Restaurant 2012

[Springal]

Went to the Gurkha Tandoori (West Worthing) last week. There was plenty of standard Indian fayre on offer, but we went with the Nepalese dishes. Lamb momo was delicious with a sauce that packed a punch and lamb and pork main course dishes were also well presented, tender and spicy. Big shame we were the only ones in there, the locals are really missing out here.

Funny location I think and Worthing competitive for a curry. I have never been, but my parents used to go a lot, but they alternate between there, the sit down place in Broadwater, or Chilcha in town.

Also has anyone been to the Thomas A Becket pub recently, now a Fullers I see and claim to use a lot of local produce. Not expecting a lot, but might give the roast a try next weekend

 

[Beach Hut]

Days, Brighton - not bad all you can eat buffet

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

North Laine pub - went in there a couple of nights ago with a few old friend. Bacon burger and chips works out the same price as the Basketmakers but is much better quality - the burger tastes like steak. Bangers and mash were reported as very good as was the sausage platter. 9/10 - loses a point as the onion rings as a side order were those supermarket type mush ones rather than being made using a real onion.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

North Laine pub - went in there a couple of nights ago with a few old friend. Bacon burger and chips works out the same price as the Basketmakers but is much better quality - the burger tastes like steak. Bangers and mash were reported as very good as was the sausage platter. 9/10 - loses a point as the onion rings as a side order were those supermarket type mush ones rather than being made using a real onion.

And just wait until they start brewing their own American Pale Ale! I have only eaten pork scratchings at North Laine but they very nice.

As an aside I think The Basketmakers it a bit overrated.

I went to Chili Pickle for the first time tonight as I couldn't get in La Choza. I appreciate I'm not telling you something new but it was rather nice. They have a great range of beers as well including Erdinger, Meantime and Troubadour. And you can be in and out very quickly if you sit at the communal table.

 

[seagullwedgee]

Went to L'Eglise in Hove last night with the family, a party of 5. I chose it purely based on the recommendations on this thread. Whilst the food was pretty good, we witnessed perhaps the most bizzarre and arrogant piece of service I have ever witnessed, read on!

Starters included a balck pudding and apple pastry; moules; steak tartare; french onion soup - all pretty good.

Mains inlcuded boeuf bourgignon; and onglet cut steak and duck fat chips - onglet was great with the herb butter, but the shin of beef in the bourgignon was very gristly which was surprisingly poor.

Total bill for 5 people eating two courses, drinks on arrival plus one bottle of red came to £196 (they include 10% service).

Here's the best bit! We ordered a bottle of 2006 Burgundy pinot noir to go with all the beef. The bloke who claimed to be the owner brought it over, and the foil had already been removed, and the corkscrew was already in the cork before he presented it to us. What he showed was a 2010, and in our opinion thats' very young to be serving a pinot noir from this region and charging £35 for it. So we politely said "No thanks, your wine list clearly states Clos St. Louis 2006, we really don't want to pay that sort of money for something that has had no chance to develop" (the grapes were only picked 25 months ago). He wasn't very happy because he had made the mistake of removing the foil and piercing the cork, which means that technically it is open, and the cork is no longer secure, and it should not be resold (although nothing woulod surprise me in this place, based on what happened next!).

'Jean' the bloke serving us with the contrived franglais accent for effect said, I kid you not "It doesn't make any difference how old it is sir, the pinot noir grape does not develop with age, it will not improve".... and ploughed on with more utter bollocks. Now I'm not qualified in wine, but my son who is studying it at University and is part qualified in the Wines & Spirits Education Trust diploma is, and he also has worked as a sommelier at a michelin starred restaurant. And I think we all know that the tannins in red wine soften over time and this is what enables great growths and great vintages to develop superb character. We questioned 'Jean' on this and, barely managing to conceal our laughter, he went on to say "I do know what I'm talking about, i am a Master of Wine......" (in his ridiculous franglais lilt). It was hilarious, he realised he had overstepped his level of knowledge, and started back-tracking and suggesting he was in the process of changing his list (the list was pretty limited and basic). Two minutes later he came back to our table, clearly agitated to the extent that it was attracting the attention of several other tables close by, and started thrusting 2 other choices of red wine at me. And when I say thrusting I mean he had one bottle in each hand at the neck of the bottle, and was thrusting and shaking them at me in a pretty aggressive manner, saying "you can ave ziss doo sousand and furr haut medoc (thrusting and shaking it)or you can ave ziss doo sousand and nine cotes du rhone villages. I had to stop him and say "what on earth are you doing? Those wines have both been laying horizontally on your rack, and either of them could have some form of sediment in them, please stop shaking them before we continue this conversation". By this time the tables around us were full of bemused smirks and smiles as this arrogant tosser continued to lose the plot and claim that he was an MW. There are only a few hundred in the world, and if he's an MW then I'm a concorde pilot who once won Wimbledon playing with a broken arm!

You had to be there to believe it! I wasn't trying to be funny when I said "we're eating boeuf bourgignon, and that's why we chose a burgundian wine, you've offered me a bordeaux and a rhone, can I just see your list to see if you have any other burgundian wines, or perhaps any similar character new world pinot noirs. he refused, and just said "it's one of these or nothing"!! I said "OK, if that's what it has to be, but I'm sure I saw on your list a CDR 2006 from Cairanne, can I have a look at that because 2006 was a cracking vintage in southern rhone" to which he got back on his laughable line of "i keep telling you zir, it doesn't matter how old it says it ees on zer bottle, it will not make any difference.

It was truly remarkable. And, yes, 'jean' is the slef styled owner of the business - but all i can say is be very careful about this place because the bloke is clearly a bullshitter of the highest order! it will live in the memory for years, not just us, but the 5 or 6 tables immediately around us, watching this bloke make a complete and utter plonker of himself!

