Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

For some time I made the mistake of thinking that no group of restaurants in the region of 200 locations could hope to maintain the quality for which I was looking.

Then one day I decided to put my prejudices to the test, walked into Oxford Ask! and discovered that I could not have been more mistaken. Their claim to serve freshly prepared quality food in stylish and comfortable surroundings with friendly and efficient service proved to be absolutely spot on.

Since then I have also discovered that a degree of consistency seems to operate throughout their restaurants, and that certainly does take some achieving, implying a degree of management that is enviable. They are perfect places for an impromptu snack, a bit of culinary grazing, or the full works, and families are catered for particularly well.

Their trendy décor usually comprises tiled floors and black furniture with well set tables that sparkle with glass, silver and spotless linen. Ten starters include crostini and bruschetta, followed by a range of salads, pasta and al forno, oven baked pasta, some with chicken.

The pizzas are stone baked in the oven, creating a crisp, authentic and delicious flavour, and they all come topped with mozzarella and tomato. Calzone introduce a touch of opulence with a folded pizza baked in the oven and topped with garlic butter and melted grana padano, whilst inside expect to find chicken or a vegetarian mix.

Amongst the specials may I warmly, in every sense, recommend the polpette al forno, a popular Milanese dish of beef meatballs sautéed in garlic with fire roasted peppers, caramelised onions, chilli and pomodoro sauce, with penne pasta, topped with cheese and oven baked.

An enticing selection of desserts list banoffee pie and tiramisu amongst them, and the coffee tastes like coffee, which may sound banal, but I guess you know what I mean.

Thanks to a well selected wine list speculative drinking can offer handsome dividends, even with prices rarely crossing the £20 barrier.

Situated in the fashionable suburb of West Bridgford, Oriental Pearl is a sophisticated bar and contemporary Cantonese restaurant with superb Oriental cuisine, together with a wide selection of world beers, stylish cocktails and fine wines. It incorporates a ground floor bar and lounge furnished with soft leather sofas and designer armchairs, whilst on the first floor there is a minimalist Zen restaurant with a glass atrium.

The Pearl underwent a major refurbishment a couple of years ago with an emphasis on bringing back the 'oriental' into the equation. This has involved antique wooden screens, authentically carved dark wooden tables with complementary low seating and mood lighting, giving a whole new feeling of sensual opulence that is wholly at ease with the cuisine.

The Skyline lounge provides a choice of casual bar dining during the day and à la carte in the evenings, all served against a backdrop of sumptuous suede and Chinese silk banquet seating. Upstairs, a contemporary restaurant fitted out with Chinese lanterns and Oriental furnishings is divided into three dining areas that enable the room to suit the mood of those coming to enjoy this carefully crafted temple of Far Eastern indulgence. Pearl is a participating restaurant in the Gourmet Society and was recently named 'the city's finest Cantonese' by Easyjet magazine.

Hardly what you expect to find in Nottinghamshire, but then the sea really is pretty close to us all, and seafood is a predominant feature of the menu, as you might expect. Bruce Elliott-Bateman, and Philip Wright at the stoves make an excellent and proven team. The décor is challenging as you switch from oak beams and open fires to another dining room decked out in Mediterranean style and colours.

Up to 22 blackboards promote the delights of such delicacies as crab bisque, oysters, avruga with swordfish to follow, or escolar from Indonesia, or from nearer home with sole from Torbay, or a Cromer crab, the sweetest of them all. Deliveries are frequent, usually from Brixham. For determined carnivores the king-size mixed grill comes as something of a relief, and in season there is game from the surrounding estates.

The wine list is extensive and well-geared to the menu. Perhaps the final touch for the gentlemen is the plastic cistern in the wash room, complete with live goldfish. Who said that eccentricity was on the decline?

Sherwood Forest, once the haunt of Robin Hood and his Merry Men is home now to some unusual modern additions, one of which is Forever Green, located in Ransom Wood, a 70 acre business Park. Along with a spacious and modish interior, it has huge ceiling to floor glass windows through which a green backcloth of trees provides restful calm as you sit inside, enjoying your meal, watching a fallow deer graze outside unawares.

Opt between English and Continental breakfasts; keep it light with a bacon or sausage baguette; or give a healthy start to your day with muesli, cereal and fresh fruits. For lunch, create your own salad at the counter followed by Cajun chicken served with fresh green beans and cherry tomato salsa or a salmon and roquette pasta in a garlic and cream sauce. Forever Green has a daily changing dessert menu that's worth trying.

For those who do not inhabit the specialist world of cricket the names of Larwood and Voce may mean nothing. This newly refurbished gastropub backs on to the Trent Bridge ground, and makes ideal place in which to refresh yourself before, after or during a match there. Very much a family orientated pub the L  & V has made a bee line for the fresh food, making full use of its location at the hub of the voluptuous riches of East Midlands farming - to quote, "the region is abundant with fantastic produce".

As if that was not enough they are setting up the West Bridgford allotment project where their vegetables will be grown within easy reach of the kitchens.

At weekends there is more time to indulge in a decent breakfast, the best meal of the day. Drop in between 9 and 12 for juices, smoothies, and the Larwood full English, perhaps an Inverawe kipper, or just a good old fashioned dry cured bacon buttie.

A bar menu operates 12 noon - 6pm, with Old Sport pork faggots, devilled kidneys, Welsh rarebit, grilled lemon sole or smoked eel and crispy back salad with a poached egg, to name but a few of the mellifluous dishes on offer.

Dinner service is from 6pm onwards, until 10pm. Start with grilled diver scallop and spinach Thermidor before moving on to slow braised beef ribs, butter onions and Belvoir bitter, or roast rack of Derbyshire lamb, gratin potatoes and minted greens.

The old songs are always best so don't ignore the sherry trifle, or there's bramley apple and blackcurrant crumble with double vanilla custard. These are but a few dishes from the wide range, backed with an excellent wine list, with 10 by the glass, including champagne.

This is a place which deserves to succeed.

Sitting pretty in Pepper Street in Nottingham just off trendy Bridlesmith Gate, Thai restaurant the Pretty Orchid is as good a place as any in Nottingham in which to enjoy the piquant flavours of a Thai meal. Its unpretentious exterior, cozy interiors and a fair selection of well-known Thai dishes offers patrons an unremarkable yet enjoyable evening.

Get started with sarong king prawns, wrapped in pastry and basil leaf and served with a plum sauce dip, or aromatic duck, served with warm pancakes and special hoi sin sauce, and move on to red sea bass curry or chicken green curry or weeping tiger, medium cooked sirloin steak in tamarind sauce. Alternately, try chef's special, salmon miso, salmon spread with miso paste and cooked with seven spices, or floating market, spices, herbs and vegetables combined with a medley of seafood. The Pretty Orchid offers set meals, a vegetarian platter, a seafood platter and a gourmet platter, individually tailored courses for a minimum of six people.