Mela Harborne: a good way to end a trip to Brum.

26th Feb
Another visit to my mate in Birmingham, and this time we ate at his local favourite curry house, not in the Balti triangle, but in an area with plenty of similar choice. I looked at the menu, and thought that it was so much less expensive than London, that it became cost neutral to buy a cheap train ticket to Birmingham and have a curry there, but you have to have the time.
The restaurant, which is up a narrow flight of stairs has a modern air and has a useful web site at http://www.mela-harborne.co.uk/ . Note the pictures of the somewhat thick based chairs on the bottom left of their home page. These were newish chairs and the funny thing was that they were too high for the tables. I swapped mine for one of the more conventional chairs. Then menu which can be found on the web pages is a mix of classic and not so classic dishes.
Breaking a pattern of a lifetime, I had the Nargis Kebab as a starter. This is 'traditional minced lamb wrapped around a boiled egg (sounds a bit like a Scotch Egg) served with an omelette and fresh salad.

Which when cut open look like 

A little unusual in texture, taste and appearance. It was very tasty but could have been a bit hotter, coming in at a 7.2 on the scale.
For main course I had Chicken Shashlick buhna balti which is diced chicken cooked with olive oil, garlic, ginger and home-made shashlick sauce with diced bell peppers and onions in a medium sauce served in a traditional balti dish served with pulau rice

This dish was fine, but a big heavy on the onions, and was kept hot on the hot plates that you can just see the edge of in the background.

I would recommend this restaurant, and the prices are very fair. My friend had the modu lamb, which he spoke highly of, and I might try next time.

Dai Viet: go east for hot food

22 February 2014
The Dai Viet is a Vietnamese Restaurant in the unassuming East London Suburb of Wanstead. According to Wikipedia Đại Việt (大越 [ɗâjˀ vjə̀t], literally "Great Viet") is the official name of Vietnamese dynasties beginning with the rule of Lý Thánh Tông (r. 1054–1072), the third king of the Lý Dynasty.  I think here they mean is is just a great Vietnamese restaurant. Although you cannot tell from the frontage, once you enter, you are in a barn of a place, and it looks like it would be a great place for a party or some other function.
We went there with family of eclectic taste, in fact the same family we went with to eat at the Friendly Thai, but having learned our lesson, we made sure that the ordering was very precise. Whilst the place was not full on a Saturday night, parking in the streets around can be a bit tricky. As it is very close to the tube station, that could be an option.
The staff seemed to be a mixed ability group, and initially we had some difficulty in ensuring our orders had been taken correctly, but we should not have worried, as not only were they correct, but very precisely divided between the group. They have a fairly useful web site at http://www.daiviet.co.uk/ but the whole menu is not there. My wife and I had a set meal for two, and none of the set meals are mentioned on the web site. It was also interesting to note that all dishes containing ostrich had been physically deleted from the menu. There have been various other reviews of the restaurant on TripAdvisor and the like, mostly positive, but the one thing that is repeated is the lack of authentic taste noted by those that have been to Vietnam. I have reviewed my more local Viet cafe (Vynam of Finchley) and noted several times that the food had the authentic taste of the east. I would agree that even though the food here was good, it lacked that particular tang, and was probably more geared to suburban London palates, the caveat being that we did order off a set menu, and would need to go back and try some of the more challenging dishes. There was Viet Beer to drink, and I found it very palatable, and quite middle European in taste.
So here is a catalogue of the meal.

This was a dish of mixed starters with prawn and papaya salad, three kinds of roll, two of which were hot and one was a cold summer roll with prawn and salad. The dark things are grilled minced beef in sapu leaves (rather like a soft kofte mince). All of this was excellent, good quanitities and adequately hot, at about a 7.8 when it was meant to be hot. Next came the king prawn and sweet potato pancakes.

