Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,348
Dab be good to me
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
[Food] Restaurant 2019 Thread
- Thread starter Machiavelli
- Start date
Dab be good to me
Machiavelli
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #522
Cheers!
The "big day" is next week and her German is terrible
There's four of us on the 7pm sitting and I'm sure we'll be contributing to the atmosphere after a couple of vinos! Say hello if you see me. Will likely be in a yellow Pretty Green t-shirt and hopefully trousers of some description.
I think we missed you. Hope you had a good time.
Beach Hut
Brighton Bhuna Boy
Cin Cin - Vine Street, Brighton
Well having almost been brainwashed into going here by our Germanic poster the time was right.
Firstly a very strange place (to me and Mrs Hut) to eat, only 24 people at anytime and around the bar so no tables etc.
Starters, we shared cured meat and a Rabbit Crochette and they we both very good especially the crochette and both had mains of Salt Cod Ravioli which again was very pleasant and well seasoned all washed down with a very agreeable bottle of Negroamaro il Pumo.
I was not great fan of this around a bar business and have to say when we left neither of us felt particularly full so to speak after a two course meal but it would certainly appeal to others however the food was very good, well cooked, seasoned and very tasty.
I will give it an 8 out of 10 however I am not convinced I would return, simply not my idea of how to eat a meal.
Well having almost been brainwashed into going here by our Germanic poster the time was right.
Firstly a very strange place (to me and Mrs Hut) to eat, only 24 people at anytime and around the bar so no tables etc.
Starters, we shared cured meat and a Rabbit Crochette and they we both very good especially the crochette and both had mains of Salt Cod Ravioli which again was very pleasant and well seasoned all washed down with a very agreeable bottle of Negroamaro il Pumo.
I was not great fan of this around a bar business and have to say when we left neither of us felt particularly full so to speak after a two course meal but it would certainly appeal to others however the food was very good, well cooked, seasoned and very tasty.
I will give it an 8 out of 10 however I am not convinced I would return, simply not my idea of how to eat a meal.
We did indeed. I just can't praise it highly enough really. An extra course of "posh fish and chips" was added as it was a Friday, the wine pairings were perfect and we had a chat with Duncan before desert. The mate I was with has worked in kitchens most of his life and runs one of the seafront cafe's and it turns out Duncan's dog regularly uses the dog bowls he puts out. I'd no idea he was pastry chef at the Fat Duck - explains the precise plating and how, just when you think somewhere that does fish that well won't do deserts, the desert is even better. Another 10/10 for me.
The Hove branch also has normal tables for those that prefer.
Meanwhile, back in the burbs, Apple is back at The Blue Anchor on the far south end of Station road / Boundary Road coooking amazing Thai food to eat in or take away. We were feeling lazy yesterday after a day digesting six fish courses and a wine flight and got an early take away. The food is absolutely amazing, a Lapp Neua for me, beef absolutely swimming in corriander and chilli but with a lovely minty acidity added. Wife and son both had the Bpat Makum, crisp skinned dick with mixed vegetables and tamarind. The Boy is only 12 but is already a fan of Thai and Indian thanks to dishes like these. Don't take my work for it though. Here's the pub spy.
With The Foghorn doing regular weekend pop-ups outside (Pizza Face this week, Momma Cherry a couple of weeks ago) and the regular roasts and dirty vegan specials in The Railway it seems Jeremy Kyle Mile is becoming a little foody
With The Foghorn doing regular weekend pop-ups outside (Pizza Face this week, Momma Cherry a couple of weeks ago) and the regular roasts and dirty vegan specials in The Railway it seems Jeremy Kyle Mile is becoming a little foody
Nitram
Well-known member
- Jul 16, 2013
- 2,268
That’s exactly my experience. It’s a strangely un-engaging dining experience and felt for the cost and time spent in there short changed. Only other restaurants I’ve had similar feelings about in Brighton are the Gingerman ones. Something I can’t quite put my finger on but never feel comfortable, better half feels the same. Good food but lacking in hospitality and atmosphere.
Jack & Billy’s Dinner Club - various locations in London.
Jack and Billy are the 20/early 30-something losing finalists in Masterchef in 2016 - the year that mumsy Jane won with some superlative cooking in the final. JB have worked together ever since - at festivals, private dining, and at a monthly dinner club.
They don’t have premises, instead hiring a suitable venue for the night and cooking for a couple of dozen people. This month they hired Boki at Seven Dials.
