Sunday, October 30, 2011

Saint George and Dragon, Clyst St. George, Exeter, EX3 0QJ

This is a nice country pub with low ceilings, an open fire and generally a good traditional pub feeling though it is really more of a restaurant  than a pub.

 

We were a little underwhelmed by the size of the portions and the quality of some of the produce left a little to be desired.

 

For starters I had seared king scallops with slow roast belly pork and Braeburn apple and mustard dressing. It was very nice but I got only 4 scallops

and a tiny piece of pork, no more than one mouthful. There was also loads of dressing poured on but no way of mopping it up so had to get an extra portion

of garlic bread. Roy and Martin had Tomato and basil soup which was the soup of the day and they said the portions were adequate and it came in small high

bowls rather than British soup bowls which is good. Debbie had the forest and flat mushrooms in white wine and herb cream with crispy bacon and toast.

The bacon was just a standard rasher and it was not smoked. She said the size of the portion was reasonable and it was quite a good starter.

 

Mains is I think where the real problem with portion size and quality came. I had venison steaks which came with caramelised onion gravy, a flat mushroom,

A plumb tomato and steak chips

 

Usually the venison would be served with a red wine sauce or perhaps a juniper berry sauce but the gravy here turned out to be no better than Bisto onion

gravy, a real disappointment. The Venison was well cooked and there was a reasonable amount of it and on the table they had a sweet garlic and onion chutney

which I used all of to create a slightly more interesting sauce by mixing it with the gravy. The chips were soggy, slightly undercooked and almost certainly

frozen. The portion was not generous. For £16 this is not really good enough and if all I had to eat was a main course I would give it a 4.

 

Martin had the mixed grill which should have consisted of lamb cutlet, black pudding, white pudding, sweet cure Bacon, rump steak, sausage, egg,

tomato, flat mushroom, garden peas and chips. He’s not that big an eater and we thought that if this meal was as good as advertised, he would probably

be overfaced and need to share his food. as it turned out he had no problem getting it down. The black and white pudding was no better than average and

there was one thin slice of each. The lamb cutlet was mainly bone and the steak was chopped up into little pieces and dotted about on the plate. The amount of each ingredient was rather small and the chips were of course the same as mine.

 

Roy had the Shropshire chicken which was a chicken breast stuffed with Shropshire blue cheese, spinach and fig on roasted route vegetable risotto. He said

it tasted good but the portion was tiny.

 

Debbie had the Sole and smoked salmon roulade on buttered wilted spinach, samphire and baby potatoes with white wine and dill cream. She also said her

food was nice and well cooked but the portion was tiny.

 

As I have often said, I do hate the practice of selling meals in a restaurant and then making people purchase extra side dishes for exorbitant prices.

It’s far better to quote a price and then give people a choice of a couple of side dishes from a list that are bundled in with the price.

 

Presentation generally seemed to be more important than ensuring that people got value for money. I do accept that presentation does matter but at the

end of the day you are eating the meal not keeping it for posterity in a glass cabinet. Decent restaurants look after the eyes but consider the belly first!

 

The puddings fared rather better on the whole. Roy and martin had Apple, pear and sultana crumble. This was described as being ideal for sharing but they

said they got a decent portion of it though it was still really only a generous portion for one.

 

Debbie had the cheese board. . It was supposed to consist of local cheddar, brie and stilton served with celery, chutney and Bath Oliver biscuits.

 

Amusingly, the stilton was not available because it had gone mouldy but Debbie was given a choice of which cheese to have as an extra. I have never heard

of bath Oliver biscuits but they turned out to be a bit like Cornish wafers. These have a slightly soggy consistency and would not be my choice of biscuit.

Only having one kind of biscuit is also rather lacking in imagination. She said the portion size was quite reasonable.

 

Before the meal, I joked about the possibility of having the chocolate trio. This cost almost twice as much as the other puddings and was meant to be for

sharing. Oh dear. It was lightweight!!

 

It consisted of Double chocolate torte, which turned out to be chocolate flavoured clotted cream with a thin layer of sponge at the bottom, giant profiterole

which was rather dry with a little cream in it and a chocolate brownie which was a touch dry but the richest part of the pudding. This was for me a real

disappointment and I heartily wish I had gone for one of the ordinary puddings, the raspberry crème brulee perhaps.

 

This eatery is a pub and the drinks are well kept and there is a decent range of real ales and wines. 2 of us had pints of St Austell tribute ale which was very well kept.

We also had a bottle of rose which was an Italian merlet. It was fairly dry but fruity and for £10.75 a bottle it was well worth the money.

