Dining "In and Out"

I know those terms have specific meaning for people in the military, but that’s not my usage here.  We stayed two nights in all our hotels, and generally on the first night we had a group dinner served in and by the hotel, and the next night we were “on our own” for dinner.  I kind of like that idea, it gives you a chance to find a local spot and not be bound by the hotel.  I did some research on each of our locations (except London, I threw in the towel there) so had picked out a restaurant for the “dining out” nights.  Guess we’ll kind of separate in and out…

Dining “In” (the hotels)

Most of the hotels offered us a prix fixe menu, that is, you made your selection from two or three items offered for first course, main course, and dessert.  I would say the food was generally good, some better than others.  Our hotel near Oxford probably did the best job (I had duck as I recall).  Of course we were a “party” of forty or so, so putting out plated dinners for that many at one time was daunting to some.  Others handled it better.  One place really surprised me. 

Our hotel in Harrogate was a lovely, venerable, classic old 19^th Century hotel, with large comfortable rooms, properly called “The Majestic Hotel”. The Majestic Hotel has a long history in Harrogate and was a popular choice for Victorian society to relax after a hard days bathing.  Harrogate has had a long history of catering to those with resources, so to speak.  It was generally a place where people came to “take the waters” as cures for various maladies.  So the place was geared to serve people in a grand manner.  The dining room reflects the style

As well as the menu, which offered more choices than a lot of the other hotels

So we were prepared for a pretty good dinner. (beware, Rant looming). I think we had four or five tables devoted to our group, so there were eight or up to ten diners at each.  Unfortunately, there were only two (?) servers assigned which kind of stretched things out..  Okay, so after some chit chat our table was ready to order with everybody's choices made in each category, so there’s about 28 selections or so.  The young man listened very carefully, writes on his little pad, and moves around the table.  Fine.

Time goes by, and eventually somebody arrives at the table with a dish in each hand, strides up to the table and says in an outdoor voice:  “GOAT CHEESE TART?!”, somebody meekly raises their hand and the dish is delivered.  Then: “MELON?!!”  This was repeated for each of the 28 dishes brought to the table!!  Excuse me?  Okay, maybe I can forgive not serving the ladies first, but this isn’t hard.  You come up to the table (table number one, two, whatever) you write that at the top of your pad.  Then you start:  “lady in blue sweater – number one”, take the order, move left, “ number two – soup; salmon; cheesecake” and on around the table.  Nothing makes a great dining experience like having “SALMON” shouted at you.  The kitchen should know table one needs starters of three soups, two melons, and two tarts.  Server leaving kitchen with dishes should know he’s going to position four, five and six and what dishes correspond.  Basic stuff.

 

Speaking of SALMON!!:

 

 

Anyway, I expected better service from a classy hotel..  Others handled it.

Dining “out”

There were three cities in which we were “on our own”, plus both nights in London, which I decided was too much work.  So I had to find restaurants in Harrogate, Oxford, and Salisbury.  I think I did pretty well.  Finding a restaurant in a foreign or strange city with no first hand reports is always iffy, but if you sort of scan sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Zagat (to some extent) you can get a feel for places.  Of course there are reviews for any given place that range from “worst meal of my life” to “best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth”, but if you read twenty or so you get a general feel for a place.  Always have to pay attention to dates, some reviews are months old.  I guess there are people who eat to write a review because places like TA have day old entries.

Not sure I want to drag you through all three adventures here, but since we’re in Harrogate I’ll start there.  A bit of a bother is that staying in a hotel means you have to taxi or find something close.  Searching around, I found a restaurant within walking distance from the Majestic, called “BED” (Burnsey, Eat, Drink – Dave Burns is the owner).  The food generally received glowing reviews, although the website is a bit cutesy, as is the menu with catchy little things like “Fishy on yer Dishy” for the seafood selections, one of the beef entrée’s was “Beef Strogenough”.  That kind of thing.  Anyway, it was an upstairs/downstairs kind of place with that old world model of you sit in reception, look at the menu, have a cocktail before going to your table.  Speaking of cocktails, I learned something.  It was the end of a long day (and nearing the end of our trip) and the bar looked quite well stocked

So I asked if they had cocktails.  Why, yes sir, we do!  Great! I’ll have a Martini!! Oh, sorry sir, no can do.  Hmm.. I thought that was a cocktail.  Well, he said, he can do a Gin and Tonic, or whiskey and water, but not a Martini..  Seems there are regulations that prevent mixing two spirits (like, say, in a Martini) and I never did quite get why he couldn’t do it, I think it was a matter of cost or preference.  So, it was Irish whiskey and a G&T for MFO.  And again we experienced the strange approach to alcohol in the UK.  If you ask for a whiskey on the rocks, the barkeep will produce a thimble from the bar, carefully fill it to the rim and pour it into the glass with MAYBE two ice cubes (if you asked for ice).   You have to be careful not to kill it in one gulp.  Over the course of the trip I learned to ask for a double straight away and nurse it.

Anyway, eventually the personable bar person (Burns?) asked about our order, and MFO decided on a (Lime Seared )Scallop starter followed by the Beef Strogenough;  I went with the “Schmoked Salmon” starter and “Our ‘Enri” which the menu describes as: “Leg of lamb, boned then filled with fresh mint, garlic and honey. Slow cooked and then put on a plate along with roasted new potatoes, creamed leeks and finished off with a rich lamb gravy. Knockout.”

For some reason a bottle of Rioja caught my eye, and turns out it went quite well..

The food arrived and it was VERY GOOD, despite the playful descriptions.  The lamb was expertly prepared.  I forbore pictures for once, but it was nicely presented, the right temperature and had great taste.  A few other of our tour group followed suit and were in the restaurant and one characterized her dish as the best fish she had ever had.  We finished our meal with a shared “Lemon Posset” and a Latte.

This was the last of our “dining out” experiences, and I would have to truthfully say it ranked third, but only because the other two were outstanding.  We’ll talk about them in another posting.  Even so, we were

DFD