or for a swift post-work drink. I think it has more charm by night and was neither too busy nor too quiet on a wednesday evening. I'd eaten here before, and the food was fine, but not immediately food blog worthy. But as I mentioned before - drinking with new people can lead to good ideas. Good ideas of a let's-have-a-dessert-round nature!

I opted for the classic hot/cold dessert combo - sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice-cream. It had the optimal levels of sweet, hot, gooey amazingness.


Adrienn opted for the chocolate fudge cake and was impressed by how light and moist it was (and just the right level of sweet).

Sadly there was no chance of a cuppa with our desserts, as the bar had run out of milk, but this didn't detract from our enjoyment too much.

Overall
Lovely chilled out atmosphere and staff with old-fashioned good value and generously portioned desserts.

Guest food pictures - Astrid's Manhattan Lunch Recommendation

Beef Fillet with truffle mash and spinach

Dover Sole with Saffron and Chicory

Cheeseburger with Russian Dressing

Should you find yourself in Central Park, and find yourself in need of the poshest cheeseburger ever, or any of the amazing looking dishes Astrid has so kindly photographed for me, you need to visit Jean-Georges. Described as a 'temple of fine dining' on this review site you can actually get an amazingly priced lunch for $26!

The Stag, Stoke Poges, Sunday 13th September

I firmly believe that Sunday afternoons were made for discovering new country pubs; the more adventure required to find the place, the better. It was the first weekend in my new flat, and time to start finding pubs that could approximately be described as 'my local'. A lack of lovely pubs in the immediate vicinity means that the definition of 'local' needs to equate to a couple of miles into the countryside. We decided Stoke Poges would be the village, and a quick Google and look on Beer In the Evening revealed there were at least three pubs with potential, so we decided to drive in that general direction until we found a suitable location.

Off we went following signs to Stoke Poges. All was going well until the signs stopped. In the spirit of adventure I carried on down single track lanes and very large houses. Things didn't look good. There were no pubs in sight. The moment we decided I should turn around and head back, we found ourselves at The Stag. A quick look inside and discovery that there were Sunday Roasts on offer with no less than four types of meat (pork, lamb, turkey and beef - we were apologetically informed that there was no vegetarian option, but we assured them this was definitely not a problem), confirmed that this would be an ideal place to spend the afternoon.

A wonderful thing about this pub is the lack of pretentiousness and the sheer friendliness and helpfulness of the person who served us all afternoon (I should have found out her name so I could specifically mention how great she was!) There were a good number of other customers enjoying huge Sunday Lunches, but the atmosphere was very casual and relaxed. We contemplated sitting at a huge boardroom style table, before settling for a more cosy table looking out onto the large garden.

Going back to the lack of prentension, there was no real ale or gastropub type offerings, but there is Thai menu (and takeaway service), and the sunday lunches are great value at less than a fiver each. The four meat options proved difficult to decide between, but Lewis and Claudia's burning desire to have two different roast meats on each of their plates was met with no problems at all, and before too long we had huge platefuls of food in front of us.

Huge plateful of sunday roast

It's difficult to believe that after eating quite so much, that we felt the need to eat anything else, but we had spotted the dessert menu...

Dessert board

.

Showing some restraint we waited an hour or so before we dived into dessert time. We opted for apple crumble, treacle sponge, spotted dick and chocolate sponge, which were difficult to distinguish given the vast amounts of custard!

Graham loves custard

Claudia doesn't like custard, but Lewis was gallant enough to eat through a layer of custard for her.

Overall

Atmosphere - Incredibly laid back and relaxed pub where you can easily (as we did) spend hours. There were plenty of people but it certainly didn't feel overcrowded.

Service - Amazingly friendly and helpful service which makes this a lovely place to spend a sunday afternoon.

Food quality - Although not anything particularly noteworthy the portions are huge,

Value for money - High on the cheap and cheerful rating!

Overall: 7/10 - Wonderfully friendly and relaxed pub - I'd be quite interested in trying the Thai food next time! And there certainly will be a next time!

