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.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Friday, 1 April 2011
Caribbean Flavas, Salford
Amazing jerk chicken alert. In Salford.
Good jerk chicken is absolutely gorgeous, but bad jerk chicken can be truly terrible. The trouble is it can be difficult to tell by looking at it. The bad stuff might be burnt, dry, stringy, bland and lacking in spice. The good stuff should be smoky, fiery, fruity, moist, crispy and utterly delicious. I've eaten both good and bad that look pretty much like this:
Doesn't look particularly enticing does it? This, I'm pleased to say though, is the good stuff. Beautifully smoky, crisp skinned chicken fragrant with allspice and scotch bonnet chilli. The flesh beneath the skin was moist and the flavour had permeated through suggesting a long, slow marinade. It was also very spicy with a slow burning, lip-tingling heat.
The accompanying rice and peas were also good, rich and sweet from stewing in coconut milk. The vegetables were rubbish (mushy and tasteless) but they're really not the point and are optional. £4.00 for a small jerk chicken meal (a fiver will get you the large which probably includes twice as much chicken). Thoroughly recommended.
A few final notes:
- They have a video on YouTube where the camera pans slowly over fried plantains and dumplings and stuff while music that sounds like it's from the emotional bit of a cheesy 80's film plays. Brilliant.
- The website claims it's in Manchester, but it's very much on the Salford side of the river, next to Salford Central station.
- Finally, I can't take the credit for being the first to find and blog this place. Flavours of Manchester went first and gave me the idea. Thanks again to them.
8/10
Caribbean Flavas
187 Chapel Street
Salford
M3 5EQ
http://caribbeanflavas.co.uk/
Good jerk chicken is absolutely gorgeous, but bad jerk chicken can be truly terrible. The trouble is it can be difficult to tell by looking at it. The bad stuff might be burnt, dry, stringy, bland and lacking in spice. The good stuff should be smoky, fiery, fruity, moist, crispy and utterly delicious. I've eaten both good and bad that look pretty much like this:
Doesn't look particularly enticing does it? This, I'm pleased to say though, is the good stuff. Beautifully smoky, crisp skinned chicken fragrant with allspice and scotch bonnet chilli. The flesh beneath the skin was moist and the flavour had permeated through suggesting a long, slow marinade. It was also very spicy with a slow burning, lip-tingling heat.
The accompanying rice and peas were also good, rich and sweet from stewing in coconut milk. The vegetables were rubbish (mushy and tasteless) but they're really not the point and are optional. £4.00 for a small jerk chicken meal (a fiver will get you the large which probably includes twice as much chicken). Thoroughly recommended.
A few final notes:
- They have a video on YouTube where the camera pans slowly over fried plantains and dumplings and stuff while music that sounds like it's from the emotional bit of a cheesy 80's film plays. Brilliant.
- The website claims it's in Manchester, but it's very much on the Salford side of the river, next to Salford Central station.
- Finally, I can't take the credit for being the first to find and blog this place. Flavours of Manchester went first and gave me the idea. Thanks again to them.
8/10
Caribbean Flavas
187 Chapel Street
Salford
M3 5EQ
http://caribbeanflavas.co.uk/
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Tampopo, The Trafford Centre
I needed to buy some stuff, so after working late last night I headed for the Trafford Centre. Regular readers (by regular readers I mean people who mistakenly click on the Twitter links and end up here again) may recall that I don't much like the Trafford Centre, but on a Tuesday evening it's a far more amenable prospect than on a Saturday afternoon. I bought the stuff I needed and on account of having no food in the house, decided to stop for a bite to eat.
I've been to Tampopo before on a couple of occasions, and have generally left satisfied so I thought I'd give it another try. It's a canteen sort of place with bench seating very much in the Wagamama sort of style, and covers similar ground with the food as well. The menu is fairly extensive, but sticks quite sensibly to dishes from South-East and East Asia which at least have common themes, rather than randomly selecting dishes from all corners of the globe like another local chain whose name I won't mention. I ordered the Laksa with a portion of Goi Cuon on the side.
The Goi Cuon (Vietnamese summer rolls) were lovely and fresh tasting as they should be, with plenty of crunchy vegetables, but not as good as the real thing which usually have prawns or pork or both in them as well. This isn't really a criticism though, as they are advertised as a veggie version on the menu.
