Situated on Radford road just down from the Gala Bingo is this fairly unassuming take away which has been serving the community for about 25 years. Its owner, not a resident of Coventry, but a Brummie makes the daily journey down the A45 to ensure the residents of Coventry are well served for quality takeaway food.
Now I'm a bit biased as I've been going to this place for about 12 years and it is my regular choice when we have a takeaway curry but the food usually hits the mark.
The style is typical Indian takeaway but with a Bangladesh slant, the food is fresh and always tasty and freshly prepared.
There's not a whole lot to say really about the menu which is probably about as standard as an Indian take away menu gets, all the usuals are there and anything that's not there is probably made up by your local restaurant, or known as something else.
The food is freshly prepared to order, and can take about 20 minutes or so to be made for you if you just walk in and order. The welcome is always friendly and polite and now freshly redecorated the interior is pleasant and boast a large screen TV to help the wait pass.
Parking can be a bit of an issue at weekends but you should find something within 50 yards of the door but in the week you should be able to park right outside.
As I said this is my 'local' and as such I am a regular, but that's the thing, week in week out you see the same faces on a Saturday evening (my usually take away night) and I've been going for a long time, which to my mind only means one thing, people fins this place and stick with it because its safe and you always know what to expect. I've seen lots of other take aways open in Coundon and Kersley since I've been coming here, I've tried them all and somehow I gravitate back 'home' to this place. It's a safe choice, not spectacular, but a known quantity, consistent every time.
On this particular occasion it was a Chicken Tikka Biriyani, it's my usual, with a Keema Naan, always a good bet (the Naans can be excellent, but also I've had a few that needed 5 minutes in the oven at home when it was particularly busy). The owners are incredibly flexible in their wish to satisfy the customers, I've heard all manner of weird and wonderful requests made of them over the years, none of which have been greeted with anything but the confirmation that it's 'no problem'. One of the most interesting was when someone asked for their curry to be cooked 'authentic style' with less ghee, this was 'no problem' and the customer was back in there at the same time as me the following Saturday so I am guessing they were pleased with their 'authentic' curry.
In summary the Rose of Bengal is a really good takeaway which prides itself on freshly prepared, generous portions and tasty food. The pricing is also good with prices typically 25% less than the takeout prices of places like The Mint, Rupali or Mumbai Blue. The only two criticisms I would have is that the menu could do with some updating to bring in a 'freshness' to the place, or to provide something a bit different, I don't think I've seen anything new go on the menu in all the time I've been going there, I think they were one of the first selling the famous 'balti' in Coventry (the owner lives in Birmingham so I think he imported it quite quickly) and I'd put good money on that being the last real change on the menu. Secondly some of the dishes do come with an obligatory film of grease on the top, which is easily soaked off with kitchen towel, but I really don't think there is a need for that much oil/fat/ghee in some of these dishes.
They have recently undertaken a much needed refurbishment of the front of house which has made all the difference to the appearance of the place. I've found nothing within Coundon/Radford or Kersley yet to lure me away form this place on a regular basis.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 4/5
Speed 3/5
Food 4/5
Price/Value 4.5/5
Front of house appearance 4/5 (this would have been 2 a few months ago)
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 23.5/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them at:
260 Radford Road
Coventry
CV6 3BU
Tel: 024 7659 7307
View Larger Map
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Pubali Takeway (or-leave- it-away)
Last Saturday night (1st May) my wife and I decided we would try the Pubali take-away in Allesley Park. I had noticed it when I had previously visited the already reviewed and recommended Allesley House Chinese Takeaway which is situated right next door to Pubali in the Westmede Centre and thought we would have to give it a try.
Funny thing was on a previous visit to the Allesley House I had heard a fellow patron say that the Allesley House was always full whilst the 'Indian' [Pubali] was always empty, I was about to find out why.....
