Review: Yorkshire Tea Toast & Jam Brew

As some of you may know I have a bit of a minor fascination with tea and, to a slightly lesser degree, coffee and to that end will occasionally look out for new products to try. As some of you may also know I'm quite a big, literally and figuratively speaking, fan of the traditional tea and coffee accompaniments, cakes, biscuits, crumpets, toast etc. Bearing both of these facts in mind, when Yorkshire tea announced their new toast and jam brew, and given how pleasant their malty biscuit brew is, my interest was somewhat peaked.

So after a bit of research, in which I discovered this product was going to be a timed exclusive to Asda (who knew tea and video games had so much in common), and the resulting several visits to multiple branches of Asda, I managed to get my hands on a box of these bad boys.

I've now been drinking this fairly regularly for the last couple of days and in my opinion, whilst it is a fairly pleasant brew that offers something slightly different, it's not quite as nice or as accurately flavoured as I'd hoped it would be.

After trying the malty biscuit brew a while ago and being extremely impressed by how it tasted almost exactly like a freshly dunked malted milk, without compromising on the tea flavour, I had fairly elevated expectations. I was hoping for a big fruity hit, with a nice hint of sweetness and a slightly smokey, bready aftertaste. What I got instead was a slightly lighter tea taste with a gentle hint of background fruitiness, a pleasant, relaxing, afternoon brew that would go down well with a couple of crumpets, but certainly not the big flavoured breakfast brew that I was hoping for.

Whilst this won't be something that I go out of my way to buy again, if I happen to stumble on it on offer or someone else offers me a mug of it, I certainly wouldn't turn it down.

Review: Sandalwood and Orange Beard Oil

I don’t often review products on here, but I received a new addition to my beard care regime on Monday and felt like I needed to share something none current affairs related.

This cute little bottle of sandalwood and orange beard oil came courtesy of www.beeswaxscotland.com, I’ve spent the last few days getting to grips with it and I really like it.

It came with a little leaflet telling you about the product it self and giving you advise on proper usage. Ideal if you’re a beard oil newbie and a nice personal touch even if you’re not.

Straight off the bat, you open the bottle and you get a slightly woody, citrus fragrance, reminiscent of earl grey tea, which happens to be a personal favourite of mine. The oil itself is slightly thinner than I’m used to, but that’s not really a bad thing, it actually means that a little goes a long way. 5 or 6 drops was ample for a trimmed beard like mine, 9 or 10 would be great for something a little more bushy. It’s not a particularly greasy oil and is absorbed nicely into the beard, softening it almost immediately. The fragrance lasts pretty well, I found myself getting the occasional citrus waft well into the afternoon, though it is more subtle than the initial huff suggested. After 3 days of use my beard is noticeably softer than it was before and my comb passes through with relative ease.

All said and done I’m happy with my new addition and am looking forward to getting plenty more use out of it.

Review: Braun MGK7020

I’ve been using the Braun MGK7020 for a while and I am finding it to be a fairly capable trimmer, that performs the majority of its many functions very well and has actually replaced several other separate products I had previously been using. For me I’ve found that the best functions are the clean shave, precision trim and nose hair trimmer, it performs these functions so well that it easily out performs dedicated products.

Considering this is actually a fairly compact device, it is very powerful and makes short work of both beard and body hair alike. The charge time on this product is remarkable, just 15 minutes and you’ll have enough power for a thorough trim, give it a 2 or 3 hour charge and it’ll last a couple of weeks worth of regular use.

Personally I have predominantly used this to groom and maintain my body hair and have had no real issues. The blades strike a good balance between safety and sharpness, being sharp enough to cut through even very fine hairs, but not being so sharp that you have worry too much about nicking yourself.

The only things that really let this product down are the adjustable combs, they are not really ideal for use on facial or body hair, they may perform better on head hair, but I have not tested this. I’ve found that where the provided fixed combs generally only takes one pass to get a fairly decent and consistent trim, the adjustable combs require 3 or 4 passes to achieve the same level of results. The available lengths on these combs are also clearly intended to maintain designer stubble, or body hair, rather than an actual beard, as the longest setting is only 21mm. My beard is quite short, tidy and regularly trimmed, but is still more that twice this length.

