Restaurants / Cafes National
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Carluccio's
by SWSt Carluccio's is a bakery/coffee shop/eatery which is part-owned by the Carluccio brothers that you may have seen on cookery programmes on the TV. It serves a mixture of light snacks (pastries, cakes) and larger meals (hot and cold). Naturally, it has a heavy Italian/Mediterranean bias in terms of the food available. There are a few ... branches scattered across the country and I have tried a couple of different ones in Stratford upon Avon and in Chester. Once I was impressed, the other time less so. Having been in a couple of branches, it's clear that the design and location of tend to follow a pattern. They can generally be found located near (but not on) the high street and usually comprise of an outdoor seating area, together with a more traditional indoor area. The interiors tend to be the same - large, open spaces which stretch back quite a way and are filled with tables. The design is bright, clean-looking and airy making them very pleasant places to sit, eat and chat. Although each restaurant actually has quite a lot of tables, the interior doesn't feel too cramped and, no matter how busy it gets, you don't feel as though other people are intruding on your conversation. Staff in Carluccio's also have a knack of being unfailingly cheerful and helpful. Personally, if I had to spend all day waiting on tables and responding to some of the bizarre requests customers make, I'd end up throttling someone (probably not the greatest career move!). Staff in Carluccio's are always approachable and chatty without being over the top. They will happily laugh and joke with you and make conversation whilst taking/delivering your order, but they don't pester you. Staff at both branches of Carluccio's I've visited have managed to make me feel like there is nothing in the world they would rather be doing than bringing me plates of food. Service is generally quick. Orders are taken quickly, drinks brought promptly and food served efficiently. We visited the Chester branch on a busy Sunday lunchtime and expected a bit of a wait, but the food was delivered to our tables within 15 minutes of us sitting down. Since we were in a bit of a hurry that day, this was a really positive thing. Where the experience has been more variable is in the food and the value for money. The first time I went, I had a coffee and a pain au raisin. The coffee was perfect - strong and black with just the right hint of bitterness - and the pain au raisin was approximately the size of Belgium! It was very clearly freshly baked and tasted like it had only come out of the oven about ten minutes earlier. Both items were fantastic and good value for money. I can't remember exactly how much I paid, but it wasn't much more than you would pay for something half its size in somewhere like Costa or Nero, and it was far, far tastier. It's when you fancy something a little more substantial than a pastry that things are more disappointing. This was the case on our second visit, when we were looking for more of a lunch than a light snack. First of all, I genuinely struggled to find something on the menu that I could eat. Whilst I'm not a fussy eater (honest!), I have a mild gluten allergy which ruled out all the pasta dishes since, as far as I could tell from the menu, there was no gluten free option. I also don't like fish, cream or mushrooms and these all featured pretty prominently in about eighty per cent of the dishes. I know you could argue that these ingredients are staples of Italian cooking, so what could I expect, but I've never had any problem finding something to eat in other Italian places. In the end, both Mrs SWSt and I opted for a goat's cheese salad. When this arrived, it was a mound of salad, the odd bit of tomato and pepper with small bits of goat's cheese crumbled over the top of it. Whilst we had no complaints about the quality of the dish - it was delicious - we didn't actually feel that it offered very good value for money. It wasn't the biggest portion in the world and, since it was mostly salad, I would estimate that it cost no more than a couple of quid to put together. The menu price was £7.95, which we felt was way over the top in relation to the size of the dish. To put things into perspective, Mrs SWSt had another goat's cheese salad a few days later. This was exactly the same size, had more goat's cheese in it, but cost just £4.95 - a much more realistic price. So whilst the food at Carluccio's was good, it was massively overpriced - it's very clear you are paying an additional premium for the name attached to it. A definite plus side to this meal was again the coffee. As I had had a very taxing morning (and was due for an equally exhausting afternoon), I opted for a massive jolt of caffeine in the form of an espresso. Whilst I like espresso, one thing that sometimes puts me off is that it's gone in more or less a single mouthful and can leave you feeling thirsty. Carluccio's serve espresso the way it should be. Yes, you get your lovely shot of strong coffee, but they also serve it with a glass of fresh water, giving you the best of both worlds. So, there you go. In our experience, Carluccio's is a bit of a mixed bag. If someone suggested going there for a coffee and a cake, I'd be there like a shot. If lunch was proposed, I'd probably try and persuade them to go somewhere else. © Copyright SWSt 2013 Read the complete review |
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The Pancake Place (Dundee)
