Harters

Had oyster leaves at Fraiche a couple of years back. Amazing flavour of, erm, oysters.

Good review in yesterday's Guardian which has prompted Mrs H to say we need to get ourselves back there soonish.

OLD HALL, SANDBACH, CHESHIRE The Old Hall was, indeed, the home of the Lord of the Manor of Sandbach and the building dates to 1656. An extension was built in the 18th century to house a pub, so as the website states, hospitality had been dispensed here for some 300 years. It is a Grade 1 “listed” building but, before its recent restoration, it had been derelict and in a very sorry state. The obviously very sensitive refurbishment had taken two years and it will probably not come as a surprise to many north western foodies that the Old Hall had been bought by Brunning and Price. Which means that the food is going to be pretty good as well. For a starter, lamb’s kidneys came on toasted brioche. Kidneys still just pink; good bread and a really rich Madeira sauce drizzled over and around. On the other plate, the more ubiquitous ham hock terrine was a pleasant enough slice of piggy and came with zingy mustardy piccalilli vegetables and a couple of slices of spelt bread. So far, so good. From the “light bites” section of the menu, a rump steak sandwich came on ciabatta, accompanied by tomato chutney and a few chips. Lamb pie was a thing of joy. An excellent example of “proper” pub food – crisp pastry, generously filled with lamb and veg. And, unlike the industrial strength gravy you often come across, this was just rich and tasty. There was also “proper” unsloppy mashed potato and very thinly sliced cabbage. We went away very happy bunnies. Not least as the manager told us that their latest opening, only yesterday, is just down the road in Manchester’s Castlefield.

Welcome to the board Ms/Mr PSmith. An interesting choice of subjects for your first two posts. I look forward to your more positive contributions in due course.

TANROAGAN, DOUGLAS There will be many places that would be envious of Tanroagan’s ability to put bums on seats on a Monday evening. Arriving five minutes early for an eight o’clock reservation, the place was packed and it was agreed we might like to have a walk round the block and spend a few minutes looking at the harbour. Once we back, things were a bit dilatory for a while. Whilst menus were proffered fairly quickly, it was knocking on 30 minutes before aperitif orders were taken and few minutes more before we got to order food. However, once on their system, everything was fine. The menu is pretty much exclusively seafood, which also made up the content of their two specials boards – one lobster related, the other mainly brill and sole. Crab toasties were one starter. A mix of the crab, mayo, cream cheese and a splash of soy, giving it an interesting savoury note. This was a goodly portion, piled onto ciabatta and stuck under the grill for a minute or so. A little well dressed salad sat on the side. Manx queenies appeared in both of my dishes. Firstly, in a couple of thick pancake fritters, made very poky with coriander and chilli. A standard (presumably bottled) sweet chilli dipping sauce worked well. For a main, I ordered the seafood gratin and was very happy with what came. A large gratin dish – almost dinner plate sized – filled with a mix of the scallops, cod, monfish, smoked haddock and, I think, bass. There was a good cheesy, winey sauce and a sprinkling of breadcrumbs (which I would have liked to be thicker). The waitress had correctly warned that this was a substantial dish but, depending on how hungry I was, I might like some chips. Well, of course, I’d like some chips. And they were pretty good. My partner had looked to the lobster specials and spotted the classic thermidor. There’s a reason why it’s a classic. It really is just a very delicious plate of food. The whole lobster, split open, with the rich béchamel spiked with brandy and mustard. It really must be time for this retro dish to have its revival. Chips on the side as well as some dressed salad leaves. All in all, a very pleasant evening.

