Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Birmingham – Turtle Bay

    I visited the Turtle Bay in the centre of Birmingham as I had a complete set of rewards stamps which got me a free starter, side and main. I’d add, as a background, Turtle Bay was my favourite chain of restaurants as it was quirky, innovative, reasonably priced and the staff were engaging and welcoming.

    The chain mildly irritated me by scrapping their loyalty scheme and replacing it with an inferior one a few months ago. They did send push notifications out to those with the app, but I checked at the time and they decided against mentioning it on social media. I have to admit to wondering whether their decision was financial, but it was sufficient for me to temporarily abandon going to Turtle Bay.

    The loyalty scheme did though rollover my rewards so I kept three free dishes, and I’ve wanted to pay a visit to Turtle Bay as I’ve been disappointed hearing three people in different locations telling me that the standards have fallen substantially in recent months. I didn’t quite believe them, so that’s the back story of why I visited this well reviewed branch of the chain.

    There’s also one other reason, which is that I had poor food in the Peterborough branch last year and I felt guilty that I wrote up a negative review of it (especially when I saw the access numbers for that post), and have yet to post about my many positive experiences from the chain. So, I was hoping for lots of positivity on this visit.

    The interior was large and bright, with the normal quirky and fun decoration. The service was fine, with a prompt welcome and I was taken to a table without any delay. And, being positive here, the service was actually very good as it was attentive, thoughtful and pro-active. The staff member also made an effort to engage with me, making conversation and I felt that she did a good job at trying to build up a rapport with me. Obviously being British there’s a limit to how much engagement I want with anyone, but this was well measured.

    I’d also add, before my comments about the food, that everything was brought out after a reasonable amount of time. My drinks were at the appropriate temperature and tasted fine, with plates also cleared away promptly. So, in terms of technical service, everything was fine.

    The menu has changed since my last visit, and my first impressions were that it didn’t feel as exciting or as on-trend. There seems to have been a slip back to generic menu items and a rather complex menu structure that has moved away from the previous much simpler one.

    This is the chilli squid, which was well presented and the portion size was reasonable. The squid was over-cooked and so rubbery, but it was evenly battered and the coating had a pleasant taste. The jerk mayo added some extra flavour, although I’m not sure why they’ve put so much mayo and mole on top of the squid, as this just made the coating soft instead of crisp.

    This is the new jerk chicken and it was possibly the worst attempt at a main course that I’ve experienced in my last few hundred restaurant visits. The quality of the chicken itself was exceptionally poor, it oozed out water and was entirely flavourless. There was clearly no attempt to marinate this chicken in anything, it’s just been briefly cooked in the sauce. I would say in the restaurant’s defence that it was entirely cooked through, but I can’t recall such watery chicken.

    I don’t know what the jerk gravy was, it tasted like water and just made the chicken wet. In terms of flavouring, these was absolutely nothing here, with no evidence of any jerk seasoning at all. One reason I liked Turtle Bay is that they have some interesting sauces, so the only way to try and bring any flavour to this dish was to pour on sauce myself. Although that succeeded in me just eating poor quality food in a sauce….

    The presence of the watermelon was ridiculous, there were no flavours for it to try and moderate and its presence is perhaps a little pointless at the best of times. This is seemingly a new innovation from the restaurant, but I’d rather they just served chicken which has flavour. I’m not sure why they’re removed the side which they once gave with the jerk chicken, but I was disappointed given that this was once my favourite dish. I didn’t bother to finish much of the chicken, it was a waste of calories.

    The spiced fries which I ordered as a side were entirely devoid of any spicing, they just tasted like cheap and generic oven chips. Luckily I had put lots of sauce on the equally bland chicken, so that meant at least I could add some taste to the fries.

    In terms of the service, there was nothing wrong here. But, unfortunately, the news I’ve received from others about the decline of Turtle Bay certainly seems to have been borne out here as well. Normally I would have queried the dishes with the staff, but I felt that the decision to serve this quality of food was deliberate from the company and so I was content in just leaving Turtle Bay as quickly as possible.

    Personally, I found this quite dreadful, but I’m conscious that other on-line reviews don’t seem to be universally negative, so perhaps this was an entire aberration and my experience was a one-off. I’d already stopped organising group meals here, but I suspect that this is the end of my Turtle Bay visits until I start hearing positive things once again…..

