Michelin Star for The Royal Oak

I just noticed that The Royal Oak, Paley Street has received a Michelin Star in today's new Michelin guide. Congratulations to them, that is great news. I'm guessing the reviewer didn't eat there the same day I did, as I had a slightly different review of The Royal Oak, but it pleases me that it seems my experience there was very much a one-off. I'll be happy to go back at some point.

Review: Eats of Eden in Bourne End Flowerland

I really don't want to give this review because it's a bad one and I have been really hoping this place would be a success. But it's not. 

Eats of Eden has both a cafeteria and a farm shop set-up within the Flowerland garden centre. I don't have any complaints about the farm shop and often buy bits and bobs there. In fact, I heartily recommend the great selection of bread from the farm shop. This review is exclusively about the cafeteria. 

The atmosphere is quite bright and cheery inside the shop. It's well-lit and has nice solid tables with wooden chairs to eat at. There are magazines and newspapers on the back wall that you can borrow and read whilst enjoying your meal or beverage and there is a children's play area too. Unfortunately, other than a table and chairs and one push-the-beads-along-the-wire type toy, there is nothing else in the play area. There is a black chalkboard, but no chalk. There is a TV, but I've never seen it on. There is a big plastic bucket that at one time might have contained toys, but now is empty. It's a bit of a shame because the area is nicely set up, but it didn't hold Lena's attention long with nothing to do there. 

The service from the actual personnel is a bit lackluster. Twice I have stood in front of the hot food and had to wait several minutes to be served, despite staff having seen me. When served, everyone was pleasant enough. They have an assortment of different sauces all easily available and on Sundays when they are busy, I have seen pitchers of water and glasses out for customers to help themselves. However, several of the sauces had a crust on them like they had been out for a very long time. I'm sure they probably refrigerate them overnight, but it wouldn't kill them to put some plastic wrap on top to stop them from getting crusty and looking so unappealing. 

The real let-down is the food. It's very mediocre. I wouldn't call it bad really, but it's institutional food. The first time I ate a meal there was on a Sunday and it was a bit late, so I thought perhaps we were just unlucky with the timing. The last time though, we were the first people to be served for lunch and it was the same. I had salmon the last time and it was dry, even though as I said, we were the first people served for lunch. The side dishes of broccoli, carrots and chips (I will give them credit for having 6 various sides to choose from and a help-yourself philosophy to them) were very so-so as well. Even Lena, usually a chip fiend, left a couple untouched. It wasn't so bad that I didn't finish it, as I said, it was just mediocre. But at the prices they are charging, I can go somewhere else and either get pretty good food for just a pound or two more, or no worse food for a pound or two less. 

So my rating:

Ambiance: 2 For a cafeteria, it's nicely set-up. Shame about the children's area.

Service: 1 At a cafeteria, I expect a bit faster service and the crusts on the open sauces isn't nice. 

Food: 1 Edible, but that's it. And overpriced for what it is.

So a poor rating of 4 out of 9. We won't be eating there again. Perhaps a coffee/tea and cake are within the realm of possibility, but certainly no more hot food. And if I just need something to eat, I'd rather go next door to the farm shop and get some of their nice bread or pastries. 

Review: The Royal Oak, Paley Street near Maidenhead

We went to dinner at The Royal Oak earlier this week. The Royal Oak is partly known for being run by Nick, the son of Michael Parkinson. In case you can't be bothered to click, Michael Parkinson used to be a famous TV interviewer. I never saw any of his shows, other than his final goodbye program. I've seen more of him doing ads for some sort of retirement scheme on TV than anything else. Still, according to Wiki, he's a keen beekeeper, something I really admire, so he must be alright. But I digress - back to the restaurant.

The restaurant is what I would consider to be your typical old style English pub, but more restaurant than pub nowadays. It's nicely decorated with original artwork and photos on the walls and has nice clean lines to everything. The bathrooms were very very nice, a spot in restaurants that is often overlooked. No table cloths on the modern tables, which makes for an interesting change.

