06/11/2024

Eating Out Recommendations November 2024

I’d love to be able to write full blog reviews of all my eating out recommendations. But, timewise, it’s not possible. So, here’s the latest of my occasional round-up posts featuring some of the independent restaurants, pubs, takeaways, and cafés I’ve enjoyed recently.

Highlights include lots of great seafood (on holiday in north Wales and at a new venue closer to home), brilliant breakfasts at a café supporting the community, weekday lunch at a former country house, and terrific Thai takeaway.

COMPLETING THE SET AT DYLAN’S IN NORTH WALES

The start of last month saw me having a week away in north Wales, including my first visit to lovely Conwy. As well as enjoying the bustling town with its impressive castle and Thomas Telford’s awe-inspiring suspension bridge, it gave me the opportunity to complete the full set of having eaten at all four of Dylan’s restaurants.

Dylan’s is a family of four restaurants, and like those where I’ve eaten on previous holidays (Menai Bridge, Criccieth, and Llandudno), the Conwy menu features locally sourced produce, including lots of great seafood.

I started with one of the specials: crab nachos (£10.95). This was a trio of puffy, homemade-looking paprika nachos topped with rich crab. Cutting through was a punchy lime and cumin dressing and mango pico di gallo. Bringing a kick of chilli were blobs of sriracha mayo.

For my main, I picked perfectly cooked seared scallops (£14.95). These came with tangy piccalilli, pickled cauliflower florets, a pea puree, and crispy Parma ham. This was actually a starter, so I added some spicy seasoned fries (£5.75) and a dressed mixed salad (£6.95) which was very generously sized.

My partner ID had the same starter as me, but chose another of the specials for his main course. This was beautiful baked cod loin (£23.95) served on mashed potato and a tasty mussel fricassee, topped with crispy leeks.

For dessert, we both had a creamy Basque cheesecake; they’re the ones without a base but with a caramelized top. Ours came with a scoop of delicious lemon and blueberry gelato, and blueberry sauce too (£9.50).

If you’re ever in north Wales, I can now highly recommend all of Dylan’s restaurants. They’re in some lovely buildings and often with great views. All have an inside dog friendly area too.

PERFECT SEASIDE FISH & CHIPS

If you haven’t sat watching grey sea and grey skies in the rain, eating fish and chips, have you really had a British seaside holiday?

We always have fish and chips at least once when we’re away for a week. But we don’t just pick the first place we come across. No, we do our research and seek out the very best. After all, the gulf between bad, ok, and brilliant fish and chips really is enormous. In fact, we take our fish and chips so seriously we keep salt and vinegar in the car to perfectly season them!

Holidaying on the north Wales coast last month, our research of the local area suggested Rob’s Fish and Chips in Pensarn, Abergele. Which turned out to be spot on. As I hope you can see from my photo above, their cod and chips were absolutely perfect.

The chunky fish was freshly cooked and nicely moist. The batter was thin and crispy, with no soggy bits. As for the chips, well I doubt you’d find a better chip shop chip. Just like the fish, they’d been in the fryer for just the right amount of time and were bang on. Sitting in the car, looking at the sea through a rain-speckled windscreen, I ate every single scrap.

When I posted about it on social media, two different people from my neck of the woods told me they always used to get fish and chips from Rob’s when on holiday there. Incredibly, one of them first went to Rob’s in 1978. How wonderful they’re still turning out great food!

SEAFOOD PIZZA WITH A WELSH TWIST

Just like another favourite British holiday destination, Northumberland, I think Wales has some of the best seafood (and castles!) in the UK. During my latest stay, one of the memorable meals I had was a seafood pizza with a particularly Welsh combination.

We’d gone to Caernarfon for the day, another attractive town I’d somehow never visited before, and stopped for lunch at The Four Alls. This bar has a smallish but tempting menu of tapas and small plates, pizza, flatbreads, salads, and mussels, plus sides including loaded chips and fries.

I began with pork belly bites (£12). Piled up in an attractive pot, these were chunky cubes of locally sourced meat that was soft and tender. They were coated in a sweet (but not too sweet), tangy soy-ginger glaze and came with salad garnish.

For my main, I chose the seafood pizza. I thought this was very good value at just £11.95.

As well as king prawns and mussels was the classic Welsh pairing of cockles and laverbread.

I loved that the cockles appeared to have been fried separately in a tempura-like batter before being scattered over the finished pizza. Little dabs of laverbread (made from seaweed) were dotted about, its salty, seaside flavour acting as a punchy seasoning. For me, these two extra touches really made this a stand-out pizza.

BRILLIANT BREAKFAST AT A CAFE SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY

On the last morning of a seaside holiday, before setting off for home, we always take the dog for a final walk on the beach. This time, we went to the impressive modern harbour at Rhyl where there’s some great views to be had. There’s also a boardwalk through the dunes and a big sandy beach, so it was perfect.

After the walk, I ate one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a while. And at a venue that helps support the local community. As you’d expect from the name, Caffi Hwb Yr Harbwr – Harbour Hub Cafe sits right on the harbour.

I had the medium sized Harbour Master’s Breakfast at £8.95. It comes with coffee or tea, including a good range of herbal and fruit flavours.

