It felt good to be involved such a meaningful cause, being the customers of a training restaurants so chefs in training can get a taste of what it is like to be working in a real restaurant.
Although there were certain highlights to our meal, most the food itself was forgettable, uninspiring and in ridiculous portion sizes.
I arrived there early but was greeted quite fiercely by a female member of staff asking if she could help me but in a level of tone like I shouldn't have been there. When I confirmed I had a booking she passed me onto another member of staff who was more friendly and settled me down on a table. Service improved from there although felt very disorganised. They forgot to hand over our drinks menu, did not know who to pass our food order to and then forgot to make our drinks that we ordered. Luckily they were still kind and friendly which made up for the lack of organisation.
Weirdly the highlight of our meal turned out to be the complimentary bread. They smelt amazing as we saw them being made fresh, put into the oven and coming out into rounded rolls. In fact they were so good we ended up trying nearly all the varieties Straight out the oven they came hot and fragrant.
For £4.50 I expected a little more than one croquette and one finger size spring roll. The more substantial starter was probably the bubble and squeak with a poached egg , a good poached egg on a crispy breadcrumb mix of soft mashed bubble and squeak and hollandaise sauce. However the croquette was very average. I did not taste the spices in it to recognise it was kedgeree. It was also bland but there was a good bit of haddock in there. The bit of duck I got in the spring roll was quite tough and left soaking in the marinated vegetables & oyster sauce it became soggy. It tasted average again and something one can easily recreate.
We really thought the size of the mains would compensate for the small starters but they were actually served in the same size bowls. But it wouldn't have mattered if the mains were good but they were very much like a ready-made meal.
Braised beef with creamed potatoes were too average to be remembered for. It was very one noted and could have done with some flavour, more onions etc. We could taste the wine in the gravy and the beef was braised well so it was very edible but not worth £8.95.
Cajun spiced salmon with noodles was very mild. But against the tasteless noodles the flavours just got lost in there.
Poached monk fish, mussels & cod with was the least successful. The fish had no taste after being poached and the broth lacked depth. The fish did taste fresh at least, flaky but also very bland. It was worse than the instant soup noodles you get in EAT where all the taste you're getting is just weak vegetable water.
Our favourite dish turned out to the most simple looking dish on the menu which was the Penne pasta with goat`s cheese & red onions. The pasta was cooked al dente and we could taste the caramalisation red onions that really went well with the more pungent goat cheese.
We decided to order two of each of the dessert which including the selection of cookies with chocolate dip and apple & sultana strudel with cinnamon cream. Firstly we were told that the cookies consisted of pistachios ones by the waiter but it didn't. Instead it only came in two varieties, plain and milk chocolate chips. They werea little bit too dense and hard, especially the plain ones which took a lot of effort to bite into. We weren't a big fan.
Better were the apple strudel but these really lacked consistency. As we ordered two platters, one platter had perfectly crisp and airy filo pastry & came golden browned. They actually were the highlight of the whole 3 course meal and came with cream although there was no cinnamon anywhere. The filling was nice,not too sweet and in a good consistency. Sadly the other platter was under cooked and dry. The filo pastry was still white and broke apart and the filling that was thick and dry. We were surprised they even served it to us as there was an obvious difference in the way they looked, one being raw and being cooked. Shocking. Luckily they were desserts so had no meat content to do any damage in eating them.
So I won't be returning to this institution. As much as I tried to understand it is a cooking school but the food standards are more for very beginners than for any restaurant standard. The dishes are far too simple and I didn't taste any of the basic herbs such as thyme, rosemary or even garlic and if there were it was too subtle. Service was friendly but too disorganised and lacked focus. If only this place can be changed into a bakery instead as I would come back for their breads if they were available for buying. Unfortunately it is the only reason I would personally come back for. read more