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wgallois

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  1. Scratch those comments about the wonderful Ploughman's at the Hope and Anchor. Went there for dinner last night and found the Ploughman's redesigned and distinctly inferior to its previous incarnation. It is now smaller and less well-made. Where before one got a big selection of tasty salads, the plate is now dominated by an iceberg-led lettuce extravaganza, with rather tasteless rice and potato salads tucked under the leaves. The range of cheeses available is still excellent, but the food appeared to have gone downhill more generally as Becky's cannelloni was pretty insipid. The chips with cheese, however, is a very good example of the dish, with a generous second layer of cheese to be found under the top layer of chips.
  2. Dana is right about La Porta in Monticchiello: it is a very pleasant spot, though I wished we had booked a table in advance as those on the terrace have sensational views out over the valley. Had two dishes there that were really fantastic: the first was a fonduta di tartufo (melted pecorino and truffles are a great combination) and the second was a very creamy spelt risotto - this was the first time that I had had a risotto made with this grain, and I very much liked the plumpness of the spelt as compared with rice.
  3. Thanks Mogsob for the great tip on 'Il Ritrovo'. The food is fantastic and, as you say, the owners are exceptionally pleasant people who clearly care a great deal about their food and their guests. The Parmigana di Melanzane is indeed a real winner, as is the tagliolini with rocket pesto (made with almonds and pecorino) and the white beans in a tomato and rosemary sauce. We arrived at the restaurant at 7.15 and were served even though they didn't actually open until 7.30, and were then slightly saddened by the fact that we were the only diners until 8.30. Fortunately a large group then arrived, and we chatted to the owner about business and he was pleased to hear about the good press on egullet, as he felt that this site and others were driving new business his way. He was also very excited about the visit of Rick Steves, who apparently loves the restaurant and will feature it in a future TV show.
  4. Just writing to second Bapi's take on Mr Underhill's. We ate there once and rated it by far the weakest of the stars in Ludlow. It was pleasant enough, but couscous with roasted vegetables was a pretty crap choice as a veggie main in such a place, especially, as Bapi notes, one has no choice in the earlier courses. The two memorable things about the evening were the fantastic chocolate-covered raspberry in the petits fours, and the memorably bitter argument the couple on the adjoining table were having. P.S. Hope you have a fantastic time on your return to Hibiscus Bapi.
  5. Hibiscus, as others have noted, is a really wonderful place. We went there with very high expectations, not least because Becky and I had had the best meal of our lives cooked for us by Claude Bosi when he was at Les Marches at the Overton Grange Hotel. I still think about a number of the dishes from that first meal, and I feel sure that my memories of Hibiscus will stand little chance of fading quickly. We began with generously-sized glasses of champagne, and ate plump olives whilst we looked at the menus. At lunch one has a choice between a fairly-limited ₤25 menu and a much more extensive à la carte, which, at ₤35, is priced at the same level as it is in the evening. Having travelled 200 miles for lunch, we went for the latter option (in fact the lunch menu was not an option for vegetarians anyhow). Three breads came before the amuse: roasted white flour bread, treacle bread, and French country bread (aka mini baguettes). All of them were good, especially the treacle bread which had a rich, burnt quality that reminded me of a black bread that had been one of my favourite things about the meal at Les Marches. The amuse was a chilled melon soup with chartreuse, oil and black pepper. This was zingy, with a nice time-lagged aromatic hit coming from the black pepper, moments after the smooth, cooling melon flavour. This style - of layered flavours, the sometimes unexpected use of herbs and spices, and a willingness to think round savoury/sweet divisions – was characteristic of the whole meal. As a starter Becky and I had eggs with new season summer truffle, brioche, and almonds, whilst Dina had roast salmon with olive oil confit, mango purée, and some kind of date sauce. The eggs were a very satisfying dish: three poached eggs were lined up on a rectangular plate, with thin strips of brioche separating them, with the shaved almonds and truffle scattered on top. Becky noted that the dish seemed to gently play on the idea of childhood memories of eating eggs with ‘soldiers’, and there was something really fun about this dish. For mains, Becky and I had sweet onion ravioli with broad beans, whilst Dina had roast rack of Cornish lamb with a north Rhône peach concoction, a bean purée, potatoes and a very moreish bowl of cabbage cooked with plenty of butter and rock salt. The ravioli was a super dish, but perhaps the one course which did not instinctively appeal to me, though my memories of the tastes are still very strong. There were two sauces with the ravioli - one based on tarragon, and