Everything was cooked perfectly and the ingredients tasted like quality stuff. I always think the sausages on a breakfast are a good indicator of standards – and these were among the nicest I’ve ever had on a café breakfast.

You can get a large, small or veggie version of the breakfast, and there’s baps, sandwiches, baguettes, and things on toast too. Later on, you can get simple lunches like baked potatoes and sandwiches.

As if that wasn’t enough, the café is a social enterprise company from CoOptions who create jobs and a wide range of opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

WEEKDAY LUNCH AT A COUNTRY HOUSE

With other half having a day off work, I decided to join him and the dog for a walk followed by lunch at The Grosvenor Restaurant near Cheadle. Unusually, it’s set in a lovely restored country house in the grounds of Hales Hall Caravan and Camping Park.

If it’s your first visit, come up the main drive (ignoring any signs asking you to Report to Reception or similar – that’s for campers) to the building pictured below. Parking is just out of shot to the left of the photo.

I’ve previously written a full review of dinner at The Grosvenor, and their belly-busting breakfast appeared in my July 2024 eating out recommendations. But this was the first time I’d been for lunch.

To start, we both had the pan-fried king oyster mushroom (£8). Browned to an appetizing golden colour, it was meaty-textured and came with fresh and pickled shimeji mushrooms. Other goodies included pleasantly salty sauteed samphire, crispy toasted hazelnuts, and a beautifully flavoured truffle aioli. Altogether, these were a gorgeous combination of flavours.

I don’t know if this happens to every couple who’ve been together a ridiculously long time (35 years next year in our case) but, more and more, we end up choosing the same dishes. So, as well as the mushroom starter, we both went for chicken Kiev/Kyiv (£17) as our main course.

As so often happens, the garlic and parsley butter had melted out of the chicken breast. Happily though, it had been retrieved and put into a pot. This meant I could dunk the meat and very good chips into it. For my taste, the chicken was slightly overcooked. But I still enjoyed it. I also liked that we got the wing too: crispy and sitting on a bed of soft leeks in a creamy sauce flavoured with bacon.

As well as the a la carte menu we ate from, there’s a lunchtime deal of 2 courses for £15.95, or £12.95 for those aged 60 and over.

Having the dog with us, we ate in the dog friendly library room. You’ll find The Grosvenor and lots more dog friendly eating out recommendations in Staffordshire here.

THAI TAKEAWAY

I feel I ought to give my apologies to long-time followers for the next recommendation. Because I’ve probably posted almost the exact same meal about half a dozen times. But sometimes, on a Friday night, I just want to order takeaway that I know will be good and I’ll enjoy. Which makes Thai Siam in Leek a regular favourite.

Last month, other half and I had our regular favourites and they were as delicious as ever.

We began with the mixed starter each (£8.04). This has 6 items plus chilli sauce, peanut sauce and two kinds of prawn cracker. You get a veggie spring roll, satay gai (juicy chicken satay skewer), tord man pla (delicious, bouncy-textured fish cake flavoured with red curry paste), luke chi gai (crispy coated chicken ball), tung thong (wonton parcel filled with crab and chicken), and the best prawn toast ever (generously topped thick baguette rather measly sliced bread).

We followed that little lot with three shared dishes: gang dang slightly hot red curry with veg and tofu (£7.93), pad kee mao rice noodles stir fried with egg, green beans, chilli, basil, spicy sauce, and king prawns (£8.95), and steamed jasmine coconut rice (£3.04).

NEW SEAFOOD BAR IN BUXTON

I started this round-up of recent eating out recommendations with fantastic seafood, and I’m going to end it that way too.

Even before GoFish Seafood, Bar & Grill opened last month, I predicted I’d be visiting Buxton a whole lot more. And when I nipped over to take a look a few days after the opening, I was so glad I did.

The first thing you see as you go in is a fish counter with a fantastic range of fresh seafood to buy and cook at home. GoFish is the sister company to highly regarded RGM Seafood, so it’s no surprise that it’s top quality. There’s also a chiller with a selection of game and prepared foods like pâté. I came away with halibut (see how I cooked it here), cod cheeks, bream, smoked haddock, and haggis.

But this post is all about my eating out recommendations, right? Well, beyond the seafood counter is a large seating area, bar, and open kitchen. On the day of my visit they were serving breakfasts and a small lunch menu to eat in or take away.

I chose Whitby wholetail scampi (£6) and a buttered roll (£1). The scampi were large, juicy, crisp-crumbed, and an absolute bargain at that price. With my partner, I shared a large portion of very good chips (£4.50).

He had the superb, crisp-battered coley, another bargain at just £5.50, and tangy homemade tartare sauce (£1.95).

Hugely impressed by this friendly place, the quality of what I ate, and the goodies I brought home to cook, I’m really looking forward to going back.

Since my visit, GoFish has also opened up in the evenings as a fully fledged restaurant with an extended menu as well as take away menu. The plan is to eventually supplement this with daily specials. For now, I’m leaving things to settle in before I visit again and, hopefully, write a full review of GoFish. Watch this space!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my latest eating out recommendations and been inspired to try or revisit some for yourself.

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MENUS & PRICES CORRECT AT TIME OF WRITING