MILLENIUM SAAGAR, DOUGLAS The options for dinner on the Isle of Man become quite limited on a Sunday. All the places that get regularly tipped are closed. It pretty much leaves you with a choice between pizza and curry. I’d spotted this place had been a finalist in the British Curry Awards. Now, I’ve come across a couple of restaurants that have also been finalists and know them to be pretty decent in their differign ways - places like Lasan in Birmingham, Prashad and Zouk from Bradford and Indian Ocean from Ashton under Lyne. But this was about to be a disappointment. “Spicy” aubergine was anything but spicy. But it was a pleasant enough dish of aubergine and tomato cooked for a considerable time so the result was a thick, almost puree like, texture. It came with a chapatti. The lack of spice and seasoning was going to be a recurring theme here. Not just the lack of heat from chilli but there was none of the zing you might have hoped for from ginger, coriander or the other regularly used south asian spices. And it was an issue that was about to present itself in both of my partner’s dishes. She tends to become a vegetarian in asian places where she doesn’t know the cooking, avoiding the common curry house problem of lamb insufficiently cooked and being overly chewy. So, a starter of stuffed green pepper. The stuffing was a mix of mainly root veg but it was boring – the sort of cheap meal you’d find in a cookbook called “1001 ways with pepper”. She hoped a thali would buck things up but it didn’t really. Presentation and the content was good. Three dishes –a daal, a potato/spinach and a third featuring the same root veg from the starter. There was good rice and a chapatti, but again almost no spicing or seasoning. If Vesta had made a frozen thali in the 1970s, then this would have been it. My own main was better. Chicken tikka covered in a tomato curry sauce and topped with slightly softened slices of garlic. Although there was some heat in there, it was nothing like the menu warning that the dish was “quite hot” – in fact I think ti was the only dish on the menu to come with any heat warning. Perhaps it’s just that their regular customers have different expectations from their curry houses. So, a very unthrilling curry house meal. Beats me how they get to be an award finalist let alone win “Best in the North West” in 2011.

THE ABBEY, BALLASALLA We went with no great expectations but it was one of those places that, as soon as you sit down, you know you’ve picked a good ‘un. There’s staff who just exude hospitality and competence in their craft. And there’s a good looking “modern Brit” menu, heavily featuring Manx produce. Seemingly unusual for the island, my scallop starter featured kings, instead of the almost ubiquitous queenies which seem to appear in some form or another on just about every menu. Here, three big fat juicy specimens, grilled on their shell, with roe attached, were pretty much perfect. Each had been given a good slosh of hazelnut butter, the little nibs of nut adding a pleasant texture contrast. Pork and pistachio terrine was also pretty good. Perhaps a little light on seasoning for my partner’s taste but there was compensation in the kitchen made piccalilli. Sometimes, all you really want to eat is something simple. As in steak, chips and salad. Sirloin seasoned and cooked perfectly. Chips properly chip sized and cooked to an excellent semi-crisp, just retaining a little floppiness. But it was the simple green salad that was a star. An interesting selection of leaves, grown organically only a couple of miles away and delivered daily to the restaurant. A good dressing that might have been improved by a dollop of mustard. But, overall, a lovely plate of food. My own plate was described as a pork Wellington and was, to my mind, superbly crafted. Generally crisp pastry (a bit soggy on the underside) enclosed some loin. Topping that was a layer of shredded Savoy cabbage, which was itself topped with shredded ham hock. The Wellington was pretty much a complete dish in itself but there was a single fondant potato and a nice sweetish cider/cream sauce which worked well It’s not fancy cooking but it is good cooking. The sort of place which you wished existed near where you live.

GALLERY RESTAURANT AT THE SEFTON HOTEL (DOUGLAS) With two AA Rosettes, the Gallery is one of the island’s better restaurants. Although, truth be told, that may not be saying a lot, but there’s solid, if hardly creative, cooking going on. The room is pretty dismal and I doubt you’d ever think you were anywhere other than a hotel restaurant. The sort of hotel restaurant that had its heyday in the first half of the 20th century. The amuse was just odd. A fruity water ice. Overly sweet, it may have worked as a pre-dessert but, at the beginning of the meal, it was plain wrong. I was tempted to say that the “spicy” tomato and red pepper soup did exactly what it said on the tin, although it was clearly better made than any tinned product. A little under-seasoned and with no evidence whatsoever of the “spicy”, it was pleasant enough in itself but could have been much better. Twice baked cheese soufflé was good, if a little solid, with a punchy cheesy flavour. An excellent tomato chutney (presumably homemade) was the better of the two accompaniments – the other, a plum sauce, was overly sweet, just as the amuse had been. For a main, there was a large fillet of grilled halibut which was skilfully cooked. It sat on some wilted spinach and was decorated with a couple of king prawns and a scattering of crayfish tails and broad beans. The garlic veloute was nothing of the sort and was, at best, a spoonful of underflavoured broth. Beef stroganoff is a very retro dish, for me dating back 40 years or more. I don’t think I’ve seen it on a menu in the last two decades. And to complete the retro styling, it was cooked in a sort of Gueridon service style. Cooked in the restaurant but round a corner, out of sight of most of the tables. With no showmanship, you have to wonder why they bother. The beef was Manx and perfectly fine but, yet again, the sauce was underpowered. Oh, I mustn’t forget the vegetables which came on a half moon plate – all very 1980s, including serving them up all but raw. Not a thrilling experience.