cream I think, the other based on olive oil – though their flavours were much gentler than the long, sweet draw of the white onions in the ravioli. The lamb was apparently as good as it looked. We also shared a bowl of well-cooked potatoes, asparagus, mangetout and other vegetables. Next up was a real star of a pre-dessert: a chilled soup of greek yoghurt and orange with oregano ice cream. The soup was great but the real star was the oregano ice cream, which again had a delayed kick, but once the oregano flavour hit, it was a herbal explosion. Hopefully it is only a matter of time before Claude is devising similar dishes around de herb. For puddings we had: crème brulée with new season peas, sweet, toasted oats, and marjoram ice cream; Hibiscus warm, dark chocolate tart with Indonesian basil ice cream; and Café Liègois ice cream with whisky anglais, chantilly cream and chocolate ice cream. All were calculated to make you happy, and while I think that the crème brulée was probably the most interesting of the dishes, I was more than happy with my chocolate tart, which was a perfect example of dish, and given new interest by the ice cream. With coffee we had madeleines in three flavours: pistachio, hazelnut, and honey with black pepper. All were good, but the honey and pepper was the best of the three. Other than the champagne, we had no wine, and the bill (including a couple of bottles of water) was ₤141 before service. While clearly not cheap, this seemed reasonable value to me because what one is paying for is a meal at a restaurant of real integrity. Claude and Clare Bosi clearly care a great deal about food and about creating a good atmosphere for diners, and I will always have satisfying memories of the happiness and excitement that the meal engendered. As Gary has said on this thread, here has been a noticeable shift in Claude’s cooking between 1999 and 2003 – away I think from the pure satisfaction of more classical French cooking, to the satisfaction + thinking of the newer style – but I get the impression that these changes are evolutionary and never frivolous. I know that dishes like herb ice creams are now becoming identified with a certain in your face/copycat style of cooking in England, but when used by a chef with the skill, knowledge and ideas of someone like Bosi they really add to the drama and pleasure of a great meal. I was interested to see that we ate off a summer menu, and in the case of a restaurant like Hibiscus this is a smart move as a daily-changing menu might not allow for the kind of precision evident in all the dishes, and clearly a non-changing menu would lead to little development in the repertoire of dishes. Two last things: even after all that food, we left satisfied but not stuffed in an ugly way; and, secondly, you need to book well in advance as the restaurant is small and they are clearly doing good business.
  6. Good luck Jason! I recall reading a rather bizarre rumour that Damien Hirst was opening a restaurant in Ilfracombe. Perhaps other members can shed some light on this.
  7. Osteria La Zucca San Giacomo dell'Orio 1762 Santa Croce-Venezia-Tel.041-524-1570 Super place. Originally a vegetarian restaurant, which is now a restaurant which respects vegetables and serves all sorts of meat (there was horse on the menu the day we were there). Daily changing menu with the emphasis on seasonality. We had a gorgeous tomato salad with tzatziki, pasta with gorgonzola and pine nuts (which were cooked to perfection), a zucchini and tomato flan, and a caprese salad. Everything was delicious, and all the above, with a 500ml carafe of house wine and water was 33 Euros at lunch. I think this represents very good value for Venice. And thanks Beachfan: Pizzeria San Toma is very good, and the mozarella and gorgonzola is a real winner. Note: there are three dining options - in the square, inside, and in the courtyard garden, the first of which would seem to be the best bet.
  8. More on Exeter restaurants. Two new openings are: 1. Havana - a 'Cuban' restaurant in the space formerly occupied by the Mud Dock Cafe. While I've heard that the food in Cuba is generally bad, I hope it's not quite as bland and overpriced as the Tex-Mex offerings here. Salsa from a jar and fajitas (even bloody veggie fajitas) at £14.50 are about all I need to say about this place. 2. Red Square - Exeter finally has a Russian restaurant! Before going there a friend described the place as being conducive to a really good evening, with the enjoyment not necessarily stemming from the food. That seems fair enough as the best things about this restaurant are the warm service, its obvious enthusiasm for Russia and Russian food, a selection of very good, large (500ml) Russian beers, the £8.50 for two courses pre-theatre dinner menu, and, one imagines, the very large selection of vodkas which we did not try on this occasion. We had mushroom blinis followed by a hearty stew. The servings were generous and the food was tasty, though I would have liked the herbs and spicing to have been accentuated more (their style may have been authentic, but the blinis, for instance, suffered from the fact that the amount of dill used in the dish was miniscule). Still, they have only just opened and I'm sure that they will sort such things out. I can imagine having some enjoyably hazy memories of this restaurant in the coming years.