This had a somewhat bland flavour, dominated by the batter and sweet potato, but was an interesting mix of textures, and was freshly fried and hot (9 on the scale). The highlight of the main courses was the so called campfire steak in soy based sauce with leeks, onions, celery and carrots garnished with coriander (sic). This was described in the menu as a stew, and truly was one of the few times when anything has scored a 10/10 on the CHOF scale for the reasons that are clear in the pictures:

At the time of serving, the waiters, clad in black, set fire to flammable liquid under the iron stew pot, which then burns for a few minutes. The good news is that it brings the contents up to boiling point, and therefore leaves it with a CHOF score of 10. As you can see there is a little trickiness in serving yourself from the fiery inferno, but the flames subside. I am not sure what the fuel is, as there was no clear smell of something either good or bad. The stew was accompanied by egg fried rice and an interesting mix of stir fried vegetables: all hot, extremely tasty, but lacking the taste of the east. After discussion, my prior comments may be related to the taste of fish sauce, which was not in evidence here.

There was no desert, but portions of fresh orange were served. All in all, a good experience, but lacking the taste of the east. The set meal costs £21.50 per person with 10% service charge for the somewhat functional service.

Despite the possibly somewhat dumbed-down nature of the set meal, I think we would like a return visit to try some of the more interesting things from the menu.

Food porn: more like telling it like it is

An article in yesterday's Telegraph raised my hackles
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10641913/French-chefs-hit-back-at-food-porn-photos-in-their-restaurants.html
Basically some restaurants don't like comments about their products on social media, and say that diners are disruptive taking photographs of food.
I have two points of view here.
Firstly, the point of this blog is highlighting the issue of food from restaurants being served appropriately hot (plus a few other ideas). There needs to a joined up operation so that cooked food is delivered promptly and appropriately.
Secondly, even though you may not have paid the bill, once the meal has been served and accepted, it is yours on the understanding that it will be paid for. Just as one might take a picture of a car one was going to buy or something to wear, it is reasonable to discuss it in an honest and objective manner on social media. It is no different to a newpaper restaurant critic, and the pictures do add a different dimension.
I try not to be disruptive when I photograph food, and mostly try to have an appropriate camera that will function without flash. Sometimes restaurant lighting is so bad that pictures are less than perfect, but my ideal is to show what is good (and occasionally what is bad). If I have a bad experience, as long as I can justify it, it seem reasonable to blog about it with a picture.
I know that a few of my entries have been looked at many times, and I hope they help other diners make up their mind or be reassured.
If food was always hot when it is supposed to be hot, then I would to write about something else.

Da Franco, Friern Barnet: Stepping back into a little bit of traditional Italian.

13th Feb 2014
Since this establishment was set up in the early 1980's, things have moved on for Italian restaurants in the UK, and the modern style with harsh surfaces and fewer cream sauce dishes, and possibly no veal have become more popular. This is an old established favourite that has been here as long as I remember, and is very popular with the locals, in fact so popular, that you might not get in without a booking, and would definitely need to book for a Saturday night. I am guessing that very few things except the prices have changed since the 80's. It is people who want this style and type of food that are regular patrons, and with good reason. I wish there were more like it.
We went there the day before Valentines Day thinking that it would be pretty empty, but it was not. There was hardly an empty seat in the place but it may have been people who could not get in the next day.
There is a big menu of traditional dishes which can be viewed on their web site http://dafrancorestaurant.co.uk/index  and a board of daily specials.
 Interesting to note that whilst there is lots of pasta, there is no pizza. This may be deliberate. There is a fair choice of wines at average suburban prices.
For starter, because I was feeling greedy, I ordered the linguine alle vongole which was described as coming with clams, garlic, white wine and tomato. This is often served with the clams in their shells, this was more of a sauce.

This was a huge portion, (and for £1.95 more it could have been a main course). It was steaming with a CHOF of 9. The sauce prevented tasting the individual clams, but it was well cooked tasty and may be a bit too much for a starter portion, but I was not complaining.

For main course I had Scaloppine Crema e Funghi which is an old fashioned veal dish with a cream and musroom sauce: one of my stable favourites, where I know I cannot go very wrong.

This was accompanied by spinach and french fries (my choice). Again this was a CHOF of 9 and was exactly what I was expecting. Looking back on the picture, it looks as if the veal may have been drowned in sauce, but this was not a problem, and I would not criticize: it is what the customers want, and I am one of them. I did not have room for desert, and stuck a spoon into my wife's traditional grandmother's pie with apricot. Service is friendly, but when the place gets full, things slow down a little, hopefully because everything is cooked to order.

I don't know why we don't go there more often. Possibly because on a number of times when I have phoned there was no availability. If you want hot old fashioned Italian this ticks the boxes: not everyone will see it that way, and I remember last time I came here, I brought an old friend who was somewhat disparaging of the old fashioned approach. Everyone to their own, and this one suits. 

