The Pippin, London Road, Maidstone

Looking for a top quality Sunday lunch in a traditional pub? Look no further the The Pippin on the outskirts of Maidstone. A much extended and improved old building now boasting a conservatory and large bar area as well as a comfortable booth style dining room, The Pippin provided a warm welcome and excellent service.

The first thing that made me smile was the house beer. How many pubs have their own ale on draught these days? Well, Pippin Ale by Greene King is 3.9% and absolutely delicious. Other Greene King beers and a selection of fizzy drinks and wines are also available.

As luck would have it we chose to visit The Pippin just after they launched their new winter menu. The manager was very keen to explain the new dishes and told a delightful story about eating slow roast pork shanks in Austria while on a Harley Davidson club road trip round Europe and thinking "we've got to do this!". Well I for one am very glad he did, it was quite superb! Normally you might expect a lamb shank (they do that as well, and roast beef, all the pub classics, children's meals, etc etc, but a crackling coated pork shank with all the trimmings was just too good to pass up) but out from the kitchen emerged a large wooden trencher with a lovely looking pork joint on it impaled with a sharp knife and served with mash, roasties, parsnips, red cabbage, buttered kale, a home made Yorkshire pudding, gravy and a generous serving of apple sauce. Nicely cooked, nicely presented, well done everyone that had a hand in getting it to our table. An unusual dish, highly recommended.

If by some staggering chance you have any room left after all that, and you really can't decide which of the delightful sounding home made deserts to try then order the selection board. But make sure at least two of your friends will help you finish it, because there is plenty on it. On our board we got a kilner jar of ginger and red fruit cheesecake that was light and tasty, a chocolate torte sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts that was thick and rich, a huge apple and fig crumble that was delicious and piping hot, and a selection of Loseley ice creams and some creme fraiche. It was all absolutely delicious and rounded the lunch off perfectly.

In summary then, nice atmosphere, friendly service, great food, good beer. What more do you want? We'll be back there again soon, I'm sure.

Froggies at Timber Batts, Bodsham, Kent

My apologies for the long gap since my last blog entry, I hope it won't be this long until my next one!

Timber Batts is a lovely old country pub between Ashford and Canterbury on the road out of Wye.  It's tucked away in the tiny village of Bodsham (no, I'd never heard of it before either!) and it's well worth the effort of finding it for yourself.  There is plenty of seating inside at an eclectic mix of tables, but if the weather permits you might want to sit outside and enjoy the rural views from the quiet garden to the side of the pub.  Froggies is, as you might expect from the name, run by a French father and son who have done well to retain the traditional English pub feel while adding their own Gallic charm to the place.  There are a number of wine case lids from some of the grand estates decorating the beams, and every shelf and sill is covered in empty wine bottles that span generations and vineyards of the world, mostly having been drunk by the owner!

We stopped in for a quick lunch (and maybe a swift half!) on the way home and were genuinely delighted with the food.  Although the lunch menu is short, it is full of good options including a home made burger (more on that later), various baguettes and sandwiches, moule frites, or simply ham egg and chips.  Something for everyone then!

I was feeling pretty hungry, so I went for the homemade burger, which comes with french fries and a small green salad on the side.  It's a good job I was hungry, because there was plenty of it and it was delicious.  The difficulty with very thick burgers is cooking them right through without letting them dry out, something the chef managed very nicely indeed.  There was a generous side order of the thinnest fries, and the salad had a light drizzle of house dressing that just helped cut through the big flavours in the burger.  The ham and chips looked very good too, the ham was lightly smoked and thinly cut, while the baguettes were big enough to feed even the hungriest mouth.

One of my favourite things to finish a meal is a café gourmand, usually a shot of espresso with two or three mini deserts just intended to give you something sweet to finish your meal, so I was delighted to find it on the menu.  It came with a couple of home made macaroons and a glass of café liegeois (espresso coffee poured over coffee ice-cream and topped with whipped cream served in this case in a shot glass).  A close second choice for me was the trio of deserts, which included an apricot tatin, panna cotta,  and a raspberry melba.  The desert for people unable to decide what to have, but delicious none the less.

Easy to find?  No.
Worth the effort?  Certainly.
Worth the price?  Yes, I think so.

The Stile Bridge, Linton / Marden

How nice it is to come across somewhere new that ticks all the boxes!  Having asked for suggestions earlier in the week (see my last post) I got a handful of suggestions, many of which I'd tried before, including a couple of ringing endorsements for The Stile Bridge at the bottom of Linton Hill on the way to Marden.  It's well over ten years since I last visited The Stile Bridge, so I thought it was probably time to give it another try.

The Stile Bridge fronts right onto the road between Maidstone and Staplehurst in the middle of nowhere.  It's a welcome sight on a cold, dark, winters night, a feeling that grows as you enter to find a roaring open fire and a busy little bar.  The walls and ceilings are covered in pub, brewery and booze memorabilia, including a fine collection of miniatures in a nice old display cabinet and a collection of printed pub mirrors.  There are five real ales, several unusual lagers and one cider on draught and a selection of more than forty bottled beers from which to choose.  Sorry about the blurry picture, but you get the idea...