First impressions upon entering were mixed, the greeting was friendly enough but the rest was not good, I almost turned around and left before I had been noticed by the guy behind the counter but once I had been spotted a hasty retreat was difficult, besides that I was very hungry and didn't want to have to travel a couple of miles to another takeaway. The decor was very dated, the place really needs a bit of money spending on it desperately in order to make it look clean and tidy if nothing else, the wallpaper was old and damaged, the seats although appearing generally clean had seen better days as had the counter, and the door that led from the front of house to the kitchen had to be continually closed too after someone had been through it as it didn't close on its own very well, this gave me a clear view into the kitchens on occasion, something I wish I hadn't seen when I caught a glimpse of it.
The kitchen appeared to have about 10 people in it, many of which were sitting around a table or counter in the middle eating and chatting, I hoped that they were not eating as they were cooking, but it looked to me like they were, hardly very hygienic I thought.
But by this time I had ordered and was waiting for the food to be brought out, I was in there about 10 minutes, having ordered at the counter on arrival. During my visit there were several people in an out collecting phone orders and there were a couple of delivery orders, which I think not enough takeaways in Coventry offer, after all it actually achieves a 2 fold effect, it increases your customer base as there may be people who do not want to venture out especially on dark nights and it also increases your geographic coverage. There is a real gap in the market for a quality takeaway to provide a similar quality delivery service, and people wouldn't mind paying a token fee if the food was delivered in a reasonable time and was still hot. You need to take your lead from the pizza guys.
Anyway on getting the food home I realised 2 things, the first was that they had got the order wrong and given me an additional Pilau rice, I asked for one and got two, I thought at the time it seemed more expensive than I had envisaged but didn't do the maths. The second thing I realised was that I wouldn't be going back. For me there is one absolute sin that cannot be forgiven from any kind of restaurant or takeaway however good the food may be and that is the unnecessary over use of food colouring. The food was bright red and orange, not just a bit red and Orange but blood red and brick orange, no way this could have been achieved naturally and it put me off straight away. Their takeaway menu says "We pride ourselves on our friendly service, quality, generous portions and the flavour of our home made sauces". Well let me tell you guys that the friendly service was just about friendly, the quality was not great, the generous portions were reasonably generous, the flavour was poor - even bland and the home made sauces were full of food colouring.
In Summary the owners really need to get back to basics, smarten the place up, review the menu, stop using food colouring, use quality ingredients from a quality source. I won't be going back in a hurry.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 3/5
Speed 3.5/5
Food 1.5/5
Price/Value 2/5
Front of house appearance 1/5
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 15/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them at:
7 Westmede Centre,
Winsford Avenue
Allesley Park,
Coventry,
CV5 9AF
Tel: 024 76 677637
Web: www.pubali-indiantakeaway.co.uk
Funny thing was on a previous visit to the Allesley House I had heard a fellow patron say that the Allesley House was always full whilst the 'Indian' [Pubali] was always empty, I was about to find out why.....
First impressions upon entering were mixed, the greeting was friendly enough but the rest was not good, I almost turned around and left before I had been noticed by the guy behind the counter but once I had been spotted a hasty retreat was difficult, besides that I was very hungry and didn't want to have to travel a couple of miles to another takeaway. The decor was very dated, the place really needs a bit of money spending on it desperately in order to make it look clean and tidy if nothing else, the wallpaper was old and damaged, the seats although appearing generally clean had seen better days as had the counter, and the door that led from the front of house to the kitchen had to be continually closed too after someone had been through it as it didn't close on its own very well, this gave me a clear view into the kitchens on occasion, something I wish I hadn't seen when I caught a glimpse of it.
The kitchen appeared to have about 10 people in it, many of which were sitting around a table or counter in the middle eating and chatting, I hoped that they were not eating as they were cooking, but it looked to me like they were, hardly very hygienic I thought.
But by this time I had ordered and was waiting for the food to be brought out, I was in there about 10 minutes, having ordered at the counter on arrival. During my visit there were several people in an out collecting phone orders and there were a couple of delivery orders, which I think not enough takeaways in Coventry offer, after all it actually achieves a 2 fold effect, it increases your customer base as there may be people who do not want to venture out especially on dark nights and it also increases your geographic coverage. There is a real gap in the market for a quality takeaway to provide a similar quality delivery service, and people wouldn't mind paying a token fee if the food was delivered in a reasonable time and was still hot. You need to take your lead from the pizza guys.