by ryanando ===Hung to the Over=== If you have ever indulged in too much alcohol you will understand the horror that is the hangover. Sweats, shivers, headaches, throwing up due to the room spinning round and round. If you're really lucky your other end will join in with the projectiles. Thankfully I tend not to get incredibly bad ... hangovers and when I do, a cooked breakfast will soon set me right on track for the rest of the day which usually consists of turning the heating off and on to suit my fluctuating temperature. This weekend I had two birthdays to celebrate. As I was driving for the first one, I decided I would live it up a little for the second celebration and thusly got completely tanked. The next day after a quick bus ride to go pick my car up, Allan and I decided that what we really needed was breakfast. Given that it was past one, the only place we could think of was The Pancake Place. ===My place or yours?=== The Pancake Place is situated slap bang in the middle of Dundee on Reform street. It's directly across from McDonalds and Costas and right round the Corner from the Overgate shopping centre. As such getting there is a doddle. If you are driving you can either park in the Overgate or you can try and find one of the many free car parks dotted around near the city centre. If you are getting the bus, the Pancake Place is between two main bus stops that serve most of the busses in the city with no more than a couple of minutes walk to each. Taxi's can get you almost to the door, though as Reform street is pedestrian-ised you'll only get halfway down it in a taxi. It's less than a minute from the city square too, which is currently undergoing a massive revamp so will soon be somewhere quite nice to look at. ===Good Morning U.S.A=== Personally I always think of America when I think of eating pancakes with other food. It's possibly because I first tried pancakes and bacon while I was in Georgia. There isn't really much American about the place, however. The décor is a little shabby. The tables and chairs quite simple with a few booths up the left hand side and a raised platform with more tables and chairs at the back. Some of the decoration is stickers from B&Q that we used to have in our house so I always look at them and think they are completely out of place in a restaurant. On the plus side, however, everything still looks clean and fairly tidy. The door is on the ground, as is the front of the restaurant and the toilets. There is not a tonne of space so I can imagine people in wheelchairs being a little cramped but certainly nothing too bad. ===Palace of Pancakes=== The Pancake Place pride themselves in offering all day breakfasts and they probably get a lot of customers in Dundee just for those. I know that's all I've ever had any time I've been. The menu, however, does offer much more than this. Burgers, Panini's and baked potatoes all have their own section on the menu as well as another section for other main meals that have nothing to do with pancakes (Mac n cheese, chilli, fish and chips) As well as all of this there is a small selection of pancake based deserts and even a savory pancake section with four choices. I've seen some of the deserts and they all look absolutely delicious but I've never actually ordered one. As is tradition when we went in the other day I ordered a Scottish Breakfast and tea. Allan ordered a "Grandslam" breakfast with coffee. The tea and coffee arrived after a few minutes... and then we waited. ===Don't clap for me, it's a restaurant=== Here we come to a slight downside. I've always noticed that the service seems quite slow. To add to that the place always seems really, really loud even when it isn't that busy. I don't know if the acoustics of the place play tricks on you or if it's that I'm usually hungover when I'm in there but, by Christ, the punters are always incredibly loud. There seems to be a child that lives in the restaurant who likes to hide under tables and scream at the top of its lungs. There's always at least one table who's conversation is far too loud and a lot of the people who eat there look like (and act like) students. Mostly, it's nightmarish. On this particular occasion our order for two was contending with the table of 20 fashion students (who never seem to have any fashion sense) who were loudly shouting about penis, doing cheerleader chants with clapping and one of whom actually broke out into "Don't cry for me, Argentina" trying to impress the surrounding tables and wondered why no one clapped for her when she had finished her (admittedly surprisingly good) completely inappropriate performance in the middle of everyone's lunch. It was cringe worthy how attention hungry she was being without even knowing. We ended up waiting about half an hour for our food to arrive. Half an hour of listening to obnoxious, up their own backside student types when we were hung-over. This, unfortunately, isn't a rare thing either. I've been in a few times where the wait has almost had me walking out and I have friends who HAVE walked out. There are the rare occasions when the place isn't too busy when you get your food within a decent time but mostly the wait is frustrating. So why do we keep going back? Sometimes you just want a pancake for breakfast. ===Upon Arrival=== After half an hour the food finally came. Our tea and coffee had been pretty much finished and the dregs were cold. We weren't asked if we'd like any more drinks when the food came and it never occurred to us till the waitress had left the table. We done a little re-arranging. I don't like fried eggs but Allan does. He doesn't like mushrooms but I do. Everything was swapped and exchanged that we didn't like and off we went into the land of eating. My Scottish breakfast (£6.90) consisted of two pork and beef sausages, bacon, a fried egg, a slice of black pudding, tomato, mushrooms and either potato scones or pancakes served with 2 slices of toast with butter and a little jug of maple syrup. The sausages are quite nice though quite obviously cheap stuff. I'm ok with that though. The eggs have always come out with a nice runny centre not looking too dirty from overcooking. I still give them to Allan though. I much prefer a boiled egg. The black pudding is quite nice though a little too spicy. Mushrooms and tomato are what you would expect. Allan sometimes gets both potato scones and pancakes, they just add a little extra on to the bill and