Manchester and County

27th November.
Another trip to Manchester, and the last in this series. The misleading title is actually the given name of a branch of J.D. Wetherspoon's in Manchester's Picadilly area. I chose it because it was convenient to where I was staying, and usually pleases and is pretty competitively priced.
I would not have expected the place to be full on a Monday night, but it was. Mainly drinkers, and not being a big beer drinker, I did not appreciate the contribution made by this chain to the real ale drinkers. The message is that you can get drink and a meal with no pretension at a reasonable price. I have eaten also at the branch in Hackney, so it is all pretty predictable. If you look at their web site, there is a single menu for all establishments.
Probably I should not have, but I chose the large mixed grill.

Large Mixed grill - with chips, peas, tomato and a flat mushroom

Gammon steak, rump steak, lamb chops, pork steak, 2 Lincolnshire pork sausages, with chips and peas, tomato, a flat mushroom, a fried free-range egg and six beer-battered whole onion rings.

• 2158kcal

Nutrition	Energy (kcal)	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)	Sat.Fat (g)	Fibre (g)	Salt (g)
Per portion	2158	117.4	122.7	136.9	48.9	17.5	8.2
% GDA	108	261	53	196	245	73	137

I really ought to know better, because that is a humongous amount of calories, and it simply does not look as if it is going to do anyone's health any good. It is more than a days allowance of virtually everything except fibre and I am only supposing that there was not any more room for carbs.

This is what it really looks like: not far from the model.

They probably have a picture in the kitchen of what it is supposed to look like when it is served, as this is formula food. But it is quite good for what it is, and you cannot knock the price of £11.90 including a non-alcoholic drink. For those of you that don't like paying service, the pay-at-the-bar-before-you-eat is good news and bad news. Its very much a case of find a table, order the food, get your cutlery and condiments and cocoon yourself. I was delighted to see that the coffee machine was being filled with Coffee Lavazza, a favoured brand, but the milk tasted a bit UHT. Some of the meal could have been a bit hotter, but I wasted time taking pictures which were not very contributory, so I give it a 7.Sausages always seem to retain the heat. I have had hot meals there before, and it raises another issue. Whilst we all have favourite places we keep going back to, if you have a really good experience, there is an argument for not going back in case it does not live up to the dream and memory. It was a bit of that here. It is not the sort of place to send your food back. So will I use Wetherspoons again? I think the answer has to be yes, if it is a convenience. There are not a lot of copy-cat chains that offer the variety and value, and you know what you are getting. Next time I think I will stick to the steak and kidney, or if I want to be more virtuous, they do salmon, but I won't be eating chips again for a few weeks.

Chandos House London W1. The Fish Sandwich

Chandos House is an exclusive Grade 1 listed Georgian Townhouse venue, built by the Adam family between 1769 and 1771. It is owned by the Royal Society of Medicines, and it's rooms are let out for events and meeting.

I found myself in a meeting today, where a lunch was provided. Now, according to the web site, http://www.chandoshouse.co.uk/meetings-and-events/catering.aspx the catering could have been brilliant. I was part of the low budget meeting, so it was a selection of sandwiches and mini-quiches. What I noticed was that no one wanted the fish sandwiches. While the platters around are emptied, not even the vegetarians want these. And this is not only here. There has been a shift in cultural acceptability of sandwiches, and just as no one wants Spam or Corned Beef, there is no demand for what I assume is tinned tuna with something sandwiches. This seems to be fairly universal in sandwich catered lunches, and these are always the ones that get left, and no amount of tarting them up will fix what is basically an unwanted item. Sandwich companies and caterers, please take note. The fish sandwich should be consigned to the swill bucket of history.