The condiments provided at the table are worth a quick mention at this point, as they are a good basic Asian selection; - Kikkoman soy sauce, Ketjap Manis (a sweetened, syrupy Indonesian soy sauce) and Sriracha Hot Chilli Sauce (a Thai classic). Some combination of these three will liven things up if your meal is a bit dull.
The Laksa was a decent effort. Laksa is a dish of noodles in a rich, heavily seasoned coconuty, curry broth with some sort of protein and assorted veggies. The broth was a bit underpowered, it needed a good squirt of Sriracha as it was a lot milder than the 'three chilli' warning on the menu would suggest. It was also too sweet. Having said that it also had some fine attributes. Many of the extensive range of flavours often found in food from the Malay peninsula were present including coriander, mint, lime leaves, garlic, chillies, coconut and even a hint of pungent shrimp paste. Prawns, tofu and chicken provided the protein, with cucumber, red onions and breansprouts on the veg front. All were fine except the chicken which seemed to be rather poor quality and tasteless. The whole made for pleasant if unspectacular eating.
In summary my opinion of Tampopo hasn't changed much after this visit. It's a decent option. I'd rather eat there than most of the other places in the Trafford Centre, but it's overpriced. Any small independent restaurant doing the same sort of food (I could name Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian and Korean places that fit the bill) would generally charge in the region of £5 - £8 for a dish like this, whereas I paid £10.75 at Tampopo. Any dish costing over a tenner at Middle Kingdom or Hunan would be served in something the size of a household bucket, and have about a kilo of meat in it. In total I paid £18.25 for the food, a lime soda (£1.90!) and service. Ok, but I wouldn't make a special trip.
6/10
The Orient,
Trafford Centre
Manchester
M17 8EH
Plus various other branches
http://www.tampopo.co.uk/
I've been to Tampopo before on a couple of occasions, and have generally left satisfied so I thought I'd give it another try. It's a canteen sort of place with bench seating very much in the Wagamama sort of style, and covers similar ground with the food as well. The menu is fairly extensive, but sticks quite sensibly to dishes from South-East and East Asia which at least have common themes, rather than randomly selecting dishes from all corners of the globe like another local chain whose name I won't mention. I ordered the Laksa with a portion of Goi Cuon on the side.
The Goi Cuon (Vietnamese summer rolls) were lovely and fresh tasting as they should be, with plenty of crunchy vegetables, but not as good as the real thing which usually have prawns or pork or both in them as well. This isn't really a criticism though, as they are advertised as a veggie version on the menu.
The condiments provided at the table are worth a quick mention at this point, as they are a good basic Asian selection; - Kikkoman soy sauce, Ketjap Manis (a sweetened, syrupy Indonesian soy sauce) and Sriracha Hot Chilli Sauce (a Thai classic). Some combination of these three will liven things up if your meal is a bit dull.
The Laksa was a decent effort. Laksa is a dish of noodles in a rich, heavily seasoned coconuty, curry broth with some sort of protein and assorted veggies. The broth was a bit underpowered, it needed a good squirt of Sriracha as it was a lot milder than the 'three chilli' warning on the menu would suggest. It was also too sweet. Having said that it also had some fine attributes. Many of the extensive range of flavours often found in food from the Malay peninsula were present including coriander, mint, lime leaves, garlic, chillies, coconut and even a hint of pungent shrimp paste. Prawns, tofu and chicken provided the protein, with cucumber, red onions and breansprouts on the veg front. All were fine except the chicken which seemed to be rather poor quality and tasteless. The whole made for pleasant if unspectacular eating.
In summary my opinion of Tampopo hasn't changed much after this visit. It's a decent option. I'd rather eat there than most of the other places in the Trafford Centre, but it's overpriced. Any small independent restaurant doing the same sort of food (I could name Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian and Korean places that fit the bill) would generally charge in the region of £5 - £8 for a dish like this, whereas I paid £10.75 at Tampopo. Any dish costing over a tenner at Middle Kingdom or Hunan would be served in something the size of a household bucket, and have about a kilo of meat in it. In total I paid £18.25 for the food, a lime soda (£1.90!) and service. Ok, but I wouldn't make a special trip.
6/10
The Orient,
Trafford Centre
Manchester
M17 8EH
Plus various other branches
http://www.tampopo.co.uk/
Sunday, 27 March 2011
The Koffee Pot, Manchester
This place is bloody brilliant, and here is why.
Breakfast
The Koffee Pot serves breakfast until 2pm daily. The full English will set you back £5.50 including a tea or coffee. Just about every component of my fry-up was lovely, so here is a thorough examination of what made it so.