he says the scones are lovely. The pancakes (three) are always delicious and taste nice and home made and cooked perfectly. Just as well really. The bacon is ok, but then I'd eat anything if you called it bacon. Allan's Grandslam cost a little more coming in at £8.50. For that he received two pork and beef sausages of the same quality as I did, two rashers of bacon (though it was more like four), two fried eggs, black pudding, haggis, tomatoes, mushrooms baked beans, toast and the choice of potato scones or pancakes (he went with potato scones). So basically he paid £1.60 for an extra egg and a slice of haggis... which he realised afterwards that he didn't actually like. The only thing that tends to cause any issues (though not so much for myself) is the bacon. I can eat bacon however it is presented to me whether it has been burnt to a crisp or just threatened with the pan for a second or two. Allan, however, hates bacon that hasn't been incinerated. He's not the only one either. I know loads of people that prefer their bacon one way or another so why they don't ask how you'd like your bacon done is beyond me. Especially considering they use quite thick and large (and cheap) cuts of bacon that are full, full, full of fatty bits. Allan is usually left with a pile of bacon that he won't go near and it's a shame as a little more cooking could solve the problem for him. ===Peeing in Private=== As most people tend to like to go to the loo in private, most restaurants have toilets that are not in the middle of the restaurant. I usually need to go to the loo when we sit down to a meal, partly because my body has terrible timing, partly because I need to know the loos are clean. It's just rude not to have clean loos. This is one area where the Pancake Place excels. They always have incredibly tidy and clean toilets. Since I usually get Pancakes with maple syrup, I need to go wash my hands after I've eaten to get the sticky syrup off (I usually get tiny amounts on my hands which then becomes incredibly sticky because that's what syrup does!) and I have no worries about doing this in the toilets here. They always have tubs of anti-bacterial hand-wash on both the sinks and everything else in there is sparkling and smelling fresh. Kudos to them. ===My my, that's expensive=== I generally always leave the pancake place thinking "hmm, we could have went up the road and gotten that a lot cheaper and quieter" and it's true. The price you'll pay for a Scottish breakfast in the pub up at the end of the street (less than a minute away) is about half of what you'll pay here. Add on their pancakes and bacon and you'll end up paying less and having a lot more on your plate. Ok, at that point you're talking maybe a pound difference, but in these times of austerity every penny counts (or so I keep hearing). The clientele tend to be a lot quieter up there too. ===Words are wind=== As much as the waitresses are always generally quite polite and nice, they tend not to really do much if you do complain. When we were paying and only after Allan had put his card in the machine were we asked if everything was ok. Allan was on edge thanks to the shenanigans of the flamboyant (see rude) table that had been there the whole time and quite bluntly told the waitress "well, actually no, the food took ages to come, the restaurant was incredibly noisy the whole time and the bacon was undercooked" the response being a simple "oh, yeah, sorry we were quite busy today!". The same has been said to friends when they complained previously. Not quite good complaints handling skills, though at least she didn't drag him into the kitchen to have an argument like has happened to me once elsewhere when I complained about a steak. ===The Verdict=== For what it is, it's ok. If you catch them on a quiet day the food is decent (if not slightly overpriced) and the service is good with the staff being perfectly polite and attentive. Catch them on a busy day (so, most days you'd want to go) and it all goes out the window unless you're the biggest table. The food we've had has been alright, though not exactly anything special though the deserts do look spectacular. Overall it's one of those places that always seems like a really nice idea and then turns out to be just OK. I'd give it three stars out of five. Read the complete review |
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Table Table Pub Restaurant
by cha97mw We have only used the one branch of the chain, Table Table pub restaurants, but we have eaten there now a few times, so I wanted to cover my experience of this particular restaurant. The one we have used is called Arena Square. It is based in Sheffield in close proximity to the Arena. It has quite a large car park, and is easy to get to ... by car as it is near the M1 J34 and the Meadowhall shopping centre. This is a pub as well as a restaurant. To get to the seated area for eating you need to enter through the bar. This was not really a problem when we went and it was quiet, however on one of our visits the pub was pretty packed as there was an ice hockey event on, and we felt a bit squashed waiting to be seated at a table with young children in our group. We weren't left waiting that long, but we were kind of in the way of people walking about. The restaurant is spread over different rooms which only have a few tables in each, so although the pub itself can be quite busy, you don't feel over crowded when you are eating. We ate at a burger restaurant in Bluewater at Christmas time which was an awful atmosphere because there were people queueing for a table right next to where we were eating, and it felt really rushed and as though we had no privacy. Here you are not packed in once you are seated, and you don't feel under any pressure to rush about. We have been seated in the conservatory area when we have gone. I don't know if this is where they seat families, but there have been other diners with and without children seated in this area when we went. It is