Food

Virgilio’s Pizzeria and Portuguese Grill

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Colwyn Bay, North Wales

12/03/16

We were invited to a family birthday and the chosen location was Virgilio’s, which is tucked away on a quiet street in Colwyn Bay, where it has been a popular venue for many years. It features a pleasant, trattoria-style dining area, lively and bustling on the Saturday evening we attended and serviced by attentive staff. Though Portuguese in origin (the family originally came from Madeira) there’s also a wide selection of Italian dishes and Gluten-free food is available on request.

For starters, I chose some Spare Ribs, a generously sized portion swimming in a piquant sticky barbecue sauce. I made very short work of it and there was much licking of fingers in the process. (Try not to do it, it’s hard!) Susan chose a bowl of Mussels, seasoned in garlic and coriander and offered with a choice of cream or tomato sauces (she opted for the latter). The mussels were cooked perfectly, light, zesty, a splendid appetiser.

For the main course, I went for Spaghetti Carbonara, something of a default order for me whenever pasta is on offer. I love a good carbonara and they can be surprisingly hard to find, but this one was particularly satisfying, thick and gloopy, with crisp crunchy bacon and plenty of parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Susan decided on another Italian classic, Lasagna Al Forno. This too was delicious, cooked with a white wine sauce and topped with a thick layer of mozzarella, it came accompanied by a couple of slices of garlic bread. Glancing around the other diners, I saw that a couple of people had selected Espetada Carne, long skewers of cubed rump steak, marinated with rock salt, bay leaves and garlic. It looked great but sadly, nobody was offering me a taste! Up at the top of the table there was a whole Sea Bream, which appeared to be very well cooked and presented and the vegetarians among the party had chosen a Fungi Stroganoff and various types of Pizza, all of which looked pretty good. One point that I particularly liked was that everything that came to the table arrived piping hot, which isn’t always the case in trattoria dining.

The wine and beer flowed and spirits were high. Susan had baked a rather fancy cake, so there was no need to order dessert, but I enjoyed my visit to Virgilio’s and would go again, like a shot.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

 

Fishworks

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Swallow Street, London

16/01/15

We were in London to review a show and decided we’d like to dine afterwards, somewhere we hadn’t tried before. Fishworks have two venues, one in Marylebone and the other on Swallow Street, the latter just a ten minute walk from the Wyndham Theatre. It being a Saturday evening, amidst the general chaos of the Lumiere Festival, we booked in advance a couple of days beforehand. On arrival, we were delighted to see that the venue had its own fishmonger right there on site, a huge marble slad laden with ice and displaying an impressive array of fishy delights, so there was clearly no danger of the ingredients not being fresh enough. The place was packed but our seats were all ready for us and though the tables  were all fairly close to each other, the atmosphere was convivial and the staff pleasant and attentive.

We were 0n a budget so we opted for the set menu, which offered two courses for £18.95 or £21.95 for three, which in the heart of the capital is excellent value. I began with the Brixham fish soup, served with Gruyere croutons and a small bowl of rouille, a light sauce of olive oil, garlic, saffron and chilli peppers. The soup was delicious, thick and smooth, with a real depth of flavour. Susan opted for a bowl of steamed mussels, in a white wine and garlic sauce, served with lemon thyme and shallots. This too was spot on and happily didn’t feature any cream, which is generally the easiest way to spoil a bowl of mussels.

For the main course, I ordered the homemade fishcake with buttered spinach and hollandaise. I’m a big fan of the humble fishcake, but it’s surprising how many chefs manage to get it wrong. How often have we been served something that resembles a deep fried hockey puck? No such problems here, though. The generously proportioned fish cake was light, feathery, delicately spiced and augmented by a  rich Hollandaise sauce, which made it an absolute delight. Susan had the fillet of sea bream, served on a bed of shaved cucumber, with a chilli and mint salad. Again, just as it should be, light, cooked just so. We shared a side portion of chips, which were old-school good, crispy and scrumptious, with no oily aftertaste.