Having ordered our drinks (a pint of Horsham ale for me!) we were seated straight away in a cosy side room just off the bar.  The menu was short enough to suggest minimal use of the freezer, but long enough to contain a number of unusual and interesting choices.  I'd never heard of Onglet steak before, but the waitress was able to explain that it is a cut of beef taken from just behind the rib.  I'll give it a try on our next visit, sounds good.

We started with deep fried brie with cranberry sauce for Liz and chicken liver parfait for me.  The brie was rich and creamy, and the parfait was as light as a feather.  We were off to an excellent start.

As well as a well balanced menu there were a number of specials on offer, including a pie of the day.  Now, I have a real problem with what most pubs seem to think passes for a pie.  (For the record, a bowl of stew with a flaky pastry lid is not a pie!)  Imagine my delight, then, on being told that the special was a short crust pastry mixed game pie of generous proportions!  How could I refuse?  It was lovely!  If I was being hyper-critical, it could have had a bit more meat inside, but it was delicious, filling and definitely a real pie.  The accompanying veggies were cooked to perfection and the skin-on chips were crispy.

Liz chose the lamb leg steak with rosemary butter and roasted winter vegetables.  This turned out to be a big slab of melt in the mouth lamb smothered in melted butter with a stack of mixed beetroot, potato, carrot and parsnip chips that added a lovely earthy dimension and a few unusual flavours.  We also had a bowl of the best beer battered onion rings either of us had ever had to share.  As it turns out, there was no need to order side dishes as the main meals were more than filling enough, but we'll certainly be ordering them again, maybe with a house special burger or freshly made pizza next time.

We both chose desserts from the specials board, in the hope that we'd manage to squeeze them in.  Liz fancied the chocolate pot, which was dark, delicious, and came with a lovely little filo basket of red berries to cut through the richness.  I had a blood orange posset with shortbread, mostly because I'd never had it before. It was sweet and creamy with a citrus twist, the perfect end to a very good meal.

 I think it won't be long before we're back.  The beer was excellent, the food was good, the staff were friendly and knowledgeable.  I'm told there might even be some house brewed beer on offer soon and I'd certainly like to try that.  We are very lucky here in Kent, we have a number of genuinely nice pubs that go the extra mile.  This is certainly one of them. 

Should you find yourself in Canterbury...

There are lots of things to see and do in Canterbury. As well as the obvious touristy things like the Cathedral and Canterbury Tales display, there is a delightful walk around the top of the city walls, a city museum, the Rupert the Bear museum and a variety of boat and punt trips are available. Canterbury is also a really great place to go for a wander round the shops, with a quirky mixture of modern new malls and ancient, beamed buildings off narrow medieval alleys. There is no shortage of choice when it comes to food either, with the usual array of Ask, Cafe Rouge, Pizza Express and so on in prominent locations on the main street.

If you fancy something a little more....interesting, then take the time to find Tiny Tim's Tearoom just down from the Canterbury Tales Experience. It's worth the effort! With traditional favourites likes poached eggs on toast and Welsh rarebit on the menu alongside cream teas and more substantial meals, there really is something for everyone. The building itself is very old and full of character, with low beams and nooks and crannies on all floors. Ok, it's not cheap, but it is worth it. I recommend the Welsh rarebit topped with a poached egg. Delicious!

Having enjoyed a lovely light lunch in Tiny Tim's I suggest a stroll round the corner and down Hawk Street to the city museum. Having had your fill of local history, it is a very short walk down the alley along side the museum to Brown's Coffee House. Go, sit in a huge leather sofa, soak up the friendly atmosphere and enjoy one of the best cups of coffee you're ever likely to try. If you have any room after your lunch, try a slab of one of the delicious cakes on offer too, you won't be disappointed. Places like Brown's are hard to find with the prevalence of Starbucks and Costa etc, so it is refreshing to stumble across a genuine, friendly, high quality coffee house offering so much more than formula menus and bought in character.

My birthday day out in London.

Saturday was my birthday, so Dee took me up to London for lunch, shopping and a good mooch round the West End. We caught the high speed train to St Pancras, then jumped a tube to Piccadilly Circus. At this point I still wasn't sure where we were going or what was in store as Dee had done a great job of keeping me in the dark. We walked round the corner into Haymarket, then turned right into the start of Jermyn Street. Jermyn St is probably best known for its tailors and shirt makers, but there are a number of cute little arcades, shoemakers and cafés as well. Well worth a stroll along if you're in the area and fancy seeing how the other half live!

