We went out for a New Year meal with friends. They picked the venue, based on the rave reviews that people gave it. The place was the Happy Valley chinese restaurant in Norton. The service was bad. It was worse than the Akbar Dynasty. We were seated at about 9.00pm at the correct time, which was the only thing they got right all evening. This is a blow by blow account of that evening.
As a table of 9, we were probably the largest table in the restaurant, and we weren’t exactly sat there in silence. But after an hour no one had come to ask if we would like drinks, or even given us menus. So we went up and ordered them ourselves; a couple of bottles of wine, a few beers, bottles, etc. They told us they would bring it to our table. But nothing arrived, we went and asked and they told us they lost the order. We reordered. They bought a bottle and then went around serving every other table before finally bring us the rest of the drinks (as you will see this is action repeated).
At some point in here we got our menus. Essentially there was a choice of 6 main courses. So it was fairly simple, one of each and 3 extra of what seemed to be the most popular. Took about 30 seconds to decide. Pity it took them at least half hour to actually ask us.
So, just to recap: We got there at 9pm and we haven’t had anything to eat till 10:30pm.
First course: Soup. Chicken, ham, peas, mushrooms, and gelatine. Yes big lumps of gloopy jelly at the bottom of the soup bowls. Not must appetising. Then there was a massive wait until…
Second course: Prawn Toast, Spring Rolls, Kebabs in Satay Sauce, Salted Chicken and Crispy Seaweed. About as good as what you would get from Iceland.
Third course (Part 1): Strips of cucumber, carrot and spring roll, Hosin sauce and a 10 minute wait.
Third course (Part 2): Crispy fried duck and a 5 minute wait.
Third course (Part 3): Pancakes! By this time Mrs Bear was so hungry she even ate the duck, which still feels guilty about.
Fourth course (Part 1): A plate of pork slices and a 5 minute wait.
Fourth course (Part 2): All the other meals, and the plate that had held the pork was taken away.
Fourth course (Part 3): Two bowls of rice. By this time we had gorged ourselves on the other courses.
As you can see there wasn’t much happiness in the Happy Valley from our table. Seeing tables that we seated a long while after us (even it was just a couple) get served before us was wholly wrong. If they were understaffed, then that is their problem to sort out – they knew how busy it was going to be. The only thing that stopped the evening from being a complete loss was the company we had and we spent most of the night laughing – probably because we got drunk on empty stomachs.
As for midnight, we only realised about 30 seconds to go (or two minutes depending on whose watch you used). No count down or anything from the staff. We did the count down for the entire room. We did get a bottle of Asda Asti for the table though.
- Service: 2/10 (The only way it could get worse was to not serve us at all).
- Atmosphere: 9/10 (We bought our own atmosphere).
- Food: 7/10 (It wasn’t bad, but we were so hungry it could of been dog food).
- Price: £35
- Overall: 4/10
Once again we found ourselves in Whitby – this time with mummy bear in tow – so once again we visited Whitby’s finest Fish & Chip shop: Robertson’s of Whitby.
You could say that this review is biased as they are now friends of the family, but it is not for that reason that we go back there time and time again.
The relationship between the Bears and the Robertsons goes back to before the Bears had met. Mrs Bear was going to have a party in Whitby and was scheduled to have it at Trenchers. Unfortunately, two weeks before the party, Trenchers was no more: It had been gutted by fire. So they had to reorganise the party and of all the restaurants that they tried (and turned them away) it was Robertsons that stepped up to the plate (no pun intended, but once noticed, let stand) and hosted nearly 100 people at very short notice, closing the restaurant for the evening.
This must be the 7th or 8th time I’ve eaten there and never had a bad chip once. I’ve nearly always eaten the traditional Fish and Chips having once had the huge battered sausage, while Mrs Bear usually has the Spring Rolls with Chips. Even though my portion was listed as Medium Cod it is the size of most places Large. This isn’t just special service for us as I have had the large cod and that sticks out over the sides of the plate. The 3 spring rolls are large and (judging by the speed that Mrs Bear ate them) very nice.
Another recommendation comes from a friend who ate there with us a month or so ago: They had the ham salad and was shocked at the size of it and the amount of ham that was served. In the end she had her partner eat what she couldn’t (which he did gratefully).
Definitely worth a visit and at least you won’t be waiting for an hour and half outside the Magpie Cafe.
I purchased The Prophecy complete collection from Amazon. There are two boxed sets available, a 3 film version and a 5 film version. If you get one, get the 3 film version. The final two films have nothing to do with the first three films and while not bad films per se, they do detract from the original trilogy. The only thing they have in common is a reference to a prophecy. The first three films are great films (in my opinion of course), but the transfer of them – the first film especially – left a lot to be desired. Hopefully the 3 film edition used a different transfer and are substantially better.