Unusually, we eschewed pudding and both ordered a second glass of the rather pleasant sauvignon blanc that is Fishwork’s house wine. And then it was out onto the street to fight our way through the packed crowds gawping at the illuminations floating in the air above us. We made it back to Euston station by the skin of our teeth.

Fishworks has a lot going for it. If you feel like splashing out, the a la carte offers a selection of more indulgent delights and there’s a daily selection of specials chalked up on boards around the venue. Amidst the ubiquitous chain restaurants that seem to dominate theatre-land, this is a little gem worth seeking out.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney

 

Fishers In The City

 

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22/12/15

Thistle Street, Edinburgh

This restaurant came highly recommended and seemed like the perfect place to enjoy a pre-Christmas meal with a couple of friends. The venue was warm and welcoming, arranged on three levels, with subtly twinkling Christmas lights and friendly and attentive staff.

Annoyingly (at least for the purposes of this review) all four diners opted for the same starter – the Twice Baked Crayfish Fondue,  though there were several other temptations on offer. This proved to be a delight, rich, creamy and peppery, served on a bed of fresh rocket with tangy smoked tomato relish. It was simply delicious and all four portions were quickly polished off.

The main courses ended up as a 50-50 split. Two of us opted for the Fillet of Peterhead Halibut. The perfectly cooked fillet was served on a couple of spinach and ricotta rotolos, the pasta deliciously al dente, the layers of spinach rich with the tang of iron. There was a splash of orange and sage dressing to set the whole thing off perfectly. The other two diners chose the Whole Roast Sea Bass. Again, the fish perfectly cooked, the flesh falling from the bone and served with the head on, this came accompanied by a pea shoot pear and fennel salad, with a pecorino, maple syrup and caraway dressing, which was light and refreshing.

Did we have room for dessert? Well, it is nearly Christmas! Once again there was a two way split on this – two of us opted for  the Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart, which was dense and rich with bitter chocolate and came with a slice of salted praline crunch and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The other two diners had the Pear Parfait, a sweet and delicate confection served with liquorice jelly and mulled pear sorbet.

We drank a couple of bottles of a very decent house white and we all announced that we would recommend Fishers In The City as a lovely place to meet and eat.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney

 

Burger

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24/11/15

Fountainbridge, Edinburgh

To be honest, I’d intended to go somewhere else entirely. (Kampung Ali, a low priced Malaysian joint on the road into Fountainbridge, really worth checking out) – but as luck would have it, the night I called it was booked out for a ‘musical evening’ and no food was being served. Rats!

Then I remembered Burger, just a bit further up the same road, a place which (let’s face it) has a name that gives you a fairly good intimation of what you might expect to find on the menu. And I thought, hey,  why not give it a shot?

It’s a utilitarian kind of joint, plain furnishings, no frills, but it’s clean and bright and friendly. You order at the counter, you’re given a little gadget which flashes when your food is ready (they are very quick here) and you collect the food yourself. The meal is served on a tin tray and the restaurant prides itself on being environmentally friendly. Even the cutlery is made from biodegradable corn starch. Of course, a burger isn’t likely to be top of anybody’s gastronomic highlights, but this was nicely done, (and it’s amazing how many places can get a simple burger wrong). The beef patties were thick and juicy, served on a lightly toasted brioche bun and featured generous amounts of cheese, sliced tomatoes, onions and gherkins, together with a splash of the restaurant’s tangy homemade sauce. Ketchup and French’s mustard were available if required.

The chips, cooked with their skin on, actually tasted as though they’d been made from fresh potatoes, which might sound obvious, but sadly, isn’t always the case. I kept things straightforward, going for the classic option, but there are other burgers of ever increasing complexity and price tags (katsu chicken burger anyone?) For those who don’t really care for burgers, there’s also a selection of hot dogs. I know, live dangerously.

