The Pryordurkins

It will be a bit quiet on the old Pryordurkin front for a while as we are now off on our summer holidays.   The in-laws are looking after our home and two cats, so it remains to say, have a great time yourselves and see you all on our return.

Now part of the Prezzo Restaurants group, Jonathans Italian Restaurant on Bridge Street in Maidenhead served up my lunch yesterday.  I arrived with a few colleagues and we were shown to a large round table at the rear of the restaurant overlooking an outside patio garden area.  The restaurant was brightly lit, modern in design and freshly cleaned. 

I ordered a soft drink and was nicely surprised to see it served up in a cooler chilled glass.   I then ordered up my Scicillian Pollo and after a short time it was served up by one of the chefs.  I have to say it was very good indeed. Well cooked and nicely presented on a crisp white plate.   I’d opted for a side salad to accompany my meal instead of potatoes and it was just as good.  Dressed with a quality extra virgin olive oil and including warmed sliced bell peppers I would have been happy enough with that alone.

The service was attentive and professional and they took the time to ensure we were always happy with our lot.

In summary it was a stylish place to stop for a quick business lunch and my instinct tells me, it would just as good for an evening dinner.

Pryordurkin rating. 3 stars.

Telephone 01628 780227

We paid another visit to Ambience Cafe Bar at 40 Glllygate York for lunch today.  We wanted something light and quick while out shopping in the City Centre.  As we arrived around 12 noon, the walled garden was starting to fill up with other customers.  We took a seat at one of the plastic tables and waited to be served.  Within moments we were greeted by the friendly owner, who said someone would be with us soon.  A nice touch.

A young guy with a blank look turned up to take our order.  We knew after placing the order, it was unlikely to arrive without problem.   Sure enough my chicken sandwich arrived covered in coronation sauce, despite my specifically asking for it to come plain.  Despite this the sandwich was fine.  Paul had opted for Ham and it certainly looked home cooked.  Accompanied by curly fries (how can respectable places still serve these grease laden things) and a small bowl of soup, it was good value at £5.90 each.

The garden itself is very private and sits within the walls of York City Centre.  It has certainly filled out with planting since we were last time and was as usual very nice indeed.

In summary, this cafe bar, while not exactly serving ‘Gastro’ food, does do what it says on the tin, and provides a nice place to stop and refresh in peaceful surroundings.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars.

We’ve both re-joined our local Gym.  We had been thinking about it since confirming the booking of our holiday.  We wanted to make sure we would look good on the beach, but given we fly out in less than 11 days, the chances of looking like the chap on the left are, to be fair, quite remote indeed.

Nonetheless, we’ve started back and that can only be a good thing.

We made our first appearance yesterday and were pleased to discover the pools (one inside and one outside) were both relatively quiet barring a few other crinklies who also like to go first thing in the morning.

Today we went our seperate ways.  While I started working at home in my office, Paul called into the gym on his way to work, doing a little treadmill running.  For me, I went after I finished work early at 4.45 and did some cross training excercises and a little ‘manly’ weight lifting

Feeling quite virtuous, I’m now making a chicken curry and have opened a bottle of Cloudy Bay.

Have a nice evening!

With a 50th birthday Hog Roast booked into our social diary for Saturday, we found ourselves staying a night at the Holiday Inn Luton South on London Road in St Albans, Saturday evening.

We arrived around 1pm to a hotel that seemed deserted of customers.  Checking in was quick and straight forward and after we’d dropped our bags into our room, we headed down to the bar for a coffee and a bite to eat.

The coffee was good and the shared platter for two served up in the bar was OK.  Lots of fried bits to pick from.  Not healthy but did the job.

Later that evening we returned from the birthday party around 8.30pm and briefly contemplated hitting the on site leisure centre, but instead settled for a hot bath and a bit of TV.  We weren’t that hungry having being well fed at the party so never got round to trying room service.

The bed was comfortable, but Paul would have preferred it slightly harder.  The air conditioning was brilliant.  Normally in hotels we have stayed at lately, the air conditioning hardly works, but in this hotel, it was fully functioning.  We chose between heat and cooling and both worked exceptionally well.

Another common complaint I have in hotels is that the showers are often very poor.   The Holiday Inn Luton South is an exception. The shower was powerful and just what was needed to wake us up in the morning before heading down to breakfast.

