Little Chef, Kettering

I think that has to be the least glamorous sounding blog title I've ever written.

But some of you may know that Little Chef has been undergoing something of  makeover. I watched Heston's Little Chef back in 2009 and from the looks of it there didn't seem to be much hope for Little Chef changing beyond the few restaurants they made over, but now there are 10 new Little Chefs with the updated menu and new diner style decor.

We visited the Kettering West branch just off the A14 on our way down to Shropshire a couple of weeks ago, something I've been meaning to do after Ino at Kitchen 22 blogged about it. The interior is fantastic, booths and diner style furniture with the famous 'blue sky' on the ceiling. Service was fast and friendly and the menu had so much choice. Breakfasts, little light bites, proper mains, puds and a great selection of tea and coffee with reasonable prices.

We were just stopping for a light lunch so I ordered the starter scampi, Mr Giraffe had a mushroom and pepper cheese toastie and we also got a side of chips to share. Oh my were we glad we got chips. If you don't get anything else here, make sure you get the chips. They are the triple cooked affair which Heston Blumenthal has made famous, ridiculously crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. I want to go back now and get some.

The scampi was brilliant, under the batter was proper crayfish instead of the reconstituted seafood mush you normally find, I think this is the first time I've had proper scampi. The toastie was filled with proper mature cheese and a rich mushroom and pepper rattoutile with a tomato base.

This is good food, done properly - everything tastes very fresh and it is clearly made onsite. It is very simple to get food right if you make it right. Well done Little Chef!

For 2 light lunches, a coke, cappucino and a side of chips it was £17, probably more than you'd spend on a motorway lunch but much nicer than anything else you can get off the A14.

If you love chips, go. I think that is my main message.

The Hole in the Wall, Little Wilbraham, Cambridge

I think Cambridge maybe in danger of becoming a good place to find good food. Slowly, very slowly new places are opening up which are inventive, yummy and good value. The opening of The Hole in the Wall Cambridge by Masterchef finalist Alex Rushmer has been much anticipated by foodies in Cambridge, especially me!

We went along for Sunday lunch on the most beautiful sunny day. The pub is set in a very pretty Cambridgeshire village, lots of cute cottages, well-kept gardens and scenic countryside.
The pub itself is also very nice-  a 16th century building with beams and low ceilings. Inside it still has quite a pub feel, I don't think a great deal has been done to the decor since they moved in, maybe something they are working on? Some of the fixtures are a little dated and the carpet is the extremely 1970s, but it doesn't really matter once you start reading the menu.

The menu comprises of 3 starters, 3 mains and much to my glee FOUR puddings. This is a good start. Often so many restaurants stick a couple of puds on, ice cream and cheese. Ice cream is not pudding! Vegetarians are catered for here too, only one dish on the starters and mains but both were fantastic and well thought out.

For starters I had the pea & ham soup which came with toasted brown bread. It was sweet and fresh with lovely smokey pieces of ham in the soup, I could have done with a bit more bread though, only one small piece for a large bowl of soup. My husband had the tomato and mozzarella salad which combined at least 4 different kinds of tomatoes in an olive oil and basil dressing with creamy mozzarella. The green tomatoes were my favourite, crisp on the outside and very soft in the middle, perfect.

For main I had the confit duck with pork cassoulet and very creamy mash. The duck was done to perfection, fall off the bone and the cassoulet had huge chunks of slow cooked pork inside. My only complaint would be that it was quite under seasoned, though salt and pepper were provided.

The vegetarian main which my husband had was really really well thought out. The peppers had been pre roasted til smokey and soft then stuffed with cous cous studded with aubergine, courgette and deep fried cheese, yes deep fried. It was then covered with goats cheese and cooked til bubbly.

The choice of puds was, as already mentioned, excellent. On the menu was a honeycomb cheesecake (my choice), lemon tart with blackberry sorbet, mirabelle plum charlotte and chocolate peppermint pots. My cheesecake was fluffy and rich at the same time, with a gingery based and a creamy top with chunks of honeycomb inside and on top.

My husband had the plum charlotte, we’d previously had the excellent apple charlotte at Le Gavroche so it had a lot to live up to. Whilst it wasn’t as good as Le Gav it was brilliant, the bread was so crispy and the inside very soft and full of plummy goodness.

We will definitely be going again soon, the food was excellent and the menu varied. The service was a little shakey but they’ve only been open for 2 weeks. I think now is an excellent time to go because so much seasonal produce is on show.

