Pie Minister @ Bristol, United Kingdom

Pie Minister is known to serve one of the best pies in UK. They actually supply pie to Waitrose on a contract basis. They also dominate the pie business at market places around the United Kingdom. Pie Minister stalls can be found at Borough Market and Covent Garden's Market. Well, I was fortunate enough to go to their source in Bristol, where they were founded.

At Pie Minister, there is a long list of criteria that make their pie special. Feel free to have a look below.

Menu at Pie Minister

We settled for a pie each, some mash and mushy peas to go with it.

Pie with Mash and Mushy Peas

I've never thought of mushy peas as nice since I last had it at The Magnificent Fish and Chips. However, the peas here were darn bloody good. I could have polished off a pot.

Heidi Pie

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Breakfast @ The Breakfast Club, Soho, London

Before I left for Bristol, we wanted to have breakfast with my brother. As he was posted up north, we thought a good compromise would be to meet in the middle. We decided to go for brunch.

Urbanspoon (I personally don't trust the rating) rated The Breakfast Club rather high up on the list of breakfast joints. Since we didn't have time for dim sum at Yauatcha, we settles for TBC.

Latte

I didn't try the coffee, but the person who had it said it was alright.

Mango Go

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Breakfast @ The Wolseley, Piccadilly St James, London

The Wolseley is one of London's most famous restaurant. It is packed with celebrities most times of the day. Situated just adjacent to the Ritz, it is rather accessible by the London underground. As my old course mates and I were meeting up in London at 8am, I suggested heading over to The Wolseley for breakfast.

Note: The Wolseley do not allow photography in its premises. Hence, this will be another one of those pictureless post.

There is always a queue at The Wolseley on weekends. One is expected to wait for at least 30 minutes before being seated (Sometimes I feel that the waitress exaggerate on purpose even so that they can call you in 5 minutes and tell you they managed to push you up the waiting list hoping that you will give them a larger tip). 

Anyway, I ordered a large Eggs Benedict and a Macchioto (my sister insist that The Wolseley serves the best Eggs Benedict in the world, something I am yet to be convinced). The other dishes that my friends ordered were the Cumberland sausage roll and the bacon roll.

At £13.50 for 2 Egg Benedict, it was pretty pricey. The eggs were perfectly poached, and placed on top of an English muffin and ham, then ladled with a nice spoonful of Hollandaise sauce. It was good eggs, but certainly wasn't worth the price. Then again, one is usually paying for the environment when dining at The Wolseley.

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Fish and Chips @ Sea Grill, Harrods, Knightsbridge

When one dine at a place like Harrods, one is always ensured of quality food. For the hefty price tag, the food better be good. To be frank, I didn't want to eat at Harrods. I would have gone to Marcus Wareing. Anyway, no point debating about the past.

So, of the many eating places and restaurants in Harrods, we chose Sea Grill. Finding a table can be a hassle during lunch time.Sea Grill is more of a casual dining food outlet, where one sits on tall chairs on a bar-like environment watching the chefs cook your meal.

Fish and Chips

Battered cod fillet were deep fried and served with malt vinegar, a good dash of salt and tartare sauce. It tasted as good as it looked (which was pretty good). It was easily one of the better fish and chips I've tasted. Then again, it had a price tag of 23quid.

Steamed Mediterranean Mussels in Tomato Broth

The mussels (£18) were average. I preferred the usual cooking style of white wine, celery and a bit of cream which can be found at Belgo. This dish was a bad choice.

Crusty Bread for the Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse

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Sze Chuan Cuisine @ Bar Shu, Soho, London

One of my friends told me that Bar Shu serves one of the best Sze Chuan Cuisine in London. Actually, I haven't eaten much Sze Chuan Cuisine, but have heard about the vast amount of spices they use in their cooking. One night, we decided to give Bar Shu a shot.

Booking at Bar Shu is either from 7pm-9pm or 9pm onwards. This is to ensure that they can do at least 2 seatings per table. Its either you take it or leave it. Doesn't matter if you make a reservation at 8pm, you still have to leave by 9pm.

Anyway, most of the servers are Bar Shu are Malaysians. Our waitress was from Ipoh.