December 2nd, 2007 :: graham.reeds
Categories:
Films ::
ReviewsJust watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End: It’s not bad. Why isn’t it as good as the song and dance (and marketing) made it out to be? Because it was too damn long.
By the end I was bored of seeing Jonny Depp swinging around yet more rigging. I was bored of the multiple double crossings that was happening because they are “pirates – yarr”. And I was bored of far too much CGI.
Over 2 and half hours is too long for a throw-away franchise movie like the PotC movies are.
With the main characters being killed off at the rate of about 1 every half hour I thought this would be the last one, but no, they left it open for a 4th…
It was SiLs birthday today so we went for a meal at The Seaton Lane Inn, Seaham.
Initial view as I walked in was that it was going to be a typical pub, in which I mean it was quite dark with heavily polished wood and the smell of cooking chips. However the restaurant section was bright and airy but fitted well with the rest of the pub. We had easy listening piped at a perfect volume over the top (Lemonheads & Frank Sinatra being the ones that stand out in memory).
The table was well laid out, though the bucket of ice that the champagne came in was tattooed with the Grolsch logo. Another minor fault was my dessert spoon was actually a serving spoon but not everyone had dessert so that wasn’t a problem as such.
The menu was large, heavily fish biased, though being a seaside town it is to be expected. We were given plentiful fresh bread which was replaced as needed. I had Whitby Crab Crème Fraiche Risotto with Tarragon for starters, followed by Grilled Gammon Steak with pineapple and Pease Pudding (though minus the Pease Pudding). In addition we had 3 serving dishes with new potatoes, chips, and mixed farmhouse vegetables. For dessert I had Apple Pie with Vanilla Custard washed down with a Cappuccino. The cappuccino was small and I wasn’t offered a refill, which is a pity as it was very nice.
With a picky party of 8 we pretty much tried the entire menu and no one actually complained. Mrs Bear tried mussels in a garlic sauce which she liked. SiL (or SiL’s partner) picked up the tab as a birthday treat.
- Service: 8/10
- Atmosphere: 7/10
- Food: 9/10
- Price: N/A
- Overall: 8/10
December 26th, 2006 :: graham.reeds
Categories:
Books ::
ReviewsJust finished the book which is simply a collection of his humourous articles from his Sunday Times column from January 2001 up to the end of 2003. This one was such a success he’s recently released a second anthology presumebly from the beginning to 2004 to end of 2006. A such they are fairly short articles which won’t take too long to read – however I found as such you can’t sit down and read through like you would a normal book, you take in one or two before you go to bed, another when you are waiting for your girlfriend to get ready and one while you are sat on the toilet. Which is probably where I read most of the book.
I personally think it is a good book as I don’t read the Sunday Times (therefore the articles are new to me) and thoroughly enjoy his rants on Top Gear. Therefore I give this book 4/5.
Being our anniversary I decided to take my fiance to the local vegetarian restaurant which, unfortunately, started out as complete shambles.
Having booked the table previously – and only just being able to book it – I expected to be seated in a crowded restaurant. I didn’t expect to be seated at a back of a very small gig. I was a bit disappointed at the seating arrangement – it was our anniversary and I didn’t particularly want to share it with 20 other people plus band – but was content to put up and be quiet: Anything for an easy life.
Not my Lou. She marched up to the guy who showed us to our table and basically told him that if we weren’t reseated then we would have to pass for another time. Fortunately for us (and them) someone had just finished their meal and vacated their table. Huzzah – our night was saved.
Having been seated and picked our meals, we were promptly served our drinks. The starters followed fairly swiftly and was very nice. However there was a rather long gap to our main course. Also they tried to pipe the country and western gig through to the main serving area which overloaded the speakers, making pleasurable chat next to impossible. Fortunately for us (and the speakers) they turned the gig off in our area leaving me to gaze longingly at my fiance in relative silence.
The main course was finally bought to us but who I presume was the cook, the interval drinks was bought to us by what appeared to be a cooks hand. This again was very nice.
So what did we eat? Glad you ask.
I had
- Baked Mushroom and Honey Roast Shallot Pate followed by
- 3 Cheese, Spinach and Petit Pois Pancakes with
- Fentimans Lemonade.
While Lou had
- Hummus and Hot Bread with
- Wild Mushroom and Goat’s Cheese Roulade washed down with
- Peppermint tea and an Elderflower spritzer.
Was it nice? I found mine to be very nice, but Lou is a fussy eater and found the Wild Mushroom to be overpowering. Having tried her’s I have to say that the hummus was quite bland compared to my starters and the wild mushroom was at odds with the Roulade. Seems like I had the better meal out of the two.
So the final rating? Well I would eat there again. The service was abysmal, but you could blame most of that on the band, so I will recommend avoiding Sunday evenings if at all possible. Lou wasn’t particularly pleased with her meal but she is quite a fussy eater.
- Service: 5/10
- Atmosphere: 7/10
- Food: 8/10
- Price: 7/10
- Overall: 7/10