I ate there on my own last week and ordered the wood pigeon. The waitress politely came over with a finger bowl after watching me struggle with cutlery and said 'the chef recommends you eat it with your fingers'. It was delicious once I managed to get the meat off! The owner also came over to ask if I was enjoying it, and we chatted for a good few minutes about how his restaurant is going (well) and a bit about the other establishments around. He is local to the area himself and is a thoroughly nice chap. He said many people pop into eat solo and he really encourages it. I will definitely be going back; the food was great, mid-priced, and the staff were very friendly indeed. I pointed out the waiter that he had forgotten to put the wine I ordered onto my bill - to which he said 'well my mistake is your advantage' and didn't charge me. Now THAT is courtesy at its finest. Of course I made up for it with a tip (!) I'm going to take friends next time its a great little place and a really good addition to our area.
Agree the bread there is excellent, but then everything we ate was. Mackerel escabeche - never heard of it before, delicious! Chocolate + rosemary pot with salt on top, intense and wonderful. Lots of interesting flavours and cooking that went way beyond what I'm capable of at home. Pretty decent prices for the quality you get.
Nice prints on the walls, and like the food I assume it will change to stay interesting. Tracing paper menu a tad pretentious but less so than the waiter's faux artist's smock. I get it though, they're playing with all the style stuff. Mostly it works really well.
Heating felt fine on a very cold day, but we were in the middle of the room and I wasn't keen on sitting any closer to the door.
Love what they're doing, and really happy they're doing it in our area. I'll definitely be back.
We went a couple of weeks ago, and were a bit disappointed. I really wanted to love the place, as it had a good atmosphere, interesting menu and nice pictures.
However, the food mostly didn't really live up to our expectations, or the prices. Two of us had the mushrooms with smoked mozzarella and tomato sauce - which was so sweet that it dwarfed everything else on the plate - which happens quite often with veggie food unfortunately. The soda bread to start off with was too sweet too. One had the steak, which was overcooked for a rare steak, with chips that weren't very well cooked - overall only ok, and not what you'd expect for the price.
The vegetables were to order separately - which is a bad sign in itself - and were overpriced for some very boring plain undercooked broccoli. Given that the most seasonal foods are vegetables, I wish Season Kitchen gave them a bit more prominence - including more interesting vegetables in the main courses.
On the good side: The fish was absolutely lovely! The waiting staff were also very nice.
Was there for dinner on Tuesday with wife. Amazing. Delicious mackerel starter, good mains (polenta with smoked mozzarella and mushroom ragu; and very well-spiced pumpkin curry) following by an extraordinary rosemary chocolate pot, which blew us away. The soda bread was also excellent. Service was lovely. Definitely recommended. One starter, two mains, one pud, and a glass of wine came to £38 ex. service. Good value given the quality. Had no issue with portion size.
Finally went to Season last Sunday. It was quite quiet, only one other reasonably big table that were finishing off their dinner. Service was good, although we were through the meal extremely quickly. Only one small hitch when the wine was poured into my aperitif glass to test. It was only a small amount so wasn't enough to expect a new bottle or a free glass ... Nice bottle of Montepulciano.
Starters - I had paté, B had smoked salmon. Both nice enough but not particularly exciting. Soda bread was fine.
Main courses - B had the steak, I had the bacon. Again, both perfectly good without sparking our taste buds.
Desert - B had the Cambridge Burnt Cream (Crème brulee ) I had the
Rosemary & Chocolate Pot. The latter was quite wacky - rosemary is quite strong! Liked it, couldn't eat a whole one ...
So, I'd say it was perfectly decent, I'm glad it's there and would go again. For us though, it was our first night out since our daughter was born and I guess we would say that we wouldn't rush out and get a babysitter again on the strength of it. Before child, when we ate out regularly, we would go every now and then if it had been there. It was solid without being spectacular.
We went last night and thought it was great. I had the clam and crab chouder which was excellent and the lady had steak which was done perfectly.
Easy 4 stars. Maybe a half more for being so close to home...
I finally went a few days ago after having been meaning to go for a while. I was very impressed. Love the look of the restaurant, staff very friendly, and lovely food. Like Ian I had the ox cheeks, which were very tasty, and the chocolate pot was gorgeous. Also nice chips, always important in my book!
I was in there last night was well with some friends. I sat by the window, probably having my cardigan judged harshly. My mates are vegetarian, so we had the ragu. We also had the cheese and berries and some really nice wine. I hadn't been in therefore. We liked it, good, fresh interesting food, but nice and relaxed and not up itself at all. I agree with Reg, it gets extra points for being close to home.