 

2 of us went for liqueur coffees and these were a real disappointment. The coffee was low quality instant coffee and there was no cream. Measures of spirit

seemed to be very minimal and I even wondered if my Irish coffee contained real whisky at all or just some kind of syrup or essence. Debbie had a brandy

coffee and she seemed no more impressed than I was.

 

Staff were generally friendly and reasonably helpful but the service was rather slow considering how quiet the restaurant was. There were other people

eating for sure but it was not crammed full.

 

Over all then our view of the food was that, with the exception of the chips and the way in which the venison was served, it was well cooked though portion

size was underwhelming to say the least with emphasis put on presentation at the expense of the actual eating experience. It should be possible to do rather

better than this for the money. The bill for 4 of us came to £129.00 including drinks. Drinks were generally well priced and of high quality but avoid the

liqueur coffee. The unanimously agreed mark was 6 out of 10 though looking back on the experience over all this could be a touch generous.

 

for more info including menus visit

http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/thesaintgeorgeanddragonclystsaintgeorge/

 

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Merlins Tandori 193 Wellingborough Road Northampton NN1 4EA

                this is a curry house in Northampton.  This is not really a review of the food but a warning about the restaurant itself.  If I know a restaurant accepts guide dogs then I mention it.  This restaurant however recently refused 2 friends service on the basis that they were trying to get in with a guide dog.  this happens quite often most of the time when restaurant owners express reservations, they are generally amazed at how calm and well behaved the dog is once they have been persuaded to let the person stay.  My friends were able to record the event of them being thrown out and I have included the Audioboo link to the audio at the end of this post.  I understand they have already taken the story to the local press and I understand they intend to carry on the fight until the owner of Merlins either unreservedly  apologises  or the restaurant closes through lack of visitors.  The reviews I can find are not very complementary about Merlins anyway and there are plenty of other good restaurants including curry houses near by on the same street.  The reaction of one customer in Merlins when Adam appeals for support is also fairly disgraceful.  for more visit

http://audioboo.fm/boos/500542-no-guide-dogs-allowed?playlist_direction=forward

Sunday, October 09, 2011

The Chronicle, 3 Chapel Hill, Exmouth Devon EX8 1NY

Last month 3 of us went to the Chronicle to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  The Chronicle is a new restaurant in Exmouth which sells food similar to that which you might find in a decent gastro pub.  Prices are reasonable and the chef prepares the food herself.   This is genuinely a family run restaurant.  There is the chef, Kathy and her partner Ricardo and that’s it.  Both of them were friendly and they made us feel welcome. 

 

For starters Debbie and myself had a cold starter of Smoked Trout served with pickled onions and Celeriac.  Martin and Roy had the soup of the day which was Celeriac and apple soup.  The soup was good and thick.  Our starter was a generous portion with plenty of trout.  The starters came with brown bread and home made warm soda bread.  For Main I was undecided.  I wanted scallops with black pudding mash and leaks and also rather fancied the pork seared in cider with   potatoes gratin and cabbage.  I had fish for my starter so the pork won.  The  potatoes were really nice and creamy and the cabbage was till crispy.

 

Debbie had the duck which had plenty of meat on it.  Roy had chicken and Martin had a pasta dish with minced pork and beef.

 

All the dishes were fresh.  Martin didn’t have a pudding.  Roy and myself had chocolate not together pudding which was a chocolate sponge with clotted cream and chocolate sauce in separate pots.  This was very pleasant but not as exciting as I would have thought.  Debbie had cheese and biscuits and the portion was huge.  It came with brie,, Devon blue cheese and cheddar with plenty of water biscuits, celery, pickled onion, gherkins  and walnuts, grapes and apple slices.  There was loads  of it and my only criticism was that there was only rather boring water biscuits. A variety would have been nice.

 

After our meal Debbie got chatting with Kathy the chef who was happy to discuss the way she cooked dishes such as the soup which was particularly thick and warming.  Ricardo  was also a friendly talkative front of house person.  This restaurant is perhaps a little off the main drag and it has a lot of competition.  I see that it has some very good reviews on trip advisor and I wish them well.  The website is

http://www.chronicalrestaurant.co.uk

 

On this page it says the restaurant is open at lunch time.  For the time being at least this is not true and they should correct this.  This restaurant would certainly not be out of place in any city in the UK and I hope it succeeds.  I give it 9 out of 10 and would certainly visit it if you are in the area.  My only criticisms were the slightly boring chocolate pudding and the lack of a biscuit choice but these really are minor points.

Graham Page

Mobile: 07753 607980

Fax:  0870 706 2773

Email: gpage@useit.plus.com

MSN: gabriel_mcbird@hotmail.com

Skype: gabriel_mcbird