The Hole in the Wall Cambridge
Primrose Farm Road,
Little Wilbraham,
Cambridge,
CB21 5JY

http://holeinthewallcambridge.co.uk/

Bill's Restaurant & Store, Cambridge

I find it very hard to think of a good place for breakfast in Cambridge, and upon asking other people it would seem that no one else really knows either. You can pop along to the Black Cat cafe for some french toast, or maybe Giraffe for one of their breakfasts but nowhere really sticks out as being amazing.

Bill's Restaurant and Store opened last week, at the site of the old (and not very good) Slug and Lettuce pub. The first thing that really drew me in was the breakfasts, it has a good selection of traditional 'fry up', french toast, eggs benedict/florentine/royale and some interesting inclusions like bubble & squeak and grill vine tomatoes with basil on toast.

As the name suggests you can also shop here, they sell jams and marmalades, fancy French lemonade, pasta, chocolate, beer, the list is endless. Everything is arranged in shelves around the tables so you can shop whilst you eat.

I ordered the Bill's breakfast which was two fried eggs on sourdough toast with bacon, sausage, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. My husband had the veggie breakfast which was really well put together, poached eggs on toast spread with houmous and guacamole, tomatoes, mushrooms and sweet chili. He also tried the bubble and squeak which the real star, crispy on the outside and pillowy soft inside with a good kick of grain mustard.

The coffee here is also excellent, as are the freshly made smoothies.

We arrived at about 11 and the restaurant was quite busy, it is obviously very popular already, only a few days after opening. The food seems very fresh with attention to detail.

It is a small chain and in a place full of chains I can be wary but Bill's does have personality. I'm looking forward to coming back, mainly to give the puddings a go, which look very naughty!

Bill's Restaurant and Store
Green Street, Cambridge
http://www.bills-website.co.uk/

The British Larder, Suffolk

The British Larder blog has been one of my favourites for a long time, I love the recipes and the focus on local food, as well as the stunning photography. When I heard they had opened a pub restaurant last year it was on my list of places to go.

It is about an hour and a half from Cambridge, two if you go the scenic route (and your sat nav diverts you through all the horrible bank holiday traffic in Ipswich), so we tied it in with a trip to Orford and Aldeburgh for foodie shopping and a walk on the coastline.

We ate in the bar and had a deli board each, which is a really good way to sample all the different flavours the British Larder has to offer. They are incredibly well thought out and everything is perfectly made, exceptional. And for £12 they are really reasonably priced.

I had the Dingley Dell Pork Tasting Board which featured the most impressive scotch egg I've ever seen and tasted. Shredded slow cooked pork with a perfectly cooked egg and crispy exterior. My platter also had a chicken and pork terrine, puy lentil and ham hock salad, the most beautiful celeriac remoulade (with whole mustard seeds in, something I am going to do next time I make it), a vibrant and sweet pea and ham soup, locally made bread (from the Pump Street Bakery) and a perfect green salad.

The husband had the vegetarian deli board which was also excellent. Aubergine and tomato cavair, pearl barley salad, gorgeous spiced sweetcorn fritters, Suffolk Gold cheddar straws, olives, broad bean and white bean hummus, homemade tomato mayonnaise (I didn't let him call it burger sauce!) more local bread and that lovely green salad again.

The little additions like the mixture of different breads, soft creamy butter and perfectly cooked thinly sliced beetroot were lovely.

Naturally I had to opt for pudding, I always leave room. I picked what was hailed as their 'famous' treacle tart, and it was amazing. It was huge, just the thing for a pudding lover like me. Served with white chocolate ice cream and caramel sauce. The inside of it was lightly spiced, it reminded me of the Indian dessert 'gulab jambu' - which is a pretty impressive thing to achieve in a treacle tart.

We also had coffee and tea which was served with little cocoa dusted meringues.

We will definitely be going back, the Sunday roast looks fantastic, the British Larder hasn't been open long and I think is still getting its name out there, so go and support them, everything is as local as possible and cooked perfectly. I can't wait to go again!


We also visited Orford whilst we were there for bagels and doughnuts from the Pump Street Bakery and scallops from Pinneys of Orford. And then on to Aldeburgh for goodies from Lawsons Deli. A lovely day out! Suffolk has fantastic food.

The Eight Bells, Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden is a brilliant little town, about 15-20 minutes from Cambridge, full of lots of independent shops, delis and restaurants and seems to be a well kept secret! We live only 5 minutes drive away now so we shop and eat there often, the Saturday market is fantastic (go to the bread stall and the olive stall but for the tapenade) and there is a wool shop opening soon! We have also tried Dish Restaurant  and Cafe CouCou (for the puddings) there and both are a must, fantastic food.

