Thai Square, Windsor Tuesday 13th September

Venue:-            Thai Square, Thames Street Windsor.

Telephone:-            01753 868900

Web:-              www.thaisquare.net

Thai Square is a small chain of Thai restaurants with eleven branches in London and six in the suburbs. The Windsor restaurant which we visited is situated opposite the castle and next to the Theatre Royal, and as it was a Tuesday we didn’t bother to book. Oh! That was a mistake! This is a 125 seat restaurant and it was full, but they managed to tuck us into a corner in the very large conservatory area. The restaurant is split over three sections a small section from where you enter next to the theatre and a similar section if you enter from the side street opposite the car park, both leading into the very large, very modern, very high glass ceiling conservatory dominated in the centre by a huge earthenware pot with bamboo sticking out that reaches the ceiling. The place was buzzing and full of atmosphere, there were couples, large party groups, works do’s and a family groups

Three guests, three courses, apperifs, wine and coffee - £111.50

The menu is very large with everything you could ask for from a Thai menu, starters of Thai fishcakes, corn fritters to name but two, soups, salads pork dishes, prawn dishes, trout, noodles, rice and lovely accompaniments  such as spinach with ginger and topped with garlic. Dishes range from mild through to very hot – the 3 chilli symbol.

Starters:-  We chose the mixed starters so we try a few different items – Chicken satay, excellent tasted as though the chicken was fried in peanut oil and then of course dipped into the satay sauce, simply wonderful. Spring rolls, money bags (pork in filo – I believe), spare ribs and corn fritters. Very nice.

Mains :- All the mains are reasonably priced with most around the £7.50 to £8.50 price. The Pai Gai (Jungle curry) was a 3 chilli dish and was declared one of the best eaten. The Gai Med Mamuang (chicken with cashew nuts) was very nice but was  too mild – it had no chillies so we can’t really complain.  I had the Moo Prik Khing (Pork in shrimp paste with long beans and chilli) a 2 chilli dish – excellent. Steamed rice (£1.50), fried rice, mixed vegetables and the spinach/ginger accompanied the meal. A worthy comment here, the dishes were plentiful and not covered with the usual inedible decorations that normally go with Thai dishes – probably these are the largest dishes that I have encountered in any Thai restaurant.

Dessert :- Full up! But in the interests of reporting we had plain coconut ice-cream, creamy and delicious, a mango and coconut dessert again very tasty and finally the sticky rice with mango – this is to die for, they only have  it a couple times a week so if they have it – try it, you will not be disappointed.

Drinks:- Chang beer was £3.90 a bottle – too damn expensive, but it does seem the norm these days. Orange juice £1.80 – cheaper than usual. Bottle of Nito Malbec at £22.50 way too expensive, it is a very nice Malbec but should be nearer £16.00 – its only £5.85 in the supermarkets and they must get it cheaper. Coffee is Illy and is very nice.

All in all a very nice restaurant, we will go again but next time we will book!

Mezzaluna restaurant, Sunninghill - Saturday September 10th

Venue:-            Mezzaluna Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

Telephone:-            01344 876200

Web:-              http://www.ristorantemezzaluna.com/

This restaurant was written up a couple of weeks back and so we will go straight onto the food with a brief interlude to mention the staff – this visit was at a weekend and therefore the restaurant was much busier than the previous early week visit and the atmosphere and ambience much enhanced. Three girls on this evening a cheeky young girl doing the drinks, who made ordering and serving the drinks very pleasurable, our ‘Spanish’ singing waitress who had no time to sing along tonight – Sinatra and ‘Dino’ playing in the background – and the main girl, all efficiency and friendliness rolled into one.

Three guests, three courses, aperifs, wine and coffee – cost unknown (I wasn’t paying!)

Starters:-

Deep fried Goats cheese with a homemade pesto, nice portion beautifully cooked and was declared delicious. Then a starter from the specials, baked aubergine with melted mozzarella, yet another success story. Finally my choice of mushrooms with garlic sauce topped with melted cheese – should come with a ‘hot’ warning, take care when eating – it was delicious. On the ‘hot’ thing c’mon it has been in an oven and has a bubbling sauce with melted cheese – this is not McDonalds, you don’t need to be told ‘warning this dish is hot’!