  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (The Blue Bower by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

    The word ‘bower’ in this painting’s title refers to the private apartment of a medieval lady, with the subject of this artwork being the artist’s mistress. It was painted by Rossetti in 1865 and the mistress was Fanny Cornforth who had worked as a servant and found it a difficult transition to associate with some of the friends of Rossetti.

    What was interesting to me is that the Rossetti Archive have listed the prices which have been paid for this work over time. It was purchased in 1865 for £120 (around £7,000 in today’s money) and was later sold to a Mr. Agnew for £500 and then eventually sold to the Barber Institute for £1,900 (around £40,000 in today’s money) in April 1959.

    The same archive site also lists that the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1883, at the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition in 1887, at the Wembley British Empire Exhibition in 1924, in Newcastle in 1971 and at the Tate in 1984. I think it’s intriguing to think of people who came to these locations over the last 150 years and spent time looking at this artwork.

  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (A Portrait of Bartolomeo Savona by André Derain)

    This painting was purchased by the Barber Institute in 1997, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund. The notes located by the artwork suggest that this was painted in 1906 and it’s of Bartolomeo Savona, who was a Sicilian student staying in the same guest house as Derain when he was visiting London. In return for acting as a translator during a visit to the dentist, Derain painted the student in three sittings of twenty minutes. A very nice gift….

    Derain was in London during 1906 as he was painting a series of artworks of the city, but he had a quite different style to previous painters. He created 30 artworks during his time in London, of which 29 of them are still in existence. Ambroise Vollard was the art dealer who suggested that Derain go to London, with the artist being 25 years of age at the time.

    The artwork remained in the family of the sitter until it was sold in the 1990s and brought to Birmingham. There was a detailed article written about this painting in 1997 by Richard Verdi and he noted that the family were keen for the artwork to remain in the UK. It was also discovered during cleaning that there were traces of pink under sitter’s lapel, suggesting the Savona at first sat for the painting whilst in shirtsleeves.

    I like the boldness of this artwork, it feels as though the painter had much sympathy for Savona and wanted to portray him in a youthful and positive light. It’s a colourful artwork and it’s the first that Derain is thought to have painted in London.

  • Rochester – Coopers Arms

    This was the nearest pub to Rochester Cathedral that I could see was listed in the Good Beer Guide and it is thought that monks who brewed beer once lived here. There are also records that there has been an inn here since at least 1543, making it one of the oldest pubs in Kent.

    The beer selection, of which nothing particularly excited me, but my half pint of Thwaite’s Wainwright tasted fine and was well kept. I say tasted fine, but it’s a slightly drab beer with little discernible flavour, perhaps some caramel overtones.

    The interior, perhaps a little dated, but that’s hardly inappropriate in a pub of this age. The service was fine, all friendly and efficient. The set-up here rather reminded me of the Adam & Eve in Norwich.

    Nice way to raise money for charity at the bar. Incidentally, the pub doesn’t allow children other than in the garden, but they do make that clear through signage. I didn’t order food, but the lunch-time selections looked good value for money and seemed popular with locals.

     

  • Rochester – Catalpa Tree

    This quirky looking tree near to the main entrance of Rochester Cathedral is a Catalpa Tree, apparently over 150 years old. It snapped in two in 2015, but it appears that the tree surgeons were able to work their magic to keep it going and some new fencing was built around it (it had partly collapsed onto the railings around it).

    This is how I knew what kind of tree it was, as I’m not very good at identifying trees….Most sources do put the tree at over 150 years old, although I haven’t yet ascertained exactly how long it has been there.

  • Rochester – Rochester Cathedral (Golf Course)

    I saw this mini golf course on BBC News last week, although I had forgotten where it was, so this was a nice surprise. It’s a wonderful way of engaging families and children with the cathedral, all funded by the Rochester Bridge Trust. The trust is well financed, primarily through ancient land holdings, so it’s able to look after not only the bridges under its guardianship, but also give grants and support the community.

    One of the cathedral’s staff, who saw me looking excitedly at a medieval book elsewhere in the building, told me that the cathedral was thrilled with all of the publicity. And so it should be, there was a long queue of mostly families waiting to give the course a go.

    Compare and contrast to Ely Cathedral where I’ve seen children not going in because their parents didn’t want to pay…. I’m not suggesting that Ely Cathedral should install a Greggs in its nave (although I wouldn’t oppose such a move), but it’s a shame they have to charge so much.

    The golf course takes up the main part of the nave and the staff member mentioned to me that the seating had been taken out for a deep clean and so the space was easy to temporarily convert.