In the parts of France to which I tend to travel, it's because the staff only speak French and my French is pretty much limited to what I was taught at school some 45 years ago. "La plume de ma tante" isn't a great deal of help when I don't understand which fish is on the menu.

I'm not into taking photographs when my partner & I eat out - but I usually enjoy seeing other people's efforts (except if they are inconsiderate enough to use flash while taking the piccies). That said, I entirely agree with you, Man, about photos of other customers. It seems intrusive to me - one can never know who the customer is, who they are dining with and why.

The reason for raspberry, as opposed to, say, strawberry, is that the absence of lumps means it melts down the holes almost as easily as butter.

SHIRAZ, NORTHENDEN We went to eat at this Persian place some months back, only to find it shut (seemingly permanently). Passing it a couple of weeks ago, we spotted it had reopened with new owners. And what a little cracker of a place it turned out to be. There’s a fairly short menu – none of the page upon page of mezze items that you sometimes come across – but certainly enough to be of interest. What sparked the particular interest was a mezze choice of four items from the starter menu. However, the very lovely Iranian woman who was our server warned us off it, suggesting that the dishes were large and the mezze would easily feed four. So, we just ordered a couple of starters. First up, halim bademjan. I’ve had this before. A mix of aubergine, lentils, garlic and herbs, mashed together into not quite a dipping puree, then topped with yogurt. This was a belter of a version and the only sensible way to eat it was to dollop big spoonfuls onto the excellent flatbread. The other starter, hummus, was perfectly fine – but then hummus is hummus is hummus. We also ordered a bowl of very good torshi – nothing particularly exotic about the veg but all very nicely vinegared. For mains, fesanjan was excellent. Long cooked, but still moist chicken. A big enough portion that would have fed two not very hungry people. The sauce sweetish from the pomegranate but not too sweet, and with little nibs of walnut offering a little texture change. The other plate, ghormeh sabzi – long cooked diced lamb and kidney beans with a restrained use of parsley, coriander, chive and fenugreek. Perhaps too restrained a use, it was like eating the Persian equivalent of shepherd’s pie. And, as with shepherd’s pie, it was good thing to eat. But the gob-smackingly wonderful thing on both plates was the rice. Long grains, that we later found out was patna rice, beautifully cooked. Absolutely delicious – and we told the waitress so. Next minute, she’s explaining how it’s cooked and, yes, they’d be happy to sell us a kilo. That sorted, chef is the next person to arrive to tell us a simpler way to cook (basically just steam it, rather than a combination of boil and steam). Can’t recall ever buying ingredients direct from a chef before – nor getting a cookery lesson while we waited to pay the bill. If you’re in the area, please go and give these nice people some business.

Must admit, I've always been happy with Warburton's (a good slather of raspberry jam normally does the trick). St Delia's recipe may be worth a punt: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/home-made-crumpets.html

