Afternoon Tea at Browns, Glasgow

It was my elder daughter Emily's birthday last weekend. Time flies so fast that already one week has gone! No wonder why I am getting old and feeling older quickly.  Anyway, Happy Birthday again, Emily.

Our sort of ritual for birthday treat is that we go to Jo Malone for hand massage (with a fragrance used during the massage for a present) and then go for lunch. So, after the massage, we, Emily, Marian and myself met up with my husband at Browns (http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/locations/glasgow/) for a relaxing afternoon tea for four.

Browns has afternoon tea menu (http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/media/ugc/menus/2014/10/08/Browns_DN_Afternoon_Tea.pdf) for £16 for two people that consists of finger sandwiches, fruit scones and mini desserts with pots of tea. Sounds great and it was really great!

As it was Emily's birthday, I asked Lucy, who looked after our table if they could make up some nice cocktail for a birthday girl.  10 minutes later, she brought this lovely cranberry cocktail with some mint. I tried a little and it was very delicious and refreshing.

We chatted away for a while and finally our Afternoon Tea has arrived!

We started off with finger sandwiches which are smoked salmon & creme fraiche, egg & watercress and cucumber & cream cheese.  Breads were really nice and soft, fillings were really delicious.

We then moved onto scones. They were big, round scones which were lovely and warm that came with crotted cream and strawberry jam. 

We then moved to mini desserts which are rich chocolate mouse, Victoria sponge cakes and meringue with blue berry and cream.  Chocolate mouse was really lovely but also really really rich. I liked the Victoria sponge cake which was really delicious and moist. 

You would think there were not much portion to begin with but as always, once we got to the last tier of cakes, we were feeling too full to finish all.  I had both an audacity and cheekiness to ask for 'cake-away' which Lucy was happy to accommodate for us.

As I have said before in my previous blog, Afternoon Tea always tastes much better taken where it is served. Once you 'cake-away' to eat left-over at home, you can never re-create the same ambience and excitement of eating the delicious cream cakes and desserts and they never taste the same neither. 

I think my tactics next time would be to go straight to the cakes to start off and work the way backwards, i.e. eating the savoury sandwiches the last.  See if this works so that we can eat everything on cake stand, ha ha ha.  

We all however enjoyed our afternoon tea very much at Browns. I think it is reasonably priced (basically it is £8 per person!) with good quality sandwiches, scones and cakes, served with great customer service and we felt we were well looked after.  I hope Emily had a lovely birthday. I certainly had a relaxing day at both Jo Malone and Browns on her birthday!

Well, that's all forks!

Wallace Well Farm - Robroyston, Glasgow

Last Saturday, we went to Wallace Well Farm (http://www.farmhouseinns.co.uk/pubs/wallace-well-farm) for lunch.  This must be a fairly new restaurant. We did not know this place exists until Emily told us.  She was raving about their cakes. I was checking their menu already and salivating with a thought of their yummy cakes before we even left the house whilst everyone else was wondering where it is or how to get there. It turned out that it is really near ASDA in Robroyston.

We thought that this place would be another one of those brewers' chain restaurants that serves microwave meals without any soul or characters, so to be honest we did not have much high expectations. But the menu seems to have good selections and varieties.  It does look promising....

When we got there, it was not much busy and there were plenty of tables available.  You just take your seats wherever you wish, decide what you want to eat and drink and go up to the counter to order and pay. If you buy drinks, you carry them with you back to your table yourself.  ... sounds familiar...

My husband and I ordered Beer-Batterd Cod with chips and peas.  We were both impressed with the quality of the fish, how both the fish and chips were fried to perfection.  The portion size was perfect too.  You could also order Large Beer-Battered Cod if you wish. We ordered standard size and that was enough for us.



Maria ordered Chicken and Chorizo Pasta which was Rigatoni pasta and strips of chicken in a pesto cream sauce with chorizo and sun-drenched cherry tomatoes, served with garlic ciabatta and topped with Italian-style cheese shavings and fresh rocker. Phew! Mouthful.
She said it was tasty and I think she enjoyed it.