At the far end of Jermyn St is Franco's, a very upmarket Italian bistro and café where Dee had booked us a table for lunch. We were greeted just inside the door by the hostess, who knew it was my birthday from the booking and made just the right amount of fuss of us as she showed us to our table in the main dining room. The restaurant has a very light, modern take on the 1920's look, with beautifully dressed tables and plenty of space for diners. Much of this space is achieved by the careful and clever seating arrangement, where no diners are required to sit facing a wall. We were sat against one side wall on a table that was a generous size for two, and would have been a cozy fit for four, but because we were sat next to each other we were both looking into the room, rather than opposite each other as is usually the case.

We had a glass of limoncello each to warm us up a bit while we chose from the menu (which had a slightly retro feel and look to it, although the dishes themselves were modern takes on Italian classics). Without having discussed it first, it turned out that both of us had decided to order things we wouldn't usually choose. And yes, before you ask, there were scallops on the menu and no, I didn't order them! I figure we'll have our fill of scallops at the Rye Scallop Festival at the end of the month. Prices ranged from around £8 to £20 for starters and from £16 to £30 for main courses which in Kent would be quite pricey, but here in the West End of London is remarkably good for high quality food. There was a very well balanced selection of dishes to choose from for each course, with seafood very much in evidence along side pigeon, beef, veal and lamb dishes. The waiting staff were almost all Italian, which is usually a good sign, and they were clearly keen for us to enjoy our meals. We ordered our starters, a lobster, cous cous and black truffle dish for me and beef carpaccio for Dee, and chose a bottle of 2006 Barbera to wash everything down with from a very good wine list indeed. My dish was packed with chunks of lobster and had plenty of black truffle shavings on top, like all the best Italian dishes the flavours were simple and elegant. Dee's beef just melted in the mouth, and the pepper flavours from the rocket salad and the truffle shavings were balanced by parmesan shavings and really high quality, wafer thin slices of lean beef.

We both went for really traditional main courses, pasta for Dee and risotto for me. Dee followed my lead from the starter and had lobster linguini. Like all good Italian restaurants, Franco's makes all its pasta fresh every day and it really shows. The linguini was cooked to perfection, just the right side of al-dente with enough bite left in it to give good mouth-feel, and packed with flavour. There was no shortage of lobster meat here either, and with a little very light tomato and pepper sauce to pull everything together the whole dish was perfect. My Atlantic prawn and lime risotto was absolutely delicious too, but was a very different type of dish indeed. If I'm absolutely honest, I couldn't pick out the lime at all, although it is possible that the lime is just there to stop the dish becoming too stodgy and if that's the case then it certainly worked. There were very few pieces of prawn, but the prawn flavour ran deep through each mouthful and was strong on the finish. It was one of those dishes that you're disappointed that there isn't more when you get to the end, even though the portion size was generous. As is often the case with risotto, it wasn't much to look at but is certainly made up for that in taste and texture.

By now the restaurant was about three quarters full and the atmosphere was building nicely. There were several tables of Italian diners (another good sign!) and some young family groups as well as several other tables of two. There were plenty of members of staff around, so the dining room filling up had no impact on our service and each passing waiter glanced towards us and our table to make sure we were ok. Dee ordered tiramisu to finish, which turned out to be about the size of half a house brick but light as a feather. The coffee liqueur in the sponge base was far from overpowering, and the sheer volume of cream meant that Dee was unable to finish it. After a long and agonising internal debate, I chose the chocolate torta caprese with home made pistachio ice cream for desert over affogato (a shot of espresso poured over vanilla ice cream), which turned out to be a mistake. Torta caprese is a sort of dry, dense sponge cake, a bit like a dry brownie. This one was a little too dry for me and the tiny ball of ice cream did little to change that despite being delicious because the whole thing was smothered in icing sugar so thick that I had to tap it off each fork full before I could eat it. Such a shame, because up to that point the food had been excellent. The presentation was spot on throughout, with my torta served on a glass dish decorated with piped chocolate saying "Happy birthday", a lovely little touch.

We ordered tea for Dee, a strong cappuccino for me, and a plate of petit fours to finish off. Tea in restaurants is such a hit and miss affair that Dee's expectations weren't high, particularly as the Italians are better known for coffee, so it came as a lovely surprise when the pot of tea that arrived was just right. This cheered me right up, because if the tea was that good I had high hopes of a really good cappuccino and I wasn't disappointed. Strong, rich, full of flavour, what a way to end a meal. Another slight stumble though, as the petit fours did not arrive with the drinks. We reminded the waiter, who was most apologetic and rushed off to sort some out for us. We finished our drinks, and still no petit fours. The maitre d' was quite embarrassed, particularly as it was her that took the order in the first place. So much so that she made sure they weren't on the bill, but put a selection in a little box for us to take home.

All in all, we had a wonderful lunch that was packed full of simple flavours and interesting textures excellently prepared. The presentation was excellent, the restaurant itself was delightful (and if you eat from the set lunch menu, very reasonably priced indeed!) and but for one or two tiny things, our meal would have been perfect. As it was, it was the best Italian meal I have had outside of Italy itself, and better than many I have had inside.

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.