Meson Jesus: Jesus loves you, but maybe not on Thursday night

14th March, Barcelona
Meson Jesus in Barcelona was one of the accidental finds that fills a need. It is in a side alley of a street off Ramblas. It does not have a web presence, and I offer a link to help you find it, because find it you must.
https://plus.google.com/117807445704919269451/about?gl=uk&hl=en
The books say it is open all day, but at the moment, it is open for lunch and officially from 8pm. I went banging on the door half an hour before, and they opened up.

This is a Catalan restaurant for locals that has been discovered by tourists. The big thing is that you can get a three course meal including wine and bread for 13.5 Euros. In the past the cooking has been traditional, but the menu on my visit was regrettably simple. I cannot say whether it will change on a daily basis or what you will find there. But don't worry.

Included in the menu is drink, and you actually get your own half bottle of half decent red wine, and a dish of nuts and some bread. The interior is rustic and might be called a little touristy, but you don't get many tourists, because they either won't find it without planning or an accident, and I guess quite a few of them are put off by the name and the somewhat spartan kitsch looks. On the wall are local works of art including pencil sketches on paper table mats presumably by someone who drew for his supper.
I had the meat soup to start, which was like a hot chicken broth with bits in it.

It does not look very exciting here, but it was clearly home made, and tasted local. In the hope that I might be served a local chorizo, I requested sausage and chips next:

The surprise was that it was no surprise, but it was freshly cooked, with the chips cooked in olive oil, the sausage was a tasty pork type sausage, but I am uncertain of its provenance, and there was a strip of pepper. It may look plain, but it tasted wonderful. All of this scored an 8.7 on the CHOF scale which is unusual for Spain. There was no printed desert list, so I stopped when they got to something I know, creme Catalan

Again, a home made desert, possibly corrupted by the whipped cream from a spray.

Maybe I was simply too early, as the notice in the window said open at 8 and I was there about half an hour before, but during my stay up until about 9 pm, there were no other diners, which was a surprise, as the restaurant is well reviewed elsewhere and there have always been other diners when I have been there twice before. You can see that Sr and Mrs Ruiz (as Jesus Ruiz is the name of the restauranteur) don't look very happy in this pose surveying their empty establishment

But a better face was put on when I asked him to pose:

It is the crisis says Mrs Ruiz. The fact is that this restaurant deserves to be popular (it may be more populous at lunchtime), and I would hate it to close. So when you go to Barcelona, remember that Jesus loves you, have an excellent meal for not a lot of money and tell them that NorthLondoner sent you.

Huxleys, Terminal 5: nice place to sit, but at a price

13th March
En route to Barcelona.
I am trying out all of the breakfast places airside in Terminal 5, and this was the one I had not tried.
Seemingly average in what it offers, but quite attractive inside. The staff were immediately attentive, and other reviewers have commented very positively about the serving staff. That makes it strange, that on the little information that is available on the web about this embryonic chain, one of the pages is about staff gratuities, and makes for interesting reading.  http://www.huxleysbarkitchen.co.uk/index.php/servicecharge

There is nothing special about the menu, but the prices are slightly above average. I ordered scrambled eggs, toast and a two-cup cafetiere of coffee.

Can't fault them for presentation and the quality was fine, and it was probably a 7.5 on the CHOF scale. What was disappoint here was the quantities and the pricing. I know this is an airport, but they charged £9 approximately for this small offering. The two cups of coffee turned out to be very small cups from a cafetiere of the size I would normally use to make one mug of coffee. It was a nice place to sit, but they know how to charge. Back to Pret next time.

Incidentally don't count on getting much on your BA European flight in economy class. This is what was served that day.

Stoke up before you fly.

Leicester Forest East Services, M1: I wish I have never pulled in.

Sunday, 10th March
We had to beat a hasty retreat down the M1 from Manchester (M6 blocked above Birmingham, and a pressing mothers' day appointment in Southend). As we left the Premier Inn before breakfast serving time, we had little choice but to have something to eat on the way down at a service station. I knew I was not going to get lunch, and so despite my preferences, an enforced stop at Eat In at the services. Frankly I would have preferred something else, but nothing else of consequence was open.
I know that the standards of motorway service food are supposed to have come on leaps and bounds, but for my money it is expensive and undesirable, and given the option, I would normally press on and not eat at a service station. But they know their customers, and you are trapped by Hobson's Choice. Interestingly, the operator of the hot food franchise, Eat In provides no web base information.
On the surface, it looks like quite a good idea, but every obstacle is put in the way of a good experience. On this occasions, I chose a deal of a choice of items (I think it was four, and I opted to two eggs to make two choices) and a drink for £8.30, which was pretty much what I paid for the hotel all you eat freshly cooked the day before. The hot food is all pre-cooked and kept warm/hot on a griddle. It is served to you and there is a possibility of covering it with a plastic lid. But that is where it goes wrong, and by the time you have queued with all the people who are either unexpectedly surprised that they have to pay, or are so advanced in their financial situation that they never deal in cash, even the best insulation will give up the ghost.