Speaking about breakfast.  It was very good.  The food had been freshly cooked and was presented well.  The coffee was good and hot. The only complaint we had was that the restaurant was full of little old dears with sharp elbows and no manners.  Even the odd ‘excuse me’ as we tried to make our way around the restaurant was met with blank looks and Nil response.  The hotel (which I know of old, having stayed here many times when I worked in Hemel Hempstead) caters for business people during the week, but judging by the fellow customers today, caters for large coach parties at weekends.

All in all though, we fitted in well with the old dears (we can muster sharp elbows when necessary) and had a very pleasant stay.  The service was friendly and the overall cleanliness of the rooms and public areas was good.

At £51 for the double room which included breakfast for two, it was also exceptional value indeed.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.

Last weekend it got up to 24 degrees centigrade during the day.  Even on Monday during my lunch break I managed to spend a little time in the garden soaking up the vitamin D.

Today it’s freezing.

Well, it feels like it is freezing and so, having watched our two putty cats looking miserable and trying to keep warm, I’ve relented and put the central heating back on for a few hours. I’ll turn it off before Paul gets back. Don’t tell him. (He mourns the days when sharing a house with Marg they celebrated a winter quarters gas bill of only £7.00!)

You would not think it is June.  The temperature outside is only 10 degrees centigrade which is a full 14 degrees lower than it was this time four days ago.  I just hope it warms up for the weekend before we join some friends to celebrate a 50th birthday Hog Roast.

Anyway, have a good weekend yourselves and see some of you very soon.

We took the opportunity to visit some friends in Blackhall on Sunday.  While we were there, we had a stroll with their new Labrador puppy called Sandy, along Blackhall Rocks beach.  Turning left at Pieronis corner (the ice cream and general dealers shop we once owned), it was like stepping back in time for me.  Parking up at Dead Man’s Bank, we climbed down the steps to the beach itself and walked along the shoreline towards Crimdon Dene.  Stepping tentatively over the rocks that litter this coastline it was a very nice stroll indeed.

Having grown up in the area, I’d forgot just how beautiful it is.  The caves themselves haven’t changed much since I was a lad spending many a lazy day climbing inside and building fires with old wood washed up by the sea.  Nowadays it is regarded as a nature reserve and a good deal of investment has been made building walkways, steps and providing seats with spectacular views of the East Durham coastline.

We eventually finished our walk by climbing up some steps near Crimdon and then walking along the cliff tops to return to Dead Man’s Bank, where we’d left our cars. It was was a fine trip down memory lane but we didn’t stop for ice cream at what was Pieronis because they could never make it as good as I once did.  I still have the secret recipe!

Before going to the theatre last night we looked for somewhere to have an early spot of dinner.  Not having thought about it, ahead of  time, proved to be a mistake.  We entered this restaurant/cafe at around 6pm and there were a few tables taken by families and racegoers (drunk).

The menu should have given the game away.  It was extensive, printed on hard plastic-cum-cardboard and had French titles for what turned out to be typical poor English mass catering food.

It was too late to leave and find another restaurant so were persevered.

The white wine arrived and our glasses were both filled to the brim (an indication of the clientèle they usually get,  me thinks).  Before I realised, the waitress had gone, leaving the white wine bottle on the table in full view of the albeit now descending evening sun.  No cooler was offered….

I tucked the paper napkin (I hate these things with a passion hard to describe) onto my lap while we both sampled the selection of breads and dips.  Awful.  Stale mass produced bread sticks (clearly out of a box) and a poor imitation of classic French dips.

The service itself, I should mention though (apart from the bottle cooler incident) was friendly and reasonably quick.  The surroundings themselves were faux French cafe in styling. The wooden floor however, only echoed the immense noise of glasses and coffee cups being stacked behind the bar by someone I took to be the manager.  I know this, because she was grumpy with her staff and if looks could kill, she would easily strike you down at 20 feet.  It seemed she was taking her attitude out on the crockery. It was deafening.

Anyway, the mains arrived.  I had opted for Demi Poulet or as it turned out, half a cheap chicken and chips covered in garlic oil.  Paul went for the beef bourguignon and a side salad.  I have to start by commenting on the salad.  It was limp, lifeless, small and cheap.   Probably the worst I have ever seen served up during an evening meal.

Back to my main, the chicken and chips were just about OK.  The value though, when compared to the price paid was very poor indeed.  Paul’s meal was just as bad.  The beef bourguignon was tough, the sauce had some weird underlying taste to it.  I thought it had chirozo in, so goodness knows where that flavour came from.

We settled up and quickly left promising never to make this mistake again.

Pryordurkin rating 1 star.

