Posillipo Ristorante Italiano, Broadstairs, Kent.

Having decided to go to the new Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate today it didn't take us long to decide where we should have lunch while we were down there. Last time we were in Thanet we stopped at Broadstairs for fish & chips and spotted a very promising Italian restaurant called Posillipo and filed it away for future visits. Since I mentioned it in my previous blog entry a couple of people have said it's worth a visit, and since Broadstairs is right next door to Margate it would have been rude not to!

As I mentioned before, Posillipo is right next door to a large, empty branch of the Prezzo chain. To be fair to Prezzo, it looked like a really nice place, so why was it so empty? Well, it must be hard to compete with genuine Italian food being cooked right next door when you are only able to offer "formula food" no matter how good it is. Right from the word go we loved Posillipo. We were made to feel very welcome from the moment we opened the door to go in. The long dining room was about three quarters full, mostly with families, and had a real buzz about it. The building backs on to the sea and has a small conservatory on the back that was just big enough for two tables of four, and steps down to a large decked area that will be a lovely place to eat in the summer. We sat at the end of the main dining room and still had a reasonable view of the sea. The dining room itself is decorated in a homely way, lots of terracotta paint, bottles of herbs in oil on little wooden shelves....very Italian in feel and style. As a whole, Posillipo couldn't be further from a "fancy" restaurant. No tablecloths, only paper napkins, wicker based seats, but it all adds to the authentic feel! I had a good lunch in a very similar looking and feeling place just outside Brescia in Tuscany a few years ago.

And so to the food. After such a big build up it had better be good, right? Well, it was. As well as the regular menu, which featured an imaginative mixture of classic Italian dishes, pizzas and pizze bianche, pasta and risotto dishes, there was a portable specials blackboard with a few extra starters, mains, and loads of deserts listed on it. We opted to share the mixed seafood platter from the special starters, and followed it with a pizza each. The seafood platter wasn't cheap, at £13.95 it wasn't expensive either but the price was enough to raise our expectations a notch. It didn't disappoint. It was piled with crayfish, baby clams, pickled anchovies, prawn cocktail, smoked salmon, crab meat on toasted ciabatta and a couple of huge grilled tiger prawns. We were thoughtfully provided with a bowl for the shells and some hand wipes, both of which were necessary as it turned out. The baby clams were the only slight disappointment as they were lacking in flavour, but the rest made up for it. Dee's not a fan of anchovy, but in this lightly pickled form rather than the oily, salty things you usually get she liked them enough to eat three or four. I'm ashamed to admit that there were two pieces of crab on toast when the platter arrived, but so anxious was I to get stuck in that I'd taken a bite before I remembered to take a picture!

While we worked through our platter the tables around us were served with their main courses. We saw linguini with muscles that was beautifully presented with a ring of muscles in their shells around the edge as well as in with the pasta, a likely choice for Dee on another visit as she feels about muscles how I feel about scallops. To Dee's delight, the table next to us ordered the pizza capricciosa she'd chosen, giving her a sneak peek. It looked fantastic! The front window sign writing mentions a wood burning pizza oven and hand made pizzas, and you can just tell that's what you're getting. The capricciosa has a tomato base with mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, salami, sliced eggs and black olives on it. Each ingredient brought something to the dish, either in flavour or texture, and as a whole it worked very well indeed. Together with the carafe of house red wine it was absolutely spot on, in spite of looking a bit like an English breakfast on a pizza base.

I decided to continue the seaside/seafood theme with my choice, I went for the house special Posillipo pizza. Another tomato base, but this time with king prawn, octopus, squid, clams and muscles. There was a fair bit of garlic involved as well, I'd say. The chunks of octopus and huge squid rings were generous and not at all rubbery. It's very easy to over cook squid, which gives it that distinctive elastic band texture, but the chef had avoided that pitfall presumably by adding it late in the oven time. There must have been nearly half a pint of prawns, a good dozen clams and muscles on there as well as a massive tiger prawn, all of which made the pizza base a bit soggy but no less tasty for it. Pizzas ranged from £6 to £12 each, and at just £9.95 Dee's capricciosa was an absolute bargain, particularly as it came as no surprise to our waitress that she couldn't finish it all. No problem, would madam like a box to take it away? Yes, madam would. So that's lunch tomorrow sorted as well!

