So last night Kate and I tried Stevenage's new restaurant, Sienna. There's a bar downstairs and dining room upstairs. We were greeted at the lower door by front of house staff and led upstairs to be seated. The dining room is non-smoking, but there's a smoking area, with leather seats, on the upper landing for those who must pop out between courses.
The space is attractive, with dark brown walls, good chairs and cutlery, and some decent large scale art. Service seemed eager to please and our Italian waiter was pleasant - as were the front of house staff. There were some lapses and odd bits of service, hopefully just indicative of a place finding its feet - they've only been open two weeks. Bread was served late, with several diners around us already on main courses. Our side plates had been removed along with our starters so we got no bread at all. I was offered a taste of our wine (a very nice, mid range, pinot grigio from Venice) despite it being screw capped. Ok, I can see how some diners might expect that, but it annoyed me since it reinforces the idea that wine tasting is somehow auditioning the wine, not just checking to see if it's corked. I refused the offer. Our wine was nicely presented in ice, but my glass sat empty for a while after the first serving - when I filled it myself the waiter came over and asked if I was "trying to take [his] job" ; )
Kate had a globe artichoke filled with cheese and I took a crispy duck salad as starters. It was clear at once that the kitchen is well equipped with metal rings and squeezy bottles. Presentation was excellent. I thought my salad was slightly over-dressed but it was good none-the-less. Kate liked hers very much, and the taste I had was good. Mains were Seabass fillet for Kate and I had a roast neck of lamb with truffle mash and wild mushrooms off the specials list.
The mash and heavily reduced and intensified mushrooms were both top rate and any kitchen could be proud of them. My lamb was close to being very good too, except for a significant piece of quite tough fat at one end. The other end of the long cut was 8/10, so it was a shame the dish was dragged down by the slightly unlucky cut. As expected with a roast from a smaller dining room I wasn't asked how I'd like my meat, so I was pleasantly surprised that it came out on the lower end of medium - still quite pink. We had french beans as a side, and frankly they tasted like supermarket food - quite resistant and plasticky.
Deserts came from a long list and after wondering why desert prices were written (five pounds seventy five) and drink prices were numbers (£3.50) we went for a Cox Pippin Tart (Kate) and Bread and Butter Pudding (me). They'd sold out of the creme brulee, which every other diner around us seemed to have gone for. The tart was great and Kate was rightly pleased with it. My bread and butter pudding was ok, but could have lived with more fruit. The orange creme anglaise it was served with was ok too.
Overall we had fun, and I'm thrilled that Stevenage Old Town has a more interesting venue than the big chains that surround it. The place was full and I got the impression that most of the diners were happy with their meals. I'll definitely be back to see if they iron out some of the inconsitencies and improve as they settle in.
I had a good look at the kitchen which was clean and well staffed. All the food seemed to be cooked to order and prepared fresh on the premises, which singles Sienna out in a town that is dominated by chains.
The check was £65 before the tip and also included a bottle of sparkling water, but no coffee.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Kitchen Aid, cook books etc.
So at the weekend I weakened and bought a new blender, a Kitchen Aid one (KitchenAid KSB5BBU Ultra Power Blender) on sale at £79.99, down from £109.99. Last night we set it up and Kate made a vichyssoise soup using some of the organic veg from our box delivery. Sooo good. Kate blends quite a bit, but I was always put off by our old hand blender. Now I can see a whole new world of recipes opening up to me.
Last night I finished reading Spoon, by Alain Ducasse. As of today there are two copies up on Amazon.com at $228 and $1891. I have no idea why so much since it's on Amazon.co.uk for a rather more reasonable £16.50 (vs £25 list). Sadly, I'd not actually give it house room, even for £10.
Only a couple of recipes floated my boat (the cod with cod brandade being the stand out). Ducasse offers up several recipes based on the same gimmick of serving two or three takes on the same ingredient in one dish. If you want recipes with three types of tomatoes, or two of cod or eggs then it might interest you. Sadly too much space (IMHO) was given to "non-recipes". I really don't need to know what quanities of pulses might make up a raw salad and I don't think that constitutes a good use of a page. Also the book, which admittedly is rather old now, is full of the worst pictures of Spoon patrons (the French outlet I think) and pictures that have little resemblance to how the recipes turn out or would be served.