They promised a 5-course meal “with a couple of added surprises”. Surprise #1 was being presented with a menu for 4 courses: Asparagus soup, Fish - either turbot, hake or halibut depending on what was good, pork belly and tenderloin, and a deconstructed raspberry crumble. Alcohol was a choice of a wine pairing or a flight of Chase gin cocktails - I assume Chase sponsored them.
The premises were somewhat uninspiring - not really encouraging me to want to return. No bouncer though - that’s always a plus. The clientele were two sets of Mum and daughter, four groups of women ranging in size from two to four, and a handful of couples - 6 men, 18 women. Under different circumstances I’d quite like that ratio; here however, it caused me a little pause - JB are eye candy, perhaps that’s why these folk came?
The GLDHI and I arrived 45 mins early and set about getting a couple in before happy hour finished 10 minutes after our arrival. We sat at the semi circular bar, and decided to eat there too. The woman who sat on my right talked to her mum in a foodie type way.
Out comes some home made bread with butter through which had been whipped the faintest smidgen of Marmite. I don’t like Marmite, but this was fine. The bread was good.
The soup was really very decent - nicely flavoured with crispy shallots and creme fraiche. It also had an entirely redundant quail’s egg in it, that had sunk to the bottom. A wasted ingredient.
Then... well, then it all went tits up.
The “turbot, hake or halibut” turned out to be, err, cod. Which was pretty much unseasoned and badly over cooked. Served with bright yellow (far too much saffron), unseasoned mash, a gremolata which had seen no garlic, and capers from a jar. The wine (we’d gone for the pairing) was awful - they all were, and served just as I finished the fish.
Followed by the pork - both cuts seriously under seasoned and over cooked. There’s a theme here. The peas were undercooked, but the broad beans were double podded and cooked correctly.
Followed by - God, what a mess...
“Here’s your surprise - a cheese dish that Marcus Wareing taught me”
Ok, but honestly, serving me the same number of courses that you sold me isn’t that much of a surprise. And you promised me surprises (plural); your phrasing suggests I’ll be getting just the one non-surprise - otherwise known as “no surprises at all then”.
I can only hope that Marcus doesn’t read NSC, as he’ll sue JB for linking his name (despite his relegation from 2 to 1 star - a fact that JB gleefully reminded us - ungrateful b'stard) with the utter bloody mess they gave us.
Pitched as a warm mixture of four cheeses with a tomato confit, it was instead a tepid congealed lump of dairy fat with cherry tomatoes that had been sliced in half. Appalling.
Pudding? Who knows - we left after the cheese course; as did the woman and her mum seated to our immediate right.
It’s hard to know what went wrong. Gut feel? Both lads are capable of cooking one dish at a time really well - witness Masterchef. Neither have the talent (or desire) to do it in a pro setting. 24 dishes at the same time? Utterly beyond them, even after 3 years of trying. Perhaps that’s why they’ve never opened a restaurant.
My advice to them - don’t bother; instead look for a career in mejia. Or sales.
My advice to you - don’t book for JB dinner club - it’s shit.
Jack and Billy are the 20/early 30-something losing finalists in Masterchef in 2016 - the year that mumsy Jane won with some superlative cooking in the final. JB have worked together ever since - at festivals, private dining, and at a monthly dinner club.
They don’t have premises, instead hiring a suitable venue for the night and cooking for a couple of dozen people. This month they hired Boki at Seven Dials.
They promised a 5-course meal “with a couple of added surprises”. Surprise #1 was being presented with a menu for 4 courses: Asparagus soup, Fish - either turbot, hake or halibut depending on what was good, pork belly and tenderloin, and a deconstructed raspberry crumble. Alcohol was a choice of a wine pairing or a flight of Chase gin cocktails - I assume Chase sponsored them.
The premises were somewhat uninspiring - not really encouraging me to want to return. No bouncer though - that’s always a plus. The clientele were two sets of Mum and daughter, four groups of women ranging in size from two to four, and a handful of couples - 6 men, 18 women. Under different circumstances I’d quite like that ratio; here however, it caused me a little pause - JB are eye candy, perhaps that’s why these folk came?
The GLDHI and I arrived 45 mins early and set about getting a couple in before happy hour finished 10 minutes after our arrival. We sat at the semi circular bar, and decided to eat there too. The woman who sat on my right talked to her mum in a foodie type way.
Out comes some home made bread with butter through which had been whipped the faintest smidgen of Marmite. I don’t like Marmite, but this was fine. The bread was good.
The soup was really very decent - nicely flavoured with crispy shallots and creme fraiche. It also had an entirely redundant quail’s egg in it, that had sunk to the bottom. A wasted ingredient.
Then... well, then it all went tits up.
