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How many times have you been out for a meal, and been disappointed? Many people don’t feel their restaurant experience came up to scratch, yet tend not to do much about it (apart from swear never to visit the eatery in question ever again).

There are ways to ensure that you enjoy a better dining experience – here are just a few ideas.

Enjoying a meal out – properly

• Work out what ambiance you want. Going out to eat shouldn’t focus solely on food. Some restaurants are lively, bright and bustling, which is ideal if you’re meeting up with friends. However, if you wanted a relaxing, romantic night with your partner, you’ll probably prefer a more intimate restaurant, with dim lighting, comfortable seating, and cosy, private booths.

• Look at the menu beforehand. Okay, so this might take the spontaneity out of it a bit, but it’s a wise idea to peruse the menu before you make a purchase. With severe food allergies now more common than ever, there are plenty of people who have to do this anyway. But even if you’re allergy-free, the menu will give you a good idea of whether you’ll enjoy the food or not.

• Make an event of it. Obviously, there will be times when you just want somewhere to fill your stomach, before moving on to other places. But for those occasions when the meal is the star-event, take the time to make it feel special. Dress up beforehand, then splash on some Coco Chanel Mademoiselle, or whatever fragrance tickles your fancy. Order a starter, as this immediately stretches the meal out (ditto dessert, if you’ve got room). Take your time with it, and relax between courses.

• Time it right. Go at the wrong time, and you might end up entering an overcrowded restaurant, complete with harassed waiters, long waiting times, and a nervy, slightly negative atmosphere. Conversely, if you go when it’s too quiet, you’ll feel self-conscious that you’re the only ones in there! Find out when their busy periods are (this information is usually available online when you do a google search) then book either slightly before or slightly after.

• Consider a buffet or carvery. These ‘different’ forms of dining make a pleasant change from simply being served at your table – which immediately makes them more memorable. Also, there’s something about carvery dinners that is very ‘nostalgia inducing’ and takes people right back to their childhoods! This is great if you’re looking for a meal experience that gives you warm, comforting feelings…

• Don’t drink lots beforehand. Try to save the heavy drinking for afterwards, if possible. While it’s nice to have a glass or two of wine at the table, if you’re absolutely hammered before you even start eating, you won’t remember much about it afterwards, which ruins the experience somewhat. After all, you’ve paid good money for this – you’ll want to enjoy it as much as possible. It’s also wise from a health perspective, as drinking on an empty stomach is always a risky business.

A visit to Lasan is always a treat for me.  I knew when I had the invitation to a feast there last weekend that it was always going to be a special occasion.  We went along to try out the weekend special feast menu.  The feast is such a sociable way to enjoy a weekend meal.  I’d see it as a great way to get together with friends or family to enjoy sharing a dish together.  Obviously that does depend on everyone been open to eating what is on the set menu, but in some ways it’s nicer to have less choice, so that you just concentrate on the food and the company.  I suppose it’s loosely based around the Sunday lunch idea, but with an Indian flavour and take on the dishes.  The meat is there and the vegetables, but it’s nothing like what you would get at a carvery or round at your mum’s.

The centrepiece of the feast is a oh-so-tender Lamb Raan (slow-roasted shoulder of lamb) flavoured with a fragrant tandoor masala marinade.  The meat literally fell off the bone as you touched it, it really was so tender and beautifully cooked.  The spices were delicate and aromatic, but there was still enough of a kick there to provide the punch you’d expect from Indian cuisine. It makes its entrance served on a generous bed of fluffy Biryani Chawal, made from basmati rice infused with garam masala, black cardamom, plus fresh mint and coriander.  The feast pictured was to serve four people and we did struggle to get anywhere near finishing it, so go hungry and tuck in.

As you’d expect from a feast, it doesn’t end at the main course and there are plenty of tasty side dishes included, and they all added something to remember to the feast experience.  Particularly popular on our table was the Dum Aloo: roasted potatoes flavoured with chilli, mustard seed and curry leaf.  I really liked this take on the traditional Sunday lunch roasters and they were very moreish.  There were quite a few other side plates too.  A Masala Gobi of whole char-roasted cauliflower in a masala marinade, again carefully and skillfully spiced so as not to overwhelm the flavour of the cauliflower.  Papita Daal made from red split lentils with green papaya, perfect for adding some spicy moisture to the rice and bringing the various dishes together. Some wonderfully aromatic naan breads to tear and share, infused with fenugreek and lightly-brushed with truffle oil, completed the feast.

The feast is priced at £35 per person (minimum of two people).  You can add a dessert, if you have room or fancy something sweet to finish for an extra £6 each. It’s a lovely sociable way to eat at the weekend and would be perfect if you have friends visiting or want to meet up over a good meal.  The cocktails at the bar are inventive and prepared with care, so you can easily and very pleasantly while away the hours together.

I’ve been trying to regularly try out new cafes when I see them on my travels or if I hear good things about them on social media.  In this case I’d read a couple of good reviews on Facebook and decided it was worth trying out the Tamu CafeTamu Cafe, Bearwood Road, Bearwood.  The cafe is tucked away below the crossroads where the Bear pub is and it’s nearly opposite Bearwood Road school (a few doors down from T C Hayes).  It is tiny and you could easily miss it if you didn’t know where to look. Worth looking out for though I think as I’ll explain below.  You can park on local side roads where parking is free (Wattis Road is a good choice if you are only planning a visit of a couple of hours or you might get lucky and get a spot on Bearwood Road itself, but these will also be time limited) or use the Aldi car park and walk down.