Now I'd love to read Ducasse's Grand Livre De Cuisine. As Amazon says: "providing 700 recipes from French and Mediterranean cuisine that incorporate 100 basic ingredients and use 10 major cooking styles. Each dish is described in full, with recipes for accompaniments included; complete instructions for plating the entire dish are given as well. An extensive appendix offers an encyclopedia of ingredients as well as basic recipes (sauces, stocks, compound butters, and so on). Written in collaboration with five acclaimed French chefs and illustrated with more than 1,000 photographs and original drawings". But based on Spoon I'd be very nervous about parting with £100 for it. Not half as p**sed as I'd be paying $228 for Spoon though...
Far better value was Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Bernaise - a £10 book of sauce recipes, one to each page for 200 pages. I can't wait to get stuck in, esp. with the Kitchen Aid to help me out.
Last night I finished reading Spoon, by Alain Ducasse. As of today there are two copies up on Amazon.com at $228 and $1891. I have no idea why so much since it's on Amazon.co.uk for a rather more reasonable £16.50 (vs £25 list). Sadly, I'd not actually give it house room, even for £10.
Only a couple of recipes floated my boat (the cod with cod brandade being the stand out). Ducasse offers up several recipes based on the same gimmick of serving two or three takes on the same ingredient in one dish. If you want recipes with three types of tomatoes, or two of cod or eggs then it might interest you. Sadly too much space (IMHO) was given to "non-recipes". I really don't need to know what quanities of pulses might make up a raw salad and I don't think that constitutes a good use of a page. Also the book, which admittedly is rather old now, is full of the worst pictures of Spoon patrons (the French outlet I think) and pictures that have little resemblance to how the recipes turn out or would be served.
Now I'd love to read Ducasse's Grand Livre De Cuisine. As Amazon says: "providing 700 recipes from French and Mediterranean cuisine that incorporate 100 basic ingredients and use 10 major cooking styles. Each dish is described in full, with recipes for accompaniments included; complete instructions for plating the entire dish are given as well. An extensive appendix offers an encyclopedia of ingredients as well as basic recipes (sauces, stocks, compound butters, and so on). Written in collaboration with five acclaimed French chefs and illustrated with more than 1,000 photographs and original drawings". But based on Spoon I'd be very nervous about parting with £100 for it. Not half as p**sed as I'd be paying $228 for Spoon though...
Far better value was Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Bernaise - a £10 book of sauce recipes, one to each page for 200 pages. I can't wait to get stuck in, esp. with the Kitchen Aid to help me out.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Food quote
"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in The Physiology of Taste (1825)
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in The Physiology of Taste (1825)
Organic Veg Box (and Cassoulet)
So, despite it being rather bourgouise, Kate and I have started having our vegetables delivered in boxes from River Nene Organic Vegetables (http://www.rivernene.co.uk). They grow over 60 different veg on site, and promise to pack them one day and deliver the next. They're based in Peterborough, which is near enough to count as local for us (not that I give a damn about food miles - it's only the quality of food that I care for.)
It's definitely made a difference to how well we've eaten this week, with Kate making an amazing spicy vegetable gratin, and our Friday night divergence (Kate had smoked sea trout and I had a ribeye) getting a unifying element of crushed potatoes (a thick mash with garlic, onion and herbs) and green beans (haricots verts). As well as a clear improvement in taste over even organic supermarket vegetables (the spinach was the best I've had in years) the process of cleaning and preparing the veg has been a lot of fun and made me feel a lot more involved in the dishes. Now, I just need something to do with those carrot tops...
Last night I made a cassoulet, something I've been dying for for a while and trying to come up with a decent recipe for. Kate eats fish, but no meat, and a cassoulet is a serious amount of food for one, so I decided to make a vegetarian one (any French readers now faint). In the end I replaced the meat with Quorn sausages (the frozen, unspiced ones), heavily browned, and dried porcini mushrooms. The result was a clean taste that was clearly cassoulet-like but without the fat usually extruded by the meats during cooking. I was rather pleased with it.
It's definitely made a difference to how well we've eaten this week, with Kate making an amazing spicy vegetable gratin, and our Friday night divergence (Kate had smoked sea trout and I had a ribeye) getting a unifying element of crushed potatoes (a thick mash with garlic, onion and herbs) and green beans (haricots verts). As well as a clear improvement in taste over even organic supermarket vegetables (the spinach was the best I've had in years) the process of cleaning and preparing the veg has been a lot of fun and made me feel a lot more involved in the dishes. Now, I just need something to do with those carrot tops...
Last night I made a cassoulet, something I've been dying for for a while and trying to come up with a decent recipe for. Kate eats fish, but no meat, and a cassoulet is a serious amount of food for one, so I decided to make a vegetarian one (any French readers now faint). In the end I replaced the meat with Quorn sausages (the frozen, unspiced ones), heavily browned, and dried porcini mushrooms. The result was a clean taste that was clearly cassoulet-like but without the fat usually extruded by the meats during cooking. I was rather pleased with it.