My meal, with a can of drink, came to a very reasonable £9.35. Sometimes you want something quick and simple and in that situation, Burger  hits the spot very nicely. Perfect for a no nonsense meal and for those who are watching the pennies. The earth won’t move but you’ll come out feeling pleasantly full and here, that seems to be the object of the exercise.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

The Heatons Tandoori

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Heaton Moor, Stockport

05/11/15

We all have our favourite curry house. For those who live around ‘The Moor’ it’s generally a toss-up between The Kushroom Koly and the Heatons Tandoori. We’ve always favoured the latter, not just because of the friendliness of the staff but also because of the impeccable standard of the food. Tucked away on Shaw Road, it’s an unprepossessing-looking establishment, but take a walk in that direction any day of the week and you’ll notice that one restaurant is nearly always busy – and that’s the Heatons Tandoori. It’s not exactly a Johnny come lately either. It’s been in its current location for 25 years

We start (naturally) with some poppadoms, served with bowls of mango chutney, raita, chopped onions and (always my favourite) lime pickle, which is hot and sweet and sour all at the same time. We also have a portion of tandoori lamb chops, which we choose to share, because the main courses here are always on the generous side. The chops come piping hot from the clay oven, nestling on some freshly chopped salad. They are perfectly cooked, spicy, juicy and featuring those lovely charred edges that are such a delight. The bones are quickly stripped of every morsel of flesh.

The main courses are also note perfect – a chicken dansak which is gloriously thick with lentils and a king prawn balti, deliciously spiced and featuring large chewy tiger prawns. We have these with a portion of boiled rice and a couple of huge nan breads, a plain one for me and a peshwari for Susan. The Heatons’ nan breads are rather splendid things, light as feathers and the size of zeppelins, they’re perfect to tear apart and dip into your sauces.

Because there’s never any hope of polishing off those gigantic portions, we ask for the remains to be bagged up, something the staff here are always happy to do, and we head for home, knowing that there’s a whole other delicious meal to be conjured from what’s in the bag. Susan is given a chrysanthemum on the way out, an enduring tradition which we’ve never really quite understood, but it matters not. Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to Indian food and we’ve never been disappointed by a meal at the Heatons.

Get down there and give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.

4.5 stars

Philip Caveney

Bistrot Des Alpilles

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30/10/15

St Remy de Provençe

As restaurants in Provençe go, Bistrot Des Alpilles Is markedly different from the others – forget the traditional, old world settings that are generally the norm here  – this light, airy and spacious venue, with glass windows on three sides, is a stylish new build with a decidedly contemporary feel. The effect is rather like eating in a large and luxuriously appointed conservatory. We’re the first diners to arrive but are soon followed by other Friday night customers, all in search of some fine dining. The good news is, they’ve come to the right place. The service here is prompt and the staff are friendly.

There are four of us and we decide to choose from the 24 euro menu, which offers a selection of four dishes in each section. The starters include a memorable duck confit, served on a puy lentil salad. The warm fowl has a superb smokey flavour and is perfectly set off by the delightfully chewy lentils and the piquancy of the dressed salad. There’s also a charolais au boeuf served with al dente vegetables, and flavoured with pesto and parmesan; one of our party goes for an ouef joliet, a lightly boiled egg  in a brioche bun, served with porcini mushrooms. All the starters are note perfect, which bodes well for the main courses.

I opt for the mitonné de jour de boeuf (a chunky stew of ox cheeks in a succulent red wine sauce) which comes accompanied by a small dish of potatoes, mushrooms and crispy smoked bacon. The stew is delicious enough to require mopping up with chunks of freshly baked bread. Susan has the concigglionni aux moules safranées (saffron flavoured mussels on fresh pasta shells, served with slivers of smoked salmon). The pasta is clearly made in-house and its cooked to perfection. Again, there’s very little here to criticise and plenty to enjoy.

In our experience, if things are going to go wrong in France, it will be with the desserts – but I’m delighted to report that there are no problems here. There’s a fondant au chocolate, which is everything it ought to be – a deliciously light exterior which when broken into with a spoon gives up its rich, chocolate filing in an aromatic puddle. It comes with a pool of pistachio custard and a generous dollop of pecan nut ice cream. It doesn’t hang around on my plate for long. Susan’s soufflé gourmet glacé au caramel is every bit as delightful as the title suggests – perfectly set and deliciously flavoured.

