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.

Imaginative, fun, interesting food at last! Mu Mu's in Maidstone

At last! Really fun, really tasty food - and it was right on my doorstep all the time! Last weekend I went out to help a couple of friends celebrate their birthdays. When they told me they were holding it at Mu Mu's nightclub and bar in Maidstone I thought twice about going, I'm not really a nightclub person, but a few people told me the food was really good and how can you say no to a birthday bash, eh?

At first I thought £35 for three courses was a bit on the steep side, but actually it turned out to be an absolute bargain. We had a couple of drinks in the bar while we waited for everyone to arrive, draught Japanese lager seemed the best bet from a fairly limited choice, then we were shown to the restaurant in what was once a pub next door. The birthday girls were seated in gilded thrones in the middle of our long table, in a room decorated in a gothic style - could have been a bit tacky, but it wasn't and I loved it.

We had chosen our food in advance, so things started to come to the table fairly quickly. First of all we were given a tall glass of rum and fruit punch each (included in the price of the meal) and then a waiter came along with a massive teapot. He poured us all cups of cucumber water to refresh our pallets during dinner. A bit odd....and we did wonder if it was for cleaning our fingers with rather than drinking, but as it was served in an eclectic mix of bone china teacups on mismatched saucers we eventually plumped for drinking it.

I had chosen fish cakes on wilted spinach as my starter, which arrived very quickly. It was nicely presented, and very tasty indeed. As soon as the smoked chicken wings starters began coming to the table I knew I'd chosen the wrong thing. They were on a wooden base with a long metal frame attached, from which hung a skewer of wings. On the base was a little jar of barbecue sauce and a large lidded jar full of smoke. Yes, you read that right, smoke! The idea being that you tip the smoke onto your wings to make them as strongly smoked as you like. Great fun!

And the fun didn't end at the starters, either. My burger came on a large wooden board covered in interesting stuff. The burger itself was big and juicy and came on a brioche style bun with a heap of coleslaw, some salad, cheese, crispy bacon, a tub of sliced pickles, a dish of ketchup and a little bottle of burger sauce - allowing you to build the burger just how you like it. There were a a couple of crispy onion rings and a mini frying basket of absolutely delicious chips on the side. The basket looked just like the ones they get cooked in, but a fraction of the size! Paul said his burger was a bit dry, and it did look like it was a bit more well done than mine, which was just about medium and tasted lovely. I would order the burger again without a moments hesitation.

Desert was also a fun take on a classic dish. I had a selection of three mini cornettos, served in a little lacquered wooden rack, with a selection of toppings to roll them in. There were little piles of hundreds and thousands, chocolate vermicelli and finally (and best of all!) popping candy. The three chocolate waffle cones each had a little scoop of a different flavour ice cream inside. Don't ask me what flavours, I don't know, and it doesn't really matter because they were all very tasty.

The staff were friendly, the food turned up in a timely fashion and was both interesting and tasty, and the meal finished with an ice cold glass of limoncello liqueur. We weren't exactly rushed from our seats, but we were aware that there was another party booked in after us so we didn't linger at the table. The £35 per head covered the rum punch, three courses chosen from a fairly short but interesting menu, the glass of limoncello and entry to the nightclub afterwards with use of a private booth big enough for all of us.

The birthday girls had a great evening, everyone enjoyed their food, and one or two of us had a glass or two too many in the process. It's a long time since I enjoyed a meal this much. I've eaten fancier food, but nothing as interesting or as much fun as this. Go and have a look for yourself, order the wings and the burger, enjoy yourself and see if you laugh as much as we did.

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.

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!