We went along to the opening night of Harold Pinters play, The Homecoming at York Theatre Royal.  (It is running from the 30th May 09 to the 20 June 09) Written by Harold Pinter, Directed by Damian Cruden, Designed by Dawn Allsopp and Lighting design by Richard G Jones we were interested to see how this production would pan out.  Paul Shelley played Max, Robert Pickavance played Sam(superbly camp), Suzy Cooper played Ruth, Sam Hazeldine (he who looks a little like Sean Penn) played Lenny, Ian Harris played Teddy and finally Jack Ashton (nice pecs) played Joey.

Extract from the theatres website

“One of the masterpieces of the Twentieth Century, The Homecoming is Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter at his most dark and brilliant.   North London. 1960s. An old and sinister house.   Teddy and his new wife, Ruth, return to the family home after six years absence teaching in America.  A family home of men.  Aggressive Max, ineffective Sam, bitter Lenny and dreamer Joey. Long hidden rivalries, fear, triumph and pain create a scintillating piece of work that is both hilariously funny and deeply dark”

The curtain rose at 7.30pm and we were greeted by an impressive set that reminded me of a number of my elderly relatives homes.  First up was Max and Lenny and over the next twenty minutes the remaining members of the cast made their appearances.  We are not entirely sure why though, but we both struggled to find interest in the characters on stage.  While Harold Pinter (1930 – 2008) has undoubtedly written many a fine play, this particular one winning the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play, we simply couldn’t get into it. A worrying sign in any theatre is when I find myself looking at my watch and unfortunately I glanced a couple of times wishing the interval to come round this evening.   When it did, we took a breath of fresh air in the courtyard and bumped into one of Paul’s colleagues from York University.   It seemed that we were not the only ones struggling to get into this play and we swapped views and feelings.

Ten minutes later, I heard the call for people to take their seats for the second half and the four of us briefly wondered whether to leg it or go back in.  We went back in, but unfortunately the experience didn’t really improve for us.

The underlying story was clever, it included humorous moments and dark moments and the end was quite dark and weird.  However as already mentioned, we could not really get into the characters and I didn’t really care one way or the other about any of them.  There just wasn’t anything to connect us with what was happening on stage.

In summary, this is now our second disappointment in as many months when it comes to serious plays at York Theatre Royal and while we might have wondered whether it was just us, it was reassuring to hear the reaction of other people as they left at the end of play.  They were similar to ours.

Pryordurking rating 2 stars.

I decided to give Majestic Wine Warehouse in York a try today. They have an outlet at Foss House Garage on Foss Islands Road in York.  I arrived a little after 2pm having taken a late lunch and the place was empty.  I therefore looked forward to some attentive service with various wines being suggested for the coming summer months.  Unfortunately none of this happened.

I should explain that I usually order up our wines from Laithwaites, a mail order company who have never let us down with either the quality of the wine or the price.  They also helpfully select mixed wine cases for each of the seasons and being a complete novice when it comes to wine, I find this especially useful.

However, I always like to test alternatives and so I was hoping to find that Majestic Wines in York were offering up a comparable (and local) service.

What struck me as I arrived through the front door was the price of the wines on offer.  For a wine warehouse; you expect given the scruffy surroundings to be getting a good deal on the wine itself, but I was not immediately convinced of the value on offer.

A tall chap did greet me quite quickly but had that look of ‘I’m a bit busy at the moment, do you really want some help?’ on his face, so I said I would take a look around first.   He checked back with me 10 minutes later, and so I asked a few questions.  The answers I got seemed to be based on what he could sell from today’s special deals, rather than knowledge about wine.  My enquiry about a particular wine and what food it might best be served with, drew little by the way of a useful response.

The minimum order you  have to place is for 12 bottles but like all Majestic Wine Warehouses, they  are happy to mix.  However,  beware.  The best prices in the main are only available to you when you buy at least 6 bottles of the same wine.  So if, like me, you buy a couple of bottles of wine from a few ranges to make up a case, you pay the full price, even though you have bought twelve bottles.  (Even Tesco give a discount for more than 6 bottles).  The tall chap made no attempt to suggest better mixes or numbers of wine to get the best deal.  Anyway, my eventual case came to £136, which to be fair was good value as it contained some of my favourite wines (Cloudy Bay, Sancerre etc) but I am still not entirely sure it could not have been a little cheaper.

Anyway I suppose in the end though, what made the trip a disappointment was the poor level of attentive and knowledgeable service.  I came out with as much knowledge about wine as I went in with; and that’s not a lot!

Pryordurkin rating 2 stars.