Anyway on getting the food home I realised 2 things, the first was that they had got the order wrong and given me an additional Pilau rice, I asked for one and got two, I thought at the time it seemed more expensive than I had envisaged but didn't do the maths. The second thing I realised was that I wouldn't be going back. For me there is one absolute sin that cannot be forgiven from any kind of restaurant or takeaway however good the food may be and that is the unnecessary over use of food colouring. The food was bright red and orange, not just a bit red and Orange but blood red and brick orange, no way this could have been achieved naturally and it put me off straight away. Their takeaway menu says "We pride ourselves on our friendly service, quality, generous portions and the flavour of our home made sauces". Well let me tell you guys that the friendly service was just about friendly, the quality was not great, the generous portions were reasonably generous, the flavour was poor - even bland and the home made sauces were full of food colouring.
In Summary the owners really need to get back to basics, smarten the place up, review the menu, stop using food colouring, use quality ingredients from a quality source. I won't be going back in a hurry.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 3/5
Speed 3.5/5
Food 1.5/5
Price/Value 2/5
Front of house appearance 1/5
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 15/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them at:
7 Westmede Centre,
Winsford Avenue
Allesley Park,
Coventry,
CV5 9AF
Tel: 024 76 677637
Web: www.pubali-indiantakeaway.co.uk
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Taybarns
It was a busy time for dining out that weekend, to celebrate yet another family Birthday we were invited to go to Taybarns for Sunday lunch last Sunday (25th April), I've only every been once before and my overwhelming memory was the disgusting Tomato sauce they use, upon first tasting it I thought it was off, second taste confirmed that it was not off, just rank!
Anyway I decided on this occasion I would steer clear of the tomato sauce and so I was looking forward to going again to see what had changed in the 18 months since I'd previously been. Taybarn's in Coventry is located on the Cross Point Business Park, at Junction 2 of the M6 right next to the Showcase cinema. That means its easy to get to with plenty of free parking, just what you need for a leisurely Sunday lunch.
What I do like about Taybarns is the distinctive building, it's nice to see something that doesn't look like it was designed by Lego engineers to be installed in 20 minutes from a flat pack and looks well built. The actual decor inside is quite nice as well and it is fairly well laid out, if not a little cramped in terms of the sheer number of tables they have shoe horned into the building, it seems a bit over the top to have quite this many tables, especially as for a lot of our meal the section where we were seated was only about 60% full at most. The other thing that I like is that the front of house staff seem incredibly friendly, always willing to help and look after any issues you may have. Some of the staff behind the counter could do with learning a thing of two from the front of house staff.
Upon arrival the staff were welcoming, although we did queue for about 10 minutes to get served at the tills and be allowed into the dining area, there were only a few people in front of us and the place wasn't full by any means, so I'm not sure why this was. What wasn't quite as welcoming was the smell of grease in the entrance area, the smell was overwhelming and made me feel quite sick which somewhat killed my appetite.
We were seated at the far end of the seating area in a quiet section, as we had prebooked a table (normally you just pick a table), it was away from the chaotic main area and I actually quite liked this quieter area, it made the place feel a lot smaller than it actually is and quieter, although there is no getting away from the background hum of activity and canteen like atmosphere.
The selection is great and really cannot be faulted, from a salad bar to a full roast dinner and most things in between, they had burgers, several types of curry, roast chicken pieces, soup and bread rolls, and a selection of 4 or 5 desserts including some kind of sponge pudding, Carrot Cake, Chocolate cake and Cheese cake (they are big on cakes it would seem), and all the extras to go with them like cream, ice-cream, custard and chocolate sauce.