Overall I’m very pleased with this product, considering the number of functions it has, I’ve found that it performs extremely well in most circumstances and would certainly recommend this to anyone looking to downsize their collection of grooming products.

Review: Posh Chips, Brierley Hill

I've been a big fan of street food for a while now and I guess when I tried posh chips I probably had slightly inflated expectations, unfortunately, this has meant I ended up slightly disappointed.

I would like to clarify that It certainly wasn't the toppings that I found disappointing, they offer a really great selection, were good quality, had plenty of flavour and, although I found the beef on the British a little dry, were pretty damn impressive.

It was actually the chips that let them down, they seemed like run of the mill oven chips straight from the freezer. To their credit, they were soft, fluffy and clearly from the higher end of the quality spectrum, however, they suffered from the classic frozen chip issues of being quite dry and basically tasteless. For a place that clearly puts a lot of effort into other aspects of their food, and seeing as chips are literally their name, I expected them to be better.

With that said I really do recommend this place, it’s great to see a local fast food joint raising the bar and doing something a little bit different, but I obviously feel some improvements could be made.

Review: Hickory’s Smokehouse, Castle Bromwich

Earlier in the year I paid a visit to Hickory's Smokehouse, in Castle Bromwich, and to be honest I was quite impressed. Walking into the place the smell of smoking and grilling meat hits you instantly and within seconds my mouth was watering. We hadn’t booked a table and, with it being fairly busy, we had a slight wait, this wasn't unexpected and thanks to the layout of the restaurant it wasn’t too bad. The restaurant has been separated into two main areas, a larger eating area and a smaller bar area, we walked over to the bar, found ourselves a couple of stools and ordered drinks. The bar has a decent selection of good quality beers, ciders, spirits and soft drinks to keep you ticking over while you wait, in fact I’d go as far as saying the selection was better than a lot of pubs I’ve visited as of late.

After waiting for about 40 minutes a member of staff collected us from the bar, took us to our table, spent a few minutes explaining the menu and left us to our deliberations. As there was 2 of us, and it being the first time either of us had visited, we went for the Smokehouse Platter to get a little taste of a bit of everything and, as it turned out, we were in for quite the treat. The platter came with several types of ribs, smoked beef sausage, beef brisket, pulled pork and beans, fries, slaw and pickles, we split everything down the middle and shared it out onto two plates. All the meat was absolutely gorgeous, so much time and effort had clearly been put into preparing, smoking and cooking each different cut that I honestly can’t fault a thing with any of them, even the pork and beans was absolutely amazing and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending any of the meats we tried. The pickles and slaw were decent, they made a fairly good side and a reasonable counter point to the meat, though I would have personally preferred frickles or mac n’ cheese. Unfortunately they were slightly let down by the fries, they weren’t great, they were somewhat tasteless and greasy. They seemed like run of the mill frozen fries to me, the likes of which you’d expect to find in a chain pub, this is something that I found disappointing in a place that clearly puts so much effort into other aspects of their food and, seeing as the fries come with virtually every meal, I expected them to be better.

Overall I really do recommend this place, it’s a great place to eat with decent decor, a good atmosphere, a good menu and, for the most part, excellent quality food. Obviously some improvements could be made, but I left feeling full and happy with my menu choice.

Review: Tasty Plaice, Grand Central Birmingham

On Sunday afternoon I happened to be in Birmingham town centre, in Grand Central, waiting on a train home. Since I hadn't eaten anything all day, I decided to get some food and try out one of the many eateries in and around the local vicinity. Unfortunately the place I was really interested in hasn't opened yet so, as it had been several months since the last time I had takeaway fish and chips, I settled on Tasty Plaice.

Whilst I do have to compliment them on their service, it was fast, friendly and fairly efficient, the food itself was definitely disappointing. The first thing I noticed was that, despite being quite busy and assumingly having a high turnover, a lot of the food appeared to have been sat in the heated display for some time. This is never a good thing, it points to poor management, high food wastage and generally means that everything will be over cooked.