But now onto the Eight Bells. We went about 6 months ago when it was under different ownership, the food was only okay, but the pub was taken over just before Christmas by new owners. The old chef from way back when the pub was better is back and the interior of this 15th century (?) building has been transformed in to a nice cosy place with big leather sofas and huge woodburners.

Lit with candles and dim lights it wasn't best for photography but it was very romantic!

We went one Saturday afternoon for one of the 'grazing boards' - we tried the Greek meze board - which was fantastic and really good value, £9 which fed both of us a nice lunch. They also have local cider on tap, yay!

Keen to go back we treated ourselves to an evening meal one weekday. The food was just as good as before, there is lots of choice on the menu and if you go for anything, go for the puddings. I had fishcakes with green beans and a lovely lemon butter sauce for main, oh and I had to order some onion rings because I love them - they were great and obviously made from scratch.

The real star was the enormous sticky toffee pudding with cinder toffee- drenched in caramel sauce and with a scoop of locally produced vanilla ice cream. Yum! I think I could have just had that and gone home happy. My hubby had the vegetable tagine which was really flavoursome for a vegetarian dish, followed by an immensely chocolatey chocolate brownie.

The pub is open all day, they do light bites, sandwiches along with their main meals. We will be going back soon, it is also a lovely place to stop off for a drink after shopping.

The website is here but you will find the menu on their facebook page

Le Gavroche

After much anticipation and waiting and impatient we dined at Le Gavroche on Tuesday. We were celebrating our first anniversary, we had planned it even before we got married which is kind of silly!

We booked for the set lunch menu which was very good value at £48 per person including half bottle of wine each and coffee and petit fours. Due to the attentiveness of the staff and the rather formal atmosphere I didn't take any pictures of our meal , save for the petit fours, but I can assure you they were beautifully presented!

To start we had champagne and were bought some pretty little appetisers. Some kind of soft cheese with quince jelly and pistachios on a little toasted cracker (I am not sure exactly what the cracker was but I don't think my explanation does it justice!) and celeriac remoulade in a pastry cup with a soft boiled quails egg. Delicious, I could have eaten the quince jelly all day!

After we had ordered our starters and mains we were presented with an amuse bouche - rabbit terrine with olive tapenade on a long very crispy crouton. I am not much of a fan of terrines in general but in a restaurant like this they are always good, the olive tapenade was extremely rich and worked really well.

For started I plumped for the herb risotto with veal belly, the risotto was different to any risotto I've had before. It was flavoured with light herbs and what I think was the roasting juices of the veal which gave it a really amazing slightly barbecued flavour - the fact that I have waxed lyrical about risotto before even going onto the veal shows you how good it was. The veal belly was so tender, small slices- crisp on the outside and soft on the inside served with the roasting juices/ gravy around the risotto - I've never had veal before and what way to start eating it!
My husband had salmon tartare which was served in a light cream sauce with caviar (the lucky sod!) on top. Obviously I had to try some so I could tell you about it, and it was excellent - light but creamy and very different to the usual salmon starters you find in most restaurants.

For main I ordered roast fillet of pollack with lobster jus and crushed potatoes - accompanied by the best cooked broccoli I've ever had, seriously, I think it was cooked in stock and was just right, not mushy but not undercooked. The fish was perfectly flaky, fresh and the lobster jus was really rich, unfortunately I was only treated to a single piece of lobster underneath my fish, more lobster please! Having said that if I had asked I am sure they would have bought a long a small bowl of lobster, damn I should have asked for more lobster.

Pork au poivre served with pomme mousseline, fondant caulifower and mustard cream sauce was the hubbys choice. Fondant cauliflower was something of a revelation, so creamy and well flavoured with a slight crispness on the outside, something I need to try making - which I may fail at. The potato was light as air and the pork cooked perfectly pink.

For dessert we both chose the Apple Charlotte with Calvados sorbet. Not being familiar with it I didn't know it was made with bread rather than pastry, being so crisp, sweet and butter I was sure it was pastry but no it was bread. The apples inside were cooked til soft and flavoured with spices, just right against the crisp outside. The sorbet was very strongly flavoured with calvados, almost like drinking it but with a nice creamy texture!

apologies for the fuzzy pic!

 

We finished with a cappuccino each, unable to continue drinking the wine, shameful! I'm not really sure how much we drank each as they like to keep your wine at the same level throughout, very precise service.
The petit fours were just lovely, I was aghast when I saw that the table next to us had disregarded theirs and left without touching them - awful!