1. Bacon
Quality is important here, you don't want the really thin cut stuff that exudes white foamy stuff when you cook it, then shrivels to virtually nothing. This is not that. It's thick-ish with plenty of piggy flavour, and is cooked just right so the fat has crisped up.
2. Sausage
A budget sausage lets down many a fry-up. This is a decent sausage; a thick, juicy, well-seasoned plain pork banger. Perfect for breakfast. I don't like excitingly flavoured sausages in the morning, anything with leeks, apples or heaven forbid garlic in it is inappropriate at this time of day as far as I'm concerned.
3. Black Pudding
It's hiding behind the bacon. A nice slice of Bury black pudding. The good stuff. No further comment required.
4. Egg
I'm open to any variety of egg on my breakfast, today I stuck to the classic fried. It was timed correctly, with a soft golden yolk and no trace of hideous snotty uncooked bits of white.
5. Beans
Certain purists will tell you that beans should not be included in a traditional full English breakfast. They are wrong. Essential tomatoey lubrication.
6. Hash Brown
An often optional extra, but perfectly welcome when fried properly, which this was. Nice and crispy. Undercooked hash browns that turn into a greasy mush on the plate are not pleasant.
7. Tomato
It's not exactly prime tomato season yet, but they managed to serve a grilled tomato with some sort of taste, so full marks here.
8. Toast
Two slices from a bog standard sliced loaf. No complaints here, this just works with a fry-up. Not buttered with butter though. I've said it before and I'll say it again, everything is better with butter.
9. Tea
Served in a mug, with the bag left in allowing the punter to choose the strength of their own brew. Good.
10. Condiments
HP sauce is positioned in large bottles on every table. Ketchup is also available if you're that way inclined.
I ate the lot rather too quickly, and sat back to read the paper basking in a warm, porkulent glow. The portion size was just right, I was fully satisfied without needing to resort to digestive hibernation. If you're exceptionally greedy they do a larger breakfast that is essentially two breakfasts piled on the same plate.
Tea and Cake
My first visit to the Koffee Pot was just for a cuppa. I'd planned to check out North Tea Power, but it was rammed to the rafters and I couldn't be bothered to wait for a table. Plenty were available down the road.
I ordered a mug of tea, then the dicussion with the nice chap behind the counter went something like this:
Me: Have you got any cakes or puddings or anything?
Chap: We've got this toffee cake (points to a large loaf of not very interesting looking cake half covered in cling film).
Me: (pause, waiting to see if there are further offerings) Ok then I'll have a slice of that.
Chap: I could warm it up with some custard for a quid if you like mate.
Me: Sounds perfect (assuming it's a quid extra on top of the usual cake cost).
Chap: That'll be £1.90 please.
£1.90 for a mug of tea, a large slab of cake and a lake of (I think) tinned custard. The cake was actually rather nice too. Good music playing in the background as well (a bit of Marvin Gaye).
If I was cool and lived in a converted warehouse flat in the Northern Quarter, I'd probably come here every day. Unfortunately I'm not and I don't, but it's probably a blessing in disguise as I'd get too fat too quickly from the all the fry-ups and cakes and tinned custard.
9/10
The Koffee Pot
21 Hilton Street
Stevenson Square
Manchester
M1 1JJ
http://www.thekoffeepot.co.uk/
Breakfast
The Koffee Pot serves breakfast until 2pm daily. The full English will set you back £5.50 including a tea or coffee. Just about every component of my fry-up was lovely, so here is a thorough examination of what made it so.
1. Bacon
Quality is important here, you don't want the really thin cut stuff that exudes white foamy stuff when you cook it, then shrivels to virtually nothing. This is not that. It's thick-ish with plenty of piggy flavour, and is cooked just right so the fat has crisped up.
2. Sausage
A budget sausage lets down many a fry-up. This is a decent sausage; a thick, juicy, well-seasoned plain pork banger. Perfect for breakfast. I don't like excitingly flavoured sausages in the morning, anything with leeks, apples or heaven forbid garlic in it is inappropriate at this time of day as far as I'm concerned.
3. Black Pudding
It's hiding behind the bacon. A nice slice of Bury black pudding. The good stuff. No further comment required.
4. Egg
I'm open to any variety of egg on my breakfast, today I stuck to the classic fried. It was timed correctly, with a soft golden yolk and no trace of hideous snotty uncooked bits of white.
5. Beans
Certain purists will tell you that beans should not be included in a traditional full English breakfast. They are wrong. Essential tomatoey lubrication.