The main event was however my mother-in-law Mary's plate of Carvery. She opted for small plate which is only £4.95.  When she went up to the Carvery section, they had big roasted chicken, ham and beef selections, and beyond that were 'vast' selections of accompanying vegetables that you could pick, choose and pile them up high!  Everything looked really freshly made and delicious.  I don't eat meat but they all looked really appetising!

The chef at the Carvery station carved up some slices of chicken and ham for Mary. She then proceeded to add big and yummy looking Yorkshire pudding, some roasted potatoes, boiled potato, mashed potato, green beans, cauliflower cheese with gravy over it.  It looked really delicious. Mary particularly loved the ham.



Before we left, we said we would have some cakes. That was the reason why we avoided the starters. After having these, we were already too full and could not eat any more desserts. Pity, as the menu looked really good...

We just need to go back there again to try cakes.  Maria definitely wants to try the Carvery next time and Mary wants to go back with her friend Margaret.  Since we did not manage to eat desserts, I got at least photographs...

These are their special home made cakes which you can also 'Cake-Away' to enjoy at home.

They also have varieties of flavours for ice cream..... this reminds me of gelateria in Italy. What's that blue one ..... it is bubblegum flavour ice cream! Honeycomb looks good but my favourite would be rum and raisins! Mmmmmmm.

Emily sent me some pictures of cakes she had when she went to Wallace Well Farm with Craig's mum and dad.

This one is Malteser cake... which was almost the size of a whole plate!

This one is sundae. Emily said it was really yummy.

This one is chocolate volcano which is ice cream and meringue topped with cream.

Wow ... sheer heart attack but we must try their dessert one day but not in too distant future!

That's all forks!

Maria's Tuna & Pasta Bake - Slimming World Recipe

I was working late this evening and on my way home I got stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway.  To be honest, by that point I could not be bothered cooking but I had to think of something for dinner.... yes, something that my daughter Maria can eat too as she is doing Slimming World diet right now.

When I arrived home, our cat Yuki came out from the kitchen, meowing as if to say 'Hello, where have you been?  We are all starving here!"  I could also smell toast. Poor, Maria, she must have made herself beans and toast for dinner as she could not wait any longer.

I walked into the kitchen to say hello to Maria, only to discover that she was in the middle of cooking dinner for us this evening!  YES, can't wait!

She went to Slimming World website and found this recipe - Tuna & Pasta Bake. Main ingredients are can of tuna, spring onion, can of chopped tomatoes, capers and breadcrumbs.  Ah, breadcrumbs - she was toasting bread for this recipe, not for beans and toast!

After half an hour of so, Voila! The dinner is ready.

Well, this is one of Slimming World recipe and only 1 syn point!

I must say it was really yummy. We enjoyed ourselves so much we had second helpings too. I particularly liked capers and chopped spring onions, and contrast of baked pasta against toasted breadcrumbs. Really yummy, and she said it was really simple to cook - for this recipe please go to http://www.slimmingworld.com/recipes/tuna-and-pasta-bake.aspx.

The recipe tells you to use 700g of pasta - it is actually 700g of 'cooked' pasta, not dry pasta otherwise you would end up with lots of extra pasta that you would need to use up for something else later. 

Anyway, this is only 1 syn, so of course I had this with a glass of wine to increase my enjoyment .... clealy I have missed the point of having almost syn free food, ha ha ha.  

And you know what, it is now less than 6 months to go before my daughter Emily's wedding in May next year!  I should actually start thinking about losing a weight a little bit.  I hope Maria would cook more dinner using other recipes from Slimming World as when I cook, I can do without olive oil, wine, etc and it would not be syn free....  Anyway, the only consolation I have is that I am yet to buy myself a MOB (mother of the bride) dress for the big day which means that I just look for a dress that would fit me, not the other way around that I have to squeeze myself into it!

Yeah, let's just chill and live a life, enjoy your food, and I am sure I can find a dress that would fit me...

That's all forks!

Hidden Lane Tearoom - West End in Glasgow

Just as we have all recovered from BBC British Bake-Off completely, Emily invited us for a tea and a cake deal at this rather a bit quirky and cute tea room tucked away from a busy Argyle Street in West End of Glasgow.  This is aptly named The Hidden Lane Tearoom (http://thehiddenlanetearoom.blogspot.co.uk), situated at Unit 8 Argyle Court (The Hidden Lane), 1103 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8ND.