  9. Thanks for the helpful posts above, which really enhanced my stay in Budapest. I had better start with Gundel because, as others have noted, it is quite an experience. You will not forget a meal there in a hurry. Scruff that I am, I had to be lent a jacket to go into the dining room, though the hostess graciously suggested that I could lose the jacket once sat at the table. The dining room is large and on the night we were there it felt rather like one was joining a party at a home for retired gentlefolk. The clientele were a mix of older Euro-smoothies and tour groups with their ID badges swinging round their necks. Everyone was going wild for the gypsy band. There is a choice of six or seven set menus, and, being vegetarians, we went for the euphemistically-termed 'Light Menu'. It is not light, but then who the hell goes to Hungary for light cuisine? We began with a layered vegetable terrine that had a tangy dill seasoning; it came with some crummy bread and inedible chicory. Things looked up from there, as we moved on to a lovely white asparagus soup with a parsley crisp, and then a creamy zucchini custard. Becky felt the former was overseasoned with salt and the latter overseasoned with pepper, though we liked both dishes. The main course was weird in pretty wonderful way. It might be best if I just list the ingredients that were there on the plate: penne in a cream sauce, a giant parmesan crisp, steamed spinach, asparagus, wild mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage balls, and a mozarella and potato ball. It was like a gigantic vegetarian roast dinner - all very tasty, but were feeling pretty full by this stage. The pudding was a very good strawbery strudel with cream cheese and stewed strawberries. We had a nice-ish Tokay as an aperitif and a good Tokay Riesling with the meal. The menu itself was priced at 38 Euros, and I think ouur bill came to around 150 Euros overall. Paul's suggestion of Cafe Kor was a good one. This is one restaurant where it is certainly advisable to book, as it seems to be popular with locals and tourists. There we had broccoli and chiled strawberry soups as starters, and camembert pancakes and goat's cheese with wild garlic and salad as mains. The goat's cheese salad is a particular winner as what one gets are two huge disks of fried goat's cheese on a bed of leaves, which is absolute antithesis of the healthy-lite-diet goat's cheese sald one might get in other countries. For pudding we had a bloody heavy walnut gnocchi with vanilla custard. For quality-stodge fans this was a winner. We also tried places which offered fairly identikit Euro-Mediterranean trendy cafe-food: Tom George and Chelsea in the Art'Otel. Both were fine, and the former might be nice place for lunch on a hot day.
  10. Print this thread if you're going to Vienna! Thanks to all those whose splendid suggestions above really enhanced my visit to the city. The best suggestion of all was to visit the Naschmarkt, which must be one of the world's great markets. The quality and variety of fruit, vegetables, cheeses, breads. olives and pickles is very, very high. The eating-out highlight was a great place called Wiebl; a beisl in the Inner Ring. Our meal there was pretty perfect, and had that fantastic coming together of tasty food, great service and a good atmosphere. One indication of the quality came when our waiter brought us a nice-looking amuse of cured meat and sald and, when apologetically informed that we were both vegetarian, came back ten minutes later with a lovely tart of sheep's cheese and dried tomatoes. We had seen this as a starter on the menu, and having skipped having a starter for that meal, I thought it was very generous of them to serve this is an amuse, and an alternative one at that. We both had plates of well-cooked white asparagus as mains. These juicy monsters were accompanied by some melting potatoes, and jugs of Hollandaise and wild garlic sauce. The latter sauce was particularly interesting and satisfying. We finished with a plate of cheese, which was fine, though it didn't have quite enough local cheeses for my liking. This was in marked contrast to the wine list, which contained a great number of Austrian wines, many available by the glass. I'd offer a very string recommendation for this place as all involved clearly cared about what they were doing. It's a place where you get robust flavours, best washed down with lots of wine. On our second night we tried Wrenkh, a vegetarian restaurant mentioned earlier on this thread. It was fine, but after Wiebl I found it something of a let-down, perhaps partly because it was clearly less committed to seasonality than Wiebl. We shared a starter platter of lentils with smoked tofu, zucchini in tomato sauce, creamy couscous with carrots, and glass noodles with a pepper sauce. All were serviceable, but none stick in the memory. For mains one has a choice of 'hearty' or 'fine' dishes. My rosti with vegetables and a sheep's cheese dip was indeed hearty, and tastier than our waitress suggested (she recommended not having this dish as it was a bit boring!) Becky had a zucchini risotto with Styrian pumpkin oil and carrots. The oil was a nice touch. We then shared a pudding platter which was the highlight of the meal. It contained: banana mousse, carrot cake, poppy seed dumplings, caramelized grapefruit with chocolate, and a tiramisu. Most of these were very good. I would not want to sound too negative about this restaurant as it is reasonably good, but it suffered from the glories of the night before, and our general lack of interest in vegetarian restaurants...
