We went to the Village Belle Hotel on a warm November evening. My ex-sous chef friend tried to get us in Republica but it was all booked out. We then tried to get into Juana's Tacos but they had a one hour wait for seating and were no longer doing takeaways. So, my friend recommended the Village Belle Hotel as he said we were guaranteed to get a seat.
The venue is massive with an upstairs, downstairs, and outdoor seating. They have a large cocktails menu and a succinct dinner menu.
We decided to order a carafe of Pimm's cup as my friend likes gin and wanted a summery cocktail, the yuzu salmon to start off with, and the lamb shoulder for two as our main.
The salmon yuzu arrived before our drinks. The cured salmon was served with grapefruit and pomegranate seeds. The taste was tangy, sour, and soy sauce like, but delicious. Pimms was overly sweet and I could barely taste the alcohol. The lamb shoulder was quite disappointing. Though the meat was tender and it was a large portion size served with crunchy broccoli, beans, brussel sprouts, and zucchini, it lacked flavour. I couldn't taste salt or pepper or anything and there was none on our table. I think it was just lamb cooked in its own juices and that's what we had been served. Quite disappointing. read more