The issue here is quality, I decided as it was Sunday lunchtime I would go for the roast dinner, I had Turkey, there were 2 meats and I think the other one was gammon, there was a selection of a bout 4 vegetables, including cauliflower cheese, carrots, as well as roast potatoes, new potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, plus other things I forget. The moment I tasted the first mouthful I was transported back 25 years to school dinners, that's the quality level you are getting from most things here, and so please go with that in mind. The selection is varied but the quality never gets above school canteen levels in any area. Whilst you may say well what's wrong with that I should remind you that if you took a family of 4, with 2 children under 10 you would be paying out around £26 plus drinks for Sunday lunch, this doesn't sound very cheap to me, especially with the quality of food on offer.
Pricing is £8.92 per head for adults, plus £2 for your soft drink (with unlimited refills)at Sunday lunch times, pricing in the day time in the week is less, but so is the selection and evening pricing is different again, check before going.
In summary I don't think I'd go back again in a hurry, food never gets above canteen standards, looks freshly cooked but I'd guess most of it was frozen to start with, mixed staff performance - those behind the counter were generally poor. So if your appetite is big and your expectations on food standard not high then this could be your ideal venue, if you want quality cooked food at a good price then I'd look elsewhere.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 2/5 (10 minute wait on arriving & mixed staff performance)
Speed 2.5/5 (dishes often empty on buffet)
Food 2.5/5 (canteen style at best)
Price/Value 3/5 (definitely a quantity over quality offering)
Front of house appearance 4.5/5
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 18.5/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them all their details at:
http://www.taybarns.com/home/location-finder/restaurants/coventry
Anyway I decided on this occasion I would steer clear of the tomato sauce and so I was looking forward to going again to see what had changed in the 18 months since I'd previously been. Taybarn's in Coventry is located on the Cross Point Business Park, at Junction 2 of the M6 right next to the Showcase cinema. That means its easy to get to with plenty of free parking, just what you need for a leisurely Sunday lunch.
What I do like about Taybarns is the distinctive building, it's nice to see something that doesn't look like it was designed by Lego engineers to be installed in 20 minutes from a flat pack and looks well built. The actual decor inside is quite nice as well and it is fairly well laid out, if not a little cramped in terms of the sheer number of tables they have shoe horned into the building, it seems a bit over the top to have quite this many tables, especially as for a lot of our meal the section where we were seated was only about 60% full at most. The other thing that I like is that the front of house staff seem incredibly friendly, always willing to help and look after any issues you may have. Some of the staff behind the counter could do with learning a thing of two from the front of house staff.
Upon arrival the staff were welcoming, although we did queue for about 10 minutes to get served at the tills and be allowed into the dining area, there were only a few people in front of us and the place wasn't full by any means, so I'm not sure why this was. What wasn't quite as welcoming was the smell of grease in the entrance area, the smell was overwhelming and made me feel quite sick which somewhat killed my appetite.
We were seated at the far end of the seating area in a quiet section, as we had prebooked a table (normally you just pick a table), it was away from the chaotic main area and I actually quite liked this quieter area, it made the place feel a lot smaller than it actually is and quieter, although there is no getting away from the background hum of activity and canteen like atmosphere.
The selection is great and really cannot be faulted, from a salad bar to a full roast dinner and most things in between, they had burgers, several types of curry, roast chicken pieces, soup and bread rolls, and a selection of 4 or 5 desserts including some kind of sponge pudding, Carrot Cake, Chocolate cake and Cheese cake (they are big on cakes it would seem), and all the extras to go with them like cream, ice-cream, custard and chocolate sauce.
The issue here is quality, I decided as it was Sunday lunchtime I would go for the roast dinner, I had Turkey, there were 2 meats and I think the other one was gammon, there was a selection of a bout 4 vegetables, including cauliflower cheese, carrots, as well as roast potatoes, new potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, plus other things I forget. The moment I tasted the first mouthful I was transported back 25 years to school dinners, that's the quality level you are getting from most things here, and so please go with that in mind. The selection is varied but the quality never gets above school canteen levels in any area. Whilst you may say well what's wrong with that I should remind you that if you took a family of 4, with 2 children under 10 you would be paying out around £26 plus drinks for Sunday lunch, this doesn't sound very cheap to me, especially with the quality of food on offer.