So all in all we had a superb sharing platter, two excellent pizzas, a carafe of red wine and a bottle of sparkling water, all for £47. To continue the theme from my last entry, I think this is tremendous value for money. Alright, the seafood platter is easy enough to do, and was perhaps lacking in fresh ingredients (however, it is the end of January after all!), but it was delicious, and that is all that matters. The pizzas and atmosphere were fantastic, the wine was tasty and the staff friendly and efficient. It will be very difficult for us to go to Broadstairs and choose to eat anywhere else.

Go there, order a pizza and a desert, sit and watch the sea while you finish your glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo or whatever your tipple is, and let the friendly family atmosphere wash over you.

Value for money

There is a discussion to be had about value for money, prompted in no small way by our visit to Broadstairs on Saturday. There are few more depressing places than English seaside towns in the off-season, but Broadstairs is fighting hard to keep itself going. Ok, so there are lots of empty shop units which look like they may well have been bars, cafés or restaurants until fairly recently, but there are many that are open and trading even on a chilly but bright Saturday afternoon in January. And who knows, many may well reopen during the summer season as pop-up restaurants etc.

We had in mind that as we were at the seaside we should have fish & chips, so we had a stroll along the front and a mooch around the old part of town before picking the Submarine Café pretty much at random. It looked fun, clean and more importantly open, so in we went. We had cod, chips & peas with bread & butter and a mug of tea each for just £12 between the two of us. Most main courses were about £5, the deserts were around £2.50. And this is where the value for money bit comes in...about half way through my fish (clearly cooked from frozen, but actually ok) I started to think that I'd rather have paid a few pounds more for something better. But actually, the more I thought about it, the more I thought they had it about right. The food was ok! The chips were good, the peas were nice and the fish was ok, so for £4.95 in a sit-down restaurant this is tremendous value. I'm sure there are places within a short walk that would charge you more, but would what you got be proportionately better? Probably not. If you're out for the day with a young family I suspect you will struggle to find anywhere better to feed your family without spending a lot more money.

Several places stood out as looking worthy of a visit next time we come back, including a really interesting looking Italian place called Posillipo very close to the sea front. Even though it is literally next door to Prezzo's (which was twice the size and had a great looking balcony seating area looking out over the bay) it was packed, while Prezzo's was nearly empty. Certainly worth a look on a future visit, if only for what comes out of the wood burning pizza oven.

Approaching the value for money argument from the opposite direction to the Submarine Café is a restaurant simply called "54". (Can you guess what number Broadstairs High Street it is?) 54 also offers fish & chips, but they charge £14.95 for it. "How can that be value for money?" I hear you cry! Well, for that you get salmon fillet, tiger prawn, monk fish and a scallop in lime & coriander batter with home made hand cut chips in a beautiful looking dining room off tables with white linen and nice cutlery. If it tastes as good as it sounds, then I would argue that in other restaurants we have visited such a dish would cost well over £20. So which is better value for money? Hard to say, and I suppose ultimately it comes down to your personal priorities.

After a bracing walk along the sea wall we stopped at Chiappinis for a hot chocolate and something sweet. I had ice cream (delicious!), Dee had a strawberry tart, we both had glasses of hot chocolate in lovely retro silver plated holders, and it cost exactly the same as our lunches. Somehow lunch felt very cheap, but this felt very expensive. Good value? Not sure, but we liked it. Go to Broadstairs, soak up some of the history, the Napoleonic Eagle, Charles Dickens' Bleak House...or if the weather suits, just sit on the beach and make sand castles...whatever floats your boat!

The Spade Oak, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire

There are lots of places that offer good value Sunday roast lunches. There are loads of places that offer really good quality Sunday roast lunches. Every now and again you stumble across a place that ticks both boxes and become firm favourite regular haunts. We have been regular visitors at the Horseshoes for a while now, we like the people, the beer, the food and the atmosphere. What's that got to do with The Spade Oak, I hear you cry? Well, the assistant manager at the Shoes went off a few months ago to manage his own pub within the M&B chain, The Spade Oak.