I loved the cosiness of Tamu Cafe – it is very small inside and probably has 4 or 5 tables.  We were greeted as we walked in and offered a choice of tables. The downside of it being so small is that it can get a bit noisy when the milk steamer is being used (the person who invents a machine that can do it without the noise will be onto a real winner).  Other than that the deco was bright and welcoming and I liked that there were some soft cushions to sit on (cafes and pubs are better if there are some soft furnishings rather than all hard surfaces).

We ordered a pot of tea and a hot chocolate.  The crockery is quite quirky and has a bit of a retro feel.  The teapot poured nicely (they often don’t seem to in cafes) and held about two cups of tea.  I was quite taken with the cute little milk jug and I liked the shape of the teapot and its lovely summer blue colour.  The hot chocolate looked lovely and my companion certainly enjoyed her drink.

We were very tempted by the delicious looking cakes in the window, but as it was lunchtime we opted for something a little more substantial to eat.  We decided in the end to go for the chicken wraps with fries.  The food took a short time to prepare and was quickly and attractively presented.  We really liked the fact that the chicken was slightly spicy and very aromatic.  The wrap was really enjoyable.  I liked the fries too.  Again they had spicy seasoning, but it was subtle and didn’t over power. The serving was a good size for lunch: filling enough, without being too heavy.  I’d certainly be happy to go back there for lunch in the future.  I’d be tempted to go in the afternoon (or the morning) though and try something from the cake selection as there was a coffee cake on display that was definitely calling to me.

We stopped here for lunch on a busy Easter school holidays weekend.  We happened across the place just before midday and there was a small queue waiting inside.  We decided that was a good sign and went for this pub rather than the many other options in the town.

Inside there is an atmospheric pubby bit as you walk in and we were drawn to that area, but there are additional seating areas with more of a restaurant feel and a beer garden too.  The pub bit has a very nautical atmosphere as the bar is made of an old lifeboat and other parts of the boat are used as a part of the decor.

It was a little odd that you could only order drinks at the top bar and that you had to order drinks and food separately.  Also, no card payments are accepted so you’ll need to have cash (there is a HSBC two doors up the road and there was a bit of a queue for it when we walked past – in fact if you want a cashpoint without a queue I suggest you try the one at the rear of Barclays Bank, but that’s further away).

I was glad to see they had Doombar on a hand pull when we went in, so I knew there would be something decent to drink.  There was also a locally brewed beer on hand pull.  The staff kindly offered me a taste of this, but it was too light a beer for me, so I opted to for the Doombar, which was decent.

We opted for variants on fish and chips as we were in a seaside town.  My companion had the beer battered fish and chips with peas, which was enormous.  I tried a little and wasn’t so keen on the batter which seemed a little heavy.  It was a perfectly fine portion of pub standard fish and chips and we’d certainly be happy to eat there again.  I had the scampi and chips with peas, which I really enjoyed.  It was good quality scampi and again a generous portion.  The food came very quickly when you consider that they had a rush of orders in just after opening and the pub was pretty busy all the time we were there.it

They do offer a particular meal which must be huge and there are pictures of people who have tried to eat it in under 10 minutes on the wall and there is even a league table of those who did it fastest.  If you do manage to eat the whole meal in under 10 minutes you get it for free.

Indie Bay are reinventing classic snacks starting with the moreish pretzel. The idea behind the brand is simple: easy, convenient snacking, but snacking you can feel good about.  So many snacks are laden with grease or sugar, so it’s nice to come across an alternative that you can feel good about eating.  I love the fact that come in little round balls too. Indie Bay’s range of snacks are natural, under 100 calories and vegan, which is good to know.

The good thing about Indie Bay Snacks is that they are: all natural, a great source of fibre, no added sugar, vegan and a great source of protein. You can buy them from retailers such as Ocado, wholefoods and planet organic, for a full list check here. Because they are high in fibre and protein they will keep you energized and fuller for longer. I’d say these are perfect for a lunch box or for stashing in your desk at work. Having a healthy snack easily available will cut down the temptation to have something that isn’t good for you and you’ll feel a whole lot more virtuous.

I have a month’s supply of Indie Bay to give away to one lucky reader.  Enter via the Gleam widget below.  Good luck everyone.

Competition Terms and Conditions

2018 was an incredibly difficult year for me on a personal level.  I don’t want to go into all the doom and gloom here, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s the worst year I’ve ever experienced and there have been some other contenders for that in recent years.   The tail end of the year was the worst part of it and I haven’t really felt in the mood to share some great news with you all until now.

Photo by kazuend on Unsplash

So it’s lovely to have some really good news to celebrate.  I’ve only gone and won an award: Food Blogger of the Year 2018 – UK.  It’s one of the awards given by LUXlife magazine and it’s great to see the name of my blog up there with so many great blogs and websites.  It’s a real honour.  Sometimes in this job you can feel you are working away alone and no one really appreciates your work, so awards like this do provide a very welcome boost. You can read about the other winners in my category : The Food & Drinks Awards here.  Looking through there are so many great hotels and restaurants I now want to visit and so many wonderful food and drink producers that I now want to sample.  There’s plenty there to keep me occupied for a long time to come.

Here’s a link to the announcement of my win. Many many thanks once again to LUXlife magazine.  I’m so thrilled to be included in your list of award winners.