Yes, it's literally hidden, so you need to look for a wee lane off Argyle Street, I think it was quite near to Crab Shack seafood restaurant.

Look out for this sign at the entrance of the lane off Argyle Street

You just keep going to the end of this lane and turn left, until you are wondering if you are really in the right place...

And, yes, here is is! The tearoom is at the end of the street!!

Despite the horrible weather with strong wind and rain earlier in the day on one Sunday afternoon, the place was very busy for 3.30pm.  At least Emily booked the table for us so no problem for seating.

As we walked into the tearoom, we saw a young couple having bowls of tomato soup that was emanating wonderful aroma.  Whilst I was distracted by the tomato soup, the staff started to explain to us what cakes were available for the day. There were lots of varieties of cakes, such as chocolate brownies, sticky toffee puddings, chocolate oranges, cupcake, scones and Guinness cakes which look like Guinness.

The tearoom has quite a good selections on the menu, including sandwiches and soup, notmentioning selections of loose tea.  Craig chose this milky Indian (?) spiced tea (sorry, the name has just escaped me ... was it Masala Chai tea...?), my husband and I chose Darjeeling and Emily had cold apple and mint tea.  All came in lovely cups, saucers and pots, individually matched that add quirkiness.

Craig ordered orange chocolate cupcake. Indian tea was milky, sweet but had kick with spices. I tried it a little just to taste it. I would have liked it if I did not have lacto intolerance. 

Craig's Chocolate orange cup cake -  looks yummy!

My husband had chocolate brownie and I had sticky toffee pudding cake, which was really yummy and moist.

Emily had Guinness cake; it's named so as it looks like Guinness.  Despite the thickness of cream on top, it was not overly sweet, it was light and delicious.

Guinness cake

We asked the staff if we could get our pot of Darjeeling tea topped up with hot water, which was no problem and got it for free of charge too.

We looked around us and saw others enjoying afternoon teas with delectable looking cakes on cake stands. We could not resist trying something more, and decided to opt for something savoury.

Having remembered the wonderful aroma of tomato soup earlier, My husband and Craig decided to order the tomato soup each. In fact, I think it was a roasted pepper and tomato soup. Emily and I decided to share hummus, carrots and beetroot sandwich between us.

Emily enjoyed this sandwich so much she decided to make her own for lunch at work the next day - spread of hummus, grated carrots and some beetroot in brown bread.

Hummus goes so well with carrots and beetroot in lovely and soft brown bread! 

We really enjoyed our afternoon.

Despite how busy it was, I thought the service was very good, food was very nice and everything was reasonably priced. I would like to try their afternoon tea sets next time. They looked really delectable!!!

I know it's a cliche but the Hidden Lane Tearoom is a hidden gem indeed.

That's all forks.

Royal Garden welcomes you - Chinese Restaurant in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow

It was Glasgow's September weekend (local holiday) when people were taking long weekend off including Mondays.  I was working on the Monday and so as my husband. Roads were very quiet driving home from work and when I got home, I got a little bit of holiday feel and said to my husband that we shall go out for dinner.

We remembered of the taxi driver who was raving about a new Chinese restaurant somewhere in Muirhead or Stepps  when he was taking us to the airport this summer. We could not remember of the name so we decided to just drive up there and look for it.  Of course when we got there we could not find the restaurant the taxi driver was talking about. We then decided to go into this Chinese restaurant in Muirhead that has been open for business for years. When my husband drove into the car park, it was full and no space for parking. We immediately gave up and decided to go to Torrance, basically double back what he drove to get to Muirhead, and then drove further to a completely opposite direction to where we came from to try another place for dinner. Once we got to this eatery and walked into the premises, we were told that they did not serve food that evening. I guess because of holiday Monday...?  By this time we had already wasted good 40 to 50 minutes.  It was then a case of 'do we just go to a supermarket and buy something to cook at home' or 'shall we try one more place'.

