Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Akropolis, Station Road, Westcliff on Sea. Competent Cypriot Food

28th July
Probably to save any confusion between the culture of North and South Cyprus, the Akropolis plants is origins clearly in its name. If you were expecting Greek food, this is slightly off target, but if you want Cypriot Taverna, this is the place.
The menu is very standard. What picks this place out is the balladeer that is there nightly. On a wet Monday night in July, the place was very busy. We had wanted to try the place for many years, but were rarely there at night time, but today was our chance.
We somewhat boringly chose the Meze. This was exactly what you would expect. There was a series of cold dishes and dips followed by meat fish and sausage. There are absolutely no surprises.
The brownish balls on the left are scampi
Haloumi, ham and spicy sausages

kleftico and stifado
All the hot food was hot, scoring 8 or more on the scale. The quality and the taste were excellent. My only criticism was that the meal was somewhat thrown at us to their timetable. There was a big party in that night which may have consumed most of their interest, but on a wet Monday, were were not going anywhere, so it was a pity that they could not have made the meal a bit more leisurely. Entirely competent, and hot, but not exciting enough to make us regular customers. Better places nearer home. Meze cost £19.95 per person min two persons.


Monday, 4 August 2014

Victoria Inn, Burnham on Crouch: Safe bet for a pub lunch in Burnham

28th July 2014
If you ever fancy a day trip to Burnham, don't go on a Monday. They obviously get very busy weekend and need Monday to recover. One of the more popular restaurants in the town has now closed but Victoria Inn seems to be a good place for people who like drinking beer and eating pub lunch.
The menu is quite simple. It lacks some of the pub classics such as Ploughman's and plates of salad, savouries and sandwiches. But it has plenty of other stuff such as pie and chips, baked potatoes, sausages and so on. Whilst there is web-based information about the drink there is nothing to read about the pub food.  To keep it simple I chose sausage baguette.
You get quite a lot of hot sausage for your money. You can probably tell that it is not one of the rustic sausages but is more of a smooth variety. It was perfectly hot and tasty scoring and nine on the scale. They threw in a few chips as well, which was unexpected. I fancied a coffee after the meal. The best they could manage was a cup of instant. Shame on them.
My wife's baked potato was judged to be good.
The food was hot and could not be faulted, but lacked any originality or flair. Fair value.