Preserved Century Egg with Green

After being spoilt with Century Eggs from Yung Kee (Hong Kong), the expectations I have for century eggs somehow went up. However, I must say that the century egg at Bar Shu was particularly bad. The egg was so tough I felt as if I was eating plastic. This dish was so bad nobody wanted to eat the egg that we left a few slices behind.

Boiled Sea Bass with Sizzling Chilli Oil

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English Tea @ St James Restaurant, Fortnum and Mason, Piccadilly, London

Note: if you're seeing this post somewhere else, his post has been shamefully plagiarised from www.tummy-rumble.com.

For those of you who didn't know, I'll list a couple of things about Fornum & Mason.

1. Queen Elizabeth has given her approval of the place and is rumored to shop there.
2. It resembles a mini Harrods, selling all sort of premier things from clothes to food.
3. Their food brand is probably more or as expensive of stuff from Harrods.
4. They sell Amedei Porcelana (at 10quids a bar) which tend to run out of stock rather quickly.
5. They are famed for their afternoon tea at St James Restaurant.

Tea Set

Served in expensive teaware, one had a choice of a strong, mild or aromatic tea from around the world. Under each category, there is a choice of 3 teas respectively. I opted for a mild tasting tea. Mild tea do not require sugar or milk.

Canape

From top to bottom: clotted cream, strawberry jam and raspberry jam.

Highest layer: cheese cake, lemon meringue, ginger biscuit, strawberry cake.

Middle layer: Plain scones and raisin scones.

Lowest later: Sandwiches (cream cheese and cucumber, smoked salmon, roasted chicken) and chocolate cake.

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Caraffini - Italian Restaurant @ Lower Sloane Street, London

Note: if you're seeing this post somewhere else, his post has been shamefully plagiarised from www.tummy-rumble.com.

One of my friend told me that this Italian restaurant near her place serves one of the best lobster pasta around. Lobster and me get along very well. Maybe not from their perspective cos I like to eat them. So I got my brother to drive me there one night (He made me pay the bill though).

We were actually suppose to meet my cousin there, for her to pass us some stuff. Surprisingly we arrived at the same time. We were seated and our coats were taken. The tables had packet bread sticks and packet biscotti on them (which I didn't know were already included into the bill under some weird cost). We order an appetizer to share among the 3 of us.

Avocado Appettitoso

The salad came with avocado, buffalo mozzarella, smoked salmon, fresh crab and prawns. It was simple food presented in a nice manner. The salad was dressed in an Italian dressing.

Spaghetti Alla Marinara

For the main, my cousin had the seafood spaghetti. It was more of a mixed clam and mussel pasta. It was okay I guess.

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Artisan @ The Westbury Hotel, London

Note: if you're seeing this post somewhere else, his post has been shamefully plagiarised from www.tummy-rumble.com. *Lifts up middle finger to the thief.*

After hearing quite a number of things from friends about Artisan, I decided to give it a try. Artisan is rated by top table as one of highest rating restaurant in London. That must count for something then, doesn't it? Anyway, toptable had an offer going at Artisan where a 3 course meal would come with champagne, which they so carefully 'forgot' to give us. We forgot about it as well, meaning we wasted a glass of champagne each.

We start off with some amuse-bouche.

Salmon with Beetroot and a touch of Dill

Goat's Cheese with Tomato Confit

Toasted Aubergine

The 3 tongue tasters were served together on a large plate.The salmon was nicely done. Dill and salmon always goes well together. The goat's cheese was a little too strong for some of my fellow diner's liking. I found it to be alright though (cutting down a little on the cheese would have been better in my humble opinion). The toasted brinjals were like chips. They were rather mild in taste and were probably serve to satisfy people who like to munch.

Smoked Duck, Chips, Celeriac and Soy

The salad was a pre-appetiser. It was served with a citrus dressing. It was a nice change to the usual green salad. However, I could barely taste the smoke duck. The chips gave a nice crunch though.

Smoked Salmon and Crayfish Mousse

The salmon was served with shellfish mayonnaise and Melba toast. This dish was rather good. In fact, I regretted not ordering this. I opted instead for the dish below.

Terrine Ham Hock

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