Wagamama, St. Albans, UK
Bank Holiday Monday saw this popular noodle-bar packed, mostly because it's one of the "kid-friendlier" places in town. That said, we leapt up the queue - the advantage of only wanting to seat 2 and no high-chairs required, and were soon placing orders for old favourites. Kate had vegetarian Gyoza and ami udon. I took prawn katsu and chilli chicken ramen. The food - which is served as it comes, rather than the traditional starter/main course, was excellent - with a large sliced chicken breast and heaps of vegetables in my ramen. Kate couldn't finish her meal, despite how tasty it was (and it was - I tried it.) Wagamama is second to none for consistancy. The food is the same each visit, and we've never had cause for complaint with the hot food.
That said, we decided on "no deserts" - past experience has shown these to be the week point in the Wagamama armour. Instead we snuck next door to Carluccio's Cafe and got a bitter chocolate tart and a rasberry tart to take home with us.
~£24 (exc. tip and with a "1 free main meal" voucher).
That said, we decided on "no deserts" - past experience has shown these to be the week point in the Wagamama armour. Instead we snuck next door to Carluccio's Cafe and got a bitter chocolate tart and a rasberry tart to take home with us.
~£24 (exc. tip and with a "1 free main meal" voucher).
Friday, August 25, 2006
Carluccio’s Caffé, Market Place, London, UK
Carluccio’s Caffé is a guilty pleasure. Not fine dining by any means, I frequently wonder how much of the food is pre-prepared, perhaps off-site, even though they make a big thing of making pasta fresh on site and buying as many ingredients as possible from Italy. It's still one of the best places in London to pick up a quick meal for under £20 a head (my other favourites are Soba and the legendary Tokyo Diner.) Kate and I dropped in late in service, when the place was still packed, for a single course. I took the Milanese di Pollo - a chicken escalope served with a small salad garnish and Kate went for a cheese and spinach ravioli. With a good squirt of lemon and black pepper my chicken was an ideal easy meal and the taste I had of the ravioli revealed it to be quite light. Portions of both were a good size for entrees costing less than £9 each. We couldn't quite resist the desert special and split the baba di limoncello - four small baba's (with a sort of doughnut consistancy) smothered in limoncello with a lemon marscapone.
Since we'd had a couple of thai fishcakes at 43 South Moulton street earlier in the evening we were left stuffed for ~£30 inc. tip, a granita and water.
This is one of those places I eat in a lot, both in London where it's ideal for quick business lunches, and in St Albans where we go for a leisurely Sunday brunch - a great place to read the papers and drink bicerin, the coffee/chocolate mix-yourself combination.
www.carluccios.com
Since we'd had a couple of thai fishcakes at 43 South Moulton street earlier in the evening we were left stuffed for ~£30 inc. tip, a granita and water.
This is one of those places I eat in a lot, both in London where it's ideal for quick business lunches, and in St Albans where we go for a leisurely Sunday brunch - a great place to read the papers and drink bicerin, the coffee/chocolate mix-yourself combination.
www.carluccios.com
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Effings, 50 Fore Street, Totnes, UK
A tiny restaurant in a deli on the main street, this is the kind of place you could easily pass over if it weren't for the excellent reviews from both local and national press posted in the window.
We arrived at 2.15 - the very end of lunch (12-2.15) and just before the lighter afternoon menu (2.30 - 5). We found we could still order off the lunch menu, despite being a bit late, but a companion who wanted cold food from the afternoon menu was refused, despite the food in question being mere feet away in the deli counter.
Ok, fair enough. We got lunch, and all the rest of the handful of the tables seemed to be at lunch too. But sadly the service lacked in other ways too - our server was harassed looking and grumpy and interaction was limited to the bare minimum, even when I tried to ask questions about the food. Maybe "regular customers enjoy the intimacy and warmth of this hive of activity" as the website suggests, but I didn't feel invited into it at all.
Fortunately the food was good - I went for an antipasto plate at ~£15 which was loaded with more quality meats than I could manage, and a small selection of cheese and artichokes too. Aparrently the goat cheese and potato tart was good too.
Overall, the prices were perhaps somewhat higher than the service and ambience deserved but the food was fine, and I enjoyed getting a good look at the tiny kitchen when I went to the bathroom. Would I go back? Probably to the deli yes, but not to the restaurant.
We arrived at 2.15 - the very end of lunch (12-2.15) and just before the lighter afternoon menu (2.30 - 5). We found we could still order off the lunch menu, despite being a bit late, but a companion who wanted cold food from the afternoon menu was refused, despite the food in question being mere feet away in the deli counter.