The place was very busy when we arrived, we had to wait for our table, but were given the menus and a chance to order a drink while we waited in seats in the front. They were a bit slow in taking our drinks order, but the drinks themselves came quickly enough. We were shown to our table a little while after placing our orders and getting our drinks. I had scallops with celeriac cream and a hazelnut dressing as a starter and my companion had duck, chicken liver and pistachio terrine. Both starters were good, the scallops were very well cooked, very tender from their light cooking. The terrine was also very good, but unfortunately the grill-toasted bread that was served with it was burnt on the grill marks, which totally overpowered the terrine. Eating it without the bread was much nicer. The grill unfortunately proved to be a problem with my main as well as I had ordered the Angus steak. After a few bites and tasting nothing but the charred marks of the grill from one side of the steak, I knew that something was amiss. Somehow, the grill must have been overheated or something, because both the bread and the steak tasted burnt from being on it. They didn't look burnt, but they certainly tasted it. G. had ordered sea bass and it was extremely good. As I wasn't enjoying the steak, he kindly offered to trade with me. After he took a bite of the steak, he also said it tasted burnt. At this point I finally knew it wasn't just me being a bit fussy, the steak was burnt. We sent it back, with which the waitress apologised profusely and did seem honestly concerned. She offered to bring another main or some more side dishes. We had enough to eat from the mains and decided to leave a bit of room for dessert instead. Desserts were burnt raspberry cream (G had his tongue firmly in his cheek when ordering that I tell you) and blackberry trifle. Once again, delicious. It was a real shame about the steak, because the rest of the food was very good.

So my rating (see here for my personal ratings guide):

Ambiance: 2.5 The atmosphere was good as I said, and the bathrooms knocked it up a notch.
Service: 2.5 Everyone who served us was friendly and efficient. I did think we waited a while to place our first drink order while waiting for our table. But the problem with the steak was dealt with professionally and an offer of a complimentary dessert and coffee was immediately put forth.
Food: 1.5 This is the sad bit. The Royal Oak deserves a better food rating than this. And although I can accept it was an anomaly, especially considering how good the rest of the food was, I can't ignore that I had to send my meal back.

So despite the problems, a good rating of 6.5 out of 9. I feel that another visit would cause the rating to go up, so I will link if I go again. For a special evening out, but with a casual atmosphere, I certainly would consider The Royal Oak.

The Royal Oak, Paley Street website: http://www.theroyaloakpaleystreet.com/



P.S. I have been to more than the few restaurants I've reviewed here. But due to unusual circumstances of our visit or more likely, lack of time to post, I've not put any others here. I will try to do more though in the future.

Review: The Hinds Head in Bray

We visited The Hinds Head for lunch a while ago. We went fairly late, around 1:30pm. They are open for lunch until 2:30 though, so it wasn't a problem. As it wasn't very busy, we sat in the bar section rather than the restaurant. Although the restaurant has only been open since 2004 in its current form, the building is well over 500 years old. It has the look of an old pub about it, with all the timbered ceilings and wood panelling, though of course it's in better shape than its 500 years would lead you to think. Heston Blumenthal owns The Hinds Head. He's a pretty famous chef here in the U.K. and runs a 3 star Michelin restaurant which is basically next door, The Fat Duck. I think they even share a kitchen or stores or something with The Hinds Head. As another bit of interesting trivia, Prince Philip had his stag night at The Hinds Head in 1947, before marrying (then) Princess Elizabeth.