ZOUK By all accounts, I should hate Zouk. It was hyped when it arrived in the city, from Bradford, three years ago. Its PR manages to maintain it a high profile on local websites. It’s loud – which, no doubt, suits the generally young customer base (I am used to going to places where I’m old enough to be most people’s father but here it was more like grandfather). The bogs are up a flight of stairs, which doesn’t half do my knees in. And the menu is frankly odd. Oh, sure, there’s an air of authenticity – dishes are “Punjabi this” and “traditional Lahore that”. And then, without any hint of irony, they also have dishes like lobster thermidor and an array of desserts that wouldn’t look out of place at your local Beefeater. Yet, cut all that away and you’ve a kitchen that’s turning out very enjoyable food. And it’s clearly very popular amongst the younger folk of the local South Asian community. Alloo paratha provided a nice light starter; the potato slightly spiced; the bread soft and buttery, without being greasy. A cumin flavoured raita matched it well. I had no real idea what might arrive as Chicken Imlee. What did arrive was a decent portion of well cooked chicken tikka. The Imlee bit comes in the form of a hot tamarind and plum sauce. It was fine but I guess I expected something more – not quite sure what, but something. I’m a fan of minced lamb in most cuisines I can think of, and South Asian is no exception. And particularly in my main course of Gurda Keema. No, I hadn’t come across that one before either but anything that matches lamb mince with chunks of lamb kidney has to be worth a bash. And it was. Well cooked and well spiced. Really good. My partner’s “gold standard” for lamb handi is the offering at Akbar’s. And I can see why. Akbar’s really does do a cracker but, I’m told, there might just be a new kid on the block. I got to taste and certainly agree this is good stuff but, perhaps, a tad too much chilli almost overpowering the other, pleasanter, major spice of ginger. There was good rice and very good tandoori roti – just as we like it, nice and crispy round the edges.

PEEL'S, HAMPTON IN ARDEN, SOLIHULL There’s some aspirational cooking going on here, although it doesn’t always hit the mark. Service has an air of formal efficiency but, like the cooking, doesn’t feel as though it’s a good as it probably likes to think it is. At just about every stage, there was a slightly too long wait for something to happen – even if it was just shifting the dirty crockery. Still, there was an awful amount of faffing about placing cutlery and drinks to the precise millimetre. It meant that three course dinner turned into a bit of a marathon. There was decent bread and an amuse – a cream of indeterminate vegetable soup that was nice enough but did little to actually amuse the bouche. My partner’s starter was a cracker. A bed of wilted spinach, topped with a thin slice of braised Middle White pork belly. In turn, this was topped with a well made langoustine raviolo. A puddle of langoustine bisque finished the dish. I wish I’d ordered that. Instead, I’d been intrigued when I read the menu and saw lettuce gazpacho, griddled asparagus and tomato chutney. I wondered what cheffy tricks would be employed to bring that lot together. A deconstructed gazpacho, perhaps? Well, none was the answer. What I got was three disparate offerings that bore no relationship to each other. A bowl of cold soup; half a dozen asparagus spears and a dollop of spicy chutney. Yes, they were well made but this was one of the strangest dishes I’ve had in a goodly while. My main course was a damn sight better conceived. Brill, served on the bone, surrounded by a few clams and a chopped up razor clam. There was crisp, salty samphire, a couple of batons of cucumber and a few new potatoes. All very simple and I liked it a lot. Across the table, best end of lamb was seen off. Some bang-on cooking there, with the lamb nicely pink. There was an onion and anchovy puree providing a savoury/salty kick, a couple of garlic beignets, green beans and new potatoes. Pre-dessert was possibly the best thing we ate all evening. A shot glass of intensely flavoured lemon posset, topped with a raspberry puree. I would have happily eaten a bowlfull. Dessert proper was a pineapple tarte tatin, served for two. Good crisp pastry, chunks of caramelised pineapple and little Kilner jar of caramel “in case it isn’t sweet enough”. A blob of vanilla ice cream was a good counterpoint. Coffee was excellent and came with decent petit fours.

