Showing posts with label burger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label burger. Show all posts

Papa's is one of the many places to eat in Darwen, but is quickly gaining a reputation as somewhere you can get good American food in a simple and welcoming environment, whilst not breaking the bank.

There's a great free car park pretty much opposite it, which is always nice. It's always a bit awkward when you want to go somewhere you've heard good things about, only to find there's nowhere nearby to park.

The frontage is relatively small, but inside there are several tables and booths, stretching back into the diner itself. It's not a 1950's soda-pop type diner, but more of an American style 'dive bar', with chunky wood battening, mounted hubcaps and lighting features made from bottles and glasses, as well as full sight lines into the action in the kitchen.





As we walk in, we are greeted at the main desk by a cheerful member of staff, who tells us to sit wherever we like and order at the till when ready. We opt for a booth towards the back of the restaurant as a birthday party is in full swing in the middle. The menus are more like take-out menus, but jam packed with all sorts of amazing sounding things from deep fried pizzas and chicken parmo, to a dedicated mac and cheese menu.

Whilst browsing the menu, we see a gigantic plate of chunky ribs covered in sauce taken out to the party table and placed in front of a stunned looking man, as the rest of the party gasp, laugh, and take photos.

We decide as the menu isn't structured formally with a starter, main, dessert etc, that we will both order a burger each, and ordered the Nutter Clucker and The Darrener respectively, and also a serving of Dressed Up Bacon Mac from the mac and cheese menu.



Now here's the interesting part which impressed me; despite the theming as an American diner/dive bar, and the setup of a small restaurant, the service I saw and heard in the kitchen was excellent. The team were checking timings of food with each other to make sure everything was prepared properly and in the right time frame, and I even heard discussion about whether the bechamel sauce was ready, and saw a chef taste it to make sure it was ok. That's a good thing. It's really nice to see a kitchen team with such slick operation, and genuine interest in the quality and taste of their products.

Before long, our meal came out, all together, presented in metal serving dishes, to further go with the American dive feel. I like that the paper lining of the dishes had trivia questions for you to uncover and quiz each other with as you progress in your meal. I was also really impressed that we were able to order root beer. So many American themed places never have root beer, and it really is an American diner staple!



I had to try the bacon mac and cheese before anything else, and it was absolutely amazing. The real deal, really well made and seasoned, and full of flavour and comforting melty cheese. I could've sat there any simply ate my way through the whole bowl, but needed to move onto the burger.

The fries were fresh, hot and crisp, perfect. The burgers were juicy and cooked perfectly. The barbecue sauce was really nice quality, and the soft brioche bun was the right choice too. Basically the food was really excellent.

The staff were friendly, cheerful, and helpful. They asked how we found the meal, if we enjoyed various elements of it, and when asked if we could have a take-away box to take home, were happy to suggest one of their foil boxes to keep our mac and cheese fresh.

The value was excellent, the quality of the food was excellent, the staff were excellent, and the atmosphere and venue was excellent. The website looks more geared to take-away or ordering online, but don't judge a book by its cover, because Papa's itself could very easily have a full on website, and full restaurant style and menus if it wanted to, because its that good. Seriously, give it a go.

We'll definitely be returning, because there's a lot of other things on that menu I'd like to try!


Papa's American Diner
193 Duckworth Street
Darwen
BB3 1AU
(01254) 777 977
www.papas-diner.co.uk

Papa's American Diner

by on 00:14
Papa's is one of the many places to eat in Darwen, but is quickly gaining a reputation as somewhere you can get good American food i...
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Lincoln's American Bar & Grill is the new kid on the block in Bolton Town Centre. It's literally only just opened (as of August 2017), and promises a classic American style menu with gourmet burgers. How could anyone resist that? It seems rare that Bolton town centre gets any new restaurants these days, and so when a new one opens up, it's exciting!



Lincoln's is downstairs in St Andrew's Court, and only upon writing this review did I actually remember that it's downstairs, in a basement space. It's decorated with great lighting and décor that I forgot about the lack of windows. The décor is modern and simple, with music inspired touches, LP sleeves and guitars on shelves, and some truly excellent music playing.





I was seated by a friendly member of staff, and given the relevant menu information, as well as my drinks order being taken. The menu is true to the claim of American in style, starting with "appetizers" and including steaks, gourmet burgers, speciality pasta etc, as well as milkshakes and desserts, and daily special offers, as well as Chef's Specials. The only thing that stopped it fully pulling away from its location and immersing in American style is that they offer a full English Sunday roast dinner too!


I ordered an appetizer of panko crumbed chicken fingers, and a main of the Texan burger, taking advantage of one of their special offers where two courses were a set price. As I was dining alone, I was helpfully asked whether I'd like my starter and main at the same time, to which I said yes.

The food arrived in good time, and although the burger was presented on a chopping board as is the fashion these days, the food looked very good!




The panko chicken was perfectly crunchy and juicy, and I really enjoyed it. The burger looked good, but for reasons unknown I think I was expecting it to be a dry "generic" burger, but it was juicy and pink in the middle as a good burger should be! Perfect! Do you know how hard it is to find a good burger done properly in Bolton?! Well it's hard let me assure you! Well done, Lincoln's!

