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Nonna Teresa Fresh Pasta

For those of you who attend Lark Lane farmers market this probably isn’t new to you, the producer I’m talking about was really busy and almost completely sold out when we get to there at 10:30. This producer is the Nonna Teresa stall, selling several verities fresh ravioli and italian sauce. I would have liked some fresh crab or beef and herb ravioli but, they were all gone out so we had some spinach and ricotta ravs and a jar of pesto.

This was really good fresh pasta, a million miles away from the the dry paste filled stuff that resides on supermarket shelves. Delicate paster with plenty of flavoursome filling, the pesto was really well made and an excellent accompaniment.

I make my own filled pasta every now and then, but to be honest its a lot of work and takes a fair amount of forward planning. This pasta was as good as anything I’ve ever made, and I’ll certainly be back for more. Clearly this stall is well established, I’m not sure why I’ve missed it at previous markets. In future I’ll make sure I’m there nice and early to try some of their other varieties. Its excellent stuff and I’m really glad to see someone trying something different.

Carluccio’s

One thing we are not short of in Liverpool is Italian food, in various forms from the long standing and rather dated Casa Italia to the swanky Il Forno and San Carlo. Various versions of chain restaurants do pizza in a hurry or cheap Italian eats, however the independent Italian clubs or Tribeca top anything their mass market competitors serve up. Thus when another established chain opens up not only does it have to offer equal quality and value it would have to provide something special to attract me away from my favoured independents.

I know, I know, that’s a bit of a poor way to start a review, to paraphrase myself, if it’s not amazing food and cheap prices I’m not going. Does it have any chance? Honestly, probably not. Its more of a principal based decision, I choose to go to independents because usually they are better, but even if they only equal what is on offer in the well known chains, I prefer to spend my money there than in a big national organisation.

So is the Carluccio’s food superb? No. Are Carluccio’s prices ridiculously cheap? No. Our food was fine on my one visit, starters were a decent bruschetta and reasonable liver pate, a main of anchovy penne with tomato sauce and chilli was a little to hot and lacked any noticeable anchovy. A chicken Milanese, was an escallop breadcrumbed and fried, crunchy and crisp outer layer was good but the inside was over cooked and dry. Puddings followed a similar theme, they were OK, a nice fruit tart and good chocolate mouse. This was all fairly cheap as we had the fixed price menu, all this for £12.70 was good but only really matches the many other fixed price menus about town.

So to sum up, in my opinion, if I wanted Italian food in Liverpool, I would head elsewhere, one of several city centre independents would be my choice. That is not to say the food is bad, its not, it was decent and probably equal to some other places in town. If you want to support independents, as I do, then really I wouldn’t bother with Carluccio’s, however, if you don’t and you’re in town it’s not a bad place to go.

The Bubble Room

I have to say The Bubble Room, in Woolton village,  wasn’t what I was expecting, to me the name conjured up images of somewhere more informal, somewhere with a relaxed feel to it. I was intrigued to find that The Bubble Room is really quite smart, it has a more formal atmosphere and a feel of quality to it. I liked it, it was comfy and inviting and had a sense of professionalism.

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Camp & Furnace, Launch Night and First Impressions

I recently wrote about a few places on a trip to London, eulogising about the new wave of good value and good quality food, the current austere times pushing people away from michelin style food to something a lot kinder on the wallet. I, perhaps, got a bit over excited with my piece about Pitt Cue Co, the best restaurant in the country is an unanswerable debate, but currently it’s the restaurant I would return to over any other, and that makes it pretty damn good in my book. Liverpool I feel is currently experiencing this same dinning phase, Leaf on bold street is always full and the newly opened Luca Libre is somewhere I really like. Further to this, Camp and Furnace has just opened its doors at the end of Jamaica Street in the Baltic Quarter. A sort of mixed used space with an art gallery, cafe/restaurant/eatery, bar and event space, thats not to mention the soon to open luxury vintage caravan camping hotel.

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Filini @ The Radisson Blu

The Radisson, on Old Hall Street, has been around for almost a decade, and with it comes Filini, a modern Italian restaurant. I’d eaten there several years ago and had pleasant memories of what was a good meal, a good balance of refined food that didn’t trip on the usual obstacles of being over fussy or over priced. Thus, I was rather pleased when I was invited in to write a review of their new menu one lunch time.

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The Best Restaurant in Britain?

Yesterday I was in quite a cramped little restaurant, sat at the very high bar on a stool that was too short, I felt like young child at a dinner table. I was situated near the door, thus every time someone came in or left I was hit by a chill breeze, this was far from being a comfy dining experience. It was lucky then that the food was so exceptional, one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time. The restaurant was Pitt Cue Co and, for me at least, it could be one of the best in the country.

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Mishkins, Covent Garden

I know know, your all thinking, “what the hell is he doing bleating on about places in London for”. Well I do love Liverpool, but sometimes there is noting better than a good bit of food tourism, which in my case means walking round London stuffing my face. So should any of you venture south sometime soon, I thought I would be able to help with a few idea should you require some light refreshments.

I just had a fantastic meal at Mishkins, where amongst other things I promised the quite lovely staff that I wouldn’t blog about their place. Clearly that was a big fat lie, as here it is bold as brass on the screen in front of you. Service was brilliant, really friendly and I spent a good hour sitting at the bar chatting to the staff about restaurants, baking bread and food bloggers. For relaxed friendly ambiance it was as good as it gets, especially because I was on my own, it has to go down as one of the best restaurants experiences I’ve had in a long time. Just don’t tell them their Ruben sandwich isn’t quite right, you’ll soon be shoved out the door.

The food was top notch also, great pickled herring with beets tartar, sharp zingy and full of flavour, and due to its rather healthy feel, it mainly consisting of fish and vegetables, I didn’t feel bad ordering a massive pudding. In this case a banana fosters, which is the classic, and brilliant, combination of rum, caramel, banana and vanilla ice-crea

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If you live in London please visit Mishkins, if you don’t live in London go and visit it anyway you won’t be disappointed.

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Lucha Libre

To make an accurate judgement about a meal you need a frame of reference, you need to know what good cooking is, what a good version of the meal your about to eat might be like. All this comes with experience, thus when a waitress at the newly opened Lucha Libre asked “is this the best authentic Mexican food you’ve ever had” I struggled to answer. I’ve eaten quite a bit of poor Tex Mex in my time, but real authentic Mexican, well I’m not actually sure what that is. So is Lucha Libre truly authentic? I don’t know, but at least it’s trying something that isn’t on offer elsewhere in Liverpool.

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Frankie & Benny’s Edge Lane

The advantage of being a food blogger is occasionally, very occasionally in my case, a restaurant will offer you some form of free meal. I was rather surprised when a few weeks ago Frankie & Benny’s contacted me offering a £50 restaurant voucher in return for a written review, this very review in fact. Now, F&B’s is not the kind of place I would ever choose to eat, in fact I’ve never eaten at a F&B’s before, in any of their 180 nationwide franchises. I wrote back to F&B’s, stating quite clearly that I didn’t write favoured reviews, unlike our local papers; despite the free cost it would be an honest review of the food on offer. They were very happy with this, certain that their new menu would stand up to close inspection. A few days later the voucher arrived in the post and myself and a friend made our way to the rather derelict Edge Lane.

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