BEEF, KENILWORTH Better late than never - we never made the NEC trip last year but are just back. My thanks to Nick and YSL for the reccs. When you’re going to a gaff owned by a Michelin starred chef, you’ve an expectation of quality. And, in general, Beef delivers. It’s business is steak. With chips or salad. There’s a few other mains for the steakophobes and a handful of offerings in the starter and dessert listings. Good bread is quickly brought to you (chargeable). We scoffed that and ordered another basket. Prawn cocktail was a good version of the classic – generous portion of prawns, crisp lettuce, punchy sauce. I fancied the crab, guacamole and spicy peanuts. But I quickly found it read better than it ate. A bland and boring guacamole still managed to overpower the delicate flavour of the crab, although the nuts did give and interesting and welcome texture contrast. Needless to say, we both went with steaks. One, an 8ox sirloin, more well done than the requested medium and with a good handful of salad leaves (although the dressing was pretty tasteless). The other, a 12oz rump was really good meat, cooked medium rare, with some excellent chips. Really excellent chips. Béarnaise sauce was disappointing – another aspect of the meal that was simply underflavoured, with hardly a hnt of tarragon. A side dish of garlic mushrooms was pleasant enough, even if the garlic was muted. There was good coffee to finish. They have a really cute offering here – a coffee and a mini-version of the desserts, described as a bonbon. No more than a couple or so spoonfuls, but a really nice idea when you don’t feel you could have managed a full dessert. Vanilla ice cream with Armagnac soaked prunes was really lovely, although not exactly an ideal accompaniment to coffee (but you try telling that to my partner).

INN AT THE FARM, SOLIHULL I’m not about to diss a pub that offers up a decent two course menu for £10.95. Not least when it includes good bread, aioli and a drink. It seems to be a rare occasion when you bag a bargain these days but this is one. It’s a bit of an odd and interesting place. Well, actually two places. The pub is in a farmhouse dating to around 1580 and is Grade 2 “listed”. The restaurant is in the old dairy barn, dating to around 1700. Both buildings have had sympathetic restoration and conversion. This isn’t gastropub territory but there’s a good solid main menu offering a mix of the “usual suspects” of bistro/pub stuff – steaks, burgers, cod fillet, several lurches across the Mediterranean but it was the cheapo “special” menu that drew us in. Three choices at each course. We both went with the “help yourself” salad bar as a starter. Mains were herb crusted plaice with chips and pork chop with an apple mash (replacing the black pudding version on the menu as the delivery of puds hadn’t arrived). All very pleasant – I’d be a regular if I was local.

No, I don't need further clarification of your opinion, thanks. Suffice to say that I disagree with you.

No. You are simply wrong. Michelin may decide whether a place is worth a detour. And so do customers - it is called "expressing an opnion".

Well, if we take the summary criteria for Michelin to award two stars - "excellent cuisine, worth a detour" - then I think anyone having a meal can confidently assess whether it was worth the detour.

If it was me, then I'd be basing my comment about any place by way of comparison with other similar places. It is irrelevent what Michelin's criteria might be (or any other award, such as the GFG, might be). I am not an Michelin inspector, just a customer eating and paying for dinner., and discussing on an internet discussion board my opinion with others who have similar interests. My reading of David's post is that he was doing exactly the same. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect you would not have been critical of his statement if his opinion had been that the meal was of 2* standard. It would still have been his opinion based on his experience.

I think we may be at cross purposes here, RDB. You seem to be trying to discuss Michelin's award criteria. I am try to discuss the validity of customers expressing a view about that award, based on their own experiences - I'd refer you back to post #322. I really have nothing to add to that and, I regret to say, you are starting to make me think you are simply trolling on this thread. Other than that, I'd be happy to discuss with you Michelin's award criteria as you wish, but suggest it may be better for you to start another thread so that this one isn't further clogged up. However, before you do, you may wish to re-read an ealrier thread, to which you contributed, where we all had good fun speculating about whether particular places might gain, retain or lose stars this year. Of course, that was just expressing an opinion on your part as it was on everyone else's part. http://forums.egulle...-guide-2012-uk/

Funnily enough, we were saying the opposite, only the other day. That said, we've been away for a few weeks and havnt eaten as much as usual, so w emay have just been unlucky.

Absolute nonsense. It might continue to hold a star but whether it deserves to is in the gift of its customers. We are not sheep.

That's certainly not how I would evaluate a dining experience. Like David, I am more than happy to go somewhere and feel that the experience matched the star level, wasnt up to it, or was better. Please, let us not behave like sheep being herded around by Michelin - to suggest, as you seem to be doing, that we put to one side faults in an experience simply because of a star level might be OK for you, but I'd find it plain silly to do.