6. Hash Brown
An often optional extra, but perfectly welcome when fried properly, which this was. Nice and crispy. Undercooked hash browns that turn into a greasy mush on the plate are not pleasant.
7. Tomato
It's not exactly prime tomato season yet, but they managed to serve a grilled tomato with some sort of taste, so full marks here.
8. Toast
Two slices from a bog standard sliced loaf. No complaints here, this just works with a fry-up. Not buttered with butter though. I've said it before and I'll say it again, everything is better with butter.
9. Tea
Served in a mug, with the bag left in allowing the punter to choose the strength of their own brew. Good.
10. Condiments
HP sauce is positioned in large bottles on every table. Ketchup is also available if you're that way inclined.
I ate the lot rather too quickly, and sat back to read the paper basking in a warm, porkulent glow. The portion size was just right, I was fully satisfied without needing to resort to digestive hibernation. If you're exceptionally greedy they do a larger breakfast that is essentially two breakfasts piled on the same plate.
Tea and Cake
My first visit to the Koffee Pot was just for a cuppa. I'd planned to check out North Tea Power, but it was rammed to the rafters and I couldn't be bothered to wait for a table. Plenty were available down the road.
I ordered a mug of tea, then the dicussion with the nice chap behind the counter went something like this:
Me: Have you got any cakes or puddings or anything?
Chap: We've got this toffee cake (points to a large loaf of not very interesting looking cake half covered in cling film).
Me: (pause, waiting to see if there are further offerings) Ok then I'll have a slice of that.
Chap: I could warm it up with some custard for a quid if you like mate.
Me: Sounds perfect (assuming it's a quid extra on top of the usual cake cost).
Chap: That'll be £1.90 please.
£1.90 for a mug of tea, a large slab of cake and a lake of (I think) tinned custard. The cake was actually rather nice too. Good music playing in the background as well (a bit of Marvin Gaye).
If I was cool and lived in a converted warehouse flat in the Northern Quarter, I'd probably come here every day. Unfortunately I'm not and I don't, but it's probably a blessing in disguise as I'd get too fat too quickly from the all the fry-ups and cakes and tinned custard.
9/10
The Koffee Pot
21 Hilton Street
Stevenson Square
Manchester
M1 1JJ
http://www.thekoffeepot.co.uk/
Yadgar, Manchester
From a Leeds curry institution last weekend, to a Manchester curry institution this. The curry cafés of Manchester are a wonderful thing, and I wish we had them in Leeds as well. If you're not familiar with them, they all offer variations on the same theme. This being a basic, rather scruffy canteen serving pre-cooked curries, any choice of three on rice, usually for under a fiver. I've been to several of them, and have always been fed well for not much money.
On Friday night I chose Yadgar, one of the better ones on past experience. Here we have cauliflower, lamb and lentils. Unfortunately it wasn't great. On my previous visit to Yadgar I was quite impressed by the distinctive flavours of the curries, but this time everything seemed a bit muted and bland. The portion was rather stingy as well. It looks large, but it's mostly rice with just a smear of curry on top.
Nevertheless it fulfilled a need, my hunger was sated and it was still better (and probably more wholesome) than a fast food chain meal. Most of the curry cafés are scattered around the Northern Quarter, with a few in various other suburbs such as Cheetham Hill. For a comprehensive listing check out Flavours of Manchester. Which is your favourite?
5/10
90 High St
Manchester
M4 1ES
On Friday night I chose Yadgar, one of the better ones on past experience. Here we have cauliflower, lamb and lentils. Unfortunately it wasn't great. On my previous visit to Yadgar I was quite impressed by the distinctive flavours of the curries, but this time everything seemed a bit muted and bland. The portion was rather stingy as well. It looks large, but it's mostly rice with just a smear of curry on top.
Nevertheless it fulfilled a need, my hunger was sated and it was still better (and probably more wholesome) than a fast food chain meal. Most of the curry cafés are scattered around the Northern Quarter, with a few in various other suburbs such as Cheetham Hill. For a comprehensive listing check out Flavours of Manchester. Which is your favourite?
5/10
90 High St
Manchester
M4 1ES
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Barbakan Delicatessen, Chorlton, Manchester
Barbakan Deli is a rather good bakery and delicatessen in Chorlton. Up until last Saturday I'd strolled past it a few times, and even had a glance inside, but had never actually made a purchase.