Ok, fair enough. We got lunch, and all the rest of the handful of the tables seemed to be at lunch too. But sadly the service lacked in other ways too - our server was harassed looking and grumpy and interaction was limited to the bare minimum, even when I tried to ask questions about the food. Maybe "regular customers enjoy the intimacy and warmth of this hive of activity" as the website suggests, but I didn't feel invited into it at all.
Fortunately the food was good - I went for an antipasto plate at ~£15 which was loaded with more quality meats than I could manage, and a small selection of cheese and artichokes too. Aparrently the goat cheese and potato tart was good too.
Overall, the prices were perhaps somewhat higher than the service and ambience deserved but the food was fine, and I enjoyed getting a good look at the tiny kitchen when I went to the bathroom. Would I go back? Probably to the deli yes, but not to the restaurant.
Grill 23, Boston, USA
Grill 23 is an attractive, multistoried dinning room in downtown Boston that came to me with a recomendation of being the best place for streak in Boston. I had been planning to try Todd English's grill place, but opted instead to try his Kingfish Hall, and so Grill 23 got its day.
Service was sharp and the air of professionalism was enhanced by the white coats the serving staff wear. I had an excellent view of the open kitchen from my seat, and watching the enormous number of covers being catered too, and the manic way the plates were being finished off before being dashed out to patrons, certainly put an edge on my appetite. As restaurant theatre goes this was up there with the best.
Jay Murray can be proud of his kitchen in other ways too.
Starters were pleasant enough - a good raw bar was offered and a miso-mushroom soup was reportedly excellent - but the meat of the matter (oops, pun) was the steak. I ordered off the selection of cuts available at $33 each, and went for a dish with the provocatively named 1970's sauce. Ok, I had too once the waiter revealed the sauce was so named because "it's not been fashionable since the 70s." I can't see why, it had a nice smokey flavour that worked well with the Brandt Natural Beef.
I continue to be surprised how many top US restaurant offer S'mores styled deserts. I passed on that one and went with a rhubard crisp that had a hint of the German about it, rather than the crumbles we have here in the UK.
There's not a lot to say about the food my companions had - it was all steak, and all apparently great.
No cheese in sight though, which seemed weird. Is it not common in the USA for people to eat cheese after a meal?
Overall, Grill 23 impressed. Ok, there's a couple of other steak places in town with a good pedigree that I've yet to try, but those recomendations that say this one's the best? I could believe them.
The cheque was ~$300 for 4 inc. wine.
http://www.grill23.com/
Service was sharp and the air of professionalism was enhanced by the white coats the serving staff wear. I had an excellent view of the open kitchen from my seat, and watching the enormous number of covers being catered too, and the manic way the plates were being finished off before being dashed out to patrons, certainly put an edge on my appetite. As restaurant theatre goes this was up there with the best.
Jay Murray can be proud of his kitchen in other ways too.
Starters were pleasant enough - a good raw bar was offered and a miso-mushroom soup was reportedly excellent - but the meat of the matter (oops, pun) was the steak. I ordered off the selection of cuts available at $33 each, and went for a dish with the provocatively named 1970's sauce. Ok, I had too once the waiter revealed the sauce was so named because "it's not been fashionable since the 70s." I can't see why, it had a nice smokey flavour that worked well with the Brandt Natural Beef.
I continue to be surprised how many top US restaurant offer S'mores styled deserts. I passed on that one and went with a rhubard crisp that had a hint of the German about it, rather than the crumbles we have here in the UK.
There's not a lot to say about the food my companions had - it was all steak, and all apparently great.
No cheese in sight though, which seemed weird. Is it not common in the USA for people to eat cheese after a meal?
Overall, Grill 23 impressed. Ok, there's a couple of other steak places in town with a good pedigree that I've yet to try, but those recomendations that say this one's the best? I could believe them.
The cheque was ~$300 for 4 inc. wine.
http://www.grill23.com/
Sauciety, Westin Waterfront, Boston USA
Boy, I feel bad before I even begin on this write-up. As soon as I walked in I could see that this restaurant was having a bad day by the crowd of customers crowding around an unmanned front of house.
But how much slack should you cut a restaurant for running on the edge? It's not like there's an automatic 10% off when they know they're too busy to deal with you in a timely manner or with any attention to service.
I had a reservation, and was kept waiting nearly 20m, which is generally acceptable to me at dinner but not really for lunch, our table wasn't set when we were brought in and service was SLOW. Our waitress got in the excuses early - before even taking our orders she let us know how very busy she was and how badly the restaurant had let her down by not assigning another server to help her.