Ignoring my initial misgivings, and hoping the food in the display was only there for display purposes, I decided to go for haddock, chips and curry sauce. The chips themselves were black country style, meaning they're battered, and whilst this isn't inherently a bad thing, when done well black country chips are absolutely lovely, these were not good. They were cold, greasy and tasteless, they had clearly been being kept warm for quite some time as any crispness was long gone and it left them unpleasantly soggy. The curry was the only hot thing on the meal, unfortunately warmth was all it had going for it, it was watery and almost completely tasteless. The fish, the thing I had been looking forward to most, was by far the biggest disappointment. Happily the fish did not come out of display, however, when I cut into it, it was a very small, thin piece of fish coated in a lot of heavy batter, which was both soggy from standing and hard from being overcooked. The batter was so cold, hard and greasy that it was almost inedible, I ended up cutting a large proportion of the batter off and throwing it away. Inside the fish hadn't fared much better, it was almost cold and very dry. The fish had so little of the flavour that you would normally associate with fresh, fried haddock that I honestly couldn't have told what type of fish I was eating, it just tasted old.

Needless to say I won't be making a return visit and, as much as I liked the service, I won't be able to recommend this place to anyone. It definitely was not worth the nearly £7 it cost me for one of the worst portions of fish and chips I've had in a long time, I've had much better fish and chips at half this price.

Review: The Balti Garden, Castle Bromwich

Now this place was neither particularly good, nor was it particularly bad, it was just mediocre. I visited with pretty high expectations, having had it highly recommended by several local people, and I think this might be partially the reason why I found it somewhat lacking. Had I gone in just on a whim, not expecting good things, I think I would have had a better experience.

I went in with several people from the local area and we where literally the only customers in the place which, as it turned out, was probably a bit of a sign. Unfortunately the quietness meant that the waiter was super attentive, something which I found to be quite annoying. I do not need someone leaning over me so they can fill my glass with water from the carafe in the centre of the table, nor do I need them to rearrange the cutlery that I've just moved out of the way so I can have more space. Despite being slightly space invadery the service was good, the order was taken quickly and efficiently (even though one of our group ordered something that wasn't on the menu). The staff were friendly and polite and the food was cooked and delivered to the table quickly, as ordered, piping hot and all at the same time.

So far so good, unfortunately this is were it derailed ever so slightly. The food, whilst obviously freshly cooked, wasn't of the best quality. This isn't always an issue with Indian food, cheap meats and vegetables that have been well seasoned and cooked correctly will often make some of the best curries. Unfortunately this wasn't the case, I had a tandoori lamb biryani and it left a lot to be desired. The meat wasn't particularly well seasoned, it was cut into tiny pieces, meaning it had cooked too fast, and was somewhat chewy. The sauce and the rice weren't very flavourful and both seemed to be quite greasy.

Baring in mind this place was highly recommended, I left feeling a little let down and somewhat disappointed. I genuinely wanted it to be better, the restaurant itself was clean and seemed well looked after, the staff were attentive and friendly, it was the food itself that let it all down.

Jonathan Davis: Black Labyrinth

I'm not actually a huge Korn fan, I like their music but I can largely take it or leave it. With that said Jonathan Davis' new solo album, Black Labyrinth, is excellent. I've listened to it all the way through a couple of times now and I can honestly say that I've really enjoyed it. I feel like I've connected with it, in a way that I don't often do, and I think I can tell where he is coming from. Several of the tracks on this album are extremely emotionally charged and that comes across well in the lyrics, his voice and the musical styles he uses. This is a real departure from his work with Korn and I feel that is to his benefit, it portrays him in a completely different light and really showcases his versatility as an artist. Black Labyrinth is definitely one of my favourite albums this year.

Swadlincote International Food & Drink Festival

Last weekend (the 13th, 14th & 15th October) was Swadlincotes annual food and drink festival. I’ve been to a few localish food fairs and festivals over the last few months, most notably the monthly Bustler street food market in Derby, and I’ve had some pretty good experiences and enjoyed a really nice variety of decent quality foods and drinks. Barring that, and the fact that this years festival was supposed to be bigger and better than previous years, in mind I had fairly high hopes for the Swadlincote food and drink festival. Unfortunately after visiting the festival and spending an hour or so wandering around taking in the sights, sounds and smells I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed.

