It's all just one big restau-rant...

Tuesday 6 November 2007

The Sun Cafe, Lancaster

Now it was a week or so ago I went here and I did promise a review at the time but, well, I've had other stuff on my mind. Story goes that I went here with a mate after a bit of searching round town and ended up at the Sun Cafe - and I'm very glad we got this far. Lancaster has historically been quite low on good eateries outside of the pizza-pasta-curry-chinese territory and it was very pleasing to see something a bit more in the zone.

To start off with they brought us some bread and olive oil and OOOH look there's mushrooms in it! How intriguing! And very pleasant little mushrooms they were all covered in oil and vinegar. A good omen...

We definitely had some starters - mine was probably something involving liver and bacon and I remember being pretty good, perhaps a little salty but that's bacon for you. The beers must have been kicking in at this point because I really can't remember much else about it.

And for mains I had asked for their lamb which came to my specification, pleasingly twitching with some top-notch (juniper-berry?) gravy and vegetables. It was in fact very nice meat and incredibly tender. They did put the veg in an odd little basket thing but as this was also edible I didn't complain. My companion's Salmon came with a swirl of red raspberry stuff around it with lovely delicately tweaked heart shaped white bits in it - they're certainly putting in the presentation work. He said it was "good". Did we have dessert? No, I think just coffees.

We gassed about work and music and stuff and then went out for more round the corner at the John O Gaunt. All in all I found the Sun Cafe a very good experience. I will certainly go back and I would certainly recommend it.

Monday 5 November 2007

Simple

A long day at work - getting out around six I ended up on a Victoria train again. Wandering through meant that my impulsiveness got the better of me and I headed into Simple as I had thought it looked nice from the outside a few times. I sat down, asked for a beer and swiftly realised that the musky smell that had been following me around for the latter part of the day was my own BO. I stink. But after some kerfuffle with an out-of-date menu (no leffe, no crabcakes) I've committed to soup and a rare burger. I feel like I've got a green mist around me... Where is my emergency Mitchum when I need it?

Simple is a cafe bar type afair - with big floral wallpaper and huge chunky ornate mirrors, the odd cheap-looking crystal chandelier and some bits of modernity (stripes) to balance it all out. It's about 60% tables 40% sofas.

The tomato and basil soup was fine. It contained vegetables but was nothing too amazing. Came with some ciabatta bread. Nothing to report, bit of a boring choice/option really. Then again the place is supposed to be "simple". Perhaps that is the point....

One good thing about it - they have very easy wireless access, just connect to the one called "NETGEAR". I'm writing this live for a change. Simple. But keeping their SSID (and presumably the router's password) on the default is slightly more clueless than simple to be honest.

Then comes the main. A rare burger with blue cheese. It came in a bun with a bit of salad and some not-too-fat potato wedges. It was certainly rare enough and actually a very tasty thing. In fact I think I've got it now. It's just simply a burger and quite a nice one. Simple init. I'd better get out of here before I start driving the other customers away.

Shang-Hi and beyond

The other night a friend came over to Manchester and we went out, to a few pubs bars and one of the innumerable chinese buffet places near the flat. We had a good time - reminiscing, bitching, coming up with photographic projects involving dressing up as Batman and standing on rooftops, that kind of thing.

Shang-hi seems to be marginally classier than your average buffet. Before we got anywhere near the buffet they brought us (completely unbidden) some crispy duck with pancakes and various meaty dainties. Declare any vegetarianism at the door I suppose. Anyway it was pretty good but after a plate full of noodles and mains I felt like Mr Creosote and really couldn't eat any more despite really wanting to. I think the rule has to be that you should starve yourself for the rest of the day before going to such a place, one I had clearly neglected.

I felt distinctly queasy after the meal and was taking it pretty easy on the beers. We went to the very arty Sandbar off Oxford road (one of my mate's old haunts) and thence meandered up to the Northern Quarter. He had to get the train back to Macclesfield around 10 but after he had gone I hung about for a bit, missing one or two attempts at being pulled; first by a lady who was falling asleep and wanted help - what kind of help? a bed... I extracted myself from her arms. Then by some girls who were bothering the bouncers outside and shouted "coming with us?" when they got their taxi. I think on balance I'm just not in the space for such encounters yet. My mate thought a good shag would do me good. Perhaps one day.