Marks & Spencer lunch

Marks and Spencer have brought out a new range called "Great British Summer". Its bright on the shelves; red, white and blue, with lots of little treats and ready made ideas for the perfect and easy picnic.

I was going to try a sandwich from their new range but every time I see M&S sandwiches I start salivating at the thought of their Aberdeen Angus beef, red onion chutney and mustard sandwich. I know pre-made sandwiches can lose their freshness as they're sweating away wrapped in plastic, but this sandwich is absolutely delicious. There was nothing soggy about this sandwich. The bread used is a little thicker than normal and holds all the filling inside perfectly, and remains soft. The sweetness of the red onion chutney balances out the meatiness of the beef and the spiciness of the mustard. It's a well rounded sandwich which delivers many flavour sensations together; sweet, spicy, meaty. As I'm reminiscing about this sandwich I'm salivating again

The new drinks from their Great British Summer range caught my eye, especially this Strawberry Milkshake since it had the cutest summer hat on. I love strawberry milkshake so I had to give it a try. Unfortunately I was disappointed with the milkshake, the milkshake tasted powdery and lacking in strawberry taste. When I looked at the ingredients, dry milk powder was listed. Not impressed at all!!

For dessert; a Strawberry and Rhubarb crumble. This came in a cute little plastic see through pot. This was amazing. It was like having a little pot of cold crumble. The fruity strawberry and rhubarb compote, with the cold creamy vanilla custard then topped with crumble. Only shame is, is that it is a little bit too small for me, but it is delicious. I could have easily eaten at least 2.

I can't wait for Summer to arrive so that I can have a picnic and buy lots of little treats from M&S's summer range.

Nando's chicken pita

Just a quick note from today's lunch; mango and lime flavoured chicken in pita. Had this many many times and love it. The chicken grilled then smothered in mango and lime sauce, then placed with salad in a pita bread. I'm not a huge fan of  coriander, I think it's one of those herb you either love or hate, but in this pita, it just brings it all together. Whenever I get chicken in pita, I always add Nando's creamy salad dressing on top extra, it just give it a lovely tang and creaminess. 

All in all, I love Nando's Chicken in Pita. Delicious!!!

Cote, Ealing Broadway

I do visit Cote quite often, I enjoy the food their, the freshness, quality and service. Cote has a lunch and early evening menu, some of the items that appear on the menu may also appear in the main menu, however this is a smaller portion. I went for the Asparagus Soup to start, Sea bass for main and creme caramel to finish.                                                The Asparagus soup, looked like any bowl of soup would do, it was topped with a few slices of asparagus and a drizzle of oil. Taste wise, the soup was tasty and had a freshness of asparagus, however, it seemed as though the asparagus used were the woody ends, which made the soup taste stringy. It definitely needed to be sieved once it had been made before serving. Once I had finished the soup, it made me feel as though I had hay stuck in my throat still. 

 Sea bass main was tasty, with minty fresh peas. The bass fillets did look a little dinky, but it was cooked well with only one or two bones left in it. Gratin potatoes was also ordered on the side, which is potato dauphinoise, creamy with a hint of garlic. I have ordered this in the past on numerous occasions, however, this time I noticed the portion has gotten smaller, shame really since it is really tasty (but costs a shocking £2.96 for a now tiny dish. It's so small you could eat it all in two spoonfuls!!!)

To finish, creme caramel. I love the creme caramel here. As you can see, I got too excited and ate it before I remembered to take a picture ooops. It's creamy, with a slight nutty caramel, its delicious. I could easily eat more than one!!





I do like Cote, and do regularly dine at the Ealing Broadway branch, however, the main issue I have with this branch is the inconsistencies in service. Their are some waiters and waitress whom are brilliant, they're extremely friendly and welcoming. There are a couple I have encountered who let the restaurant down. On this occasion, we wanted to sit in the booth seat, the waitress said she would clear the table for us if we didn't mind waiting. Whilst we waited another waiter came along and promptly informed us that the table was booked, and made clear it was an effort for him to seat us at another table. The annoying thing is that, there are two booth tables, the restaurant was quiet. As we sat at another table, the other booth became free, and the original table was not occupied until our mains had arrived, so we could have been given the booth table, and the reserving customers given the other. It's such a shame because our waitress was extremely polite and friendly and was let down by her colleague.

Domino's Pizza

Domino's always have deals so feed a gathering. They recently had a deal where you could purchase one pizza and get the second one for £1. As a Bank Holiday treat, I thought I would try their new "American Legends" range. 

I've had Domino's before and was used to the Texas BBQ (since I do love BBQ sauce) and they used to have a Supreme (which was a variety of toppings). This time I gave "The Carolina" a try, they only difference between this and the Texas BBQ was the addition of tomatoes, crispy onions and mustard mayo drizzled on top. The pizza on their website looked quite appetizing, however when mine arrive it didn't look anything like the picture:

It was interesting, not as good as what I expected. I liked the tomatoes and crispy onion, the tomatoes gave a fresh light note to the pizza and the crispy onion was as if you were eating a hot dog. The mustard drizzle didn't look like the picture at all and looked as though it had melted into the pizza, but also gave the feeling that you were eating a hot dog.

The other pizza I tried was the chicken feast. They were a bit stingy with the chicken, as if they had marked exactly one slice of chicken for each slice of pizza. It was ok but not wow. What makes these pizza taste better is the garlic and herb dip each pizza comes with. It is an aioli with herbs, its delicious and I don't think Domino's pizza will taste the same without it for me.

Also purchased was their garlic bread pizza, its margarita meets garlic bread. I always get the garlic bread pizza when ordering Domino's, no meal is complete without it. Cheese Twisted Dough Balls were also tried.. These burst with garlic butter and slightly melted cheese as you bit into it. These were ok but nothing compared to the garlic bread pizza.  