There was a fair number of stalls, I definitely couldn’t argue with the turnout, however rather than there being a huge variety of different foods and drinks available there was just a plethora of same old, same old. There was 4 different stalls literally just offering roast pork cobs, with little to no variation between each stall, and it was the same for cheap frozen “gourmet” burgers, “premium” hot dogs, noodles etc. This is what the bulk of the festival was made up of and it appeared to be what the organisers had given priority to. These stalls seemed to have been given the largest pitches right in the center of the market, where they would get the highest footfall.

That’s not to say that there wasn’t a few good stalls, offering something a little different or of a higher quality, but these had been pushed out onto the fringes of the festival, some situated on smaller side streets with very little space and considerably lower footfall. In my opinion these are stalls that the festival should have been about, they should have been show cased and given pride of place. A food and drink festival should be about celebrating variety and celebrating artisanal food & drink producers, not pushing the same old mass produced thing and branding it as “gourmet” or “premium”.

Review: The Cricketts Inn, Acresford

The Cricketts Inn
Burton Road, Acresford, Swadlincote DE12 8AP

From the outside this is a nice looking pub, clean, tidy, well kept and set in beautiful rural surroundings. Inside it is a fairly standard looking country pub, rustic and welcoming, if a little bit on the scruffy side.

I arrived early and sat at the bar to have a couple of drinks, despite the pub not being particularly busy, the bar clearly hadn’t been cleaned properly in some time and had become very sticky and was giving off a smell of stale beer. Being a Marston’s affiliated country pub I was expecting a reasonable selection of ales, disappointingly they only had two ales on tap, one of which was Pedigree and the other was Lancaster Bomber. I ordered myself a pint of Pedigree and took a long swig the beer was definitely off, it tasted of nothing but sulphur, I didn’t drink the rest. I mentioned it to one the girls serving, she seemed not to care at all and didn’t do anything to rectify the situation, again this was somewhat disappointing.

After about ten minutes they called us through and we were seated, I ordered a starter of black pudding bhajis. When they were brought out they were nicely presented and looked freshly cooked, I cut into them they were still hot and nicely crisp. They had a very pleasant texture and taste though they didn’t seem to contain an awful lot of black pubbing, which being black pudding bhajis, was a bit of a let down.

Shortly after the starters had been cleared away they started bringing out the mains, I had ordered a 16oz ribeye steak, chips and grilled mushrooms, I asked for the steak to be cooked rare. I was glad to see the chips were not frozen chips and had definitely been hand cut, they were nice but nothing spectacular and the portion size left a lot to be desired. The steak was what really let them down in my eyes, it was nowhere the size or thickness that a 16oz should be, I would put the size somewhere between the 10 and 12oz mark. When I cut into it, it was definitely not rare, it was quite dry and after the first bite I could tell it had not been seasoned at all. Because of how my earlier issue had been dealt with by the staff, I chose not to raise it and continued to eat. Fortunately one of the group I was with had a pot of black peppercorn sauce and was willing to share, this actually improved the meal enough for me to finish the plate.

Some of the group chose to have deserts, I decided not to as nothing on the menu really appealed to me and I had been a little bit put off by how disappointed I was by the rest of the meal.

Unfortunately I had heard good things prior to eating at The Cricketts Inn, coupled with the fact that menu read very well and the prices weren’t particularly cheap, I went in with high hopes and I think this is partially why I was so disappointed with my experience. The food itself wasn’t actually that bad but it also wasn’t particularly good, it was disappointingly average.

Review: Beard Lab Darwin Beard Butter

I've been a regular customer of Beard Lab for a few years now, I've got a fairly decent collection of their products and without exception they're all fresh, interesting and great quality. So when I found out they were re-branding and bringing out a whole new range of products I felt like I needed to get myself at least one of the new range to round out my collection. I already own a good selection of different oils so their Darwin Beard Butter seemed like the obvious choice, something new and completely different from any other product I've used before.

Now this is no cheap and cheerful balm, this is a premium beard care product and that is obvious from the outset. The very first thing that you notice is the quality of the container, there is no cheap plastic tub or a dented little metal tin, this product comes in a sturdy, dark tinted glass jar with a nice screw on lid and it certainly wouldn't look out of place in any man's wash kit.