Pricing is £8.92 per head for adults, plus £2 for your soft drink (with unlimited refills)at Sunday lunch times, pricing in the day time in the week is less, but so is the selection and evening pricing is different again, check before going.
In summary I don't think I'd go back again in a hurry, food never gets above canteen standards, looks freshly cooked but I'd guess most of it was frozen to start with, mixed staff performance - those behind the counter were generally poor. So if your appetite is big and your expectations on food standard not high then this could be your ideal venue, if you want quality cooked food at a good price then I'd look elsewhere.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 2/5 (10 minute wait on arriving & mixed staff performance)
Speed 2.5/5 (dishes often empty on buffet)
Food 2.5/5 (canteen style at best)
Price/Value 3/5 (definitely a quantity over quality offering)
Front of house appearance 4.5/5
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 18.5/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them all their details at:
http://www.taybarns.com/home/location-finder/restaurants/coventry
Sunday, 25 April 2010
China Red
The Family went to China Red last Saturday night (24th April) as we were celebrating a couple of birthdays so there was seven of us to accommodate. It was our first visit for a while and we were all really looking forward to it. It's located in the City centre on Hertford Street, 2 minutes walk from the Lady Godiva Statue, 5 minutes from the Cathedral and a little more than 5 minutes walk from the train station.
The concept is quite interesting; it's fixed fee eat as much as you want, but the food is cooked fresh when ordered. So the staff come and take your order and then the food comes and if you want any more the staff take your order, more food comes, and so on and so forth. The only rules are that once you've finished your starter course you go on to the main course and you can't order any more starters, simples! Oh and did I mention they have a Karaoke Bar above the restaurant? I'll not mention that further as I've never ventured in, save to say that you access it through a doorway next the entrance to the restaurant out front on Hertford Street.
As the food is all cooked fresh to order there can be a gap between ordering and the food coming as in any restaurant, the advantage is that the food comes out fresh and hot, not like your typical buffet where food can often sit for a while and go cold before you eat it. The other advantage is there is no rugby scrum at the buffet when something popular comes out of the kitchen, you sit and chat and the food comes to you, great for party bookings (although watch out for the 10% surcharge for tables of 8 or more - not sure how this is justified seems a bit unnecessary to me).
The welcome was quite friendly upon entering the restaurant and once we were over the small issue of a table mix up we were seated in the middle of the dining area. The red and black decor is quite nice and has a modern feel to it whilst it pays homage to its Chinese heritage in a martial arts film kind of way.
The service was pretty good on this occasion, last time we went we had an hour wait between starters and main course, it was busy but no apologies were offered until we complained to the manager, who, to his credit, only charged us for one meal (there were 2 of us) which made up somewhat for the poor experience but there was no real apology I felt it was more to get us to leave to stop others overhearing the complaint. However on this occasion there was no need to complain the service was acceptable. It should be noted though we did have to re-order several things after not everything we ordered was delivered together, this wasn't an issue as it followed within a few minutes, but it happened twice during the course of the evening.
As there were 7 of us we ordered quite a few different dishes, the portion size is reduced form what you would expect to get from a Chinese takeaway, or if you ordered it as a main from a Chinese restaurant as your only main, but the good thing is that it means you can try several different things, perhaps things you would not normally order in a restaurant, without having mountains of food to contend with. Be careful though as there is a warning that they will charge you extra if you leave too much food. It's understandable that they would have a policy to stop people ordering lots and leaving most of it, seems perfectly sensible to me, especially in our waste fuelled society.
The highlights for me were the Crispy Duck, Yuk Sung (although there were no rice noodles served with it) and the Hot and Spicy Garlic Beef (needless to say that all main course dishes - I think - are available in Beef, Chicken, Prawn, Duck and Vegetable, but I thin for some there is even a shrimp option). The menu is quite extensive for this type of restaurant model and most people will be catered for, there is a large selection for vegetarians, people with more specific dietary requirements may struggle, so call ahead of time to check out their ability to accommodate you. I should note that although the food is nice its not up to good Chinese restaurant standards, but it is good compared to your standard Chinese buffet type arrangements.