  11. Pretty good - Retro, in Le Meridien Mina Seyahi. This hotel has a great deal for Emirates residents in the slack summer months, whereby you can have a seven-course dinner plus a room in the hotel (with early check-in and late-ish check out) for c.$70 per person. Before dinner we had drinks at the Barasti Bar which, for a supposed Dubai drinking institution, was really mediocre. Our Cosmpolitan and Mojitos came in plastic half-pint glasses and neither were at all well-made: the Cosmopolitan was basically a boozy cranberry juice and the Mojito was a powerful lemon squash. We managed to over-indulge on the peanuts which then made the seven courses at Retro too much of a challenge (so no comments on the cheese and Creme brulee which we missed). The restaurant is fairly stylish in a kind of 'nineties timeless' kind of way, and the service was excellent throughout. The wine list is pricey, with only one wine for less than $30 (a pleasant Rose d'Anjou which we had) and little below $50 (some hideous mark-ups I guessed). The amuse was a very successful carrot soup with, we think, essence of kaffir lime leaves: frothy all the way through and both delicate and rich. Then came a tomato and onion tart with a Rocquefort and melon salad which was pretty good without being inspirational; followed by a slightly bizarre fruity salad, which would probably have made more sense had it included the chicken we vegetarians ommitted (we had let them know well in advance that we were vegetarian, and they made an effort to accomodate us without over-exerting themselve, probably because we were on the cheapo deal). Then a lemon, basil and gin sorbet that tasted only of the lemon squash I had had earlier in my Mojito, and a main of wild mushroom risotto, which was a very good example of the dish as it was packed full of different wild mushrooms, included some wild rice which was a nice textural touch, and was topped with some leek tempura - I know it was good because I ate mine and most of my wife's plate too. Looking at the a la carte menu, the prices seemed pretty steep for what the place delivered, though it was nice enough. The 'hit' dishes such as the amuse and the risotto were evidence of real cooking talent.
  12. I have just discovered the joys of frozen paratha and felt that I should share what I regard as something of a miracle of nature, or rather man's mastery of nature. What really impresses me about them is the way that all one needs is a hot frying pan - with no oil or ghee or butter - into which one places the frozen paratha, and then in minutes one can have Indian restaurant food for breakfast. Maybe the element of the miraculous is accentuated by the fact that I am rather dozy in the mornings, but I really am very impressed with how closely these frozen parathas resemble those I have had when I eat out. The brand I am using is called 'Al Baker' (Arabic 'Al', rather than Chicago) and so far I have tried their plain butter paratha and one with chopped vegetables and herbs. Any more recommendations on this front?
  13. Hi Suvir, We've been back to the Clay Oven a number of times since I last posted! However, we now tend to order more or less the same dishes as we've eaten all the vegetarian dishes on the menu and have decided on the ones that we think are best. Having said that, we have tried to expand our scope by ordering off-menu and had a very good Bombay Aloo the other day. Yesterday I had a real craving for Dal Makhni so we ordered this and I was not at all disappointed. My wife is not very keen on the dish, but there is something very lush and rich about its combination of creaminess, tomato and earthy flavours that I like a great deal. The menu mentions that the dish is prepared a day in advance, or could this be that the beans are simply soaked a day in advance? We took some South American friends there recently, and our Bolivian friend pronounced the Chicken Kadahi to be the best chicken dish he has ever eaten. A Tunisian friend, who is also relatively new to Indian food, also rates it as one of his favourite ever dishes. On a related note, a batch of rather more expensive Indian fusion restaurants have recently opened in Dubai. A review of one of them is included from Time Out Dubai here: http://www.timeoutdubai.com/restaurants/re...view.php?id=524 The online version of this magazine also includes a very large selection of reviews of Indian and other restaurants in Dubai.