Opening the jar for the first time and you're immediately hit by the smell of fresh citrus that fades out to a gentle sweetness reminiscent of Opal Fruits (or for those of you under 30, Starburst). The butter itself looks fairly similar to a balm and even has a similar feel and consistency to a balm when you first touch it, but that really is where the similarity starts to end. With a balm you usually have to pre-warm the container and even then you often have to work the balm with your fingers to get it to melt, this stuff starts to melt the moment in comes into contact with your skin and by the time you've spread it over your fingers it's completely melted and ready to apply. As you start to massage the butter into your beard you get occasional wafts of the very pleasing citrus smell, this smell lingers in your beard for the better part of a day. The butter itself is very easy to apply and is quite easily absorbed by the hair, leaving your beard feeling soft but not at all greasy as can sometimes happen with oils. Whilst I've found this definitely gives your beard more hold than an oil, it doesn't give you anywhere near the stiffness of a beard balm and in my eyes that is actually a good thing because balms can often leave your beard feeling fairly coarse and a little unpleasant. For me this product really shines when you wash your beard the following day as it almost feels like you've conditioned it, it really leaves your beard feeling amazing and not all dry.

I have to say overall I am very pleased with this product and I'm more than happy to have a couple of jars of this in my beard product collection.

Review: The Wheel Inn, Ticknall

The Wheel Inn
50 Main St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JZ

Having passed through Ticknall many, many times I have often thought what a lovely, inviting looking pub this place looks. As I was planning on spending some time walking locally, I thought it would be an ideal place to stop for lunch and start my walk from. Inside the place is gorgeous, clean, tidy and very nicely decorated, making good use of its many period features.

Despite there being many free tables, none of which were reserved, I had to wait to be seated. Unfortunately there is no real area set aside for waiting so your choices are standing around in the bar area, where people are sitting eating, or standing in front of the main entrance. I opted to stand awkwardly in the bar area, where I could at least get a drink.

Generally in a country pub of this style and supposed level of quality I'd expect to see a reasonable range of beers on offer, besides the usual awful lagers, unfortunately this is not the case, the beers on offer here are so run of the mill they're not even worth mentioning.

After a brief wait of 10 minutes or so I was taken upstairs to a, largely empty but very well decorated, dining room and shown to my seat. Looking over the menu the food choices seemed of a slightly higher end than other places I've visited locally and obviously the prices were higher to match. I ordered battered cod with hand cut chips and minted mushy peas, then sat back looking forward to what should be a very nice meal.

After about 30 minutes my food was bought out and my first reaction was one of disappointment, the fish was absolutely tiny and the portion of chips, though clearly hand cut and fried, was very small. I shrugged it off, opting for the mind set of "if the food is good quality then this could still be a very nice meal." The chips did not disappoint, they were lovely, crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and tasted exactly how proper chips should taste. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the fish, not only was it very small, but the batter was quite thick, not at all crispy and didn't have much of a flavour at all. The fish its self had that fishy smell and taste that speaks of it being not particularly fresh, that said it was perfectly cooked. The peas were quite simply forgettable, slightly over cooked and over minted.

Overall not the best experience ever, not entirely great service, a lacklustre beer selection and food that simply did not live up to the price tag. There are better, cheaper places to eat in the local vicinity, though apparently it closes early on a Saturday.

Review: Cherry Tree Farm, Willington

Cherry Tree Farm
Etwall Rd, Willington DE65 6DX

From the outside this just looks like a run of the mill chain pub/carvery, a look that definitely caries through to the interior, that said the place is clean, tidy and seems fairly well looked after.

This is my mothers favourite place to eat out so I have visited on several occasions, unfortunately on almost every occasion something has let it down. During in the most recent visit the service was very slow, it took nearly 10 minutes to get served at the bar. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't the only person standing at it, then once I finally got served I had to send one of the drinks back because it tasted foul.

The menu actually has a fairly decent selection available, I chose a chilli burger with chips. After nearly an hour's wait the food finally arrived and the disappointingly frozen chips (how hard is it to hand cut and fry a potato?) had gone cold, the chilli had virtually no meat or beans in it, and the burger was so dry I had to buy another drink to wash it down. I brought my issues up with a staff member who didn't really seem to care and merely offered to take my plate away to replace the cold chips, I declined the offer as cold chips aren't as bad as a cold burger.