Domino's need to add other items onto their menu. The pizza menu is quite restricted, especially if you're a vegetarian. They should have things like pasta, salads or more toppings like mini balls of falafel which may appeal to vegetarians?

Momo, Japanese Restaurant, Ealing

Momo Japanese restaurant can be found inside Hotel 55in Ealing. Admittedly, I never visited the original Momo site in North Ealing. 3 of us went during a Saturday lunchtime. The decor is light, crisp and looks onto a beautiful garden. 

The lunchtime menu consists of Kaiseki; set menu of food on individual trays. 

 We shared the sashimi set; which came with 5 different types of fish, bowl of rice, bowl of miso soup and some fruit. 
The sashimi was fresh and thickly cut. I have had sashimi before that had been so thin it was almost see through.. This sashimi was delicious and fresh. 


I had the daily special;tempura of prawn and conger eel in a special sweet soy sauce on rice, with daikon with minced pork, miso soup and fruit. The tempura was crisp and light. I had never had eel tempura-ed before, it was a nice difference, like "fish" from fish and chips only lighter. The daikon was soft, tasting as though it had been braised in a light soy mirin sauce. The minced pork on top with it was delicious.

M, had the grilled mackerel in miso paste, which came with rice, soup and fruit. The mackerel had a slight sweetness to it and was grilled, perhaps slightly overdone. It was missing something though. Something like some grated daikon, to give it a refreshing uplift.



D, had the sushi set. A selection of nigiri and cucumber maki. The fish was fresh and the selection was good. The wasabi was between the fish and the rice. There are many places out there which serve the wasabi separately. I'm not Japanese so I have no idea what the proper etiquette is; for nigiri if the wasabi is not between the fish and rice do you place a small amount on top of the nigiri before dipping in soy sauce or can you mix the wasabi and soy together and then dip??

The table next to us had some children, we saw the children's meal and it looked so adorable. They had onigiri; rice ball, tempura, tora kara age, salad, yoghurt and fruit, with a little cocktail umbrella. It was the most interesting and exciting children's meal I think I've ever seen. I think this is what sums up this restaurant; it may be small but the staff are attentive and the food aims to please all. They also provide a special dining experience.

Definitely going back there again!!

Big Easy, Chelsea

Big Easy has been around for years, specialising in BBQ and being a crabshack. I've never been to the south of America, but would imagine the decor of Big Easy to be similar to the crab shacks in say Louisiana. The walls are wooden with random signs, blasting loud livey rock music makes you feel as if you're momentarily in the US.

Started with the Grand Appetizer Platter:

The chicken wings were tangy, slightly sour with a kick of spice, the calamari was crisp. The platter as a whole is a great idea so people can dig in and share and the large variety of dipping sauces were great. However the prawn crackers were boring and needed to be cooked a bit longer to give it a crunch and taste you would normally expect from your local Chinese.But it is a bit pricey at £19.50 for the platter. 

Main was "bar-b-que" ribs and chicken. I've had this before at Big Easy and had always loved it, however I hadn't eaten it in a long time. The BBQ sauce is delicious, slight tang, smoky, slightly sweet, delicious!!. However the ribs and chicken taste as though they have been cooked with a dry rub and then the BBQ sauce is slathered over the top right before it is served to you. This makes the ribs and chicken underneath slightly bland without the BBQ sauce. Bar-B-Que beans were smoky with little chunks of pork in it, which made the beans really meaty. I could curl in front of a TV on a cold winters night with a huge bowl of these beans and would be very happy. Coleslaw; creamy, crunchy, nothing too special. This doesn't come with chips, so chips would be an extra order, racking up the bill at £3.75 for chips.

The food menu hasn't really changed since I could remember, they could really do with some classic Southern food like cornbread or biscuits. The drinks menu is purely alcoholic, they really need to show case their bar by having a bar menu/drinks menu making cocktails or milkshakes.
They normally offer disposable plastic bibs to wear so that you won't have to worry so much on how much BBQ sauce you get around your face or dripping down your top, but this time we weren't even offered :(
We also had to repeatedly ask for wet wipes since we had ribs and BBQ sauce would inevitably be all over the place, but none turned up so in the end gave up.

Didn't have any space for dessert, however the table next to us had the giant sundae to share, which looked great!! Who wouldn't like a giant sundae?!?

After this visit I was slightly disappointed with Big Easy, there seemed to be something missing. I do love the big pig gig (all you can eat BBQ & a free beer) they offer so I will be returning, but slightly weary 

Soul Food, Borough Market

Soul Food located in Borough Market, offers Caribbean food at the market. Apologies the photo doesn't look amazing, it was raining that day so I had to put the lid on the box before I could sit down and eat it.
I ordered the jerk chicken, with rice and peas and coleslaw. The jerk chicken was juicy with a little chilli and barbecued. On the surface it seems like regular coleslaw, but really it had shredded pineapple. The coleslaw matches really well with the spicy chicken to give a creamy calm note but a slight tang from the pineapple. The rice and peas had been made with coconut milk so it had a fragrant scent and taste.
It was delicious! And at £6 a portion a great lunchtime treat!!

Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup

Summer's here so it's time for ice cream. Peanut butter cup is the new flavour from Ben & Jerry. At the moment this flavour is only available in their scoop shops.

It's peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cups. I'm not a fan of peanuts, I don't like the texture of peanuts, however I like Reese Peanut Cups and smooth peanut butter. At first I was worried that this ice cream would have actual pieces of peanuts but it didn't.

This ice cream is delicious. It has the roasted scent of peanuts with chocolatey peanut butter cups. I only wished they stocked them in supermarkets as well rather than just in scoop shops