At this point I started to get quite full, realising that I perhaps shouldn't have had both starter and main course at the same time, and had the heartbreaking realisation that... I WAS NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO MANAGE A DESSERT! Even worse... upon curiously reading the dessert menu as I left, I realised the two courses for one price offer included some of the desserts... noooooo!! Next time that key lime pie WILL BE MINE!! (Also I unashamedly took some of the chicken panko fingers home in a doggy bag!)

So in conclusion, the food was excellent, the service was friendly, professional and attentive, which I really appreciated, and the value was superb, and would be great value even without the special offers.

I had sceptical expectations, but was left thoroughly impressed and happy, and will most definitely be back! Go and give them a try!



Lincoln's American Bar & Grill
18 St Andrew's Court
Mawdsley Street
Bolton 
BL1 1LD
(01204) 774 321
www.lincolnsbarandgrill.com
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As the name suggests, Portland Grill is on Portland Street in Manchester City Centre, but despite being a popular and busy street, it's easy to miss, nestled behind a small shop front.

As you walk in, you start at a stairwell with "Welcome" written in a variety of languages, and a date stone with the year 1910 carved into it, giving a nod to the heritage of this building, and an explanation as to the small entrance and downward staircase, because once you get downstairs it opens into a very large cellar space.






The space is very surprising, and furnished with tables, chairs and booths but not cramped in, taking advantage of the space. It was also a very curious thing to sit looking at your menu but see up through cellar windows onto the streets above, and people walking past.

We are greeted and taken to our table. We note that it's quite quiet for an early Saturday evening, but our waiter informs us that it gets busier as the night progresses.

We are given a wonderful meat-centric menu, which has some great choices of burgers, steaks and chicken, all for very reasonable prices for the city centre, and even offering an Early Bird special. Our party chooses to start by ordering buffalo wings, nachos, and onion rings. American classics.

The food arrives in good time and is both fresh and tasty. The onion rings are crisp, the buffalo wings are succulent, tasty, and wonderfully messy to eat, and the nachos are crunchy, but could possibly have done with some more cheese, or a melted cheese sauce rather than melted grated cheese, but they are accompanied by a really tasty fresh salsa, which our entire party shared.



Our waiter is friendly and attentive, making sure we're enjoying each course. For our mains we all decided we were very much in a burger mood, and two of us ordered the mushroom burger, whilst I ordered a classic American cheeseburger, all of which again arrived in good time.

The burgers were excellently presented with no messing around, no wooden serving planks, just good food as it should be, and were tasty, well seasoned, and used fresh ingredients. They also came with lovely hot crispy chips, which is always good... too many places are let down by lukewarm soft chips.


As we enjoyed our meals, we saw another table had some huge stacked burgers turn up, which must be The Portland Tower burger. They looked great, definitely one for next time!

We really enjoyed our visit here, as we only decided to pop in on a whim, and weren't expecting anything special, but ended up leaving having had good food and good service in a pleasant and spacious environment for a really good price. We'll definitely return.





Portland Grill
103 Portland Street
Manchester
M1 6NF
(0161) 236 3453
http://www.portlandgrill.co.uk

Portland Grill

by on 18:03
As the name suggests, Portland Grill is on Portland Street in Manchester City Centre, but despite being a popular and busy street, it...
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When another York restaurant let us down, we had a look online to see what options were nearby, and one that stood out was Winner Winner. A classic American style menu with tongue-in-cheek elements, we thought we'd give it a go, and so went in and sat down. We realised it was 9:00pm, and according to the site, they were open UNTIL 9pm, so I clarified with a waitress, "are you closing now?" and she smiled and said "uh... yeah" with an awkward smile. We were about to get up when she said "don't worry though,it's no problem!".

I'm so glad they were accommodating for a couple of people coming in right at closing, although there was another table still eating too.





The decor has gone for an American dive bar, and it works well. The menu is genuine American style fare, down and dirty, and appealing. They also sold root beer which is a tick for the genuine menu to me!

We decided that although we weren't going to have starters, we both fancied trying the beer battered pickles served with ranch sauce, so we asked them to come with the mains.

Food was all made fresh to order which was nice, and the staff were friendly and pleasant during our wait.



The battered pickles were surprisingly morish! Very tasty! But now it was time for the mains. My partner ordered a "So Last Year" burger, which was a bacon double cheeseburger with onion rings, barbecue and blue cheese sauce. Seriously, how good does that sound? HOWEVER, given the name of the place is Winner Winner, I had to try one of the Chef's Specials... a chicken dinner! I chose to go for Maryland's Own Fried Chicken.



The food was SUPERB. I mean like REALLY DAMN GOOD considering they could've just thrown it together to get us out of the door, but it was really good! The fried chicken was juicy and succulent with perfectly seasoned breading (too many places go nuts with making the breading really peppery!), and crispy tasty fries with great seasoning. The burger was a fantastic dirty stack of saucy juicy meaty goodness, really well made and prepared, and served with sweet potato fries which were absolutely perfect.