Overall a very disappointing experience, had it been a one off I would have been inclined to chalk it up to a bad day, but this was the third consecutive occasion that I've been disappointed by this place.

Review: The Staff of Life, Ticknall

The Staff of Life
7 High St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JH

Firstly this is a truly gorgeous pub, set in equally gorgeous surroundings, I loved the place before stepping through the door.

The inside is just as nice as the out, clean, tidy and tastefully decorated. The pub is separated into several cosy rooms, each furnished with chunky, rustic furniture that suits the pubs country ascetic. Only having a fairly small bar the pub has a limited selection of beers, however the ones it does have are good quality and well kept.

We went on a Sunday afternoon so I chose to have the 2 course set menu, I had soup of the day starter followed by a roast beef dinner. The soup was spiced parsnip and it was beautiful, nicely seasoned with a rich creamy flavour and served with warm bread and butter, genuine comfort food. The roast beef was served with roast potatoes, a large homemade Yorkshire pudding and plenty of proper beef gravy. The beef itself was locally sourced and really good quality, the potatoes were crisp but still nice and fluffy inside and the Yorkshire pudding was clearly homemade and just purely epic. The meal comes with a side of seasonal veg, which unfortunately was disappointing as it was overcooked, a bit flavourless and slightly cold.

Whilst the pudding menu looked amazing I was far too full to actually try one. Overall the experience was excellent, the food was good and the atmosphere in the pub was very welcoming. I am looking forward to going back during the week or on a Saturday to enjoy the standard daily menu.

Review: The John Thompson, Ingleby

The John Thompson Inn & Brewery
Ingleby, Derby DE73 7HW

Another gorgeous pub in gorgeous surroundings. I was using this as a starting & finishing point for a country walk and thought it would be rude not to call in and have at least a pint before setting off. From the outside the pub looks like a proper country pub and I'm happy to say the inside is equally as charming and rustic. The pub actually has its own brewery so has a reasonable selection of small batch brewed beer available on tap, I opted for one of the pubs own brews and found it to be very pleasant indeed.

Whilst they do serve food I didn't try any on this occasion so am unable to comment on the quality, however if it's anything like the rest of the pub I'd expect it to be nice, homemade fayre.

Review: The Exeter Arms, Derby

The Exeter Arms
Exeter Pl, Derby DE1 2EU

This place is a diamond in the rough, the surrounding area of this pub is run down and somewhat grotty, please do not let this put you off. Step inside and you're almost in another world, this is an old, well loved and beautiful building with big old oak beams, open fires, cast iron stoves and gorgeous, chunky rustic furniture. Warm, friendly and bustling, yet somehow there's still an air of relaxation about the place.

The bar is small but well stocked with a decent selection of real ales, the staff really know how to keep bar, the beer is excellent. The food is second to none, the prices are ever so slightly higher than some of the other places in town, but trust me the quality of the food you're getting for your money is well worth it.

My friend and I shared 'The Chip Tank' chips topped with cheese, bacon, sausage, chorizo, black pudding and jalapenos, between us and we were both blown away. This is a massive portion of chips, that are clearly home made and are absolutely incredible. The toppings aren't just a small scattering on top of the chips, they're mixed in throughout, every chip is almost guaranteed to have some topping with it.

I am seriously impressed with this place and I really can't wait to go back and try some of their main menu and sample more of their ale, definitely, definitely worth a visit or several.

Review: The Forge, Derby

The Forge Bar & Gourmet Grill
1-6 Blacksmiths Yard, Sadler Gate, Derby DE1 3PD

The restaurant itself is a little hidden away so wasn't overly busy for a Friday night. Inside it's clean, bright and nicely laid out with a good number of tables for a fairly small place. The menu isn't overly priced and has a a fairly wide variety of items, including a couple of vegetarian options. The beer menu is impressive, though don't be surprised if they don't have your first or even second choice of drink.

After ordering, the food was brought out to the table fairly quickly. The food itself was of good quality, the chips were all clearly hand cut and nicely seasoned, the burgers looked to be hand made, had a really nice flavour and a decent texture. I personally prefer my burgers a little pink in the middle and although the burger wasn't pink, it wasn't overcooked either.