The bill for two and a half courses each and a bottle of wine came to £67. That was a little more than we were expecting, but there was nothing outrageous that had taken place. I guess I am just having to move my goal which said a meal for two (non ethnic e.g. Indian, Turkish) costs £50 to nearer £65. Makes the central London places seem not so bad.

1 Lombard Street: not just an address

12th February
My daughter has an eye for offers on Top Table, and choosing upper end restaurants. It was suggested that we would meet her and her boyfriend for dinner. As this restaurant brasserie is bang slap in the middle of the City, just by Bank station, it is not somewhere we would normally have chosen. Comments on TopTable say

"With an extraordinary domed ceiling by Pietro Agostini, the Brasserie at 1 Lombard Street is ideal for business and leisurely breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Our private room can be used for a variety of corporate and private events. Evenings have a unique atmosphere, with an unrivalled selection of cocktails and champagne. Authentic tapas and oriental bites can be enjoyed at the bar and surrounding intimate booths." You get the idea, and this is a place that is normally full of city types. I would not say it looked as if it were full of bankers, but judging by the papers carried, it might be legal and insurance types.

The restaurant's own web site says "Lombard Street is where the City meets for breakfast, lunch and dinner, launches new businesses, signs deals and celebrates profits. And it's even where the City gets married."


There is a web site which you can check out on http://www.1lombardstreet.com/  .


My wife and I were definitely the oldest people there, and the young staff seemed unused to dealing with suburban clients. They did not want us hanging around the entrance, and fiddled about before sitting us down.

The atmosphere is extremely good, and there was an exhibition called Destinies by Louis Boudreault. You can just about see this in the background. I picked up a price list, and you could buy one of the paintings for between £15000 to £38000. No doubt they would have put it on the bill and added a 12.5% service charge.



The top table menu is short (and there can be supplementary charges), and the staff probably are used to diners for whom a deal has another meaning. Like many London stylish eateries, they adopted a serving style which could easily be interpreted as 'doing you a favour'. The main menu and set meals are not reflected in the top table deal.

For amuse bouche, a small demitasse cup of leek and potatoe soup of mouthful quantity was served.



I was very brave and took it on trust that what was in there was not dead crane flies, but was probably a dried herb or vegetable.

For starter, I selected the morteau sausage salad. I asked the waiter to explain the nature of the dish, and he declined saying he had only been working there 3 days. The more senior Maitre d' came over and tried to explain that it could be hot or cold or luke warm, and on this occasion it was going to be cold. Fair enough. As long as I know what I am dealing with. Before the dish was delivered, he came back over, and said that as a special concession the chef would have it served warm.



This was actually very good, and it is a smoked garlic type sausage. You can find more about this kind of sausage on Internet, and it is a bit of a French specialism, but with no identifiable bits of animal. This was also, as described, luke-warm, but I had been warned.

For main course, I chose the chicken supreme



A small portion of well cooked chicken in jus, with rice and spinach. It was adequately hot at 8.2 on the CHOF scale.

For desert I chose the clemantine fool



This was an interesting mix of textures and strong flavours, and was very good. Sometimes fools are a bit like frothy mousse, but this was a smooth gelatinous mixture of excellent taste. Recommended.




My wife and I were not typical customers, as could be judged by who was in the house that night, and the staff did nothing to make us feel comfortable. They created an atmosphere of dominating proceedings and fussing over food in such a way that the only term I can think of is 'rectalism'. That does not mean for one moment that the meal was not excellent, as it was, but it was expensive for what it was once a bottle of wine was added (but representative of the location and type). The staff seated us out of the main atrium of the restaurant, which was probably a good thing, as we wanted to talk, and the atmosphere was adequately subdued. On atmosphere is scores very highly.

If you want to eat within spitting distance of the Bank this cannot be faulted for the quality of the food, but it helps if you pass the audition at the foyer.

Thomas Cubitt, Victoria: take a fat wallet

What is a gastropub? Is it a pub with a restaurant, or a restaurant with a pub. I guess probably the former. This is the modern way, and previously inexpensive simple pub food has been replaced by pretentious expensive less simple food with a waiter and a service charge.

