Camelot restaurant and bar 4 Braddons Hill Road West Torquay TQ1 1BG
Torquay
Camelot medieval restaurant
Despite living in the UK for over 5 years I have not travelled widely within it: a two week trip to the Highlands of Scotland (Inverness, Portree, Isle of Skye, and even the fairly remote North and South Uist), Glasgow and Edinburgh several times, a short trip to Cardiff and the Peak district and that’s about it. I do not count Brighton, Dover, Oxford etc which I’ve also visited as they’re near enough almost to count a little as London’s suburbs 😉
Having lived in the French riviera, I was curious to discover the English riviera. After all, on the map it is not that far from London. Well, that was without realising how bad the road network is in the UK. The so called motorway is more like a national road in France. Pathetically, the whole UK motorway network is just a little over twice Belgium’s motorway network despite being a much larger country. It is time they invest a little more into it instead of patching unsafe roads. After driving for over 5 hours with a short stop at Stonehenge (a disappointing ripp off place not worth the stop – go to Carnac in Brittany where there are thousands of standing stones instead) we eventually arrived in Torquay.
Near the harbour in Torquay, it is FULL of junk fast food places so we had to walk back inland to find some more original places for our dinner. We found the Camelot wich is a kind of medieval style pub with a knight outside and some solid and heavy wood tables inside.
We ordered as starters the garlic and herb mushrooms (£4.95) and a deep fried brie (£5.45). As main meals we had two ‘holy grail’ with chips and vegetables (£8.95 each) which were pork belly. As drinks, we had a pint of Kronenbourg (£3.20), a lemonade (£1.20), and a still mineral water (£1.20).
The starters
Garlic and herb mushrooms
The garlic and herb mushrooms were very well done. In a nice creamy and garlicy sauce and served with some excellent chunks of fresh bread, this was an excellent starter that gave plenty of hope for the main course to follow.
Deep fried brie
The deep fried brie was very good: crunchy outside, soft inside with a nice taste and the chutney and salad went well with it.
The main courses
Holy grail with chips and vegetables
Another view of the holy grail with chips and vegetables
The holy grail with chips and vegetables made of pork bellies were huge. Unfortunately they were a little on the dry side with a lot of fat. The vegetables were good but the chips were not the best we have had. Still, for less than £9 it is a good deal if you are hungry.
Cost and conclusion: it was just over £33.90 and no “12.5% optional service charge” like in London. We like to have it already included in the meals, like in France and many other places. What’s wrong with London where it is becoming a tipping place like in most underdevelopped countries? Despite the not so convincing main course, the Camelot was still a good place to stop after a long drive and the starters were quite good. The prices are very reasonable. Recommended if you are in the area and want to avoid the fast food.
The Long room bar & hotel 130 Mitcham Road Tooting SW17 9NH
The Long room bar & hotel
Inside
Strange wallpaper and carpet
It is quite large as you can see
The Long room bar & hotel (formerly the Mitre hotel – the sign outside still has the old name) is a very large pub located in Tooting which is better known for curry houses than pubs. They have tables outside which is a nice feature especially during this late summer period. Inside, it is large with many seats and areas. I am not too sure what to think about the carpet and the wallpaper design and colours… Let’s say it is original 😉
It is a pub but they have a big range of meals. They have sandwiches like hot special ciabattas and paninis with steak and onions, caujun chicken, Cheddar etc. There is a long room burger grill menu with the Classic burger (£6.95), the Lamb & Rosemary Burger (£7.95), the Spicy Chicken Burger (£6.95), the Mediterrarean Veggie Burger (£6.95). All their burgers are home made with 100% British beef and come served in a floured, salad filled bun with chunky chips, seasonal salad & hamburger relish) As main courses they have a braised lamb shank (tender lamb shank in a minted gravy served on a bed of creamy mash – £8.95), bangers & mash (Cumberland sausage served on a bed of creamy mash and rich onion gravy – £7.25), 10oz sirloin steak (100% British beef sirloin steak seasoned, served with chunky chips, sauteed mushrooms, grilled tomato and seasonal salad – $11.95), hickory – smoked barbeque rack of ribs (served with chunky chips, seasonal salad and barbeque sauce – £8.95), beer battered fish and chunky chips (freshly beer battered fish of the day served with chunky chips, garden peas and tartare sauce – £7.95), breaded scampi (wholetail breaded scampi served with chunky chips, garden peas and tartare sauce – £7.95), salmon fishcakes (salmon fishcakes in a breadcrumb coating served with wedges, salad and tartare sauce – £7.50), chilli con carne (100% beef mince in a rich, spicy chilli sauce served on a bed of boiled rice – £7.25), nachos and cheese (nachos topped with Cheddar cheese, jalapenos sour cream, guacamole and salsa – £5.95) and the Long Room platter (half rack of hickory smoked barbeque ribs, BBQ chicken wings, spring rolls, onion rings, wedges with salad garnish and selection of dips – £11.95).