I'd personally recommend The Forge as a nice place to get a decent quality, not overly expensive meal and would happily visit again.

Forget George's Marvelous Medicine…

His fish and chips are the real treat.



We arrived at George's as few minutes early, but, we were quickly seated and served by a polite and professional server who was happy to allow us a few minutes to look over the menu without seeming neglectful. We decided to share a squid ring starter with a small side of sweet potato fries, the starter arrived very quickly and was a nice size portion for a starter. Though the squid rings were ever so slightly chewy, the squid was obviously very fresh and tasted absolutely beautiful. The accompanying sweet potato fries were perfectly cooked and very well seasoned. A nice crispness to the outer coating with a soft, sweet centre that just melted in the mouth.

Our appetites suitably whetted by the starter we moved on to our main courses. I had ordered twice fried chips, battered haddock and mushy peas, Kelly ordered twice fried chips with "proper" scampi. The first thing I noticed when the mains arrived was Kelly's scampi, it really was "proper" scampi, absolutely no sign of the frozen scampi you see almost universally. These were real langoustine tails in the lightest of breadcrumb coatings and they looked and tasted amazing. Usually when we eat at a fish and chip restaurant Kelly will eat a few pieces of scampi and most of her chips, I've literally never seen her eat a full portion of scampi before, but she managed to eat all of this (With the exception of the one I stole for tasting purposes). Strangely, for me the real highlight of the meal was the chips. They we absolutely perfect, soft and fluffy in the middle without being dry or overly greasy. A beautiful crisp skin with just a hint of caramelisation on the edges giving the chips a slight sweetness, which was set off perfectly by a splash of malt vinegar and a liberal grinding of seaweed salt. The haddock was lovely a light, crisp batter full of perfectly white, moist, translucent flakes of fresh fish. No overtly fishy smells or flavours, it tasted purely of the sea as all fresh fish should. I can honestly say I have very rarely had fish and chips of this quality, only two other places have matched it and both are one the coast. The only two places that, in my experience, compete are the Magpie Café in Whitby and the Blue Peter Inn in Polperro, though the Blue peter narrowly piped both George's and the Magpie (I still love you Magpie) to the post for it's excellent selection of ales and truly incredible location.

Hoppy Christmas - Part 3

So I’ve been a little lax in writing my reviews, it’s now boxing day and I feel as though I should do what I intended and finish writing. This is part 3 of my Hoppy Christmas calendar reveiw and it covers the 14th right through to the 24th of December. Please watch part 5, 6 & 7 of my unboxing videos on the links below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exhCXQgTtj0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8CChg_Diqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx5eGpy7ux0

No.14 I Sea Santa - Brains - A dark brown beer, smells of spices and treacle with a hint of citrus.
No.15 Xmas Chaos - Anarchy Brew Co - A seasonal Christmas beer with a distinctly Christmasy flavour, rum, raisins and spices.
No.16 Earl Grey PA - Atlantic Brewery - A cloudy IPA with a citrus flavour and a hint of bergamot.
No.17 Calypso - Siren Craft Brew - A citrus heavy flavour with a bitter hoppy kick.
No.18 The Honey Ale - Hiver - A gorgoeus deep brown ale with honey sweetness and a slight hoppy bitterness.
No.19 Pils - Fourpure Brewing Co - A German pilsner style beer, floral smell with a crisp refreshing flavour.
No.20 London Pale Ale - Meantime Brewing - A traditional pale ale with a decent amount of bitterness and a citrus flavour.
No.21 Hix’s Darkside - The Unseen University Boathouse Brewery - A very smooth oatmeal stout, complex flavours with a decent amount of sweetness.
No.22 DOA IPA - Los Muertos Brewing - A hoppy IPA with plenty of bitterness and floral notes, just the right amount of sweetness to make it balanced.
No.23 Easy IPA - Flying Dow Brewery - A light, flasvoursome beer with a citrus taste and a light spicyness.
No.24 Red Nose Reinbeer - Cotleigh Brewery - A seasonal beer, deep copper coloured, richly flavoured with hints of chocolate and a toffee sweetness.

Advent Calendar - Part 6