  14. The Clay Oven, by Buhaira Lagoon, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (06) 556 2312 Link to egullet discussion here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=41&t=11005& The Emirates has a great Subcontinental food culture, and if any egulleters happen to be in Dubai or Sharjah I would be most happy to take you to the Clay Oven.
  15. I have previously posted on the fact that an interesting potential symbiosis seems to be taking place between Indian, Lebanese and Chinese food in the Emirates (or at least, there are plenty of places which serve all three styles of food). This was brought home to me the other night, when my wife noticed an unusual taste in a tomato, potato and dried pea curry we were eating in an Indian restaurant. At first we thought the unexpected taste was ground peanuts, but then she realised that it was tahini. Is this, or a similar sesame paste, a traditional ingredient in Indian cooking, or was this an example of a new style being developed?
  16. wgallois

    The Baked Potato

    My wife's quick and wonderful method - which has elements of some of those listed above - is to microwave the potato until it is fairly done and then to roll it in olive oil and rock salt in a baking dish, and to finish this off for twenty or so minutes in a very hot oven. Makes me want baked potatoes tonight...
  17. Hope to be in Bratislava for a night next month. Any suggestions for good food - dishes, markets or restaurants? Thanks.
  18. It seems the peanut originates in South America and then found its way to Africa with the Portugese, and thence to North America (if you believe the internet!): http://www.afrol.com/archive/groundnuts_gambia.htm http://www.texomapeanut.com/inn/peanut%20history.htm
  19. Hi Smarmotron. Good idea for a thread. For a long time I have been meaning to post details of a wonderful trip which I took to Sudan over Christmas and the New Year. I'm glad that your questions have pushed me into writing up some notes. Flying into Khartoum, you get some idea of how much of the food is produced in the country, for after hundreds of miles of mountains and desert, you begin to criss-cross the Nile and its two to four hundred metre strips of agricultural production which abut the river. The quality of fruit and vegetables from this Nile-strip, available in Kahrtoum's markets, is fantastic, with the mangoes, tomatoes and spring onions sticking as particularly strong taste memories. One of the distinctive marks of Sudanese cuisine is its use of peanuts, which are cultivated across the country. In Arabic the peanut is known as the 'foul Sudani' (Sudanese bean), and one of the interesting things about Sudanese cuisine is that it offers a combination of familiar dishes from the Arab world and unusual preparations such as those based on peanuts. Peanuts are served boiled, as a wonderful soup (I am looking for a recipe at present), and as a delicious salad: 1. Chop an onion into fine strings; 2. Cover with plenty of salt and leave this to be absorbed; 3. Squeeze the bitter juice from the onion; 4. Rinse when the onion is soft; 5. Add an equal amount of water and peanut butter (preferably reasonably smooth, and with no sugar); 6. Stir carefully with the juice of half a lemon, making sure to avoid curdling. Sudan also has a wonderful range of dishes incorporating chillis. The following is for a dish called Mish, whose origins are I believe in Egypt. It is available in different forms of across the Arab world, but as this recipe comes from my wife's Sudanese family, I would like to think that this has a Sudanese twist: 1. Mix one tub of Greek yoghurt with a block of grated feta and four green chillis cut into large chunks (the chillis should be large and not overpowing in strength), along with one teaspoon of black onion seeds, fenugreek and chilli powder; 2. Store the mish in a jar in a refrigerator overnight, and serve with bread, toast or however you like; 3. Make mish again soon and often. Other emblematic dishes in Sudan include different preparations of Molokhia (a soup or stew made with a very unusual-tasting greeen leaf - also available in Egypt), various Foul dishes (one of my wife's forebears went to Sudan selling foul to the Egyptian army), and some fantastic preparations of aubergines. The following aubergine salad is one I particularly enjoy: 1. Salt medium-sliced aubergines for one hour; 2. Rinse aubergines and pat dry; 3. Prepare a a bowl with a marinade of vinegar, garlic and chilli powder; 4. Fry auberines and dip into marinade and stack them in a nice white serving dish; 5. Pour remaining marinade over finished stack of aubergines, and serve cool. If you ever have the chance to visit Sudan it is a wonderful country with incredibly welcoming people. There are all sorts of great food-sights as you drive around Khartoum, and wonderful smells of bread baking and other cooking. Almost all bread in Khartoum is of one kind (a soft, tasty bun) and I must say that there was something satisfying about enjoying the same bread which everyone else was eating across the city. Khartoum's first shopping mall is scheduled to open this year, so I suspect that what, perhaps naively, seemed to me to be 'democratic bread', will be supplemented by a wider range of breads for different sizes of pockets. We ate very, very well in my wife's aunt and uncle's house whilst in Sudan, and I will try to recall some other dishes later on this thread. [edited to correct recipe and small details]