The best bit is that it's also not a shockingly expensive place. It's casual and friendly and serves really good food! Of all the places I've visited and eaten in whilst in York, this is most definitely one we will be revisiting when we next return, guaranteed!

Well done, Winner Winner, you live up to your name!



Winner Winner
5 King's Staith
York,
North Yorkshire
YO1 9SN
(01904) 848 989
http://www.winnerwinnerrestaurant.com/

Winner Winner

by on 14:21
When another York restaurant let us down, we had a look online to see what options were nearby, and one that stood out was Winner Winner ....
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This is an interesting review in that it's a twofer... two-for-one... I decided to visit The Old Forge at Bob's Smithy Inn as I'd been hearing great things about it, and the reviews online were very positive, plus the menu looked hearty and traditional, so I popped along one weekday afternoon.

The outside is a traditional rural English pub, with car park to the rear, and a large outdoor seating area. On a blustery and damp February day, walking inside was a really pleasant experience.



As I walked inside, it was warm and comfortable as a real log fire burned happily in the middle of the room. I saw a room on the far side signposted as "restaurant" but it was in darkness, so I asked about ordering food, as I saw others around eating. The staff member told me that there is a lunch-time bar food menu, but that as it had just turned 2:30pm, that they could only just squeeze my order in, as the kitchen closes for the afternoon until the restaurant opens at 6pm. This was a bit of a surprise as I hadn't seen food serving times on the website, but this was fair enough, I ordered a glass of Coke and sat by the warm fire and had a read through the bar menu.



In fairness the menu was actually pretty good, with a good few tasty offerings. I decided to order the traditional beef burger with chips. During my wait I was able to chat to the very friendly bar staff, who made me feel very welcome.

My food arrived... albeit on a "serving plank" rather than a plate. This is a bit of a modern fad I'm not much of a fan of... I don't see what's wrong with a normal plate! However, the food arrived well presented (aside said plank), and looked very appetising.



Although the burger is cooked through as standard and so not pink inside, this burger was by no means dry or tough, but very juicy, and packed with flavour which genuinely surprised me as I took a bite. A really delicious and unctuous burger. Likewise, the home made chips which accompanied (in a little galvanised bucket) were perfectly hot, crispy on the outside and fluffy and hot inside with a great crunch.

However, it was so filling that even though the friendly bar staff showed me the desserts board, I just had no room to attempt it! One that caught my eye was a sticky toffee sundae! Yum! 

I paid up (very reasonably so!) and said that I'd have to visit again soon, and definitely try that sundae!

Now here's where it gets interesting. A few days later, after a day out with my partner, I suggested trying the Old Forge on a whim, and after phoning them, I found that the restaurant itself was open during the day on a sunday, so we booked a table and drove over. We entered what was now a very busy and popular pub, with families and friends sat around drinking, eating and chatting, as well behaved dogs sat by their feet, hoping for the occasional end of a bit of sausage to be thrown their way. We walked through to the restaurant.



The Old Forge feels considerably different to the bar area, and is more modern bistro than rural pub. The restaurant is decorated in shades of green, black, and cream, with dark wooden modern furniture, but whilst retaining the traditional Italian Restaurant style candle-in-a-wine-bottle on each table.

We read through the menu, which was also reasonably priced at either two or three courses for a set price. A young staff member offered to take our coats, and took our drinks order as she told us the specials and specifics of that day's menu. For our starters, my partner ordered chicken pâté, and I opted for the cod goujons with tartare sauce.



The pâté arrived on one of those bloody serving boards again, but the pâté itself was tasty, and served with a simple side salad and relish. The cod goujons were delicious. The fish itself was delicious, and the batter was perfectly crisp. I couldn't fault a single thing with it... it even came on a plate! Huzzah!

For our mains, we both realised we were in a "pie mood" and chose the cheese and onion pie and steak pie respectively. 


Both pies were really enjoyable with a good crust, and felt truly home-made. They came with a carrot and mash puree and vegetables in the form of cabbage, green beans, and cauliflower. They were also accompanied by the same big chunky chips I mentioned earlier! Lovely! The steak pie that I ordered also came with a really sumptuous gravy, the kind with a proper sheen on top letting you KNOW it's going to be good!

For dessert my partner ordered an apple tart with custard, and I ordered the classic jam roly poly (with custard, of course!). Both arrived well presented, but we realised that the apple tart had come with ice cream instead of custard, however this wasn't anything to kick up a fuss about, as we both agreed the desserts were delicious. The apple tart was tasty but perhaps could've been a little bigger, wheras the jam roly poly had that real comfort food feel to it, and rounded the meal off absolutely perfectly.

Throughout the meal we were taken good care of by attentive but not overbearing staff, the food was excellent in all regards, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit, pledging to very much do so again, and to bring friends and family along as well, especially considering they proved themselves equally capable with a lunch bar menu and an evening restaurant menu, without compromising on quality or service. Well done! :)

The Old Forge Restaurant at Bob's Smithy Inn
Chorley New Road
Bolton
BL1 7PX
(01204) 842 622
http://www.bobssmithy.co.uk/
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