On to some of the negatives, it can get quite busy and the service suffers as a result, some of the staff appear not to speak English very well or they are not confident speaking in English and so often they have to send over another member of staff to talk to you, this is fine but it can often take a few minutes for this to happen, which again lets the service down, and to those who don't realise what is happening it can appear rude. The drinks are obviously not included in the price and they only offer a small selection of drafts drinks, most are bottled and can bump the tab up significantly. Typically a 250ml bottle of beer is £2.50. Also ensure you ask for tap water if that is what you want, if you ask for water you are likely to get mineral water at over £3 per jug, not a problem if that's what you want but if you weren't expecting it then it can come as a shock wen you get the bill. However biggest negative for me, which would make me think about going again is that some of the food tasted incredibly salty, and this makes me worry that there is an awful lot of salt in the food, which is obviously not good for you, see the following BBC article for concerns over salt levels in curry (not strictly the same, but food for thought - no pun intended) Warning over salt levels in curry
In summary we would think twice about going back again, the concept is good, the selection is good but the execution is not up to the promise, food is obviously not up to good quality Chinese restaurant standards, it is Chinese canteen (as opposed to Cantonese) style (although I have had far, far, worse from Take Aways in Coventry). The food is probably on a par with other Chinese buffet establishments in Coventry, such as Wing Wah or the Dragon Phoenix, but it is guaranteed to be hot at China Red.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 3/5
Speed 3/5
Food 3/5
Price/Value 3/5
Front of house appearance 4/5
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 20/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them at:
China Red Cantonese Restaurant & Karaoke Bar
58 Hertford Street,
Coventry,
CV1 1LB
Book a table now on 024 7622 9333
http://www.china-red.co.uk/
View Larger Map
The concept is quite interesting; it's fixed fee eat as much as you want, but the food is cooked fresh when ordered. So the staff come and take your order and then the food comes and if you want any more the staff take your order, more food comes, and so on and so forth. The only rules are that once you've finished your starter course you go on to the main course and you can't order any more starters, simples! Oh and did I mention they have a Karaoke Bar above the restaurant? I'll not mention that further as I've never ventured in, save to say that you access it through a doorway next the entrance to the restaurant out front on Hertford Street.
As the food is all cooked fresh to order there can be a gap between ordering and the food coming as in any restaurant, the advantage is that the food comes out fresh and hot, not like your typical buffet where food can often sit for a while and go cold before you eat it. The other advantage is there is no rugby scrum at the buffet when something popular comes out of the kitchen, you sit and chat and the food comes to you, great for party bookings (although watch out for the 10% surcharge for tables of 8 or more - not sure how this is justified seems a bit unnecessary to me).
The welcome was quite friendly upon entering the restaurant and once we were over the small issue of a table mix up we were seated in the middle of the dining area. The red and black decor is quite nice and has a modern feel to it whilst it pays homage to its Chinese heritage in a martial arts film kind of way.
The service was pretty good on this occasion, last time we went we had an hour wait between starters and main course, it was busy but no apologies were offered until we complained to the manager, who, to his credit, only charged us for one meal (there were 2 of us) which made up somewhat for the poor experience but there was no real apology I felt it was more to get us to leave to stop others overhearing the complaint. However on this occasion there was no need to complain the service was acceptable. It should be noted though we did have to re-order several things after not everything we ordered was delivered together, this wasn't an issue as it followed within a few minutes, but it happened twice during the course of the evening.
As there were 7 of us we ordered quite a few different dishes, the portion size is reduced form what you would expect to get from a Chinese takeaway, or if you ordered it as a main from a Chinese restaurant as your only main, but the good thing is that it means you can try several different things, perhaps things you would not normally order in a restaurant, without having mountains of food to contend with. Be careful though as there is a warning that they will charge you extra if you leave too much food. It's understandable that they would have a policy to stop people ordering lots and leaving most of it, seems perfectly sensible to me, especially in our waste fuelled society.