At that point, we just remembered about my daughter Emily having talked about this Chinese restaurant she likes in Bishopbriggs.  So, as a last resort (?) we decided to drive up there. When we got there, we could see a light coming from inside and there was a definite sign of its business being open. I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally we could eat!  And this is the beginning of our visits to this Chinese restaurant, Royal Garden (http://www.royalgardenglasgow.co.uk ) in Bishopbriggs.

It turned out that we were really lucky as we just got there a few minutes before 7.00pm when they finishes their Pre-theatre menu of £10.90 for 3 courses (note: extra £2 for king prawns). Not only that the menu is normally only available between Sunday to Friday except Monday evening however being the holiday Monday, they decided to open their business that particular evening.
Place was quite busy however we had no problem getting table. I felt lucky. 'Welcome to Royal Garden.'

I was trying to get rid of the cold for a good few weeks so I wanted to have something hot and spicy with chilli.
I chose Peking Hot & Sour soup for starter but explained to them no meat, just prawns and vegetables please.  My husband ordered the same.

It was tasty, I could feel the chilli was working and warmed me up to help me cure my cold.

For main course, my husband ordered Kung Po King Prawns. I saw they have Chicken in Garlic and White Wine Sauce on the pre-theatre menu so I asked if they could do this with King Prawns instead.

Well, King Prawns in Garlic and White Wine Sauce was really delicious - lots of garlic and some ginger.  I would be a breath monster the next day but I didn't care!  It was worth it as King Prawns were really nice and succulent and fried rice was tasty too.  (Wow, thinking about it just now makes my mouth watering!)

 

For dessert, we both decided to have banana fritters.  Let's not worry about calories here. It's banana, it's fruit, and yeah, sugar came from sugar cane or sugar beet, it's plant so all good for you.... [...not!?]

We had a lovely dinner. The service was really good; all staff were very friendly and very welcoming. We noticed that they seem to know most of customers dining there, calling them in first name terms and chatting about every day things. Like Cheers, "Everybody calling your names..." in that fictitious pub in Boston on US TV series.  Oh, my cold got a bit better too.

As we were leaving, I noticed their sign inside of the entrance that we came in a few hours earlier - 'Welcome to Royal Garden'.  Indeed, Royal Garden does welcome you.

Well, well, well... so much so, I went back on Friday that week with my daughters Emily and Maria. That evening, we were making some decorations that go into centre pieces for Emily's wedding next year so we thought we should be fuelled with good food before we set to work.

Another round of Pre-theatre menu.

Maria ordered Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings and Kon Sui Chicken. Emily ordered Vegetable Spring Rolls and Chicken Satay. She also ordered Chili Fries. I asked the staff if I could have Peking Hot & Sour Soup without meat and King Prawns in Garlic and White Wine Sauce instead of chicken.  He said, "Yeah yeah, I know, I remember you." We all laughed.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Peking Hot & Sour Soup without meat

Well, another delicious meal. For dessert, Emily and Maria had jasmine tea. I wanted to try New York Cheese case. The staff asked if I wanted cream with it. Maria answered for me and said No thanks. [It's a bit too late to worry about calories here, don't you think?]  Well, a slice of cheese case was quite small however just as well. I don't think I could handle that much portion anyway.  It was a nice cheesecake.

Another lovely evening. We were really full by the time we left the restaurant. We could lie down to rest.... We went back to Emily and Craig's house, not to rest but as we still had to make some decorations for the centre piece for their wedding. That was the whole point of why all three 'girls' got together that night, Emily reminded us all.

.... I must confess ... I went back again this week with my husband.... their King Prawns in Garlic and White Wine Sauce is really addictive! I ordered the exactly the same things, even down to Banana fritter.  The staff came and said, "Ah, it's you again." We all laughed.  This time, my husband ordered King Prawns with Green Peppers in Black Bean Sauce.

It's all fruit and plant - good for you???

Yet again, we had another lovely meal, and good value for money too. 

The restaurant is near Bishopbrigg's Cross, behind the train station and in the residential area. The decor is nice and relaxing. Service is excellent and all staff are very friendly and guests seem to be mostly all locals and are treated like their friends.  Just like Cheers.  Royal Garden welcomes you.

Next time I may not even need to say what I want, they may already remember my orders. That's the kind of place, Royal Garden is.

That's all forks!