Any decent restaurants?

[genesiscouch]

The Lounge on West Street (across from the swim inn) has excellent food, but only serve lunch and breakfast. A lot of it is homemade and all of it is very reasonably priced. Everything I have eaten there has been delicious, and I'm not usually very easy to please.

[DaBouncer]

The Blue Room Bistro on Woodseats is AMAZING.

Excellent food, relaxing atmosphere, friendly staff and attentive service.

 

It's not cheap though so be warned.

They do a mix of foods from Steaks, Fish to Chinese and French food.

 

It's definately a lovely place to go especially if you want a romantic meal with the other half.

 

[JerryUK]

I eat out mosy nights, so here goes. You'll have to forgive the lack of / incorrect locations as I'm an out of towner:

 

Italian:

 

I've had 3 meals in Antibos (West One). Service has been variable but the food and wine is very good.

 

Enjoyed the pizza at Ask and the fresh orange is terriffic but they are completely incapable of making 'al dente' pasta even when specifically asked. Stick to the pizza.

 

Predicably good pizza's from Pizza Express.

 

Piccolos by Nirmals was pretty good, though make sure the manager serves you and not the waiter! Excellent Tirimisu.

 

Worse Italian visited so far has been Mama's and Leonies. The pizza was badly presented and had far too much cheese on it. Not at all impressed. Seem to remember they didn't have a "no smoking" section either.

 

Bars:

 

Usually try to avoid these as it tends to be ready meals unless you know what you're doing. Did have a very pleasant meal in Takapuna though. All Bar One also okay.

 

Indian:

 

Current favourite is Cafe Guru (Westfield St?). Been there about 4 times so far this month. Very nice atmosphere and great food. Food can be a little slow to arrive but it is worth the wait. Peshwari nan is lovely.

 

Nirmals also comes highly recommended by so long as you don't mind Nirmal doing a hard sell on side dishes!

 

Everest (London Road?) was very good the first time but extremely poor on the last visit: food so-so and terrible service. Won't be going back.

 

BJ's (think that was the name) was okay though was somewhat lacking in ambience.

 

The Indian opposite Tesco's on West Street was passable but I won't be returning.

 

Other:

 

Iguana (West One). Nice atmosphere, service good and the chicken fajitas are pretty tasty. Not as good as La Mancha's (West Street) though, which serves better nosh than you might expect.

 

Enjoyed a couple of noodle dishes at the Noodle Bar (West One), though can't recommend the Thai green curry. Then again I guess it is a noodle bar! Extremely quick, you can be in and out in 15 minutes.

 

Nandos is just an upmarket KFC, though it's fine if you want something quick.

 

That's me restauranted out for now. BBs, The Forum and Sheiks should get a visit shortly.

[Sam @ Dearne]

Just noticed someone said

 

"don't buy any food from the Wicker area"

 

Now thats a sweeping statement, but from my experience there is one gem down there that I always visit after a pub crawl.

 

kEBABISH

 

The food is excellent, freshly cooked in front of you and the little thing that is a good pointer, the 'locals' eat there, I am normally the only caucasian when I go in, I like that feeling, a sign of quality.

 

I brought a mate up from London once and just happened to mention it and he went wild !!!

 

"You have a Kebabish, wow, we must go there, my local one is great"

 

It didn't disappoint. From this I gathered there must be a few about.

 

Anyway, I can thoroughly recommend it, can't comment on any of the others though

 

Sam

[Tubthump]

Originally posted by SlinkyMinky

Just noticed someone said

 

"don't buy any food from the Wicker area"

 

Now thats a sweeping statement,

 

I agree Slinky. The Wicker houses two good curry houses in the Mangla and The Gulshan.

[muddycoffee]

Polish

I recently visited the Polonia restraunt on Abbeydale road, just 100 yards from London road. It is a Polish resteraunt and absolutely lovely.

The young Polish waiter was absolutely charming, the food was fresh and wonderful and very reasonable, and we sampled three different polish beers and they were all great.

 

When we finished they gave us a book with info about Polish cuisine and how too make it yourself. It is open for lunch every day too and we will be going there again soon.

 

Indian

Last month we visited seven spices Balti, and it was fantastic too. Good service, great food.

 

Lebonese

We tried the lebonese resteraunt on Glossop road about 6 months ago and I found my meat based dishes a little dissapoining but my friend who had vegitarian food had a great meal. Other than that it was an interesting experience and worth visiting again and I am always keen to try new food and will try other stuff next time.

[StillWaters]

Regarding good meals, I second the comments on Froggies, good modern European food, friendly service and atmosphere and all round a delightful experience. There's The Supper Club (used to be Carriages) in Abbeydale Road South which is excellent too and along similar lines, plus it has a Claridges trained chef. If you're looking for nice gastropubs there's The Druids Inn at Birchover and The Bull's Head in Ashford in The Water.

 

Regarding less good meals, The Blue Room I think is over-rated - last time I went I was fairly unimpressed by the service and mediocre (semi-cold) food. I got the feeling the chef had thrown a Gordon that evening, so maybe they were having an off night, but friends who ate their recently said the same. Thyme in Crosspool is a friendly and good food but over-priced in my experience, and is also very difficult to get into (whenever I call they only seem to have tables for 6pm or 10pm, and the bar area where you have to wait is cramped and unwelcoming). Thyme Cafe in Broomhill seems like a better bet to me, in that the food is just as good and the service very friendly without the prices, although it admittedly doesn't have the ambience (or parking). One to avoid is UK Mama in Broomhill - oh no no no no no no, unless you like beans on deep fried toast or fancy being given an (ex Job Centre/STD clinic?) customer satisfaction questionnaire at the end asking if you were offered a private consultation room!

[Donna_Row]

Originally posted by Classic Rock

This may be the wrong thread to add this to, but we went for a meal at Hui Moon Chinese restaurant on Middlewood Rd and it was one of the worst Chinese meals I've ever experienced.

 

The service was slow despite there only being a handful of people in and we ended up leaving one of the starters as it was literally a dinner plate of sweetcorn covered in tasteless brown gluey sauce.

 

The main course was really bland and starchy and full of monosodium glutomate - moreso than any Chinese I've had. The sauces were nasty and the green veg seemed to glow radioactively.

 

Avoid this place.

 

I totally agree with this. When Hui Moon was being renovated I couldn't wait for it to open (it is right behind my house!) however, it was absolutely disgusting! It was so full of MSG that I literally blew up like a baloon - I couldn't even get my rings on. It took about 3 days to go back to normal. I definitely wouldn't recommend this restaurant!

[bagz]

The food at Viva Tequila gleadless is really nice, the service is great and prices aren't bad too. 2 for 1 on Mondays and Sundays.

[Unisol]

Originally posted by bagz

The food at Viva Tequila gleadless is really nice, the service is great and prices aren't bad too. 2 for 1 on Mondays and Sundays.

 

I rate it as one of the worst places i've ever eaten.