an airy space, and there is a nice atmosphere when eating here. The children were provided with colouring supplies and an activity book, and were made to feel very welcome by the waiting staff who were very patient and liked to interact with the children as well as the adults. I like this sort of thing as I feel it encourages my kids to behave in a more grown up way when they are included like this. There is a fairly typical pub style menu to choose from. There is a range of childrens meals on the kids menu too, so there should be something to suit everyones taste at this chain. They have a large selection of burgers, alongside mixed grills, pies, fish dishes, lasagnas, sausage and mash. There are a couple of vegetarian options on the menu, but they are the pretty standard veggie lasagna and burger which I am sure people who are vegetarian get a bit sick of. There are also lighter meals like jacket potatoes and baguettes, as well as a selection of starters and traditional puddings like ice cream sundaes, and puddings and custard. The childrens menu is similar to the adults, though not quite as extensive, with a 3 choice system where kids pick a main alongside two accompaniments of a carbohydrate filler and a vegetable option. Our children were both more than happy with the choice they got, and the portions were large enough to suit their large appetites. Our first visit, we opted for the BBQ beef burgers which came with onion rings, ample chips and a bit of a side salad. My eldest went for the pizza which was choose your own toppings, and my youngest son opted for the chicken goujons. We all had a pudding that day - myself and the kids opting for sundaes, and my husband opting for sticky toffee pudding and custard. On this visit the restaurant was not that busy at all, and we had a small problem with the meal that the sticky toffee pudding arrived at the table still frozen in the middle. I always feel that it is acceptable if there are occaasional problems, as long as the staff are willing to resolve them to your satisfaction. My husband reported this problem, and our waitress went back to the kitchen and personally prepared him another fresh pudding which was served piping hot along with an apology, so we were happy with our overall meal. The bill on this day was around £40, which felt reasonable for a 2 course meal and a couple of drinks each for a family of 4. We normally spend about this much or slightly more when we eat at chain restaurants. My husband decided that we should take his parents to eat at this chain when they visited us. I was a bit reluctant as I had noticed a couple of problems with a larger party than ours on our first visit. When we realised our visit would co-incide with an ice hockey match I felt the pub would be really busy and they might struggle to get it right and spoil our meal out. However, my husband booked a table, and said it would be ok. We actually arrived at the pub about an hour before the time we had booked, and the staff hurried to prepare a table for us, which I have to say I thought was pretty impressive. We'd gone with the idea we may need to entertain ourselves in the bar till our booked time. This time we decided to all just have a main course and go home and eat dessert as I had stuff at home to use up. This visit co-incided with the horse meat scandal, and unfortunately, the menu was now very limited as the pub had removed all the lamb and beef burgers from the menu, along with the lasagna. You could get a chicken burger, but this was going to be a chicken breast in a bun which I didn't fancy, so I found I was not quite sure what I wanted off the menu. I opted for the chicken, ham and mushroom crumble, as did my mother in law. My husband had the mixed grill, and my father in law had the steak pie. The children went for the same choice as they had gone for before, pizza and chicken goujons. The food this time was served with no problems whatsoever. There seemed to be a lot of waiting staff working that day, and food was brought out fairly promptly, and was all hot and cooked nicely. The crumble I had didn't look as though there was much food there, but I was actually really full after eating the dish. My father in law said his pie was equally tasty, and my husband enjoyed his mixed grill. The kids were highly disappointed not to be repeating the sundae experience they had enjoyed before. This time the bill was a bit higher due to our menu choices, and we payed £55 for a main meal only plus drinks for six people. My impression of this particular pub restaurant is that it has a nice atmosphere, and that it is a nice place to go for a meal as a family. I don't think I would pick it if I were going on a romantic meal with my husband, but it is on par with any other family restaurant we have been to for the quality and price of the food. There are small niggles with the food occasionally, but the staff do sort it out promptly. The thing I noticed in a larger group on our first visit was they had got one of the childrens meals wrong, but again, they did sort the problem out for that group fairly quickly. This would spoil my meal out though if they got one of our childrens orders wrong. I think if we visited again, I would try and avoid going when something was on at the Arena that we were not going to. It was clear that people were using the car park instead of paying to park at the Arena, and justifying this by popping into the pub for a quick drink. This meant finding a parking space was a bit hard on our second visit but not impossible. I felt the pub were aware it was going to be a busy day though as there were more staff working and the level of service remained high for us. Facilities at the pub were basic but clean and well stocked. The food is obviously not gourmet at these prices, but we were happy with it, and would not hesitate in checking out the chain in another area after sampling the menu. Read the complete review |
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