Ok, so logistically the place was in a state, but the food might still be great right? The concept is simple - you choose your main dish, and then choose what sauce you want to go with it. Well, that didn't apply to my starter - I went for chowder, and plenty of the other starters and salads were off-concept too with little or no choice of sauces. Why bother having a high concept restaurant and then making a menu that doesn't live up to it?
Mutterings from the table next door about the food quality didn't bode well, but we had no time to go elsewhere so we forged on. Pei mussels looked good, but were reported as average. My skirt steak was inaccurately cooked (I asked for medium/rare, got the top end of medium). Only sign of the sauce concept in action was with the fries which had a passable aioli and a rather industrial bearnaise as accompanyment. It would take an act of god, or at least a free meal, to tempt me back into this place. High-Sauciety it was not.
But how much slack should you cut a restaurant for running on the edge? It's not like there's an automatic 10% off when they know they're too busy to deal with you in a timely manner or with any attention to service.
I had a reservation, and was kept waiting nearly 20m, which is generally acceptable to me at dinner but not really for lunch, our table wasn't set when we were brought in and service was SLOW. Our waitress got in the excuses early - before even taking our orders she let us know how very busy she was and how badly the restaurant had let her down by not assigning another server to help her.
Ok, so logistically the place was in a state, but the food might still be great right? The concept is simple - you choose your main dish, and then choose what sauce you want to go with it. Well, that didn't apply to my starter - I went for chowder, and plenty of the other starters and salads were off-concept too with little or no choice of sauces. Why bother having a high concept restaurant and then making a menu that doesn't live up to it?
Mutterings from the table next door about the food quality didn't bode well, but we had no time to go elsewhere so we forged on. Pei mussels looked good, but were reported as average. My skirt steak was inaccurately cooked (I asked for medium/rare, got the top end of medium). Only sign of the sauce concept in action was with the fries which had a passable aioli and a rather industrial bearnaise as accompanyment. It would take an act of god, or at least a free meal, to tempt me back into this place. High-Sauciety it was not.
Orestone Manor, Torquay, UK
Perched on a little country lane north of Torquay Orestone Manor, a colonial style boutique hotel, intitaly seemed to present that most terriying of situations - walking into an empty restaurant with a firm booking. Usually my philosophy on empty restaurants is to pass them by, but this was a different case, since Orestone Manor has a Michelin Star.
Cocktails - in my case a delicious Kir Royale evidently made with a decent enough champagne - were served on the Colonial deck and we then repaired to the dinning room where an eclectic collection of fine art shared space with both an elegant elephant bedecked wine cupboard and a hanging Chinese dragon.
Curiously, half way through our meal our eastern european waitress was replaced by Tom, evidently a local but service was excellent and Tom proved very capable when we asked him to explain what ingredients made up Kate's strawberry gazpacho dessert.
I had fishcakes with poached eggs to start - the lightly bound fish reminding me of a more rustic version of Thai fishcakes. Confit of duck leg followed and was as perfect as the dish can be. I went for a cheese plate rather than a sweet dessert but tried the strawberry gazpacho, which was delicious too. The cheese plate was remarkably substantial, particularly bearing in mind that we were eating the set lunch menu at ~£20 a head.
Overall Orestone Manor really hit all my buttons - a setting with lots of character, charming service, a good bar, excellent food and a pleasing degree of communication from the kitchen. I shall definitely be back.
~£90 for 3 inc. drinks
Cocktails - in my case a delicious Kir Royale evidently made with a decent enough champagne - were served on the Colonial deck and we then repaired to the dinning room where an eclectic collection of fine art shared space with both an elegant elephant bedecked wine cupboard and a hanging Chinese dragon.
Curiously, half way through our meal our eastern european waitress was replaced by Tom, evidently a local but service was excellent and Tom proved very capable when we asked him to explain what ingredients made up Kate's strawberry gazpacho dessert.
I had fishcakes with poached eggs to start - the lightly bound fish reminding me of a more rustic version of Thai fishcakes. Confit of duck leg followed and was as perfect as the dish can be. I went for a cheese plate rather than a sweet dessert but tried the strawberry gazpacho, which was delicious too. The cheese plate was remarkably substantial, particularly bearing in mind that we were eating the set lunch menu at ~£20 a head.
Overall Orestone Manor really hit all my buttons - a setting with lots of character, charming service, a good bar, excellent food and a pleasing degree of communication from the kitchen. I shall definitely be back.
~£90 for 3 inc. drinks