The highlights for me were the Crispy Duck, Yuk Sung (although there were no rice noodles served with it) and the Hot and Spicy Garlic Beef (needless to say that all main course dishes - I think - are available in Beef, Chicken, Prawn, Duck and Vegetable, but I thin for some there is even a shrimp option). The menu is quite extensive for this type of restaurant model and most people will be catered for, there is a large selection for vegetarians, people with more specific dietary requirements may struggle, so call ahead of time to check out their ability to accommodate you. I should note that although the food is nice its not up to good Chinese restaurant standards, but it is good compared to your standard Chinese buffet type arrangements.
On to some of the negatives, it can get quite busy and the service suffers as a result, some of the staff appear not to speak English very well or they are not confident speaking in English and so often they have to send over another member of staff to talk to you, this is fine but it can often take a few minutes for this to happen, which again lets the service down, and to those who don't realise what is happening it can appear rude. The drinks are obviously not included in the price and they only offer a small selection of drafts drinks, most are bottled and can bump the tab up significantly. Typically a 250ml bottle of beer is £2.50. Also ensure you ask for tap water if that is what you want, if you ask for water you are likely to get mineral water at over £3 per jug, not a problem if that's what you want but if you weren't expecting it then it can come as a shock wen you get the bill. However biggest negative for me, which would make me think about going again is that some of the food tasted incredibly salty, and this makes me worry that there is an awful lot of salt in the food, which is obviously not good for you, see the following BBC article for concerns over salt levels in curry (not strictly the same, but food for thought - no pun intended) Warning over salt levels in curry
In summary we would think twice about going back again, the concept is good, the selection is good but the execution is not up to the promise, food is obviously not up to good quality Chinese restaurant standards, it is Chinese canteen (as opposed to Cantonese) style (although I have had far, far, worse from Take Aways in Coventry). The food is probably on a par with other Chinese buffet establishments in Coventry, such as Wing Wah or the Dragon Phoenix, but it is guaranteed to be hot at China Red.
So the scores are as follows:
Service 3/5
Speed 3/5
Food 3/5
Price/Value 3/5
Front of house appearance 4/5
Accessibility 4/5
Overall: 20/30
So if you want to check them out you can find them at:
China Red Cantonese Restaurant & Karaoke Bar
58 Hertford Street,
Coventry,
CV1 1LB
Book a table now on 024 7622 9333
http://www.china-red.co.uk/
View Larger Map
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Welcome to EatCoventry
Recently I've been really disappointed by the quality of food I've eaten in eateries in the Coventry area, so I decided to start this Blog in order to give some of my fellow Coventrarians a view on the places I've eaten at, or taken-away from and to give some feedback to the owners of the local establishments in order for them to have an independent view of what their patrons could be thinking about them.
In particular my wife and I have been on a mission to try and find a decent Chinese takeaway near our house in the North-west of Coventry. The challenge seems to be proving quite a task. We had a regular place where we went most weeks to get our fix of Chicken in Blackbean Sauce but my wife had an unfortunate experience when eating a takeaway from this particular place (which I won't name) just after Christmas. Now I can't prove it was food poisoning, but she was violently ill for 24 hours after eating a meal cooked by them, it started about an hour after she had finished the meal during which she discovered, lurking within her vegetable Chow mein, what I can only describe as a 'foreign body', which neither of us could readily identify as being vegetable, mineral or other upon inspecting it. Draw your own conclusions.
Back to the search, luckily I think this search has now been concluded just this very night after trying many a mediocre takeaway where it seems bland is the order of the day but I can safely say the meal we enjoyed from Allesley House tonight, was a cut above the recent experiences.