Mains :-

Tagliatelle Mezzaluna – sounds like one of the house pastas to me! Tomatoes, chicken, mushrooms, basil and garlic sauce. Plentiful dish full of flavour, couldn’t quite finish it – doggy bag? No dog so didn’t bother. I had the Veal Satimboca, I am rather partial to veal so this was a bit of an acid test – how would it stand up? Well I had three large pieces of veal, with sage and then parma ham on top with a sage gravy – best I have had in ages! Potatoes and veggies of the day accompanied it – roast potatoes, French beans, broccoli and some roasted veggies. The third meal was from the specials – lamb wrapped in pancetta (that’s bacon!) and stuffed with anchovies and tomatoes. You hate anchovies – well trust me when done like this and used as a stuffing you do not actually taste any anchovy but the combination was superb and received a mighty 10/10 – I never give ten, there is always room for improvement.

Dessert :-

All homemade from the trolley – a warm apple pie, profiteroles and a crème brulee – all devoured with gusto – even though we were a bit full.

This was all washed down with a couple of Peronis to start and an orange juice, a bottle of Barolo at a whopping (I thought) £35.00 – and I didn’t think the wine was up to much. The The usual coffees were had plus a couple of glasses of wine –house red, have something else! and house white wine – fine. As I always say this is a food review and not a wine review if ‘you’ like a wine it is good, if you don’t it is bad. For wine buffs try Italian wine called Biferno preferably the 2004  if you can get it, you won’t find it in the supermarkets though.

Ascot Oriental Saturday September 03rd

Venue:-            Ascot Oriental

Telephone:-            01344 621877

Website:-            www.ascotoriental.com

Situated on the London Road close to Virginia Water is the Ascot Oriental, formerly the Chukka public house now lovingly renovated it is a modern stylish building with a vibrant interior and a very attractive conservatory area. The restaurant has been a regular haunt of ours over several years and never fails to disappoint. The owner (and Master Chef) Konrad Liu oversees the proceedings in both the front of house and behind the scenes in the kitchen and has a very able and receptive team of waiters who look after you with the utmost of efficiency. The Ascot Oriental has set the standard both within Ascot and beyond as a beautiful appointed restaurant where people come to relax and enjoy the distinctive cuisine coupled with the impeccable service.

The food, well, we chose from the A La Carte – mixed Hors D’Ouvres which consisted of Spare ribs, chicken satay (with a nice unusual spicy taste), vegetarian spring rolls, prawn sesame toast, Shanghaise dumplings (I think! – they were some sort of dumpling) and crispy seaweed and at £9.50 per couple good value. Everything was eaten all the food complemented and roll on the next course.

We normally at this point have the crispy duck, but today for a change we all had crispy fragrant lamb wrapped in iceberg lettuce leaves with plum sauce – a do it yourself  course like the duck and pancakes. I tried one wrap with the plum sauce(jam) and one without and I preferred the one with, my partner the one without – but everybody agree it was a good choice.

The mains. Most mains come in from around £8.95 - £16.50) We had Braised cod with asparagus and spicy garlic, chicken breast in honey and lemon sauce, sautéed chicken with chilli and blackbean, fillet of beef with ginger in oyster sauce on a bed of broccoli, fillet of beef on its own and at least one other dish which I have forgotten. To complement the above we had some sautéed seasonal vegetables, Nasi Goreng, steamed rice and egg fried rice with spring onion.  All was eaten and hailed a great meal, the honey lemon chicken being declared ‘the best I have eaten’ – not a favourite for me though, has that slight twang of sweet and sour which I do not like  - it’s a personal thing not a criticism of the dish. The meal was downed with copious amounts of both red and white wine (around £30.00 a bottle) plus a sprinkling of water – somebody always has to drive. All finally washed down with either China or oolong tea.

What about the apple and banana fritters?  I hear you ask, well we were too full but we have had them before, so go on if you have the room spoil yourself and have the ice cream that goes with them too.

An excellent meal as always, they do a fixed price menu which works out at £27.50 or £28.50 a head plus another £4.50 a head  for the duck course – if you are not sure what to order try one of these meals. Specials are also created for Christmas, Chinese New Year  and Ascot week. Give it a try you won’t be disappointed.

The Bull Inn at Aborfield Cross Friday 02nd September

Venue:-            The Bull Inn @ Aborfield Cross

Telephone:-            01189 762244

Website:-            www.thebullinnarborfield.co.uk

This restaurant/pub can be found right on the roundabout at Aborfield Cross where the A327 the B3030 the B3348 and the A327 all meet – please be careful if you are coming in from Wokingham via Molly Millar Lane as you pass another ‘Bull Inn’  - just keep going until you reach Aborfield. I am sure there in nowt wrong with the ‘other’ Bull but this review is not about them!