The picture does not tell the story, and this was a luke-warm apology of a breakfast scoring about a 5 or 6 on the CHOF scale despite my best efforts to keep it warm. I should have known better, and in fact next time I will: I think I would rather go hungry than pay the inflated prices asked for indifferent food, indifferent service and utilitarian surroundings. There will not be a next time.

Full English if you have the time: Cheadle Royal.

9th March 2013
There is not much you can say about Premier Inns. They are exactly what is written on the box. A chain of budget hotels with a predictable standard at a very reasonable price. The Cheadle Premier Inn ticks all the boxes, and sends you for breakfast to the pub next door which is called the Cheadle Royal.
For £8.50 it promises you an all you can eat breakfast, and that is exactly what came. In fact it was again exactly what was printed on the box and I would say it was value for money by hotel standards, where you can pay a lot more for a lot less.
The breakfast consists of a classic buffet section with fruits cereals and breads, but no deli or cheeses. The main show is the cooked breakfast, and I opted for a customised plate:

I had been warned on Tripadvisor that the cooked meals take a while to come, but I was in no particular hurry, and as you can see there are eggs, sausages, mushrooms and hash browns. I could have had a load more of traditional stuff if I wanted. Heatwise, it was a mix, with the mushrooms at 7 and the sausages at 9, but overall it was a first class full English breakfast (FEB), served with good grace and helpfulness. One interesting surprise on the bread section was crumpets. You don't often get them at breakfast. So overall, I rate the Premier Inn at Cheadle as a good experience for the money. It it's luxury you want, you either have to go to the upmarket Airport Hotel or into the center of Manchester, but you can expect to pay double.

TGIF Cheadle: predictable American Formula

Friday 8th March
If you are staying at the Premier Inn in Cheadle, and you don't want to walk, and you don't want to eat in the pub, then this is the obvious choice. On a Friday night it was packed with local glamour.
There is an interesting little feature on this this chain of American Restaurants on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.G.I._Friday's and for once, it seems that it was all American to start with, and now is pretty much anywhere in the world. There is a creative formula for the internal structure and fittings, and they do have an American feel to them. Lots of red and white, and often a rowing scull which was definitely visible in Cheadle: you can see it just in the background here:-

The menu is American Style if not taste and cost. Remembering my experience last week at Chiquitos, I opted for the chicken and beef fajita, and it turned out to be the right decision.

It was exactly what it said on the box with chicken and beef and vegetables. What you cannot see are the tortillas (fresh) and the various addings such as guacamole and salsa. Pretty good, very hot (9+ on the scale) but a bit British. We tried the Mocha Mud Pie for desert, which turned out to be not such a good idea.

It was described in the menu as a coffee flavoured ice cream mousse, but had clearly not spent enough time out of the freezer. It was quite hard, and we had to wait for it to be sufficiently soft that spoons could penetrate it.

For a functional meal this was entirely fine. We are presumably too old to buy into the bonhomie bar scene there, and similarly were nearly the oldest people seated: skimpy skirts and tattoos  were the order of the day and pumping iron T shirts for the men. I guess we are just a bit too cosmopolitan for this to be out of the usual.

Lyme Park, Stockport: Superlative National Trust Restaurant

Friday 8th March
If you are wondering what to buy a baby, get them a lifetime membership for the National Trust. With a bit of luck, it will work with their parents and then their children, and it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the National Trust: it is not just dead peoples' stuff.
By and large, their catering is very middle of the road for middle England, and often seemingly run by volunteers. Yes, there are catering professional involved, but the amateurs are still there.
Lyme House, near Stockport has a restaurant that was unexpectedly so good, it is worth going there for the lunch alone.

In a typical rustic outbuilding location, you will find middle England at lunch.

I had the soup of the day(large) which was a carrot and caraway (not coriander for once), which was an interesting taste, CHOF of 8.8 with some crusty roll, but the main courses were excellent.