The “turbot, hake or halibut” turned out to be, err, cod. Which was pretty much unseasoned and badly over cooked. Served with bright yellow (far too much saffron), unseasoned mash, a gremolata which had seen no garlic, and capers from a jar. The wine (we’d gone for the pairing) was awful - they all were, and served just as I finished the fish.
Followed by the pork - both cuts seriously under seasoned and over cooked. There’s a theme here. The peas were undercooked, but the broad beans were double podded and cooked correctly.
Followed by - God, what a mess...
“Here’s your surprise - a cheese dish that Marcus Wareing taught me”
Ok, but honestly, serving me the same number of courses that you sold me isn’t that much of a surprise. And you promised me surprises (plural); your phrasing suggests I’ll be getting just the one non-surprise - otherwise known as “no surprises at all then”.
I can only hope that Marcus doesn’t read NSC, as he’ll sue JB for linking his name (despite his relegation from 2 to 1 star - a fact that JB gleefully reminded us - ungrateful b'stard) with the utter bloody mess they gave us.
Pitched as a warm mixture of four cheeses with a tomato confit, it was instead a tepid congealed lump of dairy fat with cherry tomatoes that had been sliced in half. Appalling.
Pudding? Who knows - we left after the cheese course; as did the woman and her mum seated to our immediate right.
It’s hard to know what went wrong. Gut feel? Both lads are capable of cooking one dish at a time really well - witness Masterchef. Neither have the talent (or desire) to do it in a pro setting. 24 dishes at the same time? Utterly beyond them, even after 3 years of trying. Perhaps that’s why they’ve never opened a restaurant.
My advice to them - don’t bother; instead look for a career in mejia. Or sales.
My advice to you - don’t book for JB dinner club - it’s shit.
Pogue Mahone
Well-known member
- Apr 30, 2011
- 10,949
Meanwhile, back in the burbs, Apple is back at The Blue Anchor on the far south end of Station road / Boundary Road coooking amazing Thai food to eat in or take away. We were feeling lazy yesterday after a day digesting six fish courses and a wine flight and got an early take away. The food is absolutely amazing, a Lapp Neua for me, beef absolutely swimming in corriander and chilli but with a lovely minty acidity added. Wife and son both had the Bpat Makum, crisp skinned dick with mixed vegetables and tamarind. The Boy is only 12 but is already a fan of Thai and Indian thanks to dishes like these. Don't take my work for it though. Here's the pub spy.
With The Foghorn doing regular weekend pop-ups outside (Pizza Face this week, Momma Cherry a couple of weeks ago) and the regular roasts and dirty vegan specials in The Railway it seems Jeremy Kyle Mile is becoming a little foody
razer
Well-known member
I live a one minute drive away from the restaurant that's just been voted the best in the UK and deservedly so in my opinion. It's called Moor Hall and is in Aughton in Lancashire. If you ever get the chance to go there, you won't be disappointed.
portlander
Well-known member
Oh FFS, a typo so good that not even my mod powers will tempt me to correct it
Thought maybe I was the only one to notice it. You're right, it's magnificent!
Beach Hut
Brighton Bhuna Boy
Quite an accolade, by whom?
National Restaurant Awards
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jun/10/lancashire-restaurant-moor-hall-crowned-best-in-uk-2019
It's Mark Birchall's two star place. Looks amazing.
razer
Well-known member
razer
Well-known member
It is amazing.
razer
Well-known member
Thanks for the recommendation... nice living so close to work, I bet...
Sunday roast is about the pinnacle of my cooking prowess.
thedonkeycentrehalf
Moved back to wear the gloves (again)
- Jul 7, 2003
- 9,347
Still waiting for [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] to post his review of Pitch.
A few doors down from there, our favourite pizza restaurant Fiordilatte has had a bit of a make over with new comfy chairs, tables and a new counter. New printed menus also now have a range of pasta dishes - daughter had the carbonara which she said was very good. The pizzas are still great and the prices haven't gone up but on my last couple of visits, the pizzas seem to be slightly smaller than usual - they fit comfortably on the plate rather than overhanging.
A few doors down from there, our favourite pizza restaurant Fiordilatte has had a bit of a make over with new comfy chairs, tables and a new counter. New printed menus also now have a range of pasta dishes - daughter had the carbonara which she said was very good. The pizzas are still great and the prices haven't gone up but on my last couple of visits, the pizzas seem to be slightly smaller than usual - they fit comfortably on the plate rather than overhanging.
Were you in there today? If so - what time?
We were in from 3:00 - 4:30ish and made the same observations as you. Bozza junior was quite dismayed at the size of his pizza although they weren't far off adult sizes previously,