Category: Travel

The Crown, Horsham

Two disappointing pub experiences in Horsham this afternoon. The Black Jug – an occasional venue for me after meetings in the office complex nearby – turns out to be one of those sour-faced pubs that doesn’t let in children under 10, even into the beer garden. They also make some snotty remark about “well-behaved” children, which makes me want to have a tantrum in their saloon bar.

So we headed on to the Crown, a nicely done up pub on Carfax, where we got super-friendly service and very average food.

The Bell Hotel, New Alresford

A dinner stop on the way back from Basingstoke at the Bell Hotel in the pretty town of New Alresford in Hampshire. Very friendly service on a quiet Sunday evening and OK food. Steak was nicely presented with good accompaniments, but was a very English medium. Tom had kid-sized cod and chips which looked properly prepared. Desserts: a bland chocolate pudding for me but a much better apple crumble and ice cream for the little one.

Alba restaurant, St Ives

Dinner tonight at the very cool and clean Alba restaurant on the harbour in St Ives. Friendly service and thoughtful local food on the upside, slightly overpriced and portions on the small side, however. Probably one of the best places to eat in the town, but you pay for the reputation – and the fantastic view.

Can’t disagree with this Grauniad review

Haweli
509 Hagley Road, Birmingham, 0121-434 5717

Birmingham is blessed with many fine curry houses – this is one of the finest. The food is consistently great, particularly the karahi and naan bread that’s perfectly light and puffy. Many of the regulars are Asian, which is testament to the quality of the food. The decor is simple and welcoming, and the staff, whether fabulously moustachioed or studying for a PhD on a spare table, are genuinely charming. The bill, accompanied by jelly beans, will leave you with a wallet as full as your stomach.
Charlie King
Bearwood, West Midlands

Pizza and Marlborough just don’t mix

Not sure what it is about the prosperous Wiltshire town, but Marlborough, where the kids and I have stopped off on our way to Ireland, is proving hard to buy pizza in. Ask (where we are now) has sat us down on the condition we eat up and get out within 55 minutes. Pizza Express didn’t even manage that – astonishingly they had run out of food.

Three Cornish beers

I picked up three bottles of local beer when I was down in St Ives and I’ve just been sampling them in front of England v. Brazil. The Brazil of the bunch was One and All from the Carn Brea Brewery (near Camborne), which was a really rich and flavoursome bitter without being too heavy. The beer equivalent of England was Cornish Blonde by Skinners of Truro, a great blonde with a good finish (as it were). Finally, bringing up the rear was An Gof bitter by the Lizard brewery of St Keverne. Not awful, but not great, and the smoked malt it’s made with didn’t add much.

St Ives

Via Porthcurno, which hasn’t changed a bit in the 20 years since I was there last, and Cape Cornwall, the thinking man’s Lands End, we made St Ives for dinner. Coast restaurant, on a first floor overlooking the harbour, provided very tasty, filling food for not much money, and with friendly service. Even now, at nine o’clock, St Ives is packed with visitors. Travel tip: park at St Erth and take one of the regular trains up the branch line to St Ives.