I had previously dined at the Pantechnicon, the sister gastropub of the Thomas Cubbit, and knew more or less what to expect. You can be taken in by the web site on http://www.thethomascubitt.co.uk/home.html?pg=&txt=false My wife had told me that it was going to be expensive. This meal was a Sunday lunch for 7 people. I noted the occupancy, which was high. We went there on a Sunday lunchtime when the Cubitt was serving the bar menu in the Dining room which is upstairs




I ordered the fried squid, prawn and artichoke with a sweet chilli sauce which was excellent, but a fairly small serving.



What sounded plain turned out to be very tasty and fairly hot at a CHOF of 7.9

For main course I had the Sunday roast of Devon Lamb with trimmings. The trimmings were a delight, but the lamb was tough, chewy and inadequately hot for my taste. I estimate the CHOF at about 6.8 which is edible with diminished enjoyment.



Had I not been in very polite company, one of whom had selected the restaurant, I would have sent this back. For desert, I had the Chocolate and cherry roulade, which was big enough for two, of good consistency and delicious.




The wine list is good, but there is nothing under £20/ bottle, and by the glass it is about £8/glass which is expensive even for a big glass.

Our bill which included three bottles of not too expensive wine and a couple of glasses extra, a 12.5% service charge, no bread came to £47/per person. Quite frankly for what was a very basic meal with no cover on the table, no fancy water, and the second cheapest red wine on list, this is uberpricing in my opinion. Given that my roast meat was of poor quality (although no one else complained, and I was told the beef was ok) I felt that this was the worst side of gastropubbing, and cannot understand why they are packed. I know my views are not reflected elsewhere, but I would have thought a bit of roast leg of lamb was idiot proof.
On a slight tangent, I noted that the cost of a cup of coffee after the meal was £3. Given that the cost of goods for a cup of coffee in a bog standard coffee shop is only 9p, the margin is pretty phenomenal. Difficult to understand how they can justify the price, which is somewhat demotivational. It would have to be pretty amazing coffee.

Taste Restaurant at Fortina Spa, Malta: So good we kept going back

9th to 19th January.
I have reviewed the Fortina Spa hotel about a year ago, and the fact that we return here says something about the food, which is pretty good in the a la carte section of the hotel. If you go all inclusive in the hotel, you can use any of the restaurants from the a la carte menu's within your budget. Actually that is not exactly true, as the hotel seems to have sold off two of the restaurants as a franchise, the Indian and the Japanese. These now prefer proper paying customers, and the AI guest suffer a bit of discrimination. Firstly they can only use them with booking ahead (limit to the number of guests each day) and the menu you see is not the same one as the cash customers. We also saw the scenario that guests who had not booked were turned away even if the restaurant was empty. This is a strange thing, and given that they are in the hospitality business, this is not hospitable. Nevertheless, the food in all the restaurants except the Italian, which I will not go to, is excellent.
This review focuses on one restaurant, the Taste, which is the flagship Vietnamese Mediterranean fusion. This is probably one of the favourite restaurants for residents, and rightly so. We ate there several times over the period, and I will show some of the dishes. The restaurant has a fairly short menu of about 6 or 7 starters and the same for entree. This is supplemented by a special menu of the day which always has special starter and main including fish of the day. The desert menu, like many restaurants in Malta is poor with no variation, and during a week of staying and eating, you would have to repeat or even forego desert.

Veal wrapped in ham

pasta with porcini mushrooms

fish and chips

By and large, the service is good, especially when they get to know you. Hotness is rarely an issue and most dishes scored between 8 and 8.8 but rarely hotter. As you can see, there is much arranging of food, and he appearance is critically important. On first glance, portion sizes are not big, but by the time you have had some bread, starter main and desert, there if plenty enough food. I had one occasion where there was some bone or plastic in a terrine, and I was immediately offered an alternate starter. It is easy to see why the place is popular.

It is difficult to put a price on the cost of a meal through all inclusive, but cash customers can pay an average of about 35 euros for a meal without drink. This is probably a bit on the high side, but it is the sort of price that the better restaurants in Malta are charging. I heard some complaints such as not enough white fish on the menu: there is a fresh fish of the day but salmon, tuna, shark and swordfish are quite common.  One tip is that you can ask for chips rather than the sauteed potatoes that come by default, and very good they are too, an usually very hot.