Pitcher and Piano!

Hooray finally! A new restaurant! My family popped by Nottingham after a university visit last weekend and we went for lunch at the Pitcher and Piano. It's a renovated church and looks stunning inside and out. When we went in it was a little confusing as to how we were going to get a table. We asked one of the waitresses but looking at people when we were there it's as if you just find a table yourself and someone will come over. The service was great and so was the food! I didn't sample the pudding because I was a little full and the menu wasn't overly inspiring. The main and starter menu however had a little bit of everything so there was plenty to choose from. There was a little confusion with the starters as they came with the main but that wasn't an issue. So, let's get into it.

For main I went for the spicy buttermilk chicken with coleslaw and skinny fries. As you can see from the picture it looked delicious! The chicken came on the bone, which I wasn't expecting, and was seriously moist and has a great flavour. The batter wasn't crispy all the way round and was soggy in places but that didn't affect the flavour. The fries were my favourite kind of chip. Thin, crisp and just great to eat. They were a little on the salty side but other than that the best chips ever. There was a lot of coleslaw but it was very tasty. The portion size (other than the coleslaw) was perfect and everything went really well together. Delicious!

The starters were called grazers and arranged a little like tapas so we got three 'grazers' to share between the four of us. We went for fish goujons, beef croquettes and calamari. The batter on the fish was crispy and the fish itself was soft and flaky. The beef croquettes were a little lacking in beef and were mostly mashed potato but they were still tasty. Crisp on the outside and fluffy in the centre. The calamari was delicious, and I have high expectations of calamari these days. The batter was crispy and the squid inside was perfectly cooked and not chewy at all. All three were winners and I'd love to try more!

La Cachette! (Take Six)

I know, I know, back here again but there is a reason! La Cachette recently relaunched with a whole new look in the restaurant and a brand new menu. I was really excited to try some things out and because I work there it meant that I had a long time to decide what to have. The menu is the same sort of thing but there are lots of new additions so I was in my element choosing what to have! So without further ado, let's go!

For starter I went for the scallops in a clam chowder. It was very tasty. The scallops were perfectly cooked and there was just the right amount of it. The clam chowder was very tasty, it had a creamy texture but wasn't too thick so was a nice sauce to go with the scallops. Everything was well seasoned and I don't know what else to say about this dish other than I wouldn't hesitate to have it again.

This is the best main course I've had here, period. So good! It was chicken with gnocchi and a fricassee of peas, which is peas in a creamy sauce. I don't know what it was that made this dish so incredible but the combination of flavours and the way everything was cooked was amazing and I lapped it all up. The chicken was so moist and perfectly cooked and the skin was really crispy which was great for me because I'm a huge fan of chicken skin. Although I'm not the biggest fan of peas, they really worked in this setting and the creamy sauce was a dream. I wasn't expecting the gnocchi to be as good as it was but I think it could have been the star of the show. It was soft and creamy with a lot of herby flavour. Loved it all!

Tarte au citron for dessert and it was very good. Nothing that special but the pastry was delicious and the filling was nice and creamy. Not too much of a lemon-y flavour but that didn't matter too much because it was still coming through. The cassis sorbet was very strong and for me in was a little bit much. The flavours would have been nice together but the cassis just overwhelmed everything on the plate. Still a nice dessert though.

Las Iguanas! (Take Four)

I held back on this post for a few weeks because I went to Las Iguanas two Tuesdays in a row for various birthday celebrations. The last time I went I did the standard main and dessert thing but this time I wanted to try out what tapas they had to offer, and luckily I had a friend that had the same thought. I said in my last post that their choice of main is very limited and all a bit same-y but the same cannot be said for the starter/tapas side of the menu. There is such a variety and it's just the right size so there's plenty to choose from but you're not over-faced. We decided to go for three in the end, nachos with chilli, empanadas with chicken???, the little pastry things with lamb and a side of curly fries.

Let's start with the nachos. They were incredible. It was a nice large portion that we still managed to polish off between the two of us and everything was in proportion. It came with sour cream, cheese, salsa and guacamole and we added the chilli for something like another £2. The chilli was really nice and I think that if I was just having that as a sharing starter then I'd have it again but in this situation the chilli wasn't a necessity, but it was a nice little addition. The nachos themselves were large and crunchy, well salted and overall just super tasty.

The spicy chicken quesadillas were very tasty but I think that it may have been my least favourite dish of the bunch. Not to say that it wasn't still good but compared to the other things that we had, it just lagged behind a little. The inside flavour was very good but overall I found it a little bread-y with not much filling. The portion size however was great as there were four meaning both of us got two each, which isn't too shabby.

These little pastries of wonder were seriously out of this world. They were the tender lamb empanadas and on paper to me it's like, yeah okay sounds alright, but they were so amazing that I think this was my favourite of all the dishes. The lamb tasted like lamb, obviously, and with the cranberry sauce it was very wintery but it still had a very fresh flavour. The pastry was thin and crisp but sturdy enough to be able to hold in all of the wonderful goodness that was inside. I can't explain how good this was so you're just going to have to go and try it for yourself. 

These curly fries were incredible. I mentioned them in my last Las Iguanas post as they came as a side with my meal and I'd say this time they were even better. They came with an aioli dip (which I also had last time) and neither of us two tapas sharers could get enough. It was creamy and garlic-y and writing about it now is making me want to eat a whole bucket of it. They weren't a bad price either and the portion size was pretty much the same as the other actual dishes.

Overall everything was delicious and the tapas definitely wins outright in this food establishment!

Las Iguanas!

Last Monday my dad came down from sunny Halifax to take me out for tea (he had a meeting in Birmingham so he stopped by on the way past). I had no idea where we were going to go so I just found somewhere that I saw on my way into town. I saw Las Iguanas one day and thought that the building looked nice and we thought we'd give it a go!

For starter I had smoky turkey and cheese empanadas with a cranberry sauce. I'm not even joking, these were beyond delicious that words can't even describe how good these were. There was the perfect balance between turkey and cheese and the flavour was full of meaty, slightly creamy goodness. Paired with the cranberry sauce just made everything nice and sweet and I've never really had this flavour combination before but I'd definitely recommend it! The pastry/bread outside was nice and crispy and wasn't overly greasy so it brought everything together wonderfully.

For my main I had a torta, which is kind of like a glorified sandwich, filled with fried chicken with curly fries and creamy aioli. As with the starter this was just insanely good! If I was to give any criticism I would say that the chicken was slightly overcooked, but it still had an amazing flavour. The bread was brioche and was toasted but not so much so that it was hard to cut and the sauce and onions inside made the flavour really tasty. I can't even say how good the curly fries were. They were tasty, crispy and dipped in the aioli it was just a winning combination. The aioli was creamy and full of garlicy flavour.

The meal and the service were outstanding so I think that we will definitely will be making a return, maybe in the not so distant future!