Guest blog entry from Lee - Holden's Ice Cream, Edgeworth, Lancashire

Sometimes, you can taste tradition; the elusive flavours that can only be passed down from generation to generation whose brilliance would, if written down, evaporate. Such unwritten perfection is found in the village of Edgworth amidst the moorland between Bury, Bolton and Blackburn. Drive past on any sunny day and you shall see a queue stretching down the otherwise unremarkable street, as people come from far and wide for Holden's traditional vanilla ice cream. Holden's ice cream is lovingly charmed out of the little fridge behind the counter by an old woman who is almost certainly the kind of granny who arrives bearing a bag of assorted sweeties when she comes to visit. She probably gets them from the shelf that eager customers queue in front of, as Holden's is also the village shop, selling everything from bread and eggs to washing up liquid and tea bags. Be assured though that most people will be queuing for the ice cream. It comes in only one flavour, but what a flavour! It's the taste of childhood glee and friendship and sunny summers. The best way to enjoy it is to take your cornet with its captured cloud of ice creamous wonder down to the Wayoh reservoir (take the public footpath down the side of the Black Bull pub) and reflect on how good to you life is sometimes. Address: Holden's Ice Cream Blackburn Road Edgworth Lancashire
Open Mon-Sat (I assume it's not open on Sundays. Beware the lunch hour when the shop closes).

Lee

Home made cakes

(Above): The cake I made for Hazel's birthday. I'm not great at cakes - this one was slightly lopsided, but I was quite pleased with it.

(Above) This is the Victoria Sponge that Lee made over the weekend. I sadly didn't get to try this one, but i'm hoping he makes it for me at some point as it looks delicious (and he assures me he was very happy with it!)

This is the cake we all need to aspire to. One of the best cakes I have ever eaten (actually, quite possibly the very best). This is a chocolate cake made by Anjana on Saturday. It was intensely chocolately, very moist, and beautifully presented (as you can see!)

Restaurant Molzmuhle, Wegberg, Germany

The very best restaurant I have eaten at this year, was very nearly not documented in these pages. Hours of Google-searching different combinations of 'watermill - German - restaurant - near - Monchengladbach' proved fruitless in discovering the name or location of this wonderful place I'd visited in April with Rebecca (who is such a good hostess, it was the third time I'd been to stay with her in Germany). She couldn't help me either, being away with no internet access. I sadly resigned myself that this exquisite dining experience would remain unblogged, until I miraculously found a flyer for Hotel-Restaurant-Molzmuhle hidden amongst a pile of random bits of paper from various travels. (The flyer, like the website (and the menu) are entirely in German, but thanks to the powers of technology, an acceptably translated version can be found here - I say acceptable, but do notice the reference to 'erotic vegetables' on the translated menu page!)

So often when travelling, the restaurants you visit are the ones you walk past, but the joy of having a friend whose local favourite restaurant is in a forest in Wegberg, meant that I experienced a place I never would have found on my own, which was so good that it made me radically rethink my impressions of German cuisine.

The building is a beautifully restored 17th century watermill, and dinner was a candle-lit affair (would definitely score highly as a romantic location, but was no less lovely for a girly evening of indulgent food and drink), and the service was impeccable - the waiter didn't speak much English, but was very friendly and tried to be as helpful as possible. So this wasn't an issue - Bec helped translate the menu for me and we'd soon ordered. The wine was wonderful, and the bread was warm and served with exciting condiments.

My starter was a tart of french onion and gorgeously creamy and rich cheese. Bec's mushroom soup was one of the freshest and most flavoursome I'd ever tasted (she kindly let me sample some). Portions were generous and very artistically presented.

This was followed by an amuse-bouche of very small pieces of rabbit, which sadly didn't look very appealing. It wasn't quite to our tastes but we sampled it all the same.

Luckily, we were far from disappointed by our main courses. We were both delighted by our respective choices - seafood for Bec and roast chicken with incredible flavour for me. But the delight levels (already very high) went through the roof once we reached dessert. These were quite possibly the two most beautiful and indulgent desserts I've ever seen and tasted.

Apple strudel ice-cream.

Chocolate brownie with poppy seed ice-cream - lusciously chocolatey and gooey.

Overall:

Atmosphere: This place feels special (as being in a 17th century restored watermill should feel) - a good balance of relaxed and romantic.

Service: Attentive, professional and friendly.

Food quality: It looked amazing and it tasted even better.

Value for money: A three course meal with wine came in at EUR 50 a head, which is pretty good value indeed for the quality of what you get.

Overall: Highest mark possible 10/10

Contact details:

Restaurant Molzmuhle

In Bollenberg 41
41844 Wegberg

Germany
Tel.: 02434/99770
http://www.molzmuehle.de/
molzmuehle@t-online.de