  20. I believe that the French group Carrefour has one of the largest global reaches of all supermarket chains. Here's a page where they state that they are the biggest hypermarket operator in the world (through franchising) and the largest supermarket operator in Europe: http://www.carrefour.com/francais/groupeca...nceMondiale.jsp In the UAE, where I live, we have at least five Carrefour supermarkets and they are really fantastic. What impresses me most is the way that they use their size to develop ranges that appeal to all the different ethnic and cultural groups in this country. This means that you can get all the Indian vegetables you want, shisha and turkey sausages if that's your thing, durians and other Far Eastern fruits, lovely baguettes and a super range of French cheeses, and one of the best selections of olives and pickles you will see anywhere.
  21. Have a great time NewYorkTexan. Devon is an excellent county in terms of its produce, and there are some very good restaurants. My favourites (all mentioned on previous egullet threads, so you could run a search) are the Nobody Inn, Lewtrenchard Manor, Number 22 Mill Street in Chagford and Gidleigh Park (in order of ascending prices). It had never occurred to me before, but all happen to be on or by Dartmoor, which is a great place to visit in itself, and easily accessible from Torquay. I hope you come to Exeter for the day (there is another recent thread on food in the city) to see the cathedral; and you might like to combine this with an afternoon in Topsham, where you could buy some cheese from Devon Country Cheeses. I'm afraid that I know very little about restaurants in Torquay, other than the fact that Pizza Express is in a lovely '20s building, there is a good (but relatively expensive) Iranian restaurant near the marina, and that Babbacombe has a fish and chip shop which is rated as one of the best in the UK. You could also search The Guardian website for eulogies to Torquay from Julie Burchill - it is one of her three or four specialist subjects. Look forward to hearing about any gems that you uncover.
  22. How could I have forgotten? A great Bristol favourite for lunch is the Hope and Anchor pub, where they make a fantastic Ploughman's. You get to choose three or fours cheeses, meats etc. to go with a set of salads, and they generally offer twenty or thirty well-kept cheeses on the menu. They do offer a large range of food, but I've always found the Ploughman's to be the best deal. Very busy for lunch at weekends.
  23. Has there ever been a thread about food in Bristol in egullet? I can't find one and I thought it might be an idea to start one, partly as a thread allied to indiagirl's request for information on London (I think she mentioned that she would also be staying in Bath, so a Bristol trip might also be on the cards). Bell's Diner in Montpelier gets quite a lot of press these days, though I think it can be a bit hit-and-miss. My first four dinners there were excellent, but perhaps two of the last three were a let-down (though the last of these was more than two years ago). When it is on form, it offers excellent Franco-Mediterranean cooking with top-notch British ingredients. Just up the road from Belle's is Licatta, a fantastic Italian supermarket that sells three kinds of pecorino, great olives, expensive bottles of Barolo, tins that have gone out of date, and nice big bunches of herbs. Also in Montpelier is an excellent Chinese supermarket. In Cotham I'd recommend Chandos Deli for their French cheeses, Old Possum's for their cheap food and wine, the Highbury Vaults for 'pub grub' and the nice garden at the back, and the Algerian place on Chandos Road whose name I forget (I didn't rate Red Snapper, which is opposite, though many rave about it). Moving closer to town, Brown's is a great place for a drink or a coffee, especially if it's sunny and you can sit outside. There are a whole group of restaurants close to the Christmas Steps, and my recommendation would be Boca Nova - a Brazilian restaurant, which offers South American-tinged Mediterranean food. I am struggling to remember precise dishes which I had there, but I remember thinking that their soups were the best that I had ever had. They have a fantastic lunch deal. There are heaps of places to eat in the yuppified waterfront area (Watershed, Arnolfini, Severnshed etc), of which the best would seem to be the bar area of the River Station, which offers deli classics at reasonable prices. Further afield there is Glasnost, which I remember liking, though my abiding memories are of being given a bowl of peanuts at the start of the meal, feeling unpleasantly full after two courses, and struggling in the taxi on the way home. I'm sure the food was good, though.
