La Tasca (Watford) – restaurant

Last Wednesday I took advantage of an offer sent straight to my inbox regarding 50% off La Tasca’s ‘Tapas to Share’ menu (basically, the tapas menu), on Sunday to Thursdays. Drove there with my mum. She had the beer! I’m so used to being ferried around I was a little bit heartbroken at not having alcohol. They got my Fruitiser order wrong as well, although what I had was nice enough.

Empty restaurant meant brisk service, but with non-pushy waitresses who allowed us to take our time. We ordered chicken and seafood paella, deep-fried calamari, mushroom croquettes, chorizo in red wine, king prawns and a mixed salad (again, they got the salad wrong, but again we let it slide. It was probably my dodgy attempt at Spanish).

• Calamari – not quite as crispy on the outside as we would have liked but excellent taste and definitely non-chewy.
• King prawns – big and suspiciously sweet – my mum loved these (I’m a bit too lazy about peeling prawns to totally enjoy them LOL).
• Salad – lovely refreshing  mix of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pine nuts (I think) and avocado. Good and not overpowering dressing.
• Mushroom croquettes – nice. Not whole mushrooms, but a creamy mushroom filling inside a crunchy breaded outside.
• Chorizo – Good, but not the most flavoursome chorizo I’ve ever had. My mum was a bit scathing about the portion size, but I thought it was OK.
• Paella – Will make a mental note never to order the paella from the tapas menu at La Tasca, they’re never that good. Worst thing was the lack of chicken and seafood! Two mussels and a shrimp do not constitute enough seafood and the chicken was in absolutely tiny and few pieces. I’ve had the main course paella before and it was much much better (but not in the offer of course!)

Total bill for two – above dishes with a large Peroni and a Fruitiser came to £18.20 including discount but not service. Good value with the discount, edging on expensive for what you get without. Overall 8/10 taking into account the discount (bearing in mind we wouldn’t have gone there if it weren’t for that!).

The Monsoon – Restaurant

I’ve tried to write this post twice already. And WordPress has crashed on me countless times while trying to upload pictures and yet I never got the message to save my draft first! After putting this off for a week I’m writing this in Word 2008 so hopefully I won’t lose it this time!

So I went down to the Spitalfields area last Saturday to meet up with a few of my fellow college ex-coursemates, where Laurence is living in a nice flat ridiculously close to the action as it were, the intention being to head to Brick Lane for a curry. After he looked on his iPhone for suitable reviews (and discounting any that looked too cheap, which apparently excluded any bring-your-own-boozes) to a bit of eye-rolling, he pulled out a couple of names, The Monsoon being one of them. I can’t remember the other ones. They were probably on an equal par.

Reaching the street we were accosted by one restaurant tout; after fending off that enthusiastic attack a right turn took us directly in front of The Monsoon where we were offered some kind of deal for the five of us. I can’t quite remember what it was, I wasn’t listening – something like one free drink for each person and 30% off the total bill. Being hungry (Sarah took ages to finish off her pre-dinner glass of wine!) and not particularly wanting to browse the rest of Brick Lane with absolutely no idea of what we were looking for – we went in. Décor is OK, pretty dark and cluttered inside. There is an upstairs where some rowdy party was (a bottle of wine came crashing down the stairs at one point!) but no idea of what it was like. Toilets were adequate, no complaints. Service was fast.

Poppadums and sambals were generally good. I’m not a big fan of mango chutney in any case, but it was more like jam; raita was made with coriander, rather than mint, but not too overpoweringly obvious; pickled chillies were excellent to a non-connoisseur like me, and the onion was definitely freshly chopped. Ate a bit too much poppadum as usual!

Starters for us included onion bhaji, cauliflower pakora, chicken tikka (I think this was basically a big bit of chicken! Looked huge for a starter). My pakora was a bit disappointing: bland and batter was a bit soggy. Cauliflower inside was very crunchy; I don’t know if this is how it’s supposed to be or not. Sarah’s bhaji was lovely though, a good bite to the texture and well spiced.  I didn’t hear any complaints about the rest of the starters.

Main for me was some kind of vaguely-described ‘Chicken Azran’ or something like that. In retrospect I don’t know why I went for something with ‘special sauce’ in the description. It wasn’t as hot I thought it was going to be, but then ‘fairly hot’ is difficult to gauge in this country. Are they toning it down for Westerners, or are they over-compensating in the authenticity stakes by going one further with the chillies? I usually get the extra hot sauce at Nando’s (the one for those with ‘reckless bravado’, which is in fact no hotter than the sauce a step down). This had a nice heat, but I expected some kind of cooling yoghurt from the description, so everything must have been mixed in together. Chicken was a bit dry but it tasted good. Pilau rice was OK, not spectacular, peshwari naan looked OK, but I was too full to eat any!