The petit fours were made up of a delicate peppered brandy snap, praline macaron, toffee cape gooseberry and a mini madeline. The brandy snap was my favourite, the pepper was a lovely surprise. The toffee cape gooseberry was an inspired idea but they were a bit too sour for me, maybe more caramel is required? Or maybe I just have a ridiculous sweet tooth.

We left feeling full, not stuffed, just right, and possibly a little tipsy. I want to go back right away, next anniversary maybe, although we are talking about visiting the Waterside instead, we like to plan ahead with our fine dining....

The Sea Tree, Cambridge

But in a more civilised way....

We stopped by one of the newest restaurant additions to Cambridge yesterday, The Sea Tree on Mill Road. An 'alternative' fish bar providing the usual favourites as well as some other interesting additions. I'd spotted a good review over on Not Another Food Blog, so after a mornings shopping/elbowing through the crowds we went along to rest our weary feet.

I opted for the battered calamari with salsa verde and the hubby (still getting used to saying that!) had cod and chips. Both were great, the chips especially - handcut with skins on! Everything is made to order and there is lots of choice. I particularly like the fact that they do a range of freshly made sauces - things like tartare sauce, aioli, sweet chili and the aformentioned salsa verde.

They also have a little fishmongers section with the seasons fish on offer, things like salmon, rainbow trout, sea bream and haddock. I think they do shellfish on occasion too.

Will definitely be stopping by again, this is a great addition to Mill Road and its good to have some kind of fishmongers option that isn't the local supermarket.

Review: Trinity Restaurant, London

I've never written a restaurant review before, so there seems is better place to start than with the restaurant we ate at for our wedding.

The Trinity Restaurant situated in the Clapham Old Town area of south west London and has a focus on seasonal produce, the tables were even decorated with little autumn squashes of various shapes and sizes.


We opted for the set lunch menu which is very good value at £20 for three courses. And of course champagne to start!

The champagne was served in beautiful painted floral flutes, lovely for a special ocassion such as this.
The menu was varied, with three options for each course (a larger menu is also available for smaller parties). The starter options were Jerusalem Artichoke Soup, Potted Foie Gras and Liver Pate and Grilled Sardines on Toast with Piperade and Toasted Pinenuts.

I opted for the Grilled Sardines on Toast, mainly because I have wanted to try proper fresh sardines for a while after only being offered horribled tinned sardines by most shops! They were beautifully fresh, not overcooked. I must admit I didn't know what 'Piperade' was when I ordered. It was a mixture of peppers, caramelised onions and possibly tomatoes, almost like a chutney, but made fresh.
Others on our table ordered the Potted Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Pate, which was served in a little La Parfait kilner jar on a small wooden board - nice little details to make the dish unique.

Main course options were the boldly named 'Trinity Fish Pie', Roast Fillet of Cod with Taramasalata or Roast Anglian Beef with Triple Cooked Chips and Bone Marrow and horseradish cream.

Well of course I couldn't pass up the last option. I'm pretty sure most of my decision was based on the prospect of triple cooked chips, and I was not disappointed. The chips were thick, crisp and incredibly fluffy inside - I think they may have been cooked in duck or goose fat because they were very flavoursome. The beef was tender and cooked pink, as it should be.
The bone marrow was a brilliant inclusion and went down extremely well with everyone who ordered the dish, it was nice to see a restaurant using 'cuts' that aren't always used and cooking them well. I think the horseradish cream could have done with a bit more of a kick to it, which would have cut through the richness of the beef and bone marrow more.

Others had the Roast Fillet of Cod, which was also served with fresh mussels - something which probably should have been included on the menu, but wasn't, the suprise addition of mussels was well received, although I'm not sure how well it would be if someone had an allergy.



I chose my pudding before I had decided on my starter, being the chocoholic that I am. It was a Valhrona Chocolate Pot with Salt Caramel Ice Cream - perfect for me. With the description 'Chocolate Pot' I was expecting more of a rich set chocolate mousse but it was in fact closer to a fondant or a chocolate sponge, which is actually what I preferred. Extremely rich, the salt caramel was a lovely addition. The pudding was a little crisp on the outside and meltingly soft inside. This is definitely a pudding for someone that can cope with a lot of chocolate, be warned!

They were also kind enough to decorate mine and my new husbands plates with the words 'Congratulations' - very thoughtful and a wonderful touch.


All in all our experience at Trinity was brilliant, the service was attentive but not pushy and the staff were knowledgeable and friendly. This is a restaurant that is obviously working up to a Michelin Star and I do hope they achieve it.

We'll be back!