As hidden gems go, they don't come much more hidden than this. It's about a mile down a dead end road near the middle of nowhere, not too far from the M40 junction for High Wycombe. Rather like the Shoes, The Spade Oak is one of those places that makes you feel welcome right away, with a nice mixture of soft comfortable chairs and sofas, contempory decor and a traditional looking building. The busy dining room was open plan laid out around a central chimney, and there are enough soft furnishings around to make the place sound lively without being too noisy. Paul, the proud manager, introduced us to his head chef, Kevin, who told us about a roast platter that he'd just cooked for a family table. He made them a huge, fresh Yorkshire pudding and served them a selection of roast beef, pork and turkey with all (and I do mean all!) the trimmings inside it! Both he and Paul seemed very comfortable in the surroundings of the pub and stayed to chat for a few minutes. When we asked what he recommended, Kevin very kindly offered to cook us a platter in a Yorkshire pud, so we didn't even glance at the menu, although I believe it offers a similar selection to that available at the Horseshoes.

The biggest Yorkshire pudding I've ever seen (the picture doesnt give you much of a sense of scale) duly arrived, packed full of roasted meats, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing, pork crackling and delicious gravy. Together with a dish of assorted roasted vegetables, we were faced with enough food for four! As many of you will be well aware, I've eaten a few Sunday lunches, but I can't remember ever having eaten a better one. The meat was tasty, the veg cooked just right and the crackling ridiculously noisy! The gravy soaked into the base of the Yorkshire, but the sides stayed light and crispy...perfect. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this was probably the best Sunday lunch I've ever had. Can't wait to go back again, and being so close to Adams Park (my beloved London Wasps home ground) I'm sure it won't be long before we do.

Further adventures in and around Stoke.

Back in Stoke for a long weekend and a late Christmas of sorts with Josie, we thought we'd make the effort to try some new places to eat & drink. We failed at the first hurdle though, because for dinner on our first night we ended up back in the Steakhouse in Stone (see previous review of Stoke). Rather like last time, the staff were very friendly and highly professional, the food was very good and the beer was excellent. Josie and I had ribs, but Dee pushed the boat out and had ostrich steak. It's not often you see both ostrich and buffalo steak on a menu, is it! I had a pint of Cockahoop from the Lake District to wash my ribs down, it was light, lively and very easy to drink. Our third visit here, and our third excellent experience.

At Trentham Gardens we were delighted to find the ultimate foodie shop. Brown & Green stocks organic, local and ethical food of all types and varieties. Everything from local honey, lime curd and jams to fresh oven-ready game, sausage rolls, pies and cakes, fresh fruit, veg and bread. There are shelves full of interesting sauces and dips, spices and herbs, ales and spirits, all either locally, organically or ethically produced (or a combination of the three). I think they have other outlets at Derby and somewhere in Gloucestershire and I'd certainly recommend a look if there's one near you, because it's like all the best bits of every farm shop you've ever been in all rolled into one.

In complete contrast to the rubbish we were served on our last visit, we had a very good cooked breakfast in Frankie & Bennie's at Trentham. Ok, so it was only eggs and bacon on toasted muffins, but it was all piping hot, well cooked, nicely presented and very tasty indeed. So much so that we went back there for an evening meal (against my better judgement, after the last visit!) and either there is a new manager, a new chef, or perhaps both because the standard was much higher than I expected.

Another day we had a decidedly above average lunch at a place called Taybarns just north of Newcastle under Lyme. The Taybarns chain doesn't seem to have made it to Kent, but there are a few dotted about the midlands and the north, I believe. The idea is simple, it's a one-price eat as much as you like buffet. You pay your £8.99 per person on the way in and help yourself. The range of fresh food on offer is simply staggering! The sections start with fresh salad, then a choice of pasta dishes including vegetable lasagne, garlic bread and warm dough-balls, then on to fish, chicken, chips and mushy peas. After that is freshly cooked pizzas, either pepperoni, mushroom or margarita, then a selection of burgers and barbecued prawns, chicken, corn on the cob etc. Believe it or not, the buffet continues with a choice of three chinese dishes, a couple of curries, prawn crackers, breads and popadums (?...not sure how you spell that!) and other side dishes. Then there is a full carvery, offering gammon or turkey with all the trimmings. And finally, a selection of about a dozen cakes, puddings, fruit pies and gateaux with cream, custard or ice cream. Did I mention you can have as much as you want for £8.99? Everything is cooked and served in full view of the diners, the sheer number of diners means everything is kept fresh as it turns over very quickly. Your empty plates are cleared quickly between visits with a minimum of fuss, you collect a fresh plate and clean cutlery on each trip up to get more. It pleases me greatly to report that the food was tasty, fresh and well cooked. It is produced to a price, obviously, but somehow managed to achieve a high standard. Certainly worth a look if you are in a hurry or have a large group to feed, or even if you simply can't decide between you what you fancy.

