Tag Archives: restaurant

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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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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Top Notch Breakfast

As you all know I’m a big fan of Lunya, I can be regularly found using the free wifi and tucking into some serrano ham, so today while writing another post I popped in for some breakie. I had this rather lovely plate of Catalan Migas, a plate full of chorizo, morcilla and panceta sautéed with bread crumbs, onions and garlic, and topped with a poached egg.

It was really lovely, not too bread heavy with plenty of meaty goodness, I would have liked a slightly runnier egg on top, but that was probably my fault for talking too much before tucking in. Not only is this just a good breakfast, I think it could be my new hangover cure of choice, I think a few drinks sometime this week, to test it out, will be needed.

Ludus Bar

Restaurants, cafes and bars follow the trends as much as any high street clothes retailer. The latest fashions adorn menus around the city, I doubt there are many that don’t claim to be local, seasonal or doing the simple things well. Some food fads are a passing whim to be easily forgotten, balsamic reduction anyone? Others have gone beyond this and now command a retro chic, the likes of prawn cocktail or black forrest gateaux both seem to be making a resurgence of late. The latest fad/trend/fashion, call it what you will, appears to be the great value cheap eats, the jazzed up junk food, fancy burgers, quality pizza’s and sumptuous hot dogs. The London press and bloggers rave about MeatLiquor and Pit Cue Co, the high class burrito is never far away in the capital and Po Boy sellers adorn many a Cockney corner. The latter being a long time staple of Martin Cooper in the Deilfonseca kitchens, so this is not something we are completely new to. The quick, cheap and quality eat, is a trend driven by our economic times, and one I hope will last. So is there somewhere in Liverpool that is Bang on trend? Ludus, near the top of Bold Street could well be.

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Bubble Tea @ Cafe De Pearl

Sometimes I don’t like a meal because the food is bad, be it poor quality produce, bad cooking or flawed conception. Those meals are quite easy to review, you have such glaring mistakes staring you in the face, accurate judgments can be made quickly. What is less common, at least for me, is a meal that you just don’t ‘get’, food that is probably quite good and well made but you don’t like it. For me anything with kidneys is a great example, I find them really horrible, I’m not sure how people can stomach them, and if Paul Bocuse himself was cooking them for me I still wouldn’t like them. So when I come across food that might be quite good, but I don’t ‘get’, I struggle to draw any conclusions. Or, at least, accurate conclusions.

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