As ever, we drink a bottle of the local rosé wine and after some discussion, we decide that we really can’t fault anything we’ve had here tonight. So it gets full marks. The sad thing is, we’re heading home tomorrow, but it concludes our week’s visit to Provençe in winning style.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Les Saveurs

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28/10/15

St Remy de Provençe

Les Saveurs is a delightful little restaurant in the heart of St Remy, with space for about forty diners. We’re here on a quiet Wednesday in October, so it’s far from full, but there’s still a convivial, friendly atmosphere, and we’re ready to enjoy ourselves.

We’ve learned to order rosé wine when visiting Provençe; it’s not our preferred hue when we’re in Britain, but it’s the prevalent colour here, and tends to be better than our habitual white. We’re delighted today to see a selection from the local Mas de la Dame vineyard, which we visited earlier in the afternoon. At €21 for a bottle, it’s a fresh, crisp-tasting drink, and well worth every cent.

There’s a three-course set menu at €26, but we opt for the a la carte today; we’re not hungry enough for starters or puddings, and the main courses sound delicious.

Our companions both opt for the filet de boeuf angus, a generous slab of steak that’s cooked to perfection, soft and pink and tender throughout. There are garlicky roast vegetables to accompany it, and some skin-on chips that seal the deal: this is truly appetising fare.

I have l’agneau des Alpes, a lamb steak stuffed with sausage meat, with a lamb cutlet on top. The lamb is perfect: succulent and tasty – and served with ratatouille and crushed potatoes.

But the star is the bouillabaisse Philip chooses, a hearty bowl of intense fish stew, chock-full of crab, red mullet, dogfish, scallops, and one enormous langoustine. Served with the traditional croutons, cheese and aioli, this is a shining example, showing exactly what this dish can be.

It’s hard to fault food this good, and I’m not going to. If you’re ever in St Remy de Provençe, and looking for somewhere to eat, I’d suggest you give Les Saveurs a go.

4.8 stars

Susan Singfield

La Cassolette

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25/10/15

St Remy de Provençe

We’re in St Remy in Provençe and no visit there would be complete without a visit to La Cassolette. This intimate and unpretentious restaurant, located on a narrow side street of the town, is an old favourite of ours, so it feels slightly odd to be reviewing it after all this time, but hey, here goes.

There are four of us to dine and the welcome at La Cassolette is always warm, the service prompt, the portions generous. We opt for the set menu at €21 per head (there is also a cheaper option at a surely unbeatable €13!). For starters, there’s a wonderfully rich and aromatic fish soup, which is served with toasted French bread, grated cheese and a bowl of thick, garlicky aioli. There’s also rillette de rougete de bassillic (potted red mullet, light and citrusy, marvellous) and a superbly flavoursome goat’s cheese salad.

On to the main courses. Two of us opt for Gardianne de Toro, a beef stew (made from the bull rather than the cow) with large melt-in-the-mouth chunks of meat flavoured with red wine and the unexpected contrast of slices of orange. This is  served with a mound of wild Carmargue rice and mopped up with slices of really fresh French bread. Delicious. Susan samples the pavé of rump steak, a meal that’s notoriously easy to get wrong, but this is an unqualified delight, mouth-watering and succulent with fat, crispy on the outside and nicely rare within. It comes with a perfectly judged potato dauphinoise and grilled tomato Provençal. One of our guests samples the sole meunière, light, fluffy and glorious in a beurre sauce, served with fresh vegetables.

If I’m honest the sweets don’t quite display the perfection of the previous courses – there’s a tart au citron that, though perfectly acceptable, is a little sweeter than I’d really like: a huge sticky rum baba that’s so shot full of rum it makes your head swim: there’s a panna cotta, which though delicious, hasn’t quite set, and there’s a trapezienne – a Genoese sponge cake swimming in creme patisserie. This is all fine, but it lacks the precision of the earlier courses.

We drink a carafe of the local rosé wine, which works out around a pound a glass and we feel we’ve enjoyed a superb meal at a great value price. If you’re lucky enough to be around St Remy and you’d like to sample traditional cuisine, this is definitely a place that’s worth a visit.

