Bacon Sandwich Quest: April

Bet you thought I'd forgotten about Bacon Sandwich Quest. Sadly I haven't, the April round up is just running a little late. Things perked up a bit in April, there was an unusual coffee shop offering, a standard greasy spoon effort and of course I threw my own sarnie of champions into the mix.

The coffee shop curveball for starters, from Grind Coffee Lounge in Wakefield. A bacon sandwich toasted on a griddle, eaten in an independent coffee shop, reminiscent of those you get in the chain coffee shops. It was sort of good, flavour packed smokey bacon, but sort of wrong, as the bread was overtoasted making the whole thing rather crunchy. Bacon butties shouldn't be crunchy. Hmm.

Let's face it, if you want a job doing properly you're best off doing it yourself. It seems a little unfair to rate my own bacon sandwich, but given the generally lacklustre standard so far people obviously need some guidance. I don't mean to sound boastful but this is how it should be done. Anyhow I think I've been objective, docking myself a point for service on account of getting cold feet from the kitchen tiles whilst making it.

And finally, Pat's Cafe, Knowsley Industrial Estate's finest. Solid, reliable, unspectacular. No photo, but it looked like any other bacon roll (or barm as those crazy cats like to call it).This isn't the first one of these I've eaten, and it certainly won't be the last. Currently residing in the final podium place, but can it stay the distance?

Here's the leaderboard, formatted horribly but Blogger is driving me up the wall. Sorry. Here's to May.

A pair of negative reviews

A friend commented recently that since I started this blog I've written very few negative reviews. I think the primary reason for this is that I tend to research where I'm going to eat in advance, so I generally have a fair idea that I'll be going somewhere that's to my taste. The secondary reason is that I can't always be bothered writing up negative experiences, particularly if I never expected them to be good in the first place (bad experiences when I was expecting good are a different matter). Here are a couple of examples from this week:

Sainsbury's Café, Sale

Things didn't bode well as soon as I walked in here. The guy behind the counter looked more than a bit dishevelled and had something fairly large stuck on his face. It was either a food remnant (pastry?) stuck in the stubble, or a colossal yellowheaded spot. Nice. Trying to banish unpleasant thoughts from my mind I ordered a cappuccino and an iced cinnamon bun.

The cinnamon bun wasn't. There was definitely no cinnamon in it and it tasted weirdly of artificial lemon flavouring (like a Mr Kipling lemon slice or somesuch). It was also very stale. The coffee wasn't actively offensive but didn't really taste of anything.

I tried to read the paper but my mind kept wandering back to the pastry/yellowhead. What if it ended up in my coffee? I left the rest untouched and scarpered.

Plus points: inexpensive
Minus points: see above

2/10

Sainsbury's
Curzon Road
Sale
M33 7SA


The Copper Pot, Knowsley

The Copper Pot is one of those inexplicably popular new build dining pubs often found squatting next to roundabouts, usually somewhere near a Premier Inn. This one is on the edge of Knowsley Industrial Park, a place I have to visit often with work. And so it was that I found myself in there for lunch the other day.

The menu is one of those lengthy affairs, the idea being that 'there's something for everyone'. It's also 'two for one' on all main courses, the main advantage of this being that if your meal is shit, at least it will also be cheap. Unless of course you are sad, lonely and dining alone, in which case it will be shit and expensive.

I ordered the fish and chips, which turned out to have one or two redeeming features. It was a good sized chunky piece of fish, not overcooked and the batter wasn't too thick. The skin had been left on though, which I'm not a fan of, and there were also bones running right through it. Someone wasn't paying attention in filleting class. So, narrowly avoiding the Heimlich maneouvre, on to the rest: the mushy peas were claggy and horrible, and the chips were limp and flabby. Service was indolent.

Plus points: inexpensive, I wasn't paying, the fish
Minus points: the fish, the chips, the peas, the service

4/10

Coopers Lane
Knowsley
L33 7TT
http://www.copperpotpub.co.uk/


So there we have it. I rather doubt that those reviews will be of use to anyone, but I rather enjoyed writing them. I might do it more often.

A Tale of Two Lunches

We are quite blessed in the UK these days with the variety of lunch options in many of our towns and cities. We have welcomed the midday offerings of other nations, adapted them and made them our own. But we also still like a good British pie, fry-up or sandwich with salad cream. Here are a couple of contrasting places on either side of the Pennines.

La Bottega Milanese, Leeds

La Bottega Milanese sits squarely in the new, modern Britain category. It’s a Milanese coffee bar transplanted to the Calls in Leeds. Sandwiches are made to order on ciabatta or focaccia, coffee is an art form and cakes are supplied by Anthony’s.

On today’s visit I ordered a Milanese on ciabatta (parma ham, rocket, mayo, parmesan, olive oil, lemon – I think) and a slice of torta della nonna (Grandma’s cake). Nice piggy ham and peppery rocket, and a light, fresh ciabatta made for a good sandwich. Possibly a bit stingy with the filling but that’s a minor complaint from a greedy person.

The cake (not one of the Anthony's supplied ones) was very good. It’s a sort of thick custard tart garnished with pine nuts. Fairly plain and simple but I mean that as a compliment, it’s nice to have something more restrained with a cup of tea instead of the increasingly prevalent sugar and icing bomb American style sweet things (not that I don’t love cupcakes sometimes...). The pastry was good too.

I can’t comment on the coffee, as I rarely drink it (caffeine doesn’t like me) but given their enthusiasm for the stuff I’m sure it’s great.

At £3 for the sandwich and £2 for the cake it’s good value for quality ingredients in a city centre location. It wasn’t very busy when I was in there (about 12.30 pm so peak lunchtime) so I hope they’re doing a good trade. Please go – we want places like this in Leeds doing well.

7/10

32 The Calls
Leeds
LS2 7EW

http://labottegamilanese.co.uk

Pat’s Place Cafe, Knowsley Industrial Estate

Pat’s cafe has its steel toe-capped boots firmly in the traditional camp. If you spend your days in a hard hat engaged in robust industrial toil (just like me obviously) then this is the place for you. Situated on Knowsley Industrial Estate, an outpost of genuine heavy industry, it offers up fry-ups, pie dinners, toasties, chips and sandwiches (salad is available) to the masses. When I’m feeling healthy sandwiches are the way to go, but at other times it has to be a pie dinner. £2.50 will get you a choice of pie, with chips, peas and gravy.

It’s usually pretty good but last Friday it was strangely disappointing. The chips were soggy and they were out of peas. Usually the chips are fried to a good crisp and not at all greasy. The pies are of reasonable quality, and definitely contain genuine meat. I like the Steak and Pepper best. There was a photo but it's gone missing; - think pie & chips, covered in gravy, in a polystyrene tray.

On the off chance anyone reading this spends time in the area, you could do much worse for your lunch than Pat's. Not that it needs a recommendation, it’s always rammed.

5/10 (recent visit)
7/10 (most other visits)

Pat's Place Cafe
Charley Wood Road
Knowsley Industrial Estate
L33
Merseyside