I can’t remember what the other mains we ordered were – Laurence had chicken tikka I think, which came in a thick, uniform orange sauce. I personally wouldn’t have been impressed by appearance but I think it tasted nice. Everything came on heated dishes and the plates were warm as well, so presumably they’ve taken something from one review I read which complained about cold food.

Altogether the meal for 5 including poppadums, one starter and main each, and two alcoholic drinks each came to about £73 including the discounts but not service charge. I enjoyed my meal, but next time I visit Brick Lane I’ll try somewhere else, or go to the superior-tasting and less formal Balti Hut in Wembley. Without the deal I don’t think it would have been worth it. 6/10

Jom Makan – Restaurant

Between the dash between Duke of Yorks theatre and the Barbican, my parents and I went to Jom Makan for their pre-7pm £5 deal.

Jom Makan interior

Jom Makan is a Malaysian restaurant right near to Trafalgar Square. Decor is simple and classy, except perhaps the paper table mats with their illustrated explanations of Malay culture – wayang theatre, the Petronas towers, durians etc.

Both my parents had the nasi lemak – coconut rice with an assortment of bits like beef rendang curry, hot squid sambal, fried anchovies,  peanuts and cucumber. They were both happy with it – especially the squid – although my mum said that the beef wasn’t cooked for as long as she would have liked it, so it was slightly tougher than the ideal, but still edible.

I had the nasi biriyani kambing – biriyani spiced rice with lamb curry, a potato dahl, prawn crackers and a garnish portion of pickled vegetables. First of all these are not the white polystyrene prawn crackers you get free from the takeaway! Instead they are tasty and crunchy. The rice disappeared far too quickly (by which I don’t mean it was a small portion!) and was perfect accompaniment to the lamb so tender I could cut it with my spoon. Dahl was mild – maybe not spiced enough if it were on its own, but it was a good foil for the curry. Vegetables were sweet and not harshly pickled (I don’t generally like pickled stuff but these were nice – I’d have liked more of them).

Bill with three small Tigers came to £24, because of the pre-7pm deal – it would have been about £35 without the deal, which isn’t particularly cheap but for classy atmosphere, good service (it wasn’t busy though) and authentic food it is worth it.  Other dishes include satay, roti canai, nasi goreng etc.  No kuih (petit-four type of sweets) but there are several desserts with strong Malay influences, if not fully authentic.

Jom Makan has become somewhat common knowledge among the Malays we met at the theatre and general comments are favourable.  Could take anybody here and as long as they enjoy this type of food they would enjoy it – not too upmarket for anybody who just wants a quick bite and not too scabby for those on a date!  Will be going again whenever I get an excuse.

Boho – Café

Boho, Canterbury

It’s all very well having time off but if you’re on your own you quickly run out of things to do! Felt obliged to soak up the sunshine today – as well as escape the house, where the electrician is rewiring the ground floor – so I went to the Dane John Park and read most of the magazine that came with the last Observer on the grass. Then went for a wander and for lunch. Now, I find it a bit difficult when you want to eat something nice but you’re on your own. There aren’t many places you can go without looking like you’ve been stood up, or have no friends. Tuesday I went to EAT, Thursday I bought a bacon and brie toastie from Harriet’s Delicatessen and wandered around the street a bit.

But I thought I’d eat a bit more nicely today, so I went to Boho on the main Canterbury High Street, where I have eaten very well several times. I think you can get away with being on your own there. They even have a couple of tables for one facing outside, either side of the entrance. Since it was sunny I went into the garden for the first time, and took the one in the sun without any shade.

Decor is very individual – inside it’s bright wallpaper, graffitied paintings, and vintage clocks. Outside there are lush plants and a plastic chandelier (which could have done with a bit of de-cobwebbing!). I could see how some people would think it was cynically and over-indulgently kitsch, but I love how they’ve done it.

I ordered a fried salt and chilli squid salad with cannellini beans. It was really nice, although could have done with a lot more chilli kick! I’m not sure there was any at all because I did put a few drops of Tabasco on top. It came with a bit of rocket and heaped onto a thick slice of brown toast with olive oil. Squid was more or less perfectly cooked (definitely not chewy) and tasted of squid (always a good sign!).

I was in and out in half an hour, maybe testament to service (they did have other customers, maybe about half-full – it was just gone midday) – having said that, my food came before my drink!

I always enjoy going there and hope to go again before I leave. Hopefully not as a complete loner this time!