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

Al Fassia, Windsor, & a bench on St Leonards Road, 15th June 2009

Part 1:
Expectations are a dangerous thing. I'd had my eye on this Morrocan restaurant for a long time - ever since Graham found it reviewed on this site. I made sure I had booked in advance - every single review on the site described it in glowing terms - so my expectations were sky high.

Al-Fassia is far off the tourist track, but close to my new favourite bar/arts centre, The Firestation (the building used to be Windsor's Fire Station, but now is a great drinking place for a sunny evening when they open the bar out onto the pavement), so it was a good excuse to combine visiting both places.

I was expecting a tiny but but busy place, 'shabby on the outside' (as the initial website now famously states), but a hidden gem inside. We walked straight past it, but once we did find it, my expectations were immediately confounded. It didn't look shabby at all...and it was very very empty. The service was good and we were bought some marinaded olives whilst we perused the menu. To start we had some briouat - triangles of filo pastry, stuffed with potato and vegetables, deep friend and served with a tomato dip. A lot like samosas, but without the spices. In fact there wasn't a huge amount of flavour which was disappointing. What was a hit though, was the hummous, which was some of the best i'd ever tasted. It had the perfect smooth texture and had a distinct subtle olive flavour. We had to ask for more bread to soak up every last bit of it.

The starters hadn't been bad, but those dastardly expectations of mine were remained high, as Hazel and Siobhan's main course tagines arrived at the table. They were sizzling hot - too hot to open immediately, but they smelt so appetising that we were all salivating before we'd even seen how good the food inside looked...

Both Louise and I had opted for a dish which had the same name as the restaurant. When our meals arrived, we were shocked to see just how huge our portions were. It looked like we had an entire bag of couscous each, as well as two merguez sausages, large pieces of chicken and lamb and a mountain of vegetables piled onto our plates!

Everything was cooked to perfection but the flavours got lost amongst the huge amounts of couscous (apart from the sausages, which were very tasty). The sauce we were given to eat with our dish had tasted of tumeric and not a lot else. The tagine dishes were smaller and although they'd looked and smelt great, the flavour seemed elusive. So sadly although we couldn't find fault with the service or the size of the portions, or the quality of the food, our high expectations meant that we left the restuarant underwhelmed. The flavours weren't as robust as we would have liked, which could well be down to personal taste, or not ordering the best options on the menu.

Overall:

Food quality: Quality was great, but it was just flavours that were missing (apart from the amazing hummous and very tasty sausages).

Atmosphere: We were initially the only diners so there really wasn't any atmosphere, but it was early on a monday evening. The interiors are lovely (and very morrocan), so potentially the atmosphere here could be great.

Service: Very attentive and friendly.

Value for money: This varies. My giant £12 dish could have easily fed two people if we'd known just how huge it was going to be! The tagines were smaller.

Overall: 6/10 More informed ordering might have helped us, as well as if we'd visited when it was busier. However I think the hugely inflated expectations had a very big part to play in the poor score, so this is no fault of the restaurant itself.

Part 2:
We'd declined dessert at the restaurant but instead bought icecreams from the local corner shop and as very classy ladies, we ate them on a bench on the street. I'd opted for a Magnum Temptation (Chocolate version). Having not seen any of the adverts I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but was initially disappointed when the elaborate packaging revealed a very small icecream (remember "flashy on the outside can lead to subsequent disappointment"!), and this was followed by a slightly disconcerting feeling about how overtly 'sexy' this icecream was trying to be. (It just reminded me of the chocolates they were trying to create in the final of The Apprentice, and it wasn't a good memory). But whilst the others suffered minor injuries and low levels of frostbite whilst trying to hack into the solid ice of their Ben and Jerries mini pots, I was delighted by my choice. The chocolate brownie and white chocolate chunks made up for any earlier misgivings!

Overall:
Food quality: The Ben and Jerries was far too cold, but the Magnum Temptation was chocolatey, ice-cream and brownie goodness on a stick!

Atmosphere: Although the sun had returned after some rain, it was a little cold to be sitting on a bench. There were probably more passers by than we would have liked. The parked cars also adversely affected the ambience.

Service: Siobhan was very unhappy that the Ben and Jerries tubs didn't contain user friendly spoons. Just basic wooden spatulas which weren't up to the task of hacking into overly cold icecream. However the Magnum's wooden stick did a great job - no complaints there.

Value for money: Depends how you look at it - far cheaper than buying dessert in the restuarant at any rate, but at the higher end of the price scale for individual icecreams.

Overall: 9/10 for Magnum. Probably 6/10 for the others.

Jeremy's Cafe de la Mer, Windsor - 12th May 2009

I eat out in Windsor fairly frequently, as a result of working in a much-less desirable location just a few miles away. The majority of the restaurants are in the environs of the castle or central station, but it's difficult to find anywhere that isn't a chain (it's not a big place, but name a chain and it'll be here, and the McDonalds, Starbucks and Wetherspoons are right next to one another). For all recent work meals we'd opted for Bel and the Dragon, (still a chain, but only a local one, with four gastropubs in the area), where the food is undeniably good, but service and atmosphere leave something to be desired. Looking for something different, my colleagues were enthusiatic about a new seafood bar they had spotted on the high street. I'm not a big seafood fan, but I was definitely up for a new culinary experience in Windsor, so off we went...

Eating at Jeremy's Cafe de la Mer is an intimate experience. Tables had to be rearranged to accomodate the three of us, and with two diners already there, the restuarant was then full! Jeremy himself assured us that should we return with the rest of the team, there was a private dining area upstairs which would accomodate us nicely. The immaculate pale blue interiors made for the ideal chilled out atmosphere i'd been hoping for, particularly once wine arrived.

The menu was larger than i'd anticipated for such a tiny restaurant. However it soon transpired that a lot of the options on the menu weren't available. Jeremy explained how his ingredients were freshly ordered every day (from sustainable sources), and he hadn't antipated many covers on a blustery Tuesday night, and indeed, I did wonder how he competed with the many chains and restaurants geared towards tourists.

I ordered a smoked salmon starter and was quite astounded by the freshness and flavour. Leandri's seafood platter with live oyster was the most impressive dish of the evening, (although she wasn't quite brave enough to eat the oyster herself, so Astrid did the honours)...



I may have wondered how this restaurant survived, but repeat business and word-of-mouth are powerful things. His food is simple, fresh and very tasty. The starters and mains are light and healthy - which he claims increases his popularity with female clientele. Admittedly all 5 of us dining in the restuarant tonight were female, and our meal would have been healthy, had myself and Leandri not ordered two side orders of skinny-homemade -perfectly-crispy fries, and had I abstained from ordering a chocolate torte dessert, and Astrid her Bailey's ice cream (so there goes that theory!)

Overall:

Atmosphere: Intimate and calm. Potentially a good place for a date if you don't mind having a chat with Jeremy (or maybe he only does that with the ladies).

Service: Friendly and attentive to the point where we didn't mind when we were told they hadn't ordered in the ingredients for particular dishes that day.

Value for money: It can end up being very expensive here, even though the individual dishes don't appear to be over priced. We spent hours there though and the different courses and drinks, desserts and coffees all added up to a rather large bill!

Marks out of 10: I'd say 7.5/10 for the food, but that's because i'm not a seafood fan, but 9.5/10 in terms of the general experience and atmosphere. So that makes an average score of 8.5/10.