Loch Fyne!

I hadn't heard about Loch Fyne until I started university two and a half years ago when I passed it in the street. All these years later I finally got the chance to go and I have to say, it was definitely worth the wait. I went to the one in Nottingham (because that is my uni home) with my dad when he came to visit me last Tuesday. It was such a cute little restaurant, nice and light and airy and was buzzing for a random Tuesday evening. I really want to go back and try some of the other things on the menu but first let's go through what I ate last week. Enjoy!

For starter I went for the Crispy Sprats with a Garlic Aioli. One word, delicious. The sprats were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and not greasy which can sometimes be the case with fried, oily fish. I'm a big fan of aioli and it was creamy and full of a garlic flavour, just the way I like it. It went well with the fish and was quite light, as I think that sometimes dishes like this can lay a bit heavy. The pea shoots were a nice addition but didn't add too much in the flavour or texture department, but a garnish never does. Overall it's too thumbs up from me!

I went for something from the fish bar for my main. The fish bar is where you choose your fish and how it's cooked, two vegetable sides and a sauce. I went for the pan-fried salmon with chips, courgette fritters and a hollandaise sauce. Let's just get this out of the way, I didn't like the hollandaise sauce but that's because I realised I don't like the sauce itself, not because it wasn't a nice sauce, if you get what I mean. Anyway I was very impressed by this meal. The salmon was cooked perfectly and tasted amazing, the chips were crispy on the outside with a soft and fluffy centre. Who could ask for more! I've never tried courgette fritters but I really liked them. They weren't greasy and were quite tasty to say they were courgette and to me courgette doesn't taste of very much. Everything went together really well and in short I was very impressed!

Betty's!

Betty's is one of my favourite places to eat ever so whenever I know we're going somewhere where one will be close, I pray that we might be giving it a visit. If you don't know what Betty's is, it's an old fashioned tea room in the north of England that sells things from afternoon tea to a full english breakfast. I've had a fair few things on the menu so this time, on our York trip, I branched out and went for the haddock, salmon and prawn gratin. It was smoked haddock, salmon and prawns in a hollandaise type sauce with a potato rosti with breadcrumbs on top. This was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. The fish was soft and tasty, especially the smoked haddock, and the sauce was to die for, so much flavour. The rosti was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and just incredibly good. Everything was seasoned to perfection and the portion size was perfect. I can't rave about this place and the food enough, it's just insane. There are four destinations where Betty's resides, York, Harrogate, Northallerton and Ilkley. Other than the Northallerton one, I've been to the all of them and even had a baking course. I just love it so much, can you tell?!?

The Food Awards!

As with the cruise ports it's time to reflect on the best meals of the holiday! I'll choose a best starter, best main and best dessert, then the best overall meal, Let's go!

Best Starter:

Without a doubt the Beer Battered Cod Fingers. They were so good that, to not sound too weird, sometimes I can still taste the curried tartare sauce, it was just that good!

Best Main:

Although the Seafood Spaghetti scored higher, the Salmon En Croute was a lot more memorable and had some really delicious aspects. Anything with pastry is a winner with me and everything else was just a cherry on top.

Best Dessert:

Three words, White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was so insanely good that I just want to relive the experience everyday for the rest of my life. 

Best Overall Meal:

This was a hard one to choose as there good points and bad points about all of them but I finally settled on the meal I had on Day Eleven. It was the Beer Battered Cod Fingers, Beef Wellington and the Coffee Mousse. There was a mixture of fish and meat and the dessert drew everything together , it was very nice indeed.

I'm going to miss looking back on all of the food I ate on my holiday because it reminds me what I ate and maybe what I liked enough to have again in the future. Bring on the next holiday so I can do this again!

Food Day Five

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Starter-Smoked Salmon Capriccio

Everything was in proportion and all of the components (the lettuce, salmon, onion and capers) went really well together. The caper dressing was really nice and the portion was just the right size so I really enjoyed it. But at the end of the day it was just smoked salmon and some other bits so it wasn't overly memorable.

8/10

Main-Pan Fried Tilapia 

I was quite disappointed with this dish. I thought that the fish tasted of soil and the potatoes were too hard. The pea pods were a little too bitter and crunchy but the meal was slightly redeemed by the saffron sauce that was fragrant and tasty. 

5/10

Dessert-White Chocolate Cheesecake

There are no words to describe how good this cheesecake was. None. It was the best pudding so far by far. It was a proper cheesecake filling that was creamy and beautiful with a nice hint of lemon. What made it even better was that the was a gorgeous pastry bottom. It was perfection and the best cheesecake I've ever had. 

10/10

Overall, the starter and the main of this meal were okay but the cheesecake just mad sit one hundred times better so I think that the meal was 7/10 overall.

Food Day One

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Let the food logs begin! I documented every evening meal and gave it a score out of ten and twice a week on here I'll post each night and at the end I'll decide what my favourites were from the whole holiday. Exciting! The only problem is I wasn't intelligent enough to take pictures of the meals themselves so you'll just have to use your imagination!

Starter-Smoked Fish Rillettes 

This was reeeeeeeally tasty. I love fish especially smoked salmon and this was full of flavour. It came in a little ramekin with two slices of crispy bread. Everything was in proportion and it was a really nice start to the meal. 

9/10

Main-Seafood Spaghetti

When I ordered this I didn't think it was going to be anything special but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It was spaghetti topped with scallops, mussels, crab meat and asparagus. The sauce was creamy and full of a gorgeous crab flavour. Everything was really flavoursome and went well together. The only thing I didn't eat was the mussels because I'm not overly keen but they looked nice on the plate. I could have just done with some bread to mop up the sauce!

9/10

Dessert-Blueberry Peach Crumble

It wasn't bad but it wasn't too good either. The crumble topping was nice, especially the soggy bits, but the flavour was overwhelmed by cinnamon. The peaches could of been sweeter and the blueberries were okay but a bit sour. The vanilla ice cream was okay but made it go cold as it was placed on top.

6/10

The meals got off to a good start and overall I'd score it 8/10 as the starter and main were great, it was just the dessert that let it down.