For my best friends 21st birthday I booked a trip to Essex for her, we were going to explore Brentwood and go to The Only Way is Essex shops but first Jayne wanted to try Alec's for lunch as we had seen it on the show and the menu looked so good! The restaurant is gorgeous looking from the outside and the inside, we sat down and straight away were given two glasses of Prosecco complimentary which was VERY good!
As we were looking at the menu they bought over an Asume Bouche to eat as we were choosing what to have:
Smoked Salmon & Creme Cheese Bellini's
They were SO yummy! They were very small but we got them for free so you can't complain but it was so fresh tasting and so so yummy, it was 2 layers of smoked salmon then a layer of cream cheese-YUM YUM!
It took us so long to decide what to have but we decided to order of the lunch menu as it was cheaper than the normal menu. I was so undecided about what to have as a starter but finally went for:
Sweet Herrings with Cucumber & Dill Mayonnaise
£6.50
This was very different, I had never had herrings before which is why I decided to try it but it was very unusual, I did enjoy it but after about 5 mouthfuls it did become a bit too sweet, the sweetness with the fish was very different to anything I had ever tried before but it was good and it wasn't anything to do with the dish it was just personal taste of mine, I found as a starter it was too sweet, but the dill and cucumber mayonnaise did help to calm down the sweetness of the dish and it was incredibly well presented and it was an excellent dish just too sweet for my likeness but a 8/10 starter.
The main course wasn't as difficult to decide on as I haven't had this certain food for years as it is usually too expensive but on the lunch menu it was reasonably priced so therefore it had to be done.
Half Lobster Thermidor
£14
WOW! For £14 it obviously isn't cheap but lobster is usually way more expensive than that, but this was SO yummy. It was cooked perfectly, bouncy and not chewy at all. I have never tried Thermidor sauce either so I was excited to try it and it really didn't disappoint, it was SO yummy, it wasn't too garlicky or overpowering but went very well with the lobster and I loved it! One of the best main courses I had ever had! 10/10 main course!
We weren't going to have dessert but we quickly changed our mind when we saw the dessert menu and decided to share one as we were eating out again later in the night so we didn't want to eat too much.
Chocolate Pave with White Chocolate & Raspberry Sauce
£7.00
OH MY GOD! This dessert was unreal, the presentation was brilliant, almost looked too good to eat but the taste was even better, the chocolate was so rich and chocolatey, it had a harder biscuit base with the mousse on top, it was incredibly rich, I don't even think I could've eaten it on my own, the white chocolate and raspberry sauce went very well with it, my only criticism is that it could've done with some vanilla ice cream maybe or some more sauce to try and take the edge of the rich chocolate and for the price I think it was a very small dessert. But it was incredibly yummy, 9/10!
Sheesh, Chigwell (Alan Sugar's Restaurant)
For the evening I had booked a table at Alan Sugar's Restaurant Sheesh as Jayne had mentioned wanting to try it to me before. Our reservation was at 9pm but they told us to get there 30 minutes early to have a drink first. The outside of the restaurant is so gorgeous looking, it almost looks like a house from the outside and the inside is just as grand looking, it's very tacky inside but thats typical Alan Sugar and to be honest it works, its zebra print carpet and mirrors everywhere but it looked so good. We walked to the door where the woman greeted us and told us to go upstairs to the bar to get a drink.
Upstairs was incredibly busy, full of people drinking and therefore it did take a while to get a drink but it wasn't a problem as we could see how busy the bar staff were. We decided to have a cocktail each, they were expensive at £9 each but thats expected at this kind of restaurant. We both went for the same one:
Silver Angel-Zubrowka, Passion Fruit, Creme de Peche & Apple Juice topped with Pink Champagne
This was sooooo good, I loved how it actually had half a passion fruit cut up and dropped in the cocktail, it made it different and looked good, the actual taste of the cocktail was so yummy too, it was very strong though but tasted incredibly good.