  24. Three more places in Dubai... Nice place, blandish food - India Palace. This is one of the smartest Indian restaurants in the Emirates with a beatiful wooden interior, appealing, live sitar/tabla music, icy air-con, and a man making bracelets by the cash desk (?). Upstairs there are 'family booths', which are popular here with Emiratis but would be a lot of fun for anyone in this restaurant. The menu is ver, very extensive (c. 200 items) but I found the food to be no better than competent, in part because it was much less-daringly spiced than most other Indian restaurants in the Gulf. The spicing was very similar to the 'Indian' food one eats in the UK, though the clientele were by no means all westerners. It does not serve alcohol. The bill for four was about $90, which I found pretty reasonable, and I would go back there again for the experience, without expecting fireworks from the food. Mixed opinions - Lemon Grass. This is a new Thai restaurant near Lamcy Plaza. I thought the food was reasonably good and interesting, but my wife was less keen and I don't think our guests enjoyed it much, though they didn't say as much. Menu items were pretty standard, though the decor was pretty smart and stylish. I had some dull spring rolls, and then what seemed like a good green curry (full of interesting things, such as figs), while others had Tom Yam soups (a pain pullling all the lemongrass, lime leaves etc. out of the soup) and a couple of chicken dishes. Seeing that Durian was on the pudding menu, I decided to try this for the first time, and had it with some sticky coconut rice. It was neither as smelly nor compelling as some had led me to believe it could be. Again, no alcohol served, with a bill of around $85 for four. Pleasing - Come Prima. The Al Bustan Rotana has a number of good-ish restaurants, such as branches of Blue Elephant and Benihana, but we had never tried their 'Tuscan' restaurant before. It is more expensive than most independent Italian restaurants in Dubai, but worth it as the food and service are of a comparatively higher standard. The food is generally fairly simple, based on good ingredients, and served in a fresh, unfussy way. I had a tasty leek and potato soup with tomato bruschetta and basil, which was excellent, while my wife had a fairly ordinary caprese salad. As a main she had courgette flowers filled with ricotta, tomato and another cheese which I forget, while I had a saffron risotto with courgettes and sage. It was listed as also coming with courgette flowers, but the perfect cooking of the tiny courgettes they used made up for this ommission. For puddings I had a molten chocolate cake with green tea ice-cream, while my wife had a mint pannacotta with berries. Both were good. We were the only diners in their for most of the evening, so you would hope that the service would be good, and it was actually much better than simply 'good'. Another good touch were the excellent breads, brought with tapenade, roasted garlic and tomato before the starters. Overall, I thought it was a restaurant where everything was planned with an unusual degree of care, and would recommend it pretty strongly.
  25. Have eaten at Gidleigh Park just once, but it was a fabulous experience when we ent for lunch last summer for my wife's birthday. The drive up to the house is fun as there are signs for the hotel/restaurant from some distance off, and the excitement builds as you negotiate the fairly narrow lane for a couple of miles up to the house. Everything - food, presentation, service - was very precise in the best possible way, and I was impressed by the fact that many of the dishes were relatively simple (a tomato tart for instance, or a delicately-dressed salad offered after the mains) yet delicious. The petits fours were great, as was the Cluedo-style lounge in which we ate them. We ate off a vegetarian lunch menu and drank a half-bottle of wine, and the bill, with water and before a tip, was something like £110. There are lots of other good places (for food, walking and sightseeing) to dicover on Dartmoor, so I hope that you have a great time when you go Bapi.
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