Vynam - authentic Vietnamese restaurant in Finchley

10th November 2012
There is a small cluster of Vietnamese places in Finchley: about four that I know of, and I can't think of any reason why except that Asian food is quite popular in the area. But clearly the locals seem to know, so when I went there on a Saturday night at 8pm, the placed was packed with Eastern faces, and for a moment, I thought this could really be like being there. It was also very reassuring that it was not middle class England eating there.
So the Vynam Vienamese Cafe is on  Regents Park Road in Finchley, very near to Finchley Central Tube station.It has a somewhat non-contributory web site at http://www.vynam.co.uk  which give the location and opening hours and menu. It seems to have been well reviewed elsewhere, and I was pleased to give it a whirl with an old school friend, because my wife is suspicious of dinner at anywhere that calls itself a cafe. It looks as if it might be functioning on two floors, but only one seems to be functioning. Inside is fairly plain, with unclothed tables and little decoration - like a cafe. There is one little shrine on the wall that I noticed, but did not find out what it was for.

The menu is pretty comprehensive, and my friend who had actually been to Vietnam on holiday told me that the usual stuff was on it, and we had no problem choosing. I went for  Sup Hoanh Thanh (Won Ton Soup) with pork and prawn dumplings in a clear soup.

This had the look and taste of the east, and went down a treat. The only thing that was clearly missing was the climate, as a cool November night in Finchley is never going to set the scene for South East Asia. You need to be perspiring before entering the restaurant and be met by a cooling chill of air conditioning. My pal also had a spicy hot and sour soup that was also deemed to be good. I could see that around me, the locals were eating things that were being wrapped in lettuce leaves. I have had these before in Paris. The starters were tasty, hot and fair sized portions for £4 (my friends soup was a bit more but who was counting).

We then shared a Vietnamese chicken curry, marinated stir fried beef with chillies and lemongrass, and Singapore noodle, washed down by Viet beer. The taste was the taste of the East. I have not been to Vietnam, and recognise that exporting these cooking styles always loses something as the ingredients are never exactly the same. The other thing is the smell: it's the mingling of the smell of the streets with the smell of the food. In North London, we acclimatize to the smell of the streets and no longer notice, but when in another country it always is part of the counterpoint of the olfactory experience.

I can find little to fault the food on. For a full restaurant on a Saturday night, service was friendly and helpful, and the food did not take too long. It's assumed that you will eat with chop sticks from a flat plate (see picture above), and for a sauce heavy dish such as the curry, this was a little challenging. I suppose they would have brought an eating spoon if we asked, but we cheated and used the serving spoons when the time came. Altogether this was an excellent venue to eat. The surroundings do not lend themselves to lingering for the ambiance. I guess it might be better with a group of four or six as the chatter would dominate, but I would think that bigger groups would not fit.

In terms of hotness, the sizzling dish sizzled, but the curry and noodle dwindled in temperature: the risk of eating off serving dishes with no heat underneath. However an overall score of 7.5 on the CHOF scale. Soup was an 8.

Total bill for two of us, two starters, two mains, noodles, three beers and 10% service was just over £38. This was probably more than one might expect at a cafe, but the traditional meal in a dish Vietnamese Noodle Soup are there and would set you back £7.50. Could be a good lunch stop. I guess I need to go back and try several more different kinds of dishes. Can't wait.

Antalya Restaurant, Nottingham, Turkish Cuisine

A quick trip up to Nottingham left me with time to have lunch, and having found a street with lunch establishments, I opted for the Antalya in Forman Street, a short walk from the center. http://www.antalya.co.uk/index.html
It is not much to look at, but nor is most of Nottingham, which has clearly decided that architectural merit stopped with the infamous sheriff's castle.

You can see what I mean about eating establishments, as Bella Italia is directly opposite (I reviewed the one in Manchester). There are quite a number of choices within a few feet of each other, and the going rate for set lunch is between £4.95 and £7.95 . The Antalya set lunch is 6.95 with no service charge (lost in translation as service charge not included). The choice is outstanding and the price gives you a starter and a main.

I opted for the Mititey Kofte, small meatballs prepared with finely chopped onions, garlic, parsley and oriental herbs spiced, grilled and accompanied by fresh onion.(what the menu said).

As can be seen from the photographs, these are attractive, a fair size portion and accompanied by Turkish bread. They were hot, a little pink in the middle (possibly authentically so) and very tasty and an 8 on the CHOF scale.