After about 15 minutes we were taken to our table downstairs, the restaurant itself is very busy and loud, they have an open kitchen at the back, it was very dark in there too but I did like the look of the restaurant, we were given menus and ordered our drinks. The menu was massive, with loads of choice. It took us a while to work out what to have but for starter I decided to have:
Sigara Boregi-thin pastry filled with cheese & spinach
£6.90
As you can see the portion size was definitely very big, 6 pastry rolls I felt was very generous for a restaurant owned by a very important person, the starter price wasn't as expensive as I was expecting it to be either and the taste didn't disappoint, the pastry was cooked very well and the filling was very good, it wasn't too filled with spinach either which is good and each roll had a good amount of filling, the chilli sauce it was served with was very good too and went incredibly well with the rolls, the sauce was slightly hot but it wasn't too over powering which is good, over all a very good starter and very filling. 9/10-the sauce being too hot is why I'm not giving it a 10.
For main I couldn't decide at all as so many of them sounded so good but eventually I decided on:
Karisik Sis: half chicken, half lamb shish
£15.90
Again, another massive portion, surprising, it came with a huge amount of salad and yoghurt. The presentation also impressed me quite a lot as it is quite hard to get shish kebab looking too good but they managed to. The taste was unreal too, the lamb especially, it was AMAZING-I don't usually eat lamb but this was so tender and succulent and melted in my mouth almost, you could tell both meats were cooked on an open fire as they had a smoked, grilled, BBQ taste to them which made normal 'boring' chicken taste incredibly good, both meats were 10/10 and I honestly couldn't complain about this dish at all, the salad all tasted very fresh too and it all complimented each other perfectly, I really liked how the shish kebab wasn't over powering or covered the meat completely, it was a very thin layer of kebab on the bottom of each meat which I enjoyed as it didn't make the meal too heavy or filling. 10/10 main course, no complaints!
Well you would think we would be too full for desserts but as we had a 10 minute break we decided to order two and share them both:
Profiteroles with cream & warm chocolate sauce & Sweet Strawberries with a whipped Ameretto cream on a biscuit base
£6.50
More massive portions, they were presented very well too (excuse the bad pictures, it was so dark in the restaurant) they both tasted as good as they looked too, the profiteroles were SO yummy, the pastry wasn't too heavy and was filled with so much cream, they were generous on the chocolate sauce too which is always a bonus! The strawberry dessert was also incredibly good, the strawberries tasted so fresh and sweet and went perfectly well with the whipped Ameretto cream and the biscuit base. Two brilliant desserts, 10/10!
The next day we decided to go to Lakeside shopping centre to shop, shop, shop but all that shopping makes you hungry and we both knew exactly where we wanted to go! A couple of years ago when we came to Essex we randomly came across a service station that had a Chinese attached to it, we were a bit unsure but it was so good that we knew we had to go back to this place on our way home, especially as it is just off the motorway so it's easy to get to. The outside is very unassuming as it is right door to a Shell garage, the inside is very clean the staff are so lovely.
The menu was just as we both remembered and it is so reasonably priced too, its such a hidden gem. I knew what to have straight away as soon as I opened the menu:
Crackling Pork-Slices of crispy belly of pork with chinese greens, garnished with spring onion and served with boiled rice and a sweet soya and hoisin sauce.
£8.25
As you can see, incredible presentation and such a good size and WOW WOW WOW it was delicious, the belly pork was cooked perfectly and all you know how much I love my belly pork but this was succulent and tender but perfectly crispy on the outside, the sauce it came in was also amazing, the sweetness of the soya and the tang of the hoisin went perfectly together with the pork and made this dish amazing, I paid an extra 80p to have egg fried rice as supposed to boiled rice, the rice was cooked perfectly as was the bok choy, it all went so well together and for the price it really is amazing value, this is probably one of the best Chinese restaurants I've ever been too, we need one nearer to me! 10/10 meal, couldn't complain at all.
Well, what an amazing weekend for eating out, every single meal was yummy and I loved all the restaurants we tried. Brilliant weekend!
Loved this weekend babe!! Amazing food ;-) xxx Jayne xxx
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