Chocolate Tasting Club by Hotel Chocolat

We have joined the chocolate tasting club where they regularly send you a box of chocolate to taste.
You can choose the frequency - from every month to 12 weeks?
It is not cheap though ( unless you take up the new customer offer and watch out for member only offers for expiring chocolate! )
Around 20 pounds a box including delivery.  You get around 30 chocolates in the box.
You can choose based on your preference whether you want dark / milk / fortified / classic (ie mixed)
Each time with a different theme e.g. winter pudding, summer pudding, Christmas collection etc.
It comes with a menu explaining the ingredients /  background of each chocolate and you can score them by posting them back the form / online : p
You get newsletter from time to time with chocolate ranking : )

http://www.chocs.co.uk/6/our-story

I have to say the chocolate I've tasted here is a lot better than the more well known brand e.g. Godiva
There are some really interesting flavours e.g. black pepper praline! which I really enjoyed.

L'Ortalan, Reading

We went there for their set lunch offer with my parents during their visit

http://www.lortolan.com/Du_Jour

It's a great deal - 31.50 pound for 3 courses 

Started  with some canape - deep fried fish goujon and popcorn  - it's alright.... 

Bread basket

Pea and cucumber soup

TUNA - Sesame crusted tuna, watermelon, wasabi, kecap manis

It's nice but I'm not sure the watermelon goes well with tuna

CASSOULET - Cassoulet terrine, haricot beans, Morteau sausage

The terrine was a little hard and boring for me

PORK - Pork loin, squash, sage gnocchi, amaretti

Nice and moist pork loin

Could do with a few more gnocchi :p 

BOUILLABAISSE - Marinated sea bream, fennel and orange salad, bouillabaisse jus

CHOCOLATE - Madirofolo chocolate tart, white coffee ice cream, Hebridean sea salt caramel

The highlight of the meal... I kept on stealing a few spoonfuls from my husband.. muaahahahahah

 LEMON - Lemon macaroon, kalamansi purée, Italian meringue, blueberry sorbet

Looks stunning but the macaroon isn't the best I've hard. a bit dry.  

I wish I ordered the chocolate one instead :p 

Overall, it was a decent lunch but not very exciting.  

There are much better Michelin star lunch deal in london but not so much in this area ... 

I probably won't go again though...

Cliveden

We have got the national trust membership this year so we have been exploring quite a few different parks while the sun is out! 

Cliveden is one of the most magnificent park we have been.  

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/

At the lobby

Some people are having afternoon tea there

Fountain of Love 

Beautiful garden

We have stayed for lunch at the terrace dining room.  

We didn't book in advance so we didn't get a table next to the window with the garden view.  

It costed £50 for 3 course lunch at the weekend - which makes sense for the location but so-so for the food

http://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/restaurant/terrace-dining-room.aspx

Starter 

Ham hock terrine - it was ok

Mushroom Vol au vent with poached egg

Pan fried sea bream with grilled vegetable

Lamb with ratatoulle 

Pre dessert

Chocolate and passionfruit tart - it was gooooood :)

I was going to have eton mess instead but saw this walking past when they were serving the table next to us. 

Couldn't resist :)

Petit four - custard tart and jelly

The food was beautifully presented but tastewise, it was very mediocre.  

Do go for the atmosphere and setting though.  

Tom Aikens

To celebrate our one year anniversary :) we went to Tom Aiken's restaurant at Chelsea. 

After watching the Great British Menu for the Comic relief, we really wanted to try it out.  

However, they've decided to stop serving that end of April :(   

really wanted to try his winning Chicken starter dish and the hand dived scallops.  

Oh well.... 

We opted for the 7 course tasting menu instead. 

Canape - chicken skin profiteroles on the side, with pea and mint veloute served in an egg shell. 

Beautifullll presentation :) 

A collection of bread (which we managed to eat them all) 

Freshly baked - warm and soft 

which includes things like onion bacon bread (which tasted very cakey), Polenta bread, Milk bun (very moist) 

served with bacon butter, mushroom butter and butter with seasalt 

First course - smoked eel with watercress emulsion, compressed cucumber, smoked apple cubes and egg yolk crumbles 

the eel is a little oversmoked - too overpowering, covering the other flavours

White asparagus and white asparagus icecream with grated  frozen foie gras mousse on top. 

Doesn't look like a lot of foie gras but you can definitely taste it in every bite. 

 

Baked Scallop with yeast potato, osso buco, toasted bread soup

The flavour of the toasted bread soup was very Japanese I find. 

I thought those were little pearl barley - but it's yeast potato apparently :p

HOUSEMADE RICOTTA green olive juice, honey jelly, pine nuts

This was the most interesting dish.  very light

Thin slices of homemade ricotta with little jelly, cumbly cheese powder in between. 

have never tasted anything like that.

can't remember what fish it was.... 

UDALE LAMB LOIN creamed polenta, cipollini onion, dandelion

love the little polenta croquette.. 

there's also a little "ravioli" stuffed with little small bits of minced lamb

PIGLET braised & roasted belly, baked aubergine, smoked apple

The pork belly was soft and it goes very well with the baked aubergine mousse.  

PISTACHIO parfait, pistachio cake, pistachio praline

we didn't like the coconut dessert so we asked to have it changed.  

layers of pistachio praline, cake and pafait is separated by a thin slice of white chocolate. 

very light and yummm 

such a delight :)  

beautifully presented. 

loveeee them all 

Bar at the Top of Gherkin

Amazing view of london 

Fish & Chip 

Small portion and not very exciting.... 

Steak sandwich

It costs around 15-20 quid per person (more if you have alcohol)
The food was very ordinary..
You can only go up if you know someone who's a member/works in the building

Grapevine, Odiham

A family run little bistro on  Odiham high street - a little village near Hook/Basingstoke.  

We were there for lunch.
It offers a very good value 3 course lunch - for only 17.95.
with 5 options per course to choose from

Starters

Tandoori spiced fillet of Seabass with tempura crispy onions and coriander yoghurt

beautifully presented

seabass perfectly cooked with flavoursome spicy crust

Pan fried breast of Pigeon with barkham blue risotto, tomao and smoked paprika oil

Pigeon soft and pink 

he risotto was a little overcooked for me but still very nice

 Main

Slow roasted shoulder of lamb, salsa verde, butternut squash puree and fondant potato

Passion fruit creme brulee and rhubarb Ice cream

El Castello, Odiham

Nice authentic Italian restaurant at Odiham high street