Our regular test menu is Chicken in Blackbean Sauce with Fried Rice and Vegetable Chow Mein with Curry Sauce, however tonight we both went for Blackbean Sauce, one portion of vegetable and one of the usual Chicken. To our pleasant surprise the dish was really quite tasty, and had a good selection of vegetables in both, I have to also say that the chicken did not taste reheated which is the usual practise it would seem these days, I'm not saying it wasn't (why oh why do you reheat pre-cooked chicken all you Chinese takeaway chefs, you can clearly taste it and its not great, I want fresh food not reheated, please, please, please give your customers freshly cooked food, not reheated) but it didn't taste reheated.
The place itself is located at 6 Westmede Centre, Allesley Park, and is fairly welcoming, if a little dated in the decor department. The staff were friendly and efficient and the food was ready from ordering at the counter in around 10 minutes. I like to visit takeaways before I order first time around as you can tell a lot from the general decor, the cleanliness of the front of house and the patron traffic.
Overall we were impressed on first visit and will be going back, so the scores are as follows:
Service 4/5
Speed 4/5
Food 4/5
Price/Value 3.5/5
Front of house appearance 3/5
Accessability 4/5
Overall: 22.5/30
The menu is typical of many a Chinese Takeaway with no signature dishes that stand out but it contained all the regular dishes you will know and love. One thing of note is that they are open at lunchtime on a Friday and Saturday - 12-2 it says on the menu I brought home.
So if you want to check them out or if you're struggling to find something near you (although not on a Tuesday as they are closed) you can find them at:
6 Westmede Centre
Winsford Avenue
Allesley Park
Coventry
CV5 9AF
Tel: 024 76 674174
View Larger Map
In particular my wife and I have been on a mission to try and find a decent Chinese takeaway near our house in the North-west of Coventry. The challenge seems to be proving quite a task. We had a regular place where we went most weeks to get our fix of Chicken in Blackbean Sauce but my wife had an unfortunate experience when eating a takeaway from this particular place (which I won't name) just after Christmas. Now I can't prove it was food poisoning, but she was violently ill for 24 hours after eating a meal cooked by them, it started about an hour after she had finished the meal during which she discovered, lurking within her vegetable Chow mein, what I can only describe as a 'foreign body', which neither of us could readily identify as being vegetable, mineral or other upon inspecting it. Draw your own conclusions.
Back to the search, luckily I think this search has now been concluded just this very night after trying many a mediocre takeaway where it seems bland is the order of the day but I can safely say the meal we enjoyed from Allesley House tonight, was a cut above the recent experiences.
Our regular test menu is Chicken in Blackbean Sauce with Fried Rice and Vegetable Chow Mein with Curry Sauce, however tonight we both went for Blackbean Sauce, one portion of vegetable and one of the usual Chicken. To our pleasant surprise the dish was really quite tasty, and had a good selection of vegetables in both, I have to also say that the chicken did not taste reheated which is the usual practise it would seem these days, I'm not saying it wasn't (why oh why do you reheat pre-cooked chicken all you Chinese takeaway chefs, you can clearly taste it and its not great, I want fresh food not reheated, please, please, please give your customers freshly cooked food, not reheated) but it didn't taste reheated.
The place itself is located at 6 Westmede Centre, Allesley Park, and is fairly welcoming, if a little dated in the decor department. The staff were friendly and efficient and the food was ready from ordering at the counter in around 10 minutes. I like to visit takeaways before I order first time around as you can tell a lot from the general decor, the cleanliness of the front of house and the patron traffic.
Overall we were impressed on first visit and will be going back, so the scores are as follows:
Service 4/5
Speed 4/5
Food 4/5
Price/Value 3.5/5
Front of house appearance 3/5
Accessability 4/5
Overall: 22.5/30
The menu is typical of many a Chinese Takeaway with no signature dishes that stand out but it contained all the regular dishes you will know and love. One thing of note is that they are open at lunchtime on a Friday and Saturday - 12-2 it says on the menu I brought home.
So if you want to check them out or if you're struggling to find something near you (although not on a Tuesday as they are closed) you can find them at:
6 Westmede Centre
Winsford Avenue
Allesley Park
Coventry
CV5 9AF
Tel: 024 76 674174
View Larger Map
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)