For main course I chose Tavuk Markana which the menu describes as chunks of chicken prepared with onion garlic and green peppers with a special herb sauce served with Turkish macaroni (markana)

It is also covered by cheese. I enjoyed this giving it a 9 on the CHOF scale. My only criticism, based on expectation rather than insight and knowledge, is that the chicken had clearly been boring pre-cooked chicken that had been married up with the sauce late in the day and tasted a bit bland. I guess I had expected    grilled chicken with the sort of barbequie flavour but that did not detract from the dish.

Unexpectedly (may be because they saw me taking pictures of the food), I was also offered a small portion of fruit and a Turkish Delight with the bill. The grapes were a little past their prime, but as a 'gift' I did not reject.

So all of this came to the princely sum of £6.95: truly a bargain. The restaurant, for a cool November lunchtime was quiet, but no more or less than its competitors. I guess it may get busy at night, and if you check out the web site, they are having a 'special December lunch' for a lot more and Christmas and New year meals are there, and seem reasonably priced (by North London standards).

So I would get there quick for a bargain lunch before the end of the month. The staff were pleasant, and made no fuss when I did not want anything extra to drink at lunchtime. I am guessing that it might get lively in the evening, and there was a well-stocked bar. 

Apparently there is now a branch in London in Southampton Row, so I will look out for it.

Avenue conference and events center

We had been invited to an evening meeting in this new venue which is at Henly's corner in Finchley, and is at the bottom of the Holiday Inn Express.
It is essentially in a residential area, and whilst there is on-site parking, it is £1/hour, which is ridiculous if you are a non-business user, so one parks on the street. You have to go 2 levels below ground, so no one's mobile phone had reception, which is a bit of a bummer if you are running a business meeting, but on the other hand, maybe they planned it that way. Staff seem uncertain of what is going on, and I genuinely got the impression that they had only got off the Ryan Air flight that evening. I asked one how long the facility had been open, and the answer was '1030'.
The key reason I mention this establishment is to discourage others from using the catering which was grim. I don't know the budget of the hosts, but clearly they thought it was worth paying for the room. The starter was either soup or a sort of bicoleur (i.e. tomato and mozarella). I did not have the soup, but was reliably informed that the general opinion was that it had come out of a packet recently.

The catering was buffet style, and was supposed to be served at 9pm, and the containers were put out then. The meeting did not finish until 9.30, and no attempt was made to deal with this. Staff barely spoke even restaurant English, and attempted to serve a meal with totally unsuitable serving equipment e.g. a perforated server being used for sauce (see above picture).The meal was a mushroom risotto which had clearly seen better days, roast chicken and mixed vegetables. This looked as if it had come straight from the Iceland shop, and scored a 4.5 on the CHOF scale. It was grim, and was like institutional food. The risotto was like a mound of stodge with no discernable mushroom flavour. Chicken could have been ok, but was not hot enough.
Later the staff were asked to serve coffee (instant) and had one of those hot water containers which you pump a button on the top and water comes out. They clearly had never seen one before and tried to tip up the container to make water come out. I will not be going back there again, even for a free meal.

Olympus Fish

Sunday 28th Oct
Even though we had been out for lunch that day, a prior booking with old friends took us to the Olympus fish restaurant in Finchley. Seemingly run by Greek Cypriots (presumably alluding to the name), but patronised heavily by the local Jewish population, this unprepossessing small restaurant serves excellent fish but is not big on seafood of other types (presumably responding to their client base). It is a well known local institution, and I gather they do a very good pensioners lunch, should I ever need one.
I ordered a grilled haddock, which came with either chips or baked potato and salad

 This was of excellent quality, and freshly cooked and my companions meals were equally satisfactory. It was sufficiently hot (7.5). The staff were helpful and obliging. The menu is fairly short, and if you don't like fish, there is very little else to choose. I can't remember what the exact price was, but it was something of the order of £12 for this main course, and the overall pricing was about £10-14 for a main course. I was sufficiently impressed by the firm, well cooked, but not overcooked flaky white grilled fish, that I will definitely be going there again.