The Bull has a nice large car park and a large outdoor seating area, but we headed inside to be greeted at the door and shown to our table. Now I have said this before – is it a pub with a restaurant or a restaurant that serves beer or even a pub pretending to be a restaurant, well I feel this is predominantly a restaurant that has a bar. The interior is clean and bright with a mix of seating options around a central bar area – the place was crowded when we went and booking is essential for a weekend, probably during the week as well.

We started with a couple of drinks from the bar, guinness , white wine, orange juice and a pint of local real ale for me – the guest ale – at £3.60 a pint! A bit steep that. The restaurant caters well for the caveman amongst us as well as vegetarian and Coeliac choices.

On to the food. Starters ranged from about £4.50 to £8.95) Starters consisted of  a warm chicken Caesar salad (£4.95), Whitebait (£4.95), smoked Salmon (£6.50) and Tricolore salad (£5.50) – portions good for starters, not too much and not too little all were given the thumbs up.

Main courses ranged from around £8.50 to £18.95. For mains we has the lamb shank(£13.95), served with seasonal veg and sauteed potatoes, Steak and Ale pie (£11.50) served with mash and veg, seabass (£11.95) again with sautéed and veggies and finally Scampi with sauteed and side salad. All meals were declared excellent, the lamb shank was just too large to be finished, the seabass cooked to perfection with a lovely crispy skin and succulent flesh beneath. The veggies were plentiful and locally sourced as in fact are most menu items – bet my scampi wasn’t local though. The sautéed potatoes were lovely and all meals eaten.  All was washed down with a bottle of Malbec at £14.80 – reasonable price for a drinkable wine.

Little bit of room left to try the puds … Chocolate profiteroles with chantilly cream – two large open choux buns crammed full of cream with chocolate on the top, I believe ‘wow!’ was the expletive used before clearing the plate. I settled for ice cream (coconut) and sorbet (mango) as a palate cleanser really. Normal filter coffee was had plus a pot of tea and I had a couple of double espressos and at £2.00 a go I thought the price reasonable and the coffee quite dark and intense, my personal taste is for a little stronger. The coffee was bottomless again at £2.00 a throw was good value.

Total cost of meal with a tip was £124.00 for four people. This is an excellent restaurant/pub with very attentive friendly staff, the meal was unhurried yet timely and we all thoroughly  enjoyed out visit – we will return.

The Duke of Edinburgh Woodside Ascot - thursday 01st September

Venue:-            The Duke of Edinburgh

Telephone:-            01344 882736

Website:-            www.thedukeofedinburghpub.org.uk

Driving from Ascot towards Windsor pass the racecourse on your right hand side and then cross the two mini roundabouts and then a few hundred yards along the road turn left into Woodside Road, travel along for about 100 yards and the Duke is on the right. The ‘pub/restaurant’ is just that, as you enter through the main door you come to the bar area first – which is a bar! May sound logical but many places are more restaurant than bar! Turn to the right and you enter the restaurant. All around the walls are painted famous quotes and the bar had what looked like a crowd of locals in and the restaurant was also doing a brisk trade. The restaurant walls also had blackboards announcing various other dishes to complement those on the main menu and also the day we went they had a curry night.

The food … I started with potted crab with warm toast and small side salad – after breaking through the delicate butter crust the crab was absolutely delicious, the toast was plentiful and the whole dish superb. The other starter was avocado prawns which was also greeted with absolutely delicious. Mains consisted of Sea Bass – two fillets nicely cooked with lovely crispy skin and delicate white fish., salmon with hollandaise again no complaints, next a very large gammon served with pineapple and peaches – very nice and finally a broad bean and asparagus risotto which unfortunately came topped with parmesan shaving – no mention of these on the menu and my partner hates parmesan! The waitress offered to take it away and remove the shaving but we took them off and I ate them! – I love parmie!

Desserts were chocolate fudge cake with ice cream and an apple tart with ice cream – both well received.

Drinkies … they have a small selection or real ale – Arkells, the 3B’s was excellent, also had a bottle of Chilean Merlot to wash dinner down. Coffee followed – thought my espresso slightly strange – very frothy top, not very intense, more akin to strong black coffee with a head.

Overall the meal was very well received, all diners saying that we would revisit and the price was ok, although I haven’t quoted each dish by price they are fair around the area – the total for the four of us came to £130.00 including the tip we left.