We stumbled across a new English restaurant in the heart of Stoke called Baby Russets. We only dropped in on the off chance we could get a bite to eat fairly late on Saturday night and they couldn't have been more helpful! The house speciality seems to be traditional pies. Not the poor imitation pies you get in most places these days, which aren't really pies at all but bowls of stew with a flakey pastry lid, but real pies with crumbly short crust pastry and meaty fillings! I had a steak & kidney pie, Dee had the chicken supreme, and both were very very good indeed. We were also treated to a huge dish of red cabbage, broccoli, carrots, peas and new potatoes, as well as a dish of excellent hand-cut chips (it's sooooo nice not to get McCain or Brake Bros chips for a change!). All the produce is sourced locally, and the veg is bought from the traditional market just 50 yards away. Also on the menu were Scottish rainbow trout, haunch of venison, chicken pie and cheese and onion pie amongst other delicious sounding things. All the dishes were extremely good value, particularly given the enormous portions, with pies starting from just £6.95. They stocked a range of local beers from the Titanic brewery...I tried the Titanic Stout, which was very good but like a lot of bottled beers proved to be far too fizzy for me. We will certainly come back to Baby Russets next time we're up in Stoke, it turned out to be quite a find.

Back at Trentham Gardens, on our last morning we popped in to a café called "Capabilitea" presumably in honour of Capabilty Brown (designer of the famous Italian garden and landscaped the grounds at Trentham). It was particularly worthy of note for the delicious warm brownie I had and mixed fruit muffin Dee chose, and the coffee and hot chocolate were very good too. We sat on a huge old leather sofa and flicked through some magazines from the cafés rack while we drank our drinks and watched the world go by in very pretty and relaxed surroundings. All in all, Capabiliteas was an ideal place to round off a lovely weekend.

The Swan on the Green, West Peckham

The Swan is a real hidden gem, nestling as it does down a dead end road in the middle of nowhere. First opened as a pub in the sixteenth century, The Swan retains many of the traditional features that have been lost in so many other public houses. There is a roaring open fire, many unusual soft drinks including cloudy lemonade and ginger beer, and real ales brewed on the premises. In fact, there are no ales brewed anywhere other than the pubs own micro brewery! The ales mostly follow the Swan theme, there is Cygnet at 4.2%, Trumpeter Best at 4.0%, Fuggles Pale at 3.8% and a seasonal special, Christmas Ale at a head-swimming 8.4%! A couple of lagers, English ciders and Guinness are also available on draught and there is a fair wine list too.

We have eaten here a few times and generally find we need to book in advance, particularly at weekends and on bank holidays and today was no exception. We got the last table available and the place was already busy at quarter past twelve when we arrived. The menu is varied and interesting, with a fair amount of flair and seasonal flavours. There were half a dozen starters on offer, ranging from £6 to £8.50. It was a day for warming, hearty food so I started with bubble and squeak with wilted spinach and a poached egg (which was lovely, although the warm milk sauce was a little unnecessary).

A fairly short menu of main courses includes local pork, lamb, duck, brill, chicken and rib eye steak. Something for everyone (except vegetarians, apparently!). Dee chose a grilled double lamb chop in a mint jus, which came with rosemary carrots, red onions and mustard mashed potato. On paper, that's a great dish, but somehow it just failed to deliver. The mash was perfect, in my opinion at least, but the rest was lacking something. The carrots were just the raw side of al-denté, and the large chunks of red onion lacked finesse. Even the lamb was a little chewy and short of flavour.

My choice, however, showed what we already know the Swan is really capable of. I went for duck confit with rosemary roast potatoes, cabbage and pancetta in a port jus and it was fantastic. Just spot on. The meat fell from the bone, the potatoes were hot and tasty and the salty pancetta with the slight sweetness of the cabbage really worked well. A traditional dish cooked well and presented nicely, and at £13.50 for a pub lunch it wasn't cheap, but it was worth every penny.

There are half a dozen deserts available, grand marnier chocolate mousse and sticky toffee pudding to name but two, but we decided to head home to finish off the lemon torte in the fridge instead.

The pub looks out over West Peckham village green, from which there are several really nice country walks. On summer afternoons one can even sit outside the Swan with a pint and watch village cricket at its finest. Settle down with the mixed cheese ploughman's lunch and a pint of Cygnet and just unwind. Well worth taking the trouble to find, we won't be put off by one poor dish and will certainly be back.