    And, in addition to the BBC, apparently NBC were also in the cathedral, so this project has attracted international attention. I noted that a few people complained about this on the news, including someone who said it was “desperation”.  This cathedral is one of the most welcoming I’ve been to, I didn’t sense a great deal of desperation here, but quite a lot of hope. How very lovely.

  • Sittingbourne – Red Lion

    This pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide and in its previous incarnation it is thought to have hosted Henry VII, Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey. It has been a coaching inn for centuries, although is now smaller than it used to be.

    The fantastic courtyard area, steeped in history and quite beautiful.

    And this wins my award, which is a new one, for the worst pub redecoration I’ve ever seen. The interior of the pub has been gutted and replaced with a pool table at the rear, in the once relaxed dining area, and the seating has been mostly ripped out. Indeed, there’s little seating left in the pub at all.

    More space is now used on darts boards and there was loud music blaring out during my visit. And there weren’t many customers, which is perhaps fortunate as they couldn’t have all sat down unless some went into the beer garden. The seating that is in the pub isn’t really appropriate or functional and it does feel a complete mess. Wetherspoons may have their faults, but they do seem to understand the importance of a well designed and functional interior.

    But, back to the pub, the service was polite and efficient, although I was told my beer selection was £1.40 and when I handed over £1.50 the staff member didn’t burden herself with giving me any change. I would say it was busy to excuse this, but it wasn’t. The beer selection was limited to two real ales and I opted for the Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, which was well kept to be fair.

    There was no soap in the male toilets and the wi-fi didn’t work very well, although the landlord did come over and tell me that, which I did appreciate. Actually, the landlord seemed quite sensible and welcoming, but I’m really not sure what on earth Craft Union are trying to achieve here.

    This pub should be a goldmine if a decent selection of real ale was served and the interior was ripped out and the pub returned to be a food based venue. Taking out nearly all the seats and filling the rear half with a pool table and darts board is what I’d call brave, but perhaps there is a plan which will evolve and that it’s something that I haven’t understood. But, if that theory does work, why do it in such an historic pub?

  • Norwich to Dereham Tickets….

    Next on Julian’s list of things to complain about….

    Why does the live feed for Norwich railway station departures include a service to Dereham, which doesn’t even have a Network Rail station….. There is admittedly a bus that goes there, but there are buses that go to a lot of places from the railway station.

    Just to add more confusion…. The ticket to Dereham, which is a coach ticket, is priced at £2.60. Unless you read the top section which says that the train is £2.60 and takes 48 minutes and the coach is £8.30 and takes 30 minutes.

    As clear as mud….

  • Norwich – WH Smiths Railway Station

    Cheery little selection of books at the railway station bookshop in Norwich. Nice to get some light reading in on the train…..

  • Cambridge – Calverley’s Brewery

    Since I was in Cambridge for a couple of hours today, I thought I’d visit another pub from the Good Beer Guide. This one seemed a little quirky, as the description said it was in a garage and I’d never heard of it. But, I like an adventure, so I thought I’d go along. From the exterior, I think it’s fair to say that it’s not the most obvious of locations.

    But, for the good bit. This is the best pub that I’ve visited this year, and I’ve gone to a lot, of which many are mediocre. The Old Post Office in Ingleton was my current favourite (and they e-mailed me after reading this blog, so I’m glad that my visit was positive), but Calverley’s is now right up there.

    I wasn’t quite sure where to go when I arrived, as there’s a small tap room and some outside seating, so I headed for the tap room and mentioned that I’d never visited before. The staff member was full of enthusiasm and gave me a beer to try straight away, which was the Star Dawg. This hoppy beer was refreshing and had an excellent depth of flavour to it.

    I was then offered a sample of the Goes-Uh when I mentioned I liked sours, and this was another top rate option. Wonderful afternotes, again a refreshing taste and full of flavour. Quite marvellous. I said in passing that I’d usually have a porter, but that as it was 11:30 in the morning, I didn’t think a 9% beer was appropriate. The staff member gave me a very generous sample anyway, and I have to say, that was a delicious porter.

    I ordered two thirds of the Goes-Uh and it was delightful.

    Motivational messages   🙂

    There hasn’t been a vast sum of money spend on the interior, but this is just perfect. It’s quirky, individual, independent, fun, welcoming and absolutely everything a pub should be. Sometimes I go to pubs and feel that my expectations are too high and that I should lower them just a little. Then I go to places like this and realise that it can be done. Quite brilliant and my new favourite pub in Cambridge, which is quite rightfully in the Good Beer Guide.