I had a look at the Brunch menu on <a href="http://seasonkitchen.co.uk">their website</a> and I have to say that about half the items on the menu I have no idea what they are! Clearly not an establishment intended for the likes of me, as they don't even have any descriptions - they presumably just expect you to be enough of a foodie to know what all these strangely named dishes are.
Well, the notion of an establishment "doing Brunch" is entirely an American concept (although I thought it was more usually only on Sundays rather than Saturdays as well?)
Also if <i>Mac n'Cheese</i> means Macaroni Cheese then I've only ever seen macaroni shortened to "mac" in America - and I had to have it explained to me there!
Arnold Bennett (after whom the omelette was named) was from Stoke on Trent.
After Robbie Williams, Slash, Lemmy, Neil Morrissey (erstwhile of this parish) and Anthea Turner he's probably the most famous Stokie.
Technically Phil the Power is from Newcastle Under Lyme - he is from Silverdale. All those from Stoke would be very annoyed at the suggestion that Newcastle is in Stoke. However, everyone outside Stoke would not care. Hence Phil the Power says Stoke for ease of understanding.
I take your point though, Phil the Power is Stoke on Trent, and the World's, greatest ever sportsman. Probably too famous for that list, from which I omitted Bruno Brookes.
Brunch is quite big in many other cities and whats on offer doesn't follow much of a pattern. In Madrid, it's very similar to what Season are offering, just what you want after having been out til 5am and in Dubai brunch is a massive piss up for ex-pats with a bit of food.
I like that Season are doing something a bit different from the tried and tested and will certainly give it a go.
As for Mac and Cheese, they call it that in the Caribbean too. Seems to be quite popular as they serve tons of it as a side at the Hawksmoor steak house - just in case a 400g ribeye wasn't enough.
Omelette Arnold Bennett
The story goes that this classic dish was created for the novelist Arnold Bennett who wrote Imperial Palace while he was staying at the Savoy hotel. The chefs perfected it during his stay and it is still on the menu today. Wherever he travelled around the world Arnold Bennett demanded it for breakfast!
Ingredients
Serves 4
For the infusion;
1 sliced onion
1 sliced carrot
1 bay leaf
4 black peppercorns
¼ pt milk
6oz natural smoked haddock
3 medium free range eggs
1oz grated Parmesan
1oz grated Gruyere
2oz butter
3 tablespoons single cream
½ oz plain flour
black pepper & salt if needed
They also have Kraft cheese and I thought that Monterey Jack was American too but it's entirely possible that I'm wrong.
American chocolate is very much worse than their cheese.
Comments
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Nice prints on the walls, and like the food I assume it will change to stay interesting. Tracing paper menu a tad pretentious but less so than the waiter's faux artist's smock. I get it though, they're playing with all the style stuff. Mostly it works really well.
Heating felt fine on a very cold day, but we were in the middle of the room and I wasn't keen on sitting any closer to the door.
Love what they're doing, and really happy they're doing it in our area. I'll definitely be back.
However, the food mostly didn't really live up to our expectations, or the prices. Two of us had the mushrooms with smoked mozzarella and tomato sauce - which was so sweet that it dwarfed everything else on the plate - which happens quite often with veggie food unfortunately. The soda bread to start off with was too sweet too. One had the steak, which was overcooked for a rare steak, with chips that weren't very well cooked - overall only ok, and not what you'd expect for the price.
The vegetables were to order separately - which is a bad sign in itself - and were overpriced for some very boring plain undercooked broccoli. Given that the most seasonal foods are vegetables, I wish Season Kitchen gave them a bit more prominence - including more interesting vegetables in the main courses.
On the good side: The fish was absolutely lovely! The waiting staff were also very nice.
I like pie and Chips.
Also if <i>Mac n'Cheese</i> means Macaroni Cheese then I've only ever seen macaroni shortened to "mac" in America - and I had to have it explained to me there!
Omelette Arnold Bennett
The story goes that this classic dish was created for the novelist Arnold Bennett who wrote Imperial Palace while he was staying at the Savoy hotel. The chefs perfected it during his stay and it is still on the menu today. Wherever he travelled around the world Arnold Bennett demanded it for breakfast!
Ingredients
Serves 4
For the infusion;
1 sliced onion
1 sliced carrot
1 bay leaf
4 black peppercorns
¼ pt milk
6oz natural smoked haddock
3 medium free range eggs
1oz grated Parmesan
1oz grated Gruyere
2oz butter
3 tablespoons single cream
½ oz plain flour
black pepper & salt if needed
Not at all American!
America has four kinds of cheese, called: Cheddar, Swiss Cheese, Blue Cheese and Provelone.
I'm not sure I've ever tried the chocolate but if it's worse than the cheese then I dread to think.
-roy