4.7 stars

Philip Caveney

The Moortop

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11/09/15

The Moortop, Heaton Moor Road

The sleepy suburb of Heaton Moor is all of a buzz at the moment – new dining establishments seem to be springing up on every corner and even the iconic Savoy cinema is currently being restored to its former glory, complete with doric columns and a programme of films that people might actually want to see. So it was interesting to hear that in the midst of all the bustle, Damson’s ebullient owner, Steve Pilling, had quietly taken over the Moortop pub, right across the road from his celebrated gourmet restaurant.

To be honest, the Moortop was always a bit of an anomaly here: it had the ambiance of your average Weatherspoons and specialised in the kind of cut price, ‘pile it high’ deep fried nosh that gives pub grub a bad name. To be fair, the latest incarnation is just a temporary stage. In the New Year, the place will be receiving a full upgrade (more of that when we have the information.) For the moment, its been given a lick of paint and offers a small but classy menu with all items reasonably priced –  the ‘proper’ Sunday dinner, complete with a tasty vegetable soup comes in at a tenner – pies and pizzas are priced around £6.75. So you don’t have to break the bank to eat here.

The afternoon we called, we presented them with something of a challenge. There were six of us to dine, three of us vegetarians – but after a little uncertainty, we all found things we were happy to eat. Susan opted for the beef dinner and it was indeed everything you’d expect. Preceded by a small bowl of deliciously creamy parsnip soup, the beef was perfectly cooked, the accompanying vegetables just al dente enough and the Yorkshire pudding (always the trickiest thing to get right)  light and crispy. The rich red wine gravy came in its own pot and made a perfect accompaniment.

One of the veggies opted for the same meal without the meat, when she was told that the chef could provide a suitably non-meat gravy. The absence of beef was compensated for by the addition of an extra Yorkshire pudding. Good move!

I sampled the Feta Cheese pie (as did two others in our party), which was satisfyingly flavoursome, the pastry crisp, the filling rich and creamy. It came accompanied with chips, a generous dollop of Manchester caviar (mushy peas) and the aforementioned red wine gravy.

The youngest member of the party wanted a Neapolitan pizza and this was provided, even though, it wasn’t supposed to be on the menu that day. It was wafer thin and crispy and big enough to make it a struggle for her to finish. (Luckily, purely in the interests of this review, we helped her out!)

All in all, a satisfying family Sunday dinner at a great value price. Would we go again? Yes, indeed! It will be interesting to see what plans Steve has for the place in 2016. In the meantime, get on down there and enjoy.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Tuk Tuk

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23/08/15

Leven Street, Edinburgh

Tuk Tuk, located at the top end of Leven Street, offers what it describes as ‘Indian Street Food.’ In essence this means that the diners select several small dishes (they recommend three to four per person) along with the usual sides of rice and naan, and everyone tries a bit of everything. The restaurant is spacious and roomy and there’s no licence, which means you’re encouraged to take your own alcoholic drinks (no corkage is charged.) This is refreshing because we all know that buying beer or wine on the premises can generally double your bill. There were four of us to dine on a Sunday evening, so  the place wasn’t particularly busy, but it took a while to get the attention of a waiter. When he came, however, he was perfectly affable.

We decided just to select two items per diner, which we would add to if needed and after a short interval, the dishes began to arrive. It quickly became apparent that some of them were very good, others average and one or two of them, rather unpleasant. The good dishes first: the Butter Chicken was deliciously creamy and satisfying, as was the Paina Lamb Karahi and the two Lamb Chops we were served were succulent and deliciously spiced.  Rather less successful were the the Bengali Fish Cakes, which were stodgy and flavourless, while the Bun Kebabs (two mini-burgers served with chips) had the consistency of fried hockey pucks while the chips were greasy and overcooked. Worst of all was something called Golgappa. The menu described it as a ‘very famous dish from Benares, you will have to taste it to experience it!’ Well, we followed the advice and that’s an experience we won’t be repeating any time soon.

The sides were rather average as well. The steamed rice was just so-so, while the naan breads (both plain and peshwari) were of the thin and disappointing persuasion. The bill, when it came, was very reasonable, around £15 per head, but I left with the conviction that with some attention to detail, this could be a more satisfying dining experience than it was.

3 stars

Philip Caveney