On weekends they have a barbecue (they call it that but it's actually a couple of huge frying pans over a gas burner) out the front serving an interesting selection of sausages and burgers including German bratwurst, Polish smoked slaska and lamb in both forms. I nearly walked straight past, put off by the long queue, but curiosity got the better of me and I joined the back of it. It doesn't always work out that way, but in theory very popular ought to equal good.
In this case, the mob were correct. I ordered a bratwurst with fried potatoes. The bratwurst was lovely;- a dense, bouncy, porky sausage with plenty of fried onions on the top. Presumably the bread was baked on the premises, as it was much more than an afterthought. It was a large, slightly chewy roll with quite a yeasty flavour. A genuinely good example of a classic hot dog roll. With a large dollop of dijon mustard the whole thing was great fun to eat. Shame about the potatoes though, they were rubbish. Underseasoned and undercooked, they were mealy in the mouth and tasted of little.
The bratwurst cost £2.75, plus an extra pound for the potatoes. I'd probably give the potatoes a miss next time, but the sausage was great and more than big enough for lunch. Well worth a visit. If you're lucky you might be able to grab a seat on the terrace next to the barbecue.
8/10 for the bratwurst (but 3/10 for the potatoes)
67-71 Manchester Road
Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Manchester
M21 9PW
http://www.barbakan-deli.co.uk/
On weekends they have a barbecue (they call it that but it's actually a couple of huge frying pans over a gas burner) out the front serving an interesting selection of sausages and burgers including German bratwurst, Polish smoked slaska and lamb in both forms. I nearly walked straight past, put off by the long queue, but curiosity got the better of me and I joined the back of it. It doesn't always work out that way, but in theory very popular ought to equal good.
In this case, the mob were correct. I ordered a bratwurst with fried potatoes. The bratwurst was lovely;- a dense, bouncy, porky sausage with plenty of fried onions on the top. Presumably the bread was baked on the premises, as it was much more than an afterthought. It was a large, slightly chewy roll with quite a yeasty flavour. A genuinely good example of a classic hot dog roll. With a large dollop of dijon mustard the whole thing was great fun to eat. Shame about the potatoes though, they were rubbish. Underseasoned and undercooked, they were mealy in the mouth and tasted of little.
The bratwurst cost £2.75, plus an extra pound for the potatoes. I'd probably give the potatoes a miss next time, but the sausage was great and more than big enough for lunch. Well worth a visit. If you're lucky you might be able to grab a seat on the terrace next to the barbecue.
8/10 for the bratwurst (but 3/10 for the potatoes)
67-71 Manchester Road
Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Manchester
M21 9PW
http://www.barbakan-deli.co.uk/
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Pickled Pepper, Holbeck, Leeds
We're getting spoilt for choice with good quality lunch spots on the South side of Leeds city centre. After recent successful trips to Riverside Sourdough Bakery, La Bottega Milanese and Wokon Noodle Bar I stopped off in Holbeck last Friday to give Pickled Pepper a try.
The dining area was full when I arrived, but all of the hot food is available to takeaway in addition to a range of sandwiches and salads. Dishes costing around £5.50 to eat in are all priced at a very reasonable £3.50 to go. I chose the pie and peas.
The pie was meat and potato, a good hefty wedge with a nice short pastry. The filling was very good, comprising big chunks of tender beef alongside the potato with just a touch of gravy. The peas were little petit pois rather than mushy peas, the sweetness of them worked well with the savoury beefiness of the pie. My only slight criticism is that it could have done with a bit more gravy.
The guys behind the counter were very friendly and the salads in the counter looked fresh and interesting too. I'll almost certainly be back.
7/10
Pickled Pepper
3 Saw Mill Yard
Holbeck
Leeds
LS11 5WH
The dining area was full when I arrived, but all of the hot food is available to takeaway in addition to a range of sandwiches and salads. Dishes costing around £5.50 to eat in are all priced at a very reasonable £3.50 to go. I chose the pie and peas.
The pie was meat and potato, a good hefty wedge with a nice short pastry. The filling was very good, comprising big chunks of tender beef alongside the potato with just a touch of gravy. The peas were little petit pois rather than mushy peas, the sweetness of them worked well with the savoury beefiness of the pie. My only slight criticism is that it could have done with a bit more gravy.
The guys behind the counter were very friendly and the salads in the counter looked fresh and interesting too. I'll almost certainly be back.
7/10
Pickled Pepper
3 Saw Mill Yard
Holbeck
Leeds
LS11 5WH
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