We took the 2009 CDR, it wasn't great.

he added 10% to the bill for service, and we paid it. It was the best value comedy sketch I think I have ever seen, and the service charge of £18 was well and truly worth it just for that sketch!!!

Wedgee

 

[seagullwedgee]

I should have added, that when 'jean' came to take the plates away after out starter he asked "how was everything?", so I had to give him a truthful answer.

"All of it was pretty good, thank you, but we were surprised how many of the mussels were closed". My young lad who had the mussels counted he had about 18 mussels in the serving but 8 of them were firmly closed. The closed ones were left in the bowl they were served in, it was obvious that about half the serving had not opened. The miserable 'jean' just grunted and shrugged his shoulders and walked off with the stacked plates!!! i thought if you are going to ask for feedback then at least acknowledge it somehow.

I was always told discard mussels if they are open before you clean/cook them (and don't close when tapped), or if they are closed after you cook them; they've got mussels on the starter and mains menu, and if 40%+ are served to the table closed then that is potentially a recipe for very unpleasant food poisoning. In these circumstances, either the product supplied is of poor quality, or they're not fresh. Either way, never try to prize open a closed mussel at the table, and just be careful here. I am very surprised that 'Jean' did not acknowledge or respond to this 40% failure rate. I'd expect maybe one or two in ten max, but nearly half Nah, that's problem territory - be careful.

 

[Nibble]

I should have added, that when 'jean' came to take the plates away after out starter he asked "how was everything?", so I had to give him a truthful answer.

"All of it was pretty good, thank you, but we were surprised how many of the mussels were closed". My young lad who had the mussels counted he had about 18 mussels in the serving but 8 of them were firmly closed. The closed ones were left in the bowl they were served in, it was obvious that about half the serving had not opened. The miserable 'jean' just grunted and shrugged his shoulders and walked off with the stacked plates!!! i thought if you are going to ask for feedback then at least acknowledge it somehow.

I was always told discard mussels if they are open before you clean/cook them (and don't close when tapped), or if they are closed after you cook them; they've got mussels on the starter and mains menu, and if 40%+ are served to the table closed then that is potentially a recipe for very unpleasant food poisoning. In these circumstances, either the product supplied is of poor quality, or they're not fresh. Either way, never try to prize open a closed mussel at the table, and just be careful here. I am very surprised that 'Jean' did not acknowledge or respond to this 40% failure rate. I'd expect maybe one or two in ten max, but nearly half Nah, that's problem territory - be careful.

Whilst I agree that Jean should not have lied or tried to pull the wool over your eyes if I were Jean, I'd have told the lot of you, especially your pretentious child, to f*** off.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Whilst I agree that Jean should not have lied or tried to pull the wool over your eyes if I were Jean, I'd have told the lot of you, especially your pretentious child, to f*** off.

 

[The Birdman]

Had brilliant all day-breakfast at Savannah Haywards Heath not to expensive good value for money and they sell Harvey's beer Doombar and Spitfire. And live music every Thursday

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Rather than a review I'm asking for reviews / advice :

Christmas party time and we can choose our venue ( in Brighton and Hove ), options so far are :

The Preston Park Tavern
The Chimney House
The Connaught

Does anybody have any views on the above places ?

 

[seagullwedgee]

No, seriously, my lad and I like to ruby and badly-packed kebab it up with the best of them, we have no heirs and graces. It was just a ridiculous charade, a bit like something from Flowery Twats back in the 70s!

But in the circumstances, as it happened, if he had told us to f*** off it would have saved us a lot of wonga!!!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Rather than a review I'm asking for reviews / advice :

Christmas party time and we can choose our venue ( in Brighton and Hove ), options so far are :

The Preston Park Tavern
The Chimney House
The Connaught

Does anybody have any views on the above places ?

Been to The Connaught and The Chimney House and the former definitely gets my vote over the latter.

 

[nick c]

Nopi in Warwick street London yesterday,excellent food and service.The flavours the chef's got out of the vegetables served were incredible,relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff made for a wonderful lunch.Couldn't decide what to have so we ordered everything on the starter/sharing menu(13 dishes in total)as well as desserts of banana brioche white chocolate ice cream and tarragon,popcorn ice cream with black pepper popcorn,chocolate spicy hazelnuts and orange oil,a truly delightful afternoon if you like your food,highly recommended,9/10.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Been to The Connaught and The Chimney House and the former definitely gets my vote over the latter.

Good chips at the Chimney.

 

[BensGrandad]

My nephew raves about Days, has anybody any views on their self service buffet.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Simon Rogan's "Roganic" of Marylebone High St. Did the 10 courses menu. Very clever, some ingredients I'd never come across, well worth a visit.

Agree with nick c on NOPI, 4th time I've been there and it's good.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I had brunch and then dinner at The Spotted Pig yesterday. A lovely little gastro pub serving simple well executed pub style food and with a decent selection of craft beer; current fave is the Flying Dog Under Dog lager. Apparently our Norman has a financial interest in this place.

Off to Pollen St Social on Friday.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Good chips at the Chimney.

I used to really like the Chimney but it went really flat about a year ago; menu became bland and the food less imaginative. Would you say it has picked up?

 

[The Merry Prankster]

I used to really like the Chimney but it went really flat about a year ago; menu became bland and the food less imaginative. Would you say it has picked up?

I enjoyed my last visit. No great shakes but perfectly pleasant. Enjoy Pollen St.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I enjoyed my last visit. No great shakes but perfectly pleasant. Enjoy Pollen St.

Thanks. Off the back of this Ill give it another go.