We ordered the fish and chips and the braised mint lamb with a pint of Moretti beer (served nicely cold) and a glass of orange juice which was quite decent – not too sweet, and served with a good amount of ice.
Great Moretti beer
The two meals
Fish and chips
The fish and chips were quite good. The only real complaint I would make was with the batter, which was on the hard side of crispy and made it a bit excessively hard to eat. The tartare sauce was fine, as were the fries (ideally, I would have wished them a bit thinner and crispier – but they were still OK as they were) and accompanying peas.
Braised lamb shank
The lamb shank was quite good and large. It was sitting on excellent real mash potato. The mint gravy sauce was very nice too. For less than £9, it offers a great value for money.
Cost and conclusion: it was £23.60. No 12.5% optional service charge here! We were happy to discover this place with cheap but decent food. Recommended if you are in the area! If you are into pizza, you can go to Limoncello just accross the road or Sette Bello 5 minutes walk away.
The food on the Lufthansa flight (business class) Seoul-Frankfurt was nothing short of an abomination. It was no better in the other direction, by the way, but I didn’t take photos then. A great way to diet, but I wasn’t aiming to! The salad to start was rather nasty – just some bits of lettuce with some tasteless bits of olive and less-than-crispy croutons.
Nasty salad
Yes it is beef
The main course was beef, which arrived looking a rather strange colour – even for airline food. It was edible, but really only just and far below the standard one would usually expect in a business class cabin. The accompanying mash and vegetables were equally bland. The wine sweet and near-corked. There was a choice of red wines – “French” or “Italian”. Hmmm – how informative. None of the flight attendants seemed to know any more than that either. Really NOT the sort of quality and service you pay a business class ticket for. I tried the “Italian” and it was undrinkable. So I swapped to the “French” and found it little better. I abandoned it, shortly before abandoning the rest of my meal.
Cherry pastry
Dessert was not the greatest either. It was some sort of pastry with cherries and some sort of apricot puree attached to the side. It looks much better in the photo than it was. It was simultaneously too dry and too sweet. The small bit missing in the photo wasn’t a mouse, by the way – that’s the little bit that I ate.
Breakfast at Lotte Hotel 1 Songong-dong, Jung-gu Seoul 100-070, South Korea
Lotte Hotel Seoul
The lobby
Breakfast
I had breakfast each day in the lounge on their club floor. That was located on one of the upper floors and had a very good view over the city. Reserved to guests on the club floors, it was popular but never crowded.
The day of these photos, I believe I had for breakfast some cereal with yoghurt, then some sausages, bacon and grilled vegetables. It was OK, but not marvellous. On subsequent days, I passed on the sausages, et al, and instead had the chef there make me a fresh omelette. That was much better. My only complaint was that they were rather slow with the coffee.
View from the hotel at night.
Street food in Seoul, South Korea.
A Starbucks Coffee in Seoul!
If you want a snack in Seoul, you have McDonalds or Starbucks Coffee of course, like everywhere else, but it would be a shame not to try the many little food stalls (called pojangmacha) in the streets of Seoul and their dishes do look appetising as you can see the food being cooked.
Food being cooked
There are skewers everywhere and very often they have odeng which is a kind of fish cake. Some other typically local Korean food is the sundae. It is not an ice cream but a kind of black sausage/black pudding/boudin noir made of steamed pig or cow’s intestine. Fried dumplings (Gunmandu) and rice cakes (Tteokbokki) are also quite popular.
Preparing the stall for lunch time
In the street stall below located near the French restaurant La Cigale Montmartre, they had sandwiches such as the original cheese dog (W4,000), tacos such as chicken taco (chicken lettuce, tomato, onions, cheddar cheese, salsa, sour cream – W4,000) but also beef taco (same ingredients excepted for the ground beef instead of chicken). As beverages they had cola and cider (W1,000 each).
Cool guys doing the V sign
The food is pretty cheap as if you order a taco and the cider, for example, the whole thing cost W5,000 which is less than £2.50. As a bonus the guys making it are happy to pose for a picture:-)
If you are into sweet snacks, there is the hotteok that look like a sweet pizza with honey, sugar and nuts as toppings.