I had Lancashire Hotpot and my companion (isn't that how all restaurant reviewers refer to the person they eat dinner with? My "companion". A nice neutral term which leaves you to wonder what sort of relationship they have. Wife-husband? Business partner? Homosexual affair?) had Skate Wing with Capers, Lemon and Parsley. The bartender warned me that the hotpot had an oyster in it when I ordered it. I was a bit bemused by this, as having never eaten a Lancashire Hotpot, I wouldn't have known whether this was usual or not. I told the bartender as much after the meal, and he let me into a bit of the history of the Hotpot, saying that oysters used to be a regular ingredient in it, since they were cheap for people to use. The Hinds Head tries to keep the food as traditional as the pub is, hence the oysters I guess.

As I said, I'd never eaten Lancashire Hotpot before, but it was pretty good. The oyster in it did seem a bit odd, but it was okay. My companion's skate wing was excellent though, I'll probably order that next time if it's still on the menu. I don't know if it changes, but I would hope there's a bit of seasonal variety to it.

So my rating:
Ambiance: 2 I like the old Tudor look of the pub. As I didn't see the restaurant bit, I don't know what it's like, but the pub part was good, even if near empty. Not smoky, a big fireplace (not lit, but obviously working) and timbered walls and ceilings. Although it fits with the atmosphere, the slightly wonky table that tilted slighty on two legs took away a bit.
Service: 3 The bartenders and the personnel who brought the food were all very friendly, but in a laid-back, non-interfering manner. I thought the bartender knowing the history of the traditional food was a great thing, not seen in nearly enough restaurant staff.
Food: 2.5 Our mains were excellent, but I didn't think much of their Triple Cooked Chips. They seemed pretty ordinary to me.

So a strong rating of 7.5 out of 9 for The Hind's Head. We will be back again.

The Hinds Head website: http://www.thehindsheadhotel.com/index.aspx

Review: Lychee in Cookham Rise

Lychee is a Chinese take-out & delivery place rather than a sit-down restaurant. Feeling very lazy, we decided on delivery rather than going down to pick it up ourselves. It's 1 pound per mile for delivery, but free if you order over 15 pounds.

The food was okay. Nothing that special, but certainly no problems with the quality. The lemon chicken was good, but the beef dish we ordered was a bit mediocre. It's very reasonably priced though, with most dishes around 5 pounds.

When I phoned up, the man on the phone was very efficient and friendly. He said it would be delivered within 15 minutes and it was. He came to the door and again was friendly and polite, so tops for the service.

My 3 point rating system doesn't really work for take-out, so I'll pass on that for now. I would say we would probably give Lychee another go, especially when not wanting to cook and wanting something fast. The friendly service certainly is encouraging to order again.

Lychee's website: http://www.lycheetree.co.uk/

Review: Little India in Cookham Rise

Finally, more than a month after Rolf Harris visited it, we had a chance to go and try the local restaurant, Little India.

Little India isn't the first restaurant we've visited in the area, but it's the first I've had the chance to review. To start, let me tell you my reviewing criteria; which I hope is pretty simple. There are 3 categories, each valued from 1, 2 or 3 points. The categories are ambiance, service and food. 1 point is pretty low on the scale. Not enough to walk out of a place because of it, but probably low enough to merit a bit of complaining during dinner. 2 points is good, not to the point of being amazing, but head-noddingly good. 3 points is absolutely stellar, a level of quality that will be remembered for a very long time. So, for Little India, my short and simple review.

Ambiance: 1.5 It was nicely decorated, but we were the only people in there, which made it all a bit odd. Would be better to judge on a busier night.
Service: 1.5 Service was attentive, but not especially friendly. It was thought perhaps they weren't being unfriendly, but rather a bit formal.
Food: 2 The sauces for our main dishes weren't anything particularly special, but that could just be down to what we chose. The meat was very good quality and both the naan and the papadums were excellent, along with the sauces served with the papadums.

So all in all, a decent rating of 5 out of 9. We normally try to only go back to restaurants that get a 6 or higher rating, but we'll probably go back to Little India for a couple of reasons. One, it's very close and convenient for us. Two, the prices are really reasonable, which makes it worth visiting again.

Little India's website: http://thelittleindia.co.uk/