I had the open Cumberland sausage sandwich with onion chutney and bits

As you can see, this was attractively serve, was very tasty and was a 8.9 on the scale. My wife had a venison salad with beetroot mouse and a mole sauce. Very inventive, and also attractive and tasty. It seemed that other visitor dinners were well pleased. It was not cheap, but I think we got extremely good value for money

The house full of other dead peoples stuff is also worth a visit. A good collection of clocks and tapestries.

Chiquito's Leicester Square - overwhelmed by formula success

Saturday 2nd March.
We needed to eat early as we figured out the only way to see the Manet exhibition at the RA (expensive but very pleasant restaurant) without excessive crowds was to go there during late opening on Saturday night (it works but go there late e.g. after 9 pm). The exercise was to have a cheapish meal somewhere between Waterloo Bridge and Picadilly. I considered many options, but I chose Chiquito's as it has been fairly reliable in the past, but mostly I knew about weekday use. Even at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night, this place is heaving, and if you come at a regular meal time, you have to take a bleeper to the bar. In retrospect, I should have chosen somewhere quieter, but there was nothing that had capacity that I could think of, and in the event, we got in (no reservation possible on a Saturday night) almost immediately.
If you have not used this place, the concept is simple: a Mexican family restaurant and Bar. However, if you have ever been to Mexico, you will understand that the theme is symbolic only, and owes more to the Tex Mex cuisine of south-west USA, but Anglicized in taste and portion size. There is nothing Mexican about the food. The menu is pretty standard stuff, and the pricing is reasonable. Take a look on http://www.chiquito.co.uk/site/pdf/menus/Chiquito_Main_Menu.pdf.
The designers have done a good job here, and basically it be almost impossible to tessellate any additional tables in, making navigating through the upper floor where we were tricky at times if you were to miss the serving staff.
I had stuff I had had in the past,but time has caught up with this chain, and in keeping the price down, the quality  and quantity has suffered. You used to get a plate of nachos and salsa dip on the table, which was almost enough to be a starter. This has now slipped and you get a dish of popcorn (I have not worked out the Mexican connection here)

I had the deep filled potato skins with a chorizo filling for starter. This was OK and sufficiently hot, but the potato skin seemed a little dry and exhausted. I noted that the fillings offered seemed to be recycled to many of the other offered dishes. There is a pot of spicy barbecue sauce if you want to drown out the flavour. Scored a 7.7 on the CHOF scale.
For main course I chose a Fully Loaded Burrito:

Fully Loaded Burrito £10.95
Oven baked soft flour tortilla packed with Texan cheese sauce, black beans and melted cheese, topped with our signature tomato sauce, more cheese, sour cream, guacamole and salsa. 
Choose your filling: Veggie five bean chilli V , beef chilli, spicy chicken or BBQ pulled pork

I have had this before, and its size had overwhelmed me. This latest edition is somewhat miniature and as you can see the word 'packed' is not used literally. It arrived cold in the middle (I assume these popular dishes come pre-chilled, and all the cooks do is shove them in a oven until the bell sounds). It was worth a 5 on the scale, and I decided to send it back. The return was done without question and with good grace, and someone else's burrito was rushed to me, this time at a 7.9 on the CHOF scale (almost hot enough and certainly palatable). The manager hovered over me until I had cut, tasted and approved. I had chosen the beef option (brave in the current times), but if it had not had the little flag attached, I would not have guessed as the beef content was drowned out by the black beans. Whilst tasty and spicy and ok in every way, it was a bit of a disappointment compared to previous (a bit too long ago) visits. My wife had the sizzling hot fajita, which in retrospect was a much better idea, as they are served on a sizzling iron platter, and you can see from the scorch marks on each table in the same location that this is the hot one. The moral of this is beware of oven baked dishes on a Saturday night in busy restaurants, and if hot is important, if the dish says sizzling, then it is likely to be so. I did not see anyone else reject their food, and it may have been because it was tourists (Pound at a current low against the dollar and Euro at the moment) and theater goers just wanting to shovel some grub down before the bigger night out.

The supervising staff were pretty nice to me, and I could not fault the service and politeness received. In fact when the bill came, they offered me a discount on the burrito which I was not expecting. I would not suggest that everyone tries this, but I maintain that hot food should be served hot, and when it is not, it should be rejected.

Would I go there again? Probably yes, but I would concentrate on the mains, and order something sizzling.

Note that the drink is slightly above average, and a large glass of house wine was £4.95.

Whilst they did not get top CHOF points, they get a big plus for service and reacting when there was a complaint, without tooth sucking or carping. Perhaps they know, or perhaps